The Ship of Fools, Volume 1
by Sebastian Brant · English · Gutenberg #20179 · 523,183 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: The Ship of Fools, Volume 1
Author: Sebastian Brant
Editor: T. H. Jamieson
Translator: Alexander Barclay
Release date: December 23, 2006 [eBook #20179]
Most recently updated: April 9, 2008
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20179
Credits: Produced by Frank van Drogen, Keith Edkins and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHIP OF FOOLS, VOLUME 1 ***
Produced by Frank van Drogen, Keith Edkins and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors in the 1874 introduction
have been corrected: they are listed at the end of the text. In the spirit
of that edition, the text of the Ship of Fools itself has been retained
exactly as it stands, even to the punctuation.
[Illustration]
THE SHIP OF FOOLS
TRANSLATED BY
ALEXANDER BARCLAY
[Illustration]
VOLUME FIRST
EDINBURGH: WILLIAM PATERSON
LONDON: HENRY SOTHERAN & CO.
MDCCCLXXIV.
PREFATORY NOTE.
It is necessary to explain that in the present edition of the Ship of
Fools, with a view to both philological and bibliographical interests, the
text, even to the punctuation, has been printed exactly as it stands in the
earlier impression (Pynson's), the authenticity of which Barclay himself
thus vouches for in a deprecatory apology at the end of his labours (II.
330):--
"... some wordes be in my boke amys
For though that I my selfe dyd it correct
Yet with some fautis I knowe it is infect
Part by my owne ouersyght and neglygence
And part by the prynters nat perfyte in science
And other some escaped ar and past
For that the Prynters in theyr besynes
Do all theyr workes hedelynge, and in hast"
Yet the differences of reading of the later edition (Cawood's), are
surprisingly few and mostly unimportant, though great pains were evidently
bestowed on the production of the book, all the misprints being carefully
corrected, and the orthography duly adjusted to the fashion of the time.
These differences have, in this edition, been placed in one alphabetical
arrangement with the glossary, by which plan it is believed reference to
them will be made more easy, and much repetition avoided.
The woodcuts, no less valuable for their artistic merit than they are
interesting as pictures of contemporary manners, have been facsimiled for
the present edition from the _originals_ as they appear in the Basle
edition of the Latin, "denuo seduloque reuisa," issued under Brandt's own
superintendence in 1497. This work has been done by Mr J. T. Reid, to whom
it is due to say that he has executed it with the most painstaking and
scrupulous fidelity.
The portrait of Brandt, which forms the frontispiece to this volume, is
taken from Zarncke's edition of the Narrenschiff; that of Barclay
presenting one of his books to his patron, prefixed to the Notice of his
life, appears with a little more detail in the Mirror of Good Manners and
the Pynson editions of the Sallust; it is, however, of no authority, being
used for a similar purpose in various other publications.
For the copy of the extremely rare original edition from which the text of
the present has been printed, I am indebted to the private collection and
the well known liberality of Mr David Laing of the Signet Library, to whom
I beg here to return my best thanks, for this as well as many other
valuable favours in connection with the present work.
In prosecuting enquiries regarding the life of an author of whom so little
is known as of Barclay, one must be indebted for aid, more or less, to the
kindness of friends. In this way I have to acknowledge my obligations to Mr
Æneas Mackay, Advocate, and Mr Ralph Thomas, ("Olphar Hamst"), for searches
made in the British Museum and elsewhere.
For collations of Barclay's Works, other than the Ship of Fools, all of
which are of the utmost degree of rarity, and consequent inaccessibility, I
am indebted to the kindness of Henry Huth, Esq., 30 Princes' Gate,
Kensington; the Rev. W. D. Macray, of the Bodleian Library, Oxford; W. B.
Rye, Esq., of the British Museum; Henry Bradshaw, Esq., of the University
Library, Cambridge; and Professor Skeat, Cambridge.
For my brief notice of Brandt and his Work, it is also proper to
acknowledge my obligations to Zarncke's critical edition of the
Narrenschiff (Leipzig, 1854) which is a perfect encyclopædia of everything
Brandtian.
T. H. JAMIESON.
ADVOCATES' LIBRARY,
EDINBURGH, _December_ 1873.
