Richard Barnfield

Richard Barnfield (1574-1627) was an English poet and close friend of William Shakespeare.

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• The waters were his winding sheet, the sea was made for his tomb;
  Yet for his fame the ocean sea, was not sufficient room.
  • Epitaph on Hawkins (1595)

Poems: In Divers Humours (1598)

• As it fell upon a day
  In the merry month of May,
  Sitting in a pleasant shade
  Which a grove of myrtles made.
  • Ode, l. 1

• King Pandion, he is dead,
  All thy friends are lapped in lead.
  • Ode, l. 23

• Every one that flatters thee
  Is no friends in misery.
  Words are easy, like the wind;
  Faithful friends are hard to find.
  Every man will be thy friend
  Whilst thou hast wherewith to spend;
  But if store of crowns be scant,
  No man will supply thy want.
  • Ode, l. 29

• If music and sweet poetry agree.
  As they must needs (the sister and the brother),
  Then must the love be great 'twixt thee and me,
  Because thou lov'st the one, and I the other.
  • To His Friend, Mr. R. L., In Praise of Music and Poetry, l. 1