|  
 |  
 
Drunken Barnaby's  
Journal 
   
book review 
  
Barnabee Itinerarium; or, Barnabee's Journal. The  
Seventh Edition: to which are prefixed, an Account of the  
Author, now first discovered; a Bibliographical History of  
former Editions of the Work; and Illustrative Notes.  
London, printed for J. Harding, 1818. 12 mo. 
  
'The best serious piece of Latin in modern metre,' says the  
Quarterly Reviewer, 'is Sir Francis Kinaston's Amores  
Troili et Cressidae, a translation of the two first  
books of Chaucer's poem; but it was reserved for  
famous BARNABY to employ the barbarous ornament of  
rhyme, so as to give thereby point and character to good  
Latinity,' 
  
No XXXV. p.32. 
  
THIS celebrated and popular poem, commonly known by the name 
of Drunken Barnaby's Journal, was first published  
without a date - probably, as the Editor thinks, about 1650. 
The Second Edition was in 1716, small 8vo. and took the name 
of Drunken Barnaby's Four Journeys to the North of  
England. The Third Edition was in 1723, small  
8vo. The Fourth in 1786, small 8vo. The Fifth  
in April 1805, 8vo. The Sixth in Sept.  
of the same year. 
  
In the Second Edition a conjecture was made, that the Author 
was one Barnaby Harrington, an airy being, of whose  
earthly existence not one atom of proof has been even  
attempted. The present indefatigable Editor, MR. HASLEWOOD,  
had already gone the length of printing the text, and  
sending his Preface to the Printer, on the 10th of October  
last, when a passage in the Itinerary rendering necessary a  
reference to one of the numerous publications of a forgotten 
poet of that day, delivered at once to his delighted eye,  
the secret of the Author of Barnabee's Journal, in  
characters which neither left any doubt in his mind, nor can 
leave any doubt in the mind of any one capable of weighing  
the force of circumstantial evidence of identity: at least  
it cannot do so when accompanied by the additional  
coincidences which the pursuit of the same clue afterwards  
unfolded. 
  
This forgotten poet was no other than RICHARD BRATHWAYTE,  
born 1588, who died 1673, aged 83, and whose productions  
bear date from 1611 to 1665. Richard Brathwayte at the end  
of his Strappado for the Divell, 1615, has an apology 
for the errata, on account of 'the intricacy of the copy, 
and the absence of the Author from many important  
proofs,' &c. This is the express apology at the end  
of Barnabee's Journal, that the copy was obscure; neither 
was the Author, by reason of his distance, and employments  
of higher consequence, made acquainted with the publishing  
of it. &c. Similar apologies occur in Brathwayte's  
English Gentleman, 1630 - his English  
Gentlewoman, 1631 - his Essays upon the Five  
Senses, 1635, &c. Even all the capitals and rule  
ornaments used in the First Edition of Baranabee;s Journal  
(and several are of rather peculiar character) are found in  
a little work by Brathwayte, nearly contemporary, printed by 
J. H. - probably John Haviland. 
  
Having got thus far, let us compare the recorded facts of  
Brathwayte's life with those which Barnabee relates of  
himself. Barnabee says, 
  
  
'Veni Applebie, ubi natus,  
Primam sedem comitatus.'  
Brathwayte was the son of Thomas Brathwayte, of Warcop,  
near Appleby. (Wood indeed says that the poet was  
born in Northumberland; but the neighbourhood of his  
father's seat is a much more probable place,) The next  
coincidence is still stronger. 
  
Barnabee says, 
  
  
'Veni Nesham, Dei donum,  
In Coenobiarchae domum,  
Uberem vallem, salubrem venam,  
Cursu fluminis amoenam,  
Laetam sylvis, et frondosam,  
Herae vultu speciosam.  
  
Veni Darlington, prope vicum  
Conjugem duxi peramicam;  
Nuptiis celebrantur festa,  
Nulla admittuntur moesta,' &c.  
 |