1574 – Richard Barnfield – A Writer of Homoerotic Poetry Born in Staffordshire
“The Affectionate Shepherd” (digital art created 2025)
Richard Barnfield was born in Norbury, Staffordshire in 1574. He is said to be one of only two published Elizabethan male poets that addressed love poems to another man, the other being William Shakespeare. Barnfield’s explicit expressions of homosexual desire are considered the most direct found in Renaissance English literature. In this post we explore his life and his homoerotic poetry.
The Life of Richard Barnfield
Richard Barnfield, son of Richard Barnfield and Maria Skrymsher, was born in 1574 and baptized on 29 June that year. His place of birth was Norbury Hall in Norbury Staffordshire, the home of his maternal grandparents. Richard was just six years old when his mother died giving birth to his sister Dorothea.
Norbury Hall, 1686 from the frontspiece of The Complete Poems of Richard Barnfield edited by Alexander B. Grosart (Published 1876)
Barnfield studied at Brasenose College, Oxford, but apparently did not complete his degree. In the 1590s, while still in his early twenties, he published “The Affectionate Shepherd” (1594), styled as a continuation of Virgil’s Second Eclogue, a classical poem of homoerotic longing between shepherds. His sentiments were not mere metaphor and the eroticism is explicitly stated, which attracted both controversy and admiration. Francis Meres, in his 1598 survey of English writers, named Barnfield among the country’s ‘most passionate’ poets.
Just two months after “The Affectionate Shepherd”, Barnfield published “Cynthia, with certain Sonnets, and the legend of Cassandra” – a 20-sonnet sequence after the poems of Spenser and Shakespeare. He signed the preface with a dedication that implies close personal relations, to William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby. This second volume appeared to apologise for any misunderstanding of his earlier work, perhaps because of the controversy it had attracted, but the new collection also contained poems which were explicitly and unashamedly homoerotic and filled with male same sex desire.
Barnfield published his third and final book, The Encomion of Lady Pecunia in 1598 at the age of 24. In 1605, Lady Pecunia was reprinted, and this appears to be Barnfield’s last published work.
None of his work was reprinted under his name between 1605 and the 19th century.
Barnfield’s Passionate Homoeroticism
Richard Barnfield’s poems are filled with sensuous passion and longing. His desire for other men is not expressed in a cerebral way – it is embodied and physical. We are invited to imagine kisses on lips that are wet and coral coloured, sweet as honey; some commentators even believe he refers to an orgasm in a wet dream. Here are a few examples to whet your appetite… all images are taken from “Richard Barnfield Poems, 1594-1598. Edited by Edward Arber” (published in Birmingham 1882)
Scarce had the morning starre hid from the light
Heavens crimson canopie with stars bespangled,
But I began to rue th’ unhappy sight
Of that faire boy that had my hart intangled;
Cursing the time, the place, the sense, the sin;
I came, I saw, I viewd, I slipped in.
If it be sinne to love a sweet-fac’d boy,
Whose amber locks trust up in golden trammels
Dangle adowne his lovely cheekes with joy,
When pearle and flowers his faire haire enamels;
If it be sinne to love a lovely lad,
Oh then sinne I, for whom my soule is sad.
The opening two verses of “The Affectionate Shepherd” leave no doubt about Barnfield’s homoerotic inclinations. He signed the dedication to his book as “Daphne” thus clearly aligning himself with the “affectionate shepherd” who yearns for another man. In his second volume he addresses “the courteous gentlemen readers” with a clarification that “The complaint of Daphnis” is an “imitation of Virgil”, but that justification simply emphasises the link to a well-known expression of same-sex love in Eclogue 2 by the Roman poet Virgil. Barnfield had drawn attention to the homoerotic content rather than explaining it away.
Oh would to God he would but pitty mee,
That love him more than any mortall wight ;
Then he and I with love would soone agree,
That now cannot abide his Sutors sight.
O would to God (so I might have my fee)
My lips were honey, and thy mouth a Bee.
“Fee” refers to the lover’s affection or attention, and the honey and bee metaphor anticipate a sweet, passionate kiss. Barnfield is expressing a longing desire for a lover to reciprocate his passionate desire.
Why doo thy Corall lips disdaine to kisse,
And sucke that Sweete, which manie have desired ?
That Baulme my Bane, that meanes would mend my misse :
Oh let me then with thy sweete Lips b’inspired ;
When thy Lips touch my Lips, my Lips will turne
To Corall too, and being cold ice will burne.
At least two academics have read “And sucke that Sweete, which manie have desired” as a reference to oral sex. Homosexual acts of fellatio were illegal in this period and committing these words to a published work was not without risk. Barnfield freely expresses a passion for the sweet coral (coloured) lips of the male lover he desires.
Sweet Corrall lips, where Nature’s treasure lies,
The balme of blisse, the soveraigne salue of sorrow,
The secret touch of loves heart-burning arrow,
Come quench my thirst or else poor Daphnis dies.
One night I dream’d (alas twas but a Dreame)
That I did feele the sweetnes of the same,
Where-with inspir’d, I young againe became,
And from my heart a spring of blood did streame,
But when I wak’t, I found it nothing so,
Save that my limbs (me thought) did waxe more strong
And I more lusty far, and far more young.
This gift on him rich Nature did bestow.
Then if in dreaming so, I so did speede,
What should I doe, if I did so indeede ?
Here we have that lust for Coral lips again, this time in a dream that is so passionate it results in an orgasm. Professor Cathy Shrank tells us that “‘Speede” is an Elizabethan synonym for “ejaculate”, and early-modern medical theory held that semen was thickened (“concocted”) blood. Author Will Tosh describes it as “the most unabashedly homoerotic moment that English verse had ever produced”.