* * * * *
Volume I.
INTRODUCTION
NOTICE OF BARCLAY AND HIS WRITINGS
BARCLAY'S WILL
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL CATALOGUE OF BARCLAY'S WORKS
THE SHIP OF FOOLS
* * * * *
Volume II.
THE SHIP OF FOOLS (CONCLUDED)
GLOSSARY
CHAPTER I. OF THE ORIGINAL (GERMAN), AND OF THE LATIN, AND FRENCH VERSIONS
OF THE SHIP OF FOOLS
* * * * *
INTRODUCTION.
If popularity be taken as the measure of success in literary effort,
Sebastian Brandt's "Ship of Fools" must be considered one of the most
successful books recorded in the whole history of literature. Published in
edition after edition (the first dated 1494), at a time, but shortly after
the invention of printing, when books were expensive, and their circulation
limited; translated into the leading languages of Europe at a time when
translations of new works were only the result of the most signal merits,
its success was then quite unparalleled. It may be said, in modern phrase,
to have been the rage of the reading world at the end of the fifteenth and
throughout the sixteenth centuries. It was translated into Latin by one
Professor (Locher, 1497), and imitated in the same language and under the
same title, by another (Badius Ascensius, 1507); it appeared in Dutch and
Low German, and was twice translated into English, and three times into
French; imitations competed with the original in French and German, as well
as Latin, and greatest and most unprecedented distinction of all, it was
preached, but, we should opine, only certain parts of it, from the pulpit
by the best preachers of the time as a new gospel. The Germans proudly
award it the epithet, "epoch-making," and its long-continued popularity
affords good, if not quite sufficient, ground for the extravagant eulogies
they lavish upon it. Trithemius calls it "Divina Satira," and doubts
whether anything could have been written more suited to the spirit of the
age; Locher compares Brandt with Dante, and Hutten styles him the new
law-giver of German poetry.
A more recent and impartial critic (Müller, "Chips from a German Workshop,"
Vol. III.), thus suggestively sets forth the varied grounds of Brandt's
wonderful popularity:--"His satires, it is true, are not very powerful, nor
pungent, nor original. But his style is free and easy. Brant is not a
ponderous poet. He writes in short chapters, and mixes his fools in such a
manner that we always meet with a variety of new faces. It is true that all
this would hardly be sufficient to secure a decided success for a work like
his at the present day. But then we must remember the time in which he
wrote.... There was room at that time for a work like the 'Ship of Fools.'
It was the first printed book that treated of contemporaneous events and
living persons, instead of old German battles and French knights. People
are always fond of reading the history of their own times. If the good
qualities of their age are brought out, they think of themselves or their
friends; if the dark features of their contemporaries are exhibited, they
think of their neighbours and enemies. Now the 'Ship of Fools' is just such
a satire which ordinary people would read, and read with pleasure. They
might feel a slight twinge now and then, but they would put down the book
at the end, and thank God that they were not like other men. There is a
chapter on Misers--and who would not gladly give a penny to a beggar? There
is a chapter on Gluttony--and who was ever more than a little exhilarated
after dinner?
There is a chapter on Church-goers--and who ever went to church for
respectability's sake, or to show off a gaudy dress, or a fine dog, or a
new hawk? There is a chapter on Dancing--and who ever danced except for the
sake of exercise? There is a chapter on Adultery--and who ever did more
than flirt with his neighbour's wife? We sometimes wish that Brant's satire
had been a little more searching, and that, instead of his many allusions
to classical fools (for his book is full of scholarship), he had given us a
little more of the _chronique scandaleuse_ of his own time. But he was too
good a man to do this, and his contemporaries were no doubt grateful to him
for his forbearance."
