Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Googe, Barnabe
GOOGE, BARNABE (1540–1594), poet, son of Robert Googe, recorder of Lincoln, by his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir Walter Mantell, was born at Alvingham in Lincolnshire on St. Barnaby's day 1540. He studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, and at New College, Oxford, but does not appear to have taken a degree. On leaving the university he removed to Staple Inn, and became a retainer to his kinsman, Sir William Cecil. In 1560 he published 'The First thre Bokes of the 'most Christian poet, Marcellus Palingenius [Pierre Angelo Manzoli], called the Zodyake of Lyfe,' 8vo, with a dedication to his grandmother, Lady Hales, and to William Cromer, Thomas Honywood, and Ralph Heimund, esquires. The second edition, containing the first six books, appeared in 1561, with a dedication to Cecil; and a complete translation of the twelve books was issued in 1565, revised editions following in 1576 and 1588. In the winter of 1561 Googe went abroad, leaving a copy of his manuscript 'Eclogues' in the hands of his friend Blunderstone. On his return to England at the end of 1562, or early in 1563, he was surprised to learn that his poems had been sent to press. After some persuasion from Blunderstone he allowed the publication, and they appeared under the title 'Eglogs, Epytaphes, and Sonnetes,' 1563, 12mo, with a dedication to William Lovelace, reader of Gray's Inn. Copies are preserved in the Huth, Capell, and Britwell libraries. The collection comprises eight eclogues, four epitaphs (on Thomas Phaer, Nicholas Grimaold, and others), and numerous so-called sonnets (addressed to Alexander Nowell, Bishop Bale, Richard Edwards, &c.) There were two separate impressions.
In 1563 Googe was appointed one of the queen's gentlemen-pensioners. He betrothed himself in the summer of that year to Mary, daughter of Thomas Darrell of the manorhouse, Scotney, in Lamberhurst parish, Kent. Her parents declared that she was under a previous contract to marry Sampson Lennard, eldest son of a rich landed proprietor, John Lennard of Chevening, near Tunbridge Wells. Cecil interested himself in the matter, and engaged Archbishop Parker's influence in Googe's favour, with the result that the marriage took place 5 Feb. 1563-4. Some interesting correspondence on the subject of Googe's betrothal and the alleged pre-contract was printed in Brydges's 'Restituta,' iv. 307-311. In 1570 appeared 'The Popish Kingdome, or Reigne of Antichrist, written in Latin verse by Thomas Naogeorgus [Kirchmayer], and englyshed by Barnabe Googe,' 4to, of which only one perfect copy, preserved in the University Library, Cambridge, is known to bibliographers. It consists of four books, with a preface and a dedicatory epistle to Cecil. The fourth book is particularly valuable for its curious notices of popular customs and superstitions, sports, and pastimes. A translation of 'The Spirituall Husbandrie of Thomas Naogeorgus,' with a dedication to Queen Elizabeth, was appended. In 1574 Googe was sent by Cecil on service to Ireland, and in 1582 he was appointed provost marshal of the presidency court of Connaught. Some of his letters to Cecil from Ireland are preserved among the state papers, and have been printed in 'Notes and Queries,' 3rd ser. vol. iii. He resigned his post and returned from Ireland in 1585. 'Foure Bookes of Husbandrie, collected by Conradus Heresbachius.… Newely Englished, and increased by Barnabe Googe, Esquire,' 4to, appeared in 1577, with a dedication dated from Kingston (Ireland), 1 Feb. 1577, to Sir William Fitzwilliam, knight; reprinted in 1578, 1586, 1594, &c. Googe apologises for any faults in his translation on the ground that he 'neither had leysure nor quietnesse at the dooing of it, neither after the dooing had euer any tyme to ouerlooke it.' In 1578 he prefixed a prose-epistle to Barnabe Riche's 'Allarme to England,' and in 1579 published a translation of 'The Proverbes of the noble & woorthy Souldier Sir James Lopes de Mendoza, marques of Santillana, with the Paraphrase of D. Peter Diaz of Toledo,' 8vo. He died in February 1593-4 (and was buried in Cokering Church), leaving a widow and eight children. One of his sons, Robert, was fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford, and another, Barnabe, became master of Magdalene College, Cambridge.
A reprint of the 'Popish Kingdome' was edited by Mr. Robert Charles Hope in 1880; the 'Eglogs' are included in Mr. Edward Arber's 'English Reprints' (1871). Googe was highly esteemed by his contemporaries. Turberville has laudatory notices of him; Robinson, in the 'Reward of Wickednesse,' 1574, places him on Helicon with Lydgate, Skelton, and others; he is commended in the metrical preface before Jasper Heywood's translation of Seneca's 'Thyestes,' 1560, and again in T. B.'s Verses to the Reader before Studley's translation of Seneca's 'Agamemnon.' Webbe aptly describes him as 'a painfull furtherer of learning,' specially commending the translations (in the 'Foure Bookes of Husbandry') from Virgil's 'Eclogues.' The charming pastoral verses, 'Phyllida was a fair maid,' printed in 'Tottell's Miscellany,' and reprinted in 'England's Helicon,' have been ascribed to Googe; they are of far higher merit than any of his authentic 'Eglogs.' Ritson attributes to Googe 'A Newyeares Gifte, dedicated to the Pope's Holiness … by B. G., Citizen of London,' 1579, 4to; but this belongs to Bernard Garter [q. v.] 'A Newe Booke called the Shippe of Safegarde written by G. B. anno 1569,' 8vo, and 'The Overthrow of the Goute … translated by B. G.,' 1577, 8vo, have also been doubtfully assigned to Googe. Warton (following Coxeter) mentions among Googe's works a translation, 'Aristotle's Tables of the Ten Categories.' In 1672 appeared 'A Prophecie lately transcribed from an Old Manuscript of Doctor Barnaby Googe that lived in the Reign of Qu. Elizabeth, predicting the Rising, Meridian, and Falling Condition of the States of the United Provinces.… Now published and explained,' 4to.
[Warton's Hist. of English Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, iv. 323-31; Brydges's Restituta, iv. 307-11, 359-65; Hunter's Chorus Vatum, Addit. MS. 24457, fol. 347-53; Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 39-40; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. vol. iii.; Arber's Introd. to Googe's Eglogs (English Reprints), 1871; Hope's Introd. to the Popish Kingdome, 1880.]