You can read the full text of Richard Barnfield’s work for free on The Internet Archive here – “Richard Barnfield Poems, 1594-1598. Edited by Edward Arber” (published in Birmingham 1882)
Where Did Richard Barnfield Die?
The title page of “Richard Barnfield, Poems, 1594-1598” Edited by Edward Arber, published 1882
Various versions of Richard Barnfield’s biography state that he married and withdrew to his estate of Dorlestone which is now known as Darlaston near Stone in Staffordshire. Here he resided as a country gentleman until his death in 1627 at the age of 53 following which he was buried in the church of St. Michael’s, Stone. However, the main evidence for this version is a will that may in fact have been the will of his father, also called Richard. An alternative version of our poet’s later life has him ending his days in Shropshire and dying in 1620.
One of Barnfield’s last published poems was “The Combat, Betweene Conscience and Couetousnesse, in the minde of Man” which explores the conflict between the behaviour that society expects compared with the truth of conscience. It contains the following dedication:
To his worshipfull good friend, Maister John Steventon, of Dothill, in the county of Salop, Esquire.
Sith conscience (long since) is exilde the Citty,
O let her in the Country finde some Pitty;
But if she be exilde, the Countrey too,
O let her find, some favour yet of you.
The dedication to John Steventon in “The Combat, Betweene Conscience and Couetousnesse” published by Richard Barnfield in 1598
Men of high standing accused of sodomy and unnatural offences often evaded prosecution but suffered a loss of reputation. Exile from city to countryside might be enough but sometimes leaving the country was the only means to escape prosecution. We might speculate that Barnfield fled into exile himself, perhaps returning to Salop (Shropshire). Or perhaps the dedication is simply expressing a comment about the culture of city life. The truth is yet to be discovered.
Was Richard Barnfield a Man Who Loved Men?
The homoerotic content of Richard Barnfield’s poetry is obvious to modern readers but questions such as “was Richard Barnfield queer?” or “was Richard Barnfield gay?” do not have a straightforward answer. The times that our poet lived in were very different from our own. Learned men were schooled in Latin and Greek homoeroticism and the plays and comedies of the period were inherently gender bending due to the exclusion of women from the stage. The culture of the times recognised that sex between men occurred but it did not characterise the men who engaged in it as being somehow different, albeit that the sexual acts themselves were outlawed. The concept of the “homosexual” and the identities of “gay” or “queer” came more than two hundred years later
We can, however, say with certainty that Richard Barnfield was a man who loved men because he declares this love not only in his sonnets but also in the dedications of some of his books. While we may never know whether this love was ever consummated in physical sexual relationships, I think we can be certain that the love he expressed was not merely that of friendship. I am reminded of Edward Carpenter who centuries later took care to characterise his love of George Merrill as a comradeship, hardly surprising given the fate of Oscar Wilde. We know with certainty that the relationship between Carpenter and Merrill was a sexual one but the nature of the times they lived in meant that this could not in their lifetime be openly declared.
Richard Barnfield lived in an era when sex between men was reviled and prosecuted, we should not be surprised that the evidence of his sexuality is concealed, denied and coded.
Barnfield’s Homoeroticism Erased
Although Richard Barnfield initially enjoyed fame and recognition, his overtly homoerotic poetry was subjected to sanitisation and reinterpretation as the 17th century progressed. Critics and commentators characterised his poems as allegorical or satirical to avoid the uncomfortable truth of their sincerity. Same sex desire became increasingly unacceptable to the moral climate of the day.
Thomas Warton’s 18th-century interpretation of Richard Barnfield’s poems framed the homoerotic content as a literary performance rather than as personal expression of same sex desire. The changing moral climate also shaped the literary history of other Elizabethan figures. Christopher Marlowe ‘s expressions of homosexual desire were also subjected to suppression, but his notoriety as a shrewd commentator on other matters ensured he was remembered. Marlowe survived with a reputation to rival that of Shakespeare whereas Barnfield was forgotten.
By the time of the Victorian era, Barnfield’s work was largely omitted from literary history or dismissed as inappropriate or immature. The emotional content of his original work was erased just as same sex desire in classical literature was reinterpreted, downplayed or ignored.
It is time to revive the memory of our very own Elizabethan poet from Norbury in Staffordshire and unashamedly celebrate his expressions of homoerotic desire.
Barnfield’s Homoeroticism Rediscovered
In 2023 Cathy Shrank, Professor of Tudor & Renaissance Literature, early modern (or Renaissance) literature and culture at Sheffield University published an online article about Richard Barnfield to coincide with Pride month. Titled “Bee-stung lips: Blazoning the male body in sixteenth-century print” it sets out a passionate case for rediscovering Barnfield’s overtly homoerotic poetry.
In 2024 The Guardian published an article about the rediscovery of Richard Barnfield as a “queer” poet who inspired Shakespeare’s same sex love sonnets.
The extent to which we can project the modern concept of queer onto the work of Barnfield is a subject of disagreement and debate.
However, the fact that we are now having this conversation shows that Richard Barnfield has not been forgotten and the homoerotic content of his work is finally acknowledged in our more enlightened times.
Copyright Notice
The images featured are from digitised versions of Richard Barnfield’s work that exists in the public domain, shared here by the posts author, Andrew Colclough on the basis of fair personal/non commercial use. The commentary has been compiled using various trusted sources including the two articles referenced above. Direct quotations have been acknowledged in the text.
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