Brandt's satire is a satire for all time. Embodied in the language of the
fifteenth century, coloured with the habits and fashions of the times,
executed after the manner of working of the period, and motived by the
eager questioning spirit and the discontent with "abusions" and "folyes"
which resulted in the Reformation, this satire in its morals or lessons is
almost as applicable to the year of grace 1873 as to the year of
gracelessness 1497. It never can grow old; in the mirror in which the men
of his time saw themselves reflected, the men of all times can recognise
themselves; a crew of "able-bodied" is never wanting to man this old,
weather-beaten, but ever seaworthy vessel. The thoughtful, penetrating,
conscious spirit of the Basle professor passing by, for the most part,
local, temporary or indifferent points, seized upon the never-dying follies
of _human nature_ and impaled them on the printed page for the amusement,
the edification, and the warning of contemporaries and posterity alike. No
petty writer of laborious _vers de societe_ to raise a laugh for a week, a
month, or a year, and to be buried in utter oblivion for ever after, was
he, but a divine seer who saw the weakness and wickedness of the hearts of
men, and warned them to amend their ways and flee from the wrath to come.
Though but a retired student, and teacher of the canon law, a humble-minded
man of letters, and a diffident imperial Counsellor, yet is he to be
numbered among the greatest Evangelists and Reformers of mediæval Europe
whose trumpet-toned tongue penetrated into regions where the names of
Luther or Erasmus were but an empty sound, if even that. And yet, though
helping much the cause of the Reformation by the freedom of his social and
clerical criticism, by his unsparing exposure of every form of corruption
and injustice, and, not least, by his use of the vernacular for political
and religious purposes, he can scarcely be classed in the great army of the
Protestant Reformers. He was a reformer from within, a biting, unsparing
exposer of every priestly abuse, but a loyal son of the Church, who rebuked
the faults of his brethren, but visited with the pains of Hell those of
"fals herytikes," and wept over the "ruyne, inclynacion, and decay of the
holy fayth Catholyke, and dymynucion of the Empyre."
So while he was yet a reformer in the true sense of the word, he was too
much of the scholar to be anything but a true conservative. To his
scholarly habit of working, as well as to the manner of the time which
hardly trusted in the value of its own ideas but loved to lean them upon
classical authority, is no doubt owing the classical mould in which his
satire is cast. The description of every folly is strengthened by notice of
its classical or biblical prototypes, and in the margin of the Latin
edition of Locher, Brandt himself supplied the citations of the books and
passages which formed the basis of his text, which greatly added to the
popularity of the work. Brandt, indeed, with the modesty of genius,
professes that it is really no more than a collection and translation of
quotations from biblical and classical authors, "Gesamlet durch Sebastianu
Brant." But even admitting the work to be a Mosaic, to adopt the reply of
its latest German editor to the assertion that it is but a compilation
testifying to the most painstaking industry and the consumption of midnight
oil, "even so one learns that a Mosaic is a work of art when executed with
artistic skill." That he caused the classical and biblical passages
flitting before his eyes to be cited in the margin proves chiefly only the
excellence of his memory. They are also before our eyes and yet we are not
always able to answer the question: where, _e.g._, does this occur? ...
Where, _e.g._, occur the following appropriate words of Goethe: "Who can
think anything foolish, who can think anything wise, that antiquity has not
already thought of."
Of the Greek authors, Plutarch only is used, and he evidently by means of a
Latin translation. But from the Latin large draughts of inspiration are
taken, direct from the fountainhead. Ovid, Juvenal, Persius, Catullus, and
Seneca, are largely drawn from, while, strangely enough, Cicero, Boethius,
and Virgil are quoted but seldom, the latter, indeed, only twice, though
his commentators, especially Servetus, are frequently employed. The Bible,
of course, is a never-failing source of illustration, and, as was to be
expected, the Old Testament much more frequently than the New, most use
being made of the Proverbs of Solomon, while Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiasticus,
and the Sapientia follow at no great distance.
The quotations are made apparently direct from the Vulgate, in only a few
cases there being a qualification of the idea by the interpretation of the
Corpus Juris Canonici. But through this medium only, as was to be expected
of the professor of canon law, is the light of the fathers of the Church
allowed to shine upon us, and according to Zarncke (Introduction to his
edition of the Narrenschiff, 1854), use of it has certainly been made far
oftener than the commentary shows, the sources of information of which are
of the most unsatisfactory character. On such solid and tried foundations
did Brandt construct his great work, and the judgment of contemporaries and
posterity alike has declared the superstructure to be worthy of its
supports.
