Barten Holyday or Holiday (1593 – 2 October 1661) was an English clergyman, author and poet.[F. D. A. Burns, 'Holyday , Barten (1593–1661)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004]
Career
He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford and earned a Doctor of Divinity degree.
He entered the clergy in 1615; he was appointed Archdeacon of Oxford by King Charles I in 1626.
Technogamia was his only play. In 1618, the year it was produced, Holyday served as Sir Francis Stewart's chaplain on Stewart's embassy to Spain. Holyday translated the
Odes of
Horace and works of
Juvenal and
Persius, and wrote
A Survey of the World, in Verse (1661), plus sermons and miscellaneous works.
[Alexander Chalmers, ed., The General Biographical Dictionary, London, J. Nichols & Son, et al., 1814; Vol. 18, pp. 95–6.] He was summed up by one commentator as "a good scholar, a shrewd critic, and a fair wit."
[Adolphus William Ward, A History of English Drama to the Death of Queen Anne, London, Macmillan, 1899; Vol. 3, pp. 176–8.] His translations show strong fidelity to their originals, and have often been considered the best of his works. Samuel Johnson said in
Idler 69 that his translations were those of "only a scholar and a critick" not a poet.
He was subject of a derisory poem called "Whoop Holiday", published in 1625 by Peter Heylin[Anthony Milton, 'Heylyn, Peter (1599–1662)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004]
Personal life
Holyday died at
Iffley in Oxfordshire on 2 October 1661, "of the new epidemicall disease that rageth now abroad" and was buried at Christchurch Cathedral, Oxford.
