Stafford Writers

Stafford may not be dominated by a single major literary figure (like Shakespeare’s Stratford) but there are several interesting local connections - particularly with the world of 16th and 17th century pastoral writing, inspired by real or imaginary country life. Stafford is predominantly rural, as is the county of Staffordshire. Most intriguing of these connections are:

- Richard Barnfield, a brilliant but forgotten figure
- Michael Drayton, working on his epic poem Polyolbion at Tixall
- Lady Penelope Devereux, muse of Sir Philip Sidney and many others, at Chartley
- and, of course, Izaak Walton.

Perhaps these links with a Golden Age of writing will inspire new writers to explore the landscapes of Stafford.

Richard Barnfield 1574- ?1620: Poet (notes by Andrew Worrall)

Richard Barnfield was born at Norbury, Staffordshire in 1574. The moated manor house which was his childhood home has been demolished but the site, not far from Norbury Junction, is still visible. His father was a landowner and lawyer, who later had a house at Darlaston near Stone.

Richard Barnfield studied at Brasenose College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1592. He probably went to London where his first book, The Affectionate Shepherd, was published in 1594. This pastoral love poetry seems to idealise the Staffordshire countryside:

There grows the gillyflower, the mint, the daisy…
The pink, the primrose, cowslip and daffodilly
The hair-bell blue, the crimson columbine
Sage, lettuce, parsley and the milk-white lily…

Barnfield’s surprise, in the context of Elizabethan England, is that his poetry is concerned with the love of a male shepherd for a ‘fair and beautiful young man’. Here, and in later books (Cynthia, 1595 and The Encomion of Lady Pecunia,1598) Barnfield shows himself scornful of women:

For that they be such truth professed foes
A constant woman shall be hard to find…
When they weep most, then shall they most dissemble.

His work was admired by his contemporaries and two poems were published under Shakespeare’s name by an opportunist publisher. Barnfield praised Shakespeare (in ‘A Remembrance of Some English Poets’) as a poet whose ‘honey-flowing vein, pleasing the world… praises doth obtain.’

Barnfield himself seems to have lost favour. He published nothing after 1605 and seems to have returned to Staffordshire. From 1598 onwards his father took steps to disinherit him. He probably died, unmarried, in Market Drayton in 1620. His last poem, ‘A comparison of the Life of Man’ is despairing:

Man’s life is well compared to a feast,
Furnished with choice of all variety:
To it comes Time, and as a bidden guest
He sets him down in pomp and majesty;
The three-fold age of man the waiters be.
Then with an earthen voider (made of clay)
Comes Death, and takes the table clean away.

However, Benjamin Britten used some happier lines in his Spring Symphony and these most keep his work alive to-day:

When will my May come, that I may embrace thee?
When will the hour be of my soul’s joying?

Andrew Worrall

George Klawitter has edited Barnfield’s collected poems. This is a link to his Barnfield website:

There are other connections with the poetry of the late Elizabethan and Jacobean world.

Staffordshire Library members can view articles on the Dictionary of National Biography by logging in with their library membership number.

Sir Walter Aston of Tixall was patron to Michael Drayton who stayed at Tixall.

Drayton was a prolific poet. Several of his books were dedicated to Walter Aston. In “Polyolbion” his vast poetic survey of England and Wales he particularly mentions Tixall “which oft the muse hath found her safe and sweet retreat”, and his preface thanks Sir Water Aston implying that Tixall was a place where Drayton could work at his poetry.

Drayton seems to have had close links with Barnfield in the use of language and subject matter.

Playwright John Fletcher dedicated “The Faithful Shepherdesse” to Aston.

Penelope Devereux was born and grew up at Chartley Hall – a muse and focus for a many writers especilaly Sir Philip Sidney Sidney may have met her at Chartley. She was the inspiration for “Astrophil and Stella” his sonnet sequence which set the fashion for Elizabethan sonnets. Composers set poems associated with her and wrote dances for her, including John Coprario, William Byrd and John Dowland. Some people believe she was also Shakespeare’s dark lady – her eyes were dark but her hair was golden.

Stafford seems surrounded by hazy connections with the Elizabethan Golden Age and dreams of Arcadia. Tixall’s 18thc Dairy bridge has inscribed on it’s side: Hic Ver Perpetuum – “Here is perpetual Spring” – a phrase used to evoke the classical myth of the Golden Age when trees bore fruit and flower at all times of the year.

Izaak Walton

Izaak Walton’s Compleat Angler is an important work for both literary and environmental reasons. It is not just a treatise on fishing. It is one of the earliest works to be inspired by country life and a love for the natural world and also an influential piece of pastoral writing.

The Compleat Angler - full text