The following admirable notice from Ersch and Grüber (Encyclopädie) sums up
so skilfully the history, nature, and qualities of the book that we quote
at length:--"The Ship of Fools was received with almost unexampled applause
by high and low, learned and unlearned, in Germany, Switzerland, and
France, and was made the common property of the greatest part of literary
Europe, through Latin, French, English, and Dutch translations. For upwards
of a century it was in Germany a _book of the people_ in the noblest and
widest sense of the word, alike appreciated by an Erasmus and a Reuchlin,
and by the mechanics of Strassburg, Basel, and Augsburg; and it was assumed
to be so familiar to all classes, that even during Brandt's lifetime, the
German preacher Gailer von Kaiserberg went so far as to deliver public
lectures from the pulpit on his friend's poem as if it had been a
scriptural text. As to the poetical and humorous character of Brandt's
poem, its whole conception does not display any extraordinary power of
imagination, nor does it present in its details any very striking sallies
of wit and humour, even when compared with older German works of a similar
kind, such as that of Renner. The fundamental idea of the poem consists in
the shipping off of several shiploads of fools of all kinds for their
native country, which, however, is visible at a distance only; and one
would have expected the poet to have given poetical consistency to his work
by fully carrying out this idea of a ship's crew, and sailing to the 'Land
of Fools.' It is, however, at intervals only that Brandt reminds us of the
allegory; the fools who are carefully divided into classes and introduced
to us in succession, instead of being ridiculed or derided, are reproved in
a liberal spirit, with noble earnestness, true moral feeling, and practical
common sense. It was the straightforward, the bold and liberal spirit of
the poet which so powerfully addressed his contemporaries from the Ship of
the Fools; and to us it is valuable as a product of the piety and morality
of the century which paved the way for the Reformation. Brandt's fools are
represented as contemptible and loathsome rather than _foolish_, and what
he calls follies might be more correctly described as sins and vices.
"The 'Ship of Fools' is written in the dialect of Swabia, and consists of
vigorous, resonant, and rhyming iambic quadrameters. It is divided into 113
sections, each of which, with the exception of a short introduction and two
concluding pieces, treats independently of a certain class of fools or
vicious persons; and we are only occasionally reminded of the fundamental
idea by an allusion to the ship. No folly of the century is left
uncensured. The poet attacks with noble zeal the failings and extravagances
of his age, and applies his lash unsparingly even to the dreaded Hydra of
popery and monasticism, to combat which the Hercules of Wittenberg had not
yet kindled his firebrands. But the poet's object was not merely to reprove
and to animadvert; he instructs also, and shows the fools the way to the
land of wisdom; and so far is he from assuming the arrogant air of the
commonplace moralist, that he reckons himself among the number of fools.
The style of the poem is lively, bold, and simple, and often remarkably
terse, especially in his moral sayings, and renders it apparent that the
author was a classical scholar, without however losing anything of his
German character."
Brandt's humour, which either his earnestness or his manner banished from
the text, took refuge in the illustrations and there disported itself with
a wild zest and vigour. Indeed to their popularity several critics have
ascribed the success of the book, but for this there is no sufficient
authority or probability. Clever as they are, it is more probable that they
ran, in popularity, but an equal race with the text. The precise amount of
Brandt's workmanship in them has not been ascertained, but it is agreed
that "most of them, if not actually drawn, were at least suggested by him."
Zarncke remarks regarding their artistic worth, "not all of the cuts are of
equal value. One can easily distinguish five different workers, and more
practised eyes would probably be able to increase the number. In some one
can see how the outlines, heads, hands, and other principal parts are cut
with the fine stroke of the master, and the details and shading left to the
scholars. The woodcuts of the most superior master, which can be recognized
at once, and are about a third of the whole, belong to the finest, if they
are not, indeed, the finest, which were executed in the fifteenth century,
a worthy school of Holbein. According to the opinion of Herr Rudolph
Weigel, they might possibly be the work of Martin Schön of Colmar.... The
composition in the better ones is genuinely Hogarth-like, and the longer
one looks at these little pictures, the more is one astonished at the
fulness of the humour, the fineness of the characterisation and the almost
dramatic talent of the grouping." Green, in his recent work on emblems,
characterizes them as marking an epoch in that kind of literature. And
Dibdin, the Macaulay of bibliography, loses his head in admiration of the
"entertaining volume," extolling the figures without stint for "merit in
conception and execution," "bold and free pencilling," "spirit and point,"
"delicacy, truth, and force," "spirit of drollery," &c., &c.; summarising
thus, "few books are more pleasing to the eye, and more gratifying to the
fancy than the early editions of the 'Stultifera Navis.' It presents a
combination of entertainment to which the curious can never be
indifferent."
