The Choreography of Friendship in the Verse Exchanges of Barnabe Googe’s Eclogues, Epitaphs and Sonnets

Amicable verse exchanges with friends are conspicuous in the sonnets section of Googe’s miscellany, Eclogues, Epitaphs and Sonnets, and fourteen of the thirty seven verses present are either answer-poems or verses that are answered. The practice of including the verses of friends and supporters was fairly common in the late-Tudor miscellany, although it is more usual for these to be dedications praising the author and acting as advocates for his work. ³²⁷ They serve as advertising for the book, make claims for its legitimacy, and are intended to show the author in the context of his larger social circle, thereby displaying a united front against possible detractors.

As well as including the answers of his friends, Alexander Neville and Laurence Blundeston, the collection also features such dedicatory material by them. The opening dedication by Googe’s cousin, Neville, for instance, is presented as a fortification built to repel Googe’s enemies and prevent them from entering the book. ³²⁸

Letters (Cambridge and NY: CUP, 1999), p.92.

³²⁷ For examples of such dedicatory verse conversations see Cat. A 56, A 65, L 198 and T 273-5.

³²⁸ Neville begins,

The mountains high the blust’ring winds,
the floods the rocks withstand,
The cities strong the cannon’s shot
and threat’ning chieftain’s hand. (ll.1-4)

A few lines later he adapts the conceit of fortification so that it is now Googe’s muse laying siege to his enemies, and “With fervent broiling furious rage/ [beating their] long defencèd walls by force” (ll.9-11). He then advises Googe to instead ignore such “vile/ Defaming minds” and to “submit thyself to persons grave” who will make a more reliable estimation of his verse and prove worthy patrons and well-wishers (ll.16-17 and l.19), Eclogues, Epitaphs and Sonnets, ed. Judith M. Kennedy (London, Toronto and Buffalo, WI: Toronto UP, 1989), pp.35-8.