Barnabe Barnes

Barnes, Barnaby, fourth son of Dr. Barnes, Bishop of Durham, born about 1569, in Yorkshire. At the age of seventeen he entered Brasenose College, Oxford, but never obtained his degree. In 1591 he is said to have joined a military expedition to Normandy, in which country he remained until 1594. He wrote A Divine Centurie of Spiritual Sonnets, which was printed in 1595. He was buried in the church of St. Mary-le-Bow, Durham, in December, 1609.

He was the author of three plays, one published in 1607, as The Devil's Charter, and two in MS. not now to be traced, and of a volume of amatory poems, Parthenophil & Parthenophe, 1593, which was privately reprinted from the only known copy, in 1875, together with all Barnes's other poems. It is also included in Mr. Arber's recent English Garner. His prose work, Fovre Bookes of Offices Enabling Privat persons for the speciall service of all good Princes & Policies , 1606, has not been reprinted.

[Rev. W. T. Bird, M.A.]

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)