Whether it were the racy cleverness of the pictures or the unprecedented
boldness of the text, the book stirred Europe of the fifteenth century in a
way and with a rapidity it had never been stirred before. In the German
actual acquaintance with it could then be but limited, though it ran
through seventeen editions within a century; the Latin version brought it
to the knowledge of the educated class throughout Europe; but, expressing,
as it did mainly, the feelings of the common people, to have it in the
learned language was not enough. Translations into various vernaculars were
immediately called for, and the Latin edition having lightened the
translator's labours, they were speedily supplied. England, however, was
all but last in the field but when she did appear, it was in force, with a
version in each hand, the one in prose and the other in verse.
Fifteen years elapsed from the appearance of the first German edition,
before the English metrical version "translated out of Laten, French, and
Doche ... in the colege of Saynt Mary Otery, by me, Alexander Barclay," was
issued from the press of Pynson in 1509. A translation, however, it is not.
Properly speaking, it is an adaptation, an English ship, formed and
fashioned after the Ship of Fools of the World. "But concernynge the
translacion of this boke; I exhort ye reders to take no displesour for y^t,
it is nat translated word by worde acordinge to ye verses of my actour. For
I haue but only drawen into our moder tunge, in rude langage the sentences
of the verses as nere as the parcyte of my wyt wyl suffer me, some tyme
addynge, somtyme detractinge and takinge away suche thinges as semeth me
necessary and superflue. Wherfore I desyre of you reders pardon of my
presumptuous audacite, trustynge that ye shall holde me excused if ye
consyder ye scarsnes of my wyt and my vnexpert youthe. I haue in many
places ouerpassed dyuers poetical digressions and obscurenes of fables and
haue concluded my worke in rude langage as shal apere in my translacion."
"Wylling to redres the errours and vyces of this oure royalme of England
... I haue taken upon me ... the translacion of this present boke ... onely
for the holsome instruccion commodyte and doctryne of wysdome, and to
clense the vanyte and madness of folysshe people of whom ouer great nombre
is in the Royalme of Englonde."
Actuated by these patriotic motives, Barclay has, while preserving all the
valuable characteristics of his original, painted for posterity perhaps the
most graphic and comprehensive picture now preserved of the folly,
injustice, and iniquity which demoralized England, city and country alike,
at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and rendered it ripe for any
change political or religious.
"Knowledge of trouth, prudence, and iust symplicite
Hath vs clene left; For we set of them no store.
Our Fayth is defyled loue, goodnes, and Pyte:
Honest maners nowe ar reputed of: no more.
Lawyers ar lordes; but Justice is rent and tore.
Or closed lyke a Monster within dores thre.
For without mede: or money no man can hyr se.
Al is disordered: Vertue hath no rewarde.
Alas, compassion; and mercy bothe ar slayne.
Alas, the stony hartys of pepyl ar so harde
That nought can constrayne theyr folyes to refrayne."
His ships are full laden but carry not all who should be on board.
"We are full lade and yet forsoth I thynke
A thousand are behynde, whom we may not receyue
For if we do, our nauy clene shall synke
He oft all lesys that coueytes all to haue
From London Rockes Almyghty God vs saue
For if we there anker, outher bote or barge
There be so many that they vs wyll ouercharge."
The national tone and aim of the English "Ship" are maintained throughout
with the greatest emphasis, exhibiting an independence of spirit which few
ecclesiastics of the time would have dared to own. Barclay seems to have
been first an Englishman, then an ecclesiastic. Everywhere throughout his
great work the voice of the people is heard to rise and ring through the
long exposure of abuse and injustice, and had the authorship been unknown
it would most certainly have been ascribed to a Langlande of the period.
Everywhere he takes what we would call the popular side, the side of the
people as against those in office. Everywhere he stands up boldly in behalf
of the oppressed, and spares not the oppressor, even if he be of his own
class. He applies the cudgel as vigorously to the priest's pate as to the
Lolardes back. But he disliked modern innovation as much as ancient abuse,
in this also faithfully reflecting the mind of the people, and he is as
emphatic in his censure of the one as in his condemnation of the other.
Barclay's "Ship of Fools," however, is not only important as a picture of
the English life and popular feeling of his time, it is, both in style and
vocabulary, a most valuable and remarkable monument of the English
language. Written midway between Chaucer and Spenser, it is infinitely more
easy to read than either. Page after page, even in the antique spelling of
Pynson's edition, may be read by the ordinary reader of to-day without
reference to a dictionary, and when reference is required it will be found
in nine cases out of ten that the archaism is Saxon, not Latin. This is all
the more remarkable, that it occurs in the case of a priest translating
mainly from the Latin and French, and can only be explained with reference
to his standpoint as a social reformer of the broadest type, and to his
evident intention that his book should be an appeal to all classes, but
especially to the mass of the people, for amendment of their follies. In
evidence of this it may be noticed that in the didactic passages, and
especially in the L'envois, which are additions of his own, wherever, in
fact, he appears in his own character of "preacher," his language is most
simple, and his vocabulary of the most Saxon description.
In his prologue "excusynge the rudenes of his translacion," he professes to
have purposely used the most "comon speche":--
"My speche is rude my termes comon and rural
And I for rude peple moche more conuenient
Than for estates, lerned men, or eloquent."
He afterwards humorously supplements this in "the prologe," by:--
"But if I halt in meter or erre in eloquence
Or be to large in langage I pray you blame not me
For my mater is so bad it wyll none other be."
So much the better for all who are interested in studying the development
of our language and literature. For thus we have a volume, confessedly
written in the commonest language of the common people, from which the
philologist may at once see the stage at which they had arrived in the
development of a simple English speech, and how far, in this respect, the
spoken language had advanced a-head of the written; and from which also he
can judge to what extent the popularity of a book depends, when the
language is in a state of transition, upon the unusual simplicity of its
style both in structure and vocabulary, and how far it may, by reason of
its popularity, be influential in modifying and improving the language in
both these respects. In the long barren tract between Chaucer and Spenser,
the Ship of Fools stands all but alone as a popular poem, and the
continuance of this popularity for a century and more is no doubt to be
attributed as much to the use of the language of the "coming time" as to
the popularity of the subject.
In more recent times however, Barclay has, probably in part, from
accidental circumstances, come to be relegated to a position among the
English classics, those authors whom every one speaks of but few read. That
modern editions of at least his principal performance have not appeared,
can only be accounted for by the great expense attendant upon the
reproduction of so uniquely illustrated a work, an interesting proof of
which, given in the evidence before the Select Committee of the House of
Commons on the Copyright act in 1818, is worth quoting. Amongst new
editions of standard but costly works, of which the tax then imposed by the
act upon publishers of giving eleven copies of all their publications free
to certain libraries prevented the publication, is mentioned, Barclay's
"Ship of Fools;" regarding which Harding, the well known bookseller, is
reported to have said, "We have declined republishing the 'Ship of Fools,'
a folio volume of great rarity and high price. Our probable demand would
not have been more than for a hundred copies, at the price of 12 guineas
each. The delivery of eleven copies to the public libraries decided us
against entering into the speculation."
A wider and more eager interest is now being manifested in our early
literature, and especially in our early popular poetry, to the satisfaction
of which, it is believed, a new edition of this book will be regarded as a
most valuable contribution. Indeed, as a graphic and comprehensive picture
of the social condition of pre-Reformation England; as an important
influence in the formation of our modern English tongue; and as a rich and
unique exhibition of early art, to all of which subjects special attention
is being at present directed, this mediæval picture-poem is of unrivalled
interest.
* * * * *
NOTICE
OF THE
_Life and Writings of Alexander Barclay_,
THE TRANSLATOR OF BRANDT'S SHIP OF FOOLS.
* * * * *
ALEXANDER BARCLAY.
Whether this distinguished poet was an Englishman or a Scotchman has long
been a _quæstio vexata_ affording the literary antiquary a suitable field
for the display of his characteristic amenity. Bale, the oldest authority,
simply says that some contend he was a Scot, others an Englishman, (Script.
