BARNFIELD, RICHARD (1574-1627), English poet, was born at Norbury, Staffs, and baptized on June In 1589 he went to Brasenose college, Oxford, where he graduated in 1592, but he seems to have left the university abruptly without pro ceeding to the M.A. His first work, The Affectionate Shepherd, was published in Nov. 1594, dedicated to Penelope, Lady Rich; and a second volume, Cynthia, with certain Sonnets, dedicated to William Stanley, earl of Derby, followed it two months later. "Cynthia" itself, a panegyric on Queen Elizabeth, claimed to be "the first imitation of the verse of that excellent poet Maister Spenser in his Fayrie Queene." In 1598 Barnfield published his third and last volume, The Encomion of Lady Pecunia, of which a second edition appeared in 1605. Henceforward he seems to have broken off all commerce with the Muse, and lived as a coun try gentleman on his estate of Dorlestone, Staffs, where he died.
The most interesting fact about Barnfield is his connection with Shakespeare, whose earliest imitator he may be said to have been. The sonnets published in his second volume are closer to Shakespeare's sonnets in manner than any others of the Eliza bethan age, while two of the poems in his third volume—the sonnet "If Music and sweet Poetry agree" and the ode beginning "As it fell upon a day," both of which appeared in The Passionate Pilgrim in 1599—were long believed to be Shakespeare's work. If only by virtue of these two pieces, Barnfield deserves to be re membered as one of the most interesting minor Elizabethans.
complete poems were first edited by Grosart in 1876 for the Roxburgh club. An edition by Edward Arber was published in 1883.