Thursday, December 8, 2016

Drunken Barnaby's Four Journeys to the North of England

Richard Braithwaite - Drunken Barnaby's Four Journeys to the North of England (1635?)

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Braithwaite (1588-1673) was a poet who studied law and wrote a variety of works.  This one (also called Barnabae itinerarium) is Latin and English verse about his (imaginary?) rambles where he seems to have done nothing but drink and attempt to bed various women (usually stopped by husbands it appears, though to be honest the slang sometimes makes what he's describing a bit unclear).  The poetry is mostly sing-song doggerel though shows Braithwaite wasn't completely untalented.  "A fluent if inelegant satirist" (Thomas Campbell 1819) about sums it up.