Illust. Majoris Britt. Catalogus, 1559). Pits (De Illust. Angliæ Script.,)
asserts that though to some he appears to have been a Scot, he was really
an Englishman, and probably a native of Devonshire, ("_nam_ ibi ad S.
Mariam de Otery, Presbyter primum fuit"). Wood again, (Athen. Oxon.), by
the reasoning which finds a likeness between Macedon and Monmouth, because
there is a river in each, arrives at "Alexander de Barklay, seems to have
been born at or near a town so called in Somersetshire;" upon which Ritson
pertinently observes, "there is no such place in Somersetshire, the onely
Berkeley known is in Gloucestershire." Warton, coming to the question
double-shotted, observes that "he was most probably of Devonshire or
Gloucestershire," in the one case following Pits, and in the other
anticipating Ritson's observation.
On the other hand Bale, in an earlier work than the _Catalogus_, the
_Summarium Ill. Maj. Britt. Script._, published in 1548, during Barclay's
life time, adorns him with the epithets "Scotus, rhetor ac poeta insignis."
Dempster (Hist. ecclesiastica), styles him "Scotus, ut retulit ipse Joannes
Pitsæus." Holinshed also styles him "Scot"! Sibbald gives him a place in
his (MS.) Catalogues of Scottish poets, as does also Wodrow in his
Catalogues of Scots writers. Mackenzie (Lives of the Scots writers) begins,
"The Barklies, from whom this gentleman is descended, are of a very ancient
standing in Scotland." Ritson (Bib. Poetica), after a caustic review of the
controversy, observes "both his name of baptism and the orthography of his
surname seem to prove that he was of Scottish extraction." Bliss (Additions
to Wood) is of opinion that he "undoubtedly was not a native of England,"
and Dr Irving (Hist. of Scot. Poetry) adheres to the opinion of Ritson.
Such contention, whatever may be the weight of the evidence on either side,
is at any rate a sufficient proof of the eminence of the individual who is
the subject of it; to be his birthplace being considered an honour of so
much value to the country able to prove its claim to the distinction as to
occasion a literary warfare of several centuries' duration.
We cannot profess to have brought such reinforcements to either side as to
obtain for it a complete and decisive victory, but their number and
character are such as will probably induce one of the combatants quietly to
retire from the field. In the first place, a more explicit and
unimpeachable piece of evidence than any contained in the authors mentioned
above has been found, strangely enough, in a medical treatise, published
about twenty years after Barclay's death, by a physician and botanist of
great eminence in the middle of the sixteenth century, who was a native of
the isle of Ely, at the Monastery of which Barclay was for some time a
monk.
It is entitled "A dialogue both pleasaunt and pietifull, wherein is a
godlie regiment against the Fever Pestilence, with a consolation and
comforte against death.--Newlie corrected by William Bullein, the author
thereof.--Imprinted at London by Ihon Kingston. Julij, 1573." [8vo., B.L.,
111 leaves.] "There was an earlier impression of this work in 1564, but the
edition of 1573 was 'corrected by the author,' the last work on which he
probably was engaged, as he died in 1576. It is of no value at this time of
day as a medical treatise, though the author was very eminent; but we
advert to it because Bullein, for the sake of variety and amusement,
introduces notices of Chaucer, Gower, Lidgate, Skelton, and Barclay, which,
coming from a man who was contemporary with two of them, may be accepted as
generally accurate representations.... Alexander Barclay, Dr Bullein calls
Bartlet, in the irregular spelling of those times; and, asserting that he
was 'born beyond the cold river of Tweed,' we see no sufficient reason for
disbelieving that he was a native of Scotland. Barclay, after writing his
pastorals, &c., did not die until 1552, so that Bullein was his
contemporary, and most likely knew him and the fact. He observes:--'Then
Bartlet, with an hoopyng russet long coate, with a pretie hoode in his
necke, and five knottes upon his girdle, after Francis tricks. He was borne
beyonde the cold river of Twede. He lodged upon a swete bed of chamomill,
under the sinamum tree; about hym many shepherdes and shepe, with
pleasaunte pipes; greatly abhorring the life of Courtiers, Citizens,
Usurers, and Banckruptes, &c., whose olde daies are miserable. And the
estate of shepherdes and countrie people he accoumpted moste happie and
sure." (Collier's "Bibliographical Account of Early English Literature,"
Vol. 1., P. 97).
"The certainty with which Bulleyn here speaks of Barclay, as born beyond
the Tweed, is not a little strengthened by the accuracy with which even in
allegory he delineates his peculiar characteristics. 'He lodged upon a bed
of sweet camomile.' What figure could have been more descriptive of that
agreeable bitterness, that pleasant irony, which distinguishes the author
of the 'Ship of Fools?' 'About him many shepherds and sheep with pleasant
pipes, greatly abhorring the life of courtiers.' What could have been a
plainer paraphrase of the title of Barclay's 'Eclogues,' or 'Miseries of
Courtiers and Courtes, and of all Princes in General.' As a minor feature,
'the five knots upon his girdle after Francis's tricks' may also be
noticed. Hitherto, the fact of Barclay having been a member of the
Franciscan order has been always repeated as a matter of some doubt; 'he
was a monk of the order of St Benedict, and afterwards, as some say, a
Franciscan. Bulleyn knows, and mentions, with certainty, what others only
speak of as the merest conjecture. In short, everything tends to shew a
degree of familiar acquaintance with the man, his habits, and his
productions, which entitles the testimony of Bulleyn to the highest
credit.'" (Lives of the Scottish Poets, Vol. I., pt. ii., p. 77).
But there are other proofs pointing as decidedly to the determination of
this long-continued controversy in favour of Scotland, as the soil from
which this vagrant child of the muses sprung. No evidence seems to have
been hitherto sought from the most obvious source, his writings. The writer
of the memoir in the Biographia Brittanica, (who certainly dealt a
well-aimed, though by no means decisive, blow, in observing, "It is pretty
extraordinary that Barclay himself, in his several addresses to his patrons
should never take notice of his being a stranger, which would have made
their kindness to him the more remarkable [it was very customary for the
writers of that age to make mention in their works of the countries to
which they belonged, especially if they wrote out of their own];[1] whereas
the reader will quickly see, that in his address to the young gentlemen of
England in the 'Mirror of Good Manners,' he treats them as his
countrymen,") has remarked, "It seems a little strange that in those days a
Scot should obtain so great reputation in England, especially if it be
considered from whence our author's rose, viz., from his enriching and
improving the English tongue. Had he written in Latin or on the sciences,
the thing had been probable enough, but in the light in which it now
stands, I think it very far from likely." From which it is evident that the
biographer understood not the versatile nature of the Scot and his ability,
especially when caught young, in "doing in Rome as the Romans do."
Barclay's English education and foreign travel, together extending over the
most impressionable years of his youth, could not have failed to rub off
any obvious national peculiarities of speech acquired in early boyhood, had
the difference between the English and Scottish speech then been wider than
it was. But the language of Barbour and Chaucer was really one and the
same. It will then not be wondered at that but few Scotch words are found
in Barclay's writings. Still, these few are not without their importance in
strengthening the argument as to nationality. The following from "The Ship
of Fools," indicate at once the clime to which they are native, "gree,"
"kest," "rawky," "ryue," "yate," "bokest," "bydeth," "thekt," and "or," in
its peculiar Scottish use.[2] That any Englishman, especially a South or
West of England Englishman, should use words such as those, particularly at
a time of hostility and of little intercourse between the nations, will
surely be admitted to be a far more unlikely thing than that a Scotchman
born, though not bred, should become, after the effects of an English
education and residence had efficiently done their work upon him, a great
improver and enricher of the English tongue.
But perhaps the strongest and most decisive argument of all in this
much-vexed controversy is to be found in the panegyric of James the Fourth
contained in the "Ship of Fools," an eulogy so highly pitched and
extravagant that no Englishman of that time would ever have dreamed of it
or dared to pen it. Nothing could well be more conclusive. Barclay precedes
it by a long and high-flown tribute to Henry, but when he comes to "Jamys
of Scotlonde," he, so to speak, out-Herods Herod. Ordinary verse suffices
not for the greatness of his subject, which he must needs honour with an
acrostic,--
