Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Goodwin, Christopher
GOODWIN, CHRISTOPHER (fl. 1542), poet, was author of ‘The Chaunce of the Dolorous Lover,’ London, by Wynkyn de Worde, 1520, 4to, ‘a lamentable story without pathos,’ writes Warton. A more interesting production is ‘The maydens dreme. Compyled and made by Chrystofer Goodwyn. In the yere of our Lorde, mcccccxlij.,’ London, ‘by me Robert Wyer for Richard Bankes.’ The only copy known belonged to Heber. It is in seven-line stanzas; in the concluding stanza the four words ‘Chryst,’ ‘offre,’ ‘good,’ and ‘wyn’ (forming together the author's name) are introduced into different lines enclosed in brackets. Warton describes the second piece as ‘a vision without imagination.’ A young lady is supposed to listen in a dream to ‘a dispute between Amour and Shamefacedness for and against love.’
In 1572 Christopher Goodwin or Goodwyn and John Johnson proposed to Queen Elizabeth's ministers to convert Ipswich into ‘a mart town,’ in order to draw thither the whole trade from Antwerp. Much of the promoters' notes and correspondence with Lord Burghley, Sir Thomas Smith, and others is in the Record Office (Cal. State Papers, 1547–80, pp. 447–8); and among Lord Calthorpe's manuscripts is ‘a device’ on the same subject by the same authors (Hist. MSS. Comm. 2nd Rep. p. 40). It is doubtful whether this Christopher Goodwin is identical with the poet, but the identity of name suggests kinship, and, like the poet, the Ipswich projector usually spells his name ‘Goodwyn.’
[Warton's History, p. 681; Collier's Bibl. Cat. i. 318; Heber's Cat. ed. Collier, p. 111; Ritson's Bibliographia Poetica; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.; Ames's Typogr. Antiq.; Hazlitt's Bibliographical Collections.]