Elizabethan poet, one of the Elizabethan
sonneteers and the author of Parthenophil and
Parthenophe.
Barnes was the son of Richard Barnes, bishop
of Durham. He entered Brasenose College, Oxford,
in 1586 but took no degree; in 1591 he joined
the expedition to Normandy led by the Earl of
Essex. On his return he published Parthenophil
and Parthenophe (1593), containing sonnets,
madrigals, elegies, and odes, on which rests his
claim to fame. In 1598 he was prosecuted in the
Star Chamber on a charge of attempted poisoning,
but he escaped to the north. His other works
include A Divine Century of Spiritual Sonnets
(1595), Four Books of Offices (1606) in prose,
and two plays, The Battle of Hexham (now lost)
and the anti-Roman Catholic The Devil’s Charter
(1607). At his best his poems, particularly the
madrigals, have exuberance and occasional
felicity of language; the sonnets show French
influence.
Discuss Art
Please note: site admin does not answer any questions. This is our readers discussion only.
