17 Facts About Barnabe Googe

Barnabe Googe, spelt Barnabe Goche and Barnaby Goodge, was a poet and translator, one of the earliest English pastoral poets.

Barnabe Googe studied at Christ's College, Cambridge and at New College, Oxford, but does not seem to have graduated from either.

Nonetheless, Barnabe Googe did have close associations with the court through his relationship to Cecil.

Barnabe Googe exploited this important connection in the years that followed, and Cecil extended patronage towards his young protege.

Barnabe Googe had begun writing poetry, and found himself in an exciting creative coterie with other young writers, such as Jasper Heywood and George Turberville.

On his return, Barnabe Googe learned of Blundeston's actions and reluctantly gave his consent to their publication when he discovered that the printer had already paid for the paper for the print run and the composition was underway.

Barnabe Googe married Mary Darrell, one of the nine children of Thomas Darrell, esquire, of Scotney Castle, Kent, by his second wife, Mary Roydon, daughter of Thomas Roydon, esquire, of Roydon Hall in East Peckham, Kent.

In 1569 Barnabe Googe dedicated a long allegorical poem with a moralistic marine topic, The Shippe of Safegarde, to his sisters-in-law.

Barnabe Googe wrote to Burghley that "I here live amongst a sort of Scythians, wanting the comfort of my country, my poor wife and children".

Barnabe Googe repeatedly petitioned the political masters in London to be allowed to come home.

Barnabe Googe finally succeeded in selling his office in the late 1580s.

Barnabe Googe is thought to have retired there for the remainder of his life.

Barnabe Googe began work on his translation on Palingenius's Zodiacus vitae in the spring of 1559.

Barnabe Googe tells us that he had been accused of plagiarising the first three books; and the edition of 1565 he reveals that one of the clerks of the Privy Council, William Smith, had translated these books before Barnabe Googe started work on them.

Barnabe Googe's poems are written in the plain or native style which preceded and subsequently competed with the Petrarchan style.

Barnabe Googe was an ardent Protestant, and his poetry is coloured by his religious and political views.

The English pastoral poem "Phyllida was a fayer maid" has been doubtfully ascribed to Barnabe Googe, despite showing little stylistic rapport with his acknowledged works.