Two copies only of the poem by Barnfield here reprinted, are known to bepreserved; one in Sion College Library, and another, formerly in Heber'spossession, mentioned in "Bibliotheca Heberiana," iv. 15. Its merits andgreat rarity have pointed it out as a work deserving to be more knownand appreciated. Barnfield is, perhaps, chiefly remembered by hiselegant pieces printed in the "Passionate Pilgrim," attributed by someto Shakespeare; but Mr. Collier has distinctly proved them to belong tothe less eminent poet. The "Affectionate Shepherd" was his firstproduction, as he himself confesses in the preface to his "Cynthia,"1595, and it has received the well-merited commendation of Warton.Besides these poems, he is the author of "The Complaint of Poetrie forthe death of Liberalitie," 4to. 1598, and others published at the sametime, reprints of which are in the British Museum; also "The[Pg iv] Encomiumof Lady Pecunia, or the Praise of Money," a curious manuscript in theAshmolean Museum, and likewise printed in the author's life-time. Itshould be mentioned that in the original copies of the following tractare a few hexameter verses on the Rape of Helen, which have been omittedas of an inferior kind to the other part of the work, and for still moreobvious reasons. The "Affectionate Shepherd" itself will be foundremarkably free from the coarseness which disfigures so much of theElizabethan literature,—an additional inducement, if any werenecessary, for rescuing it from the liability to destruction which is ofcourse incident to any book of such excessive rarity. Our thanks are dueto the Rev. H. Christmas, Librarian of Sion College, for the courtesyand liberality with which he permitted our transcript to be made from avolume of tracts possessing the greatest charm for the bibliographer;for besides the present one, it contains the first edition ofShakespeare's Lucrece, and several other pieces of nearly equal value,in the finest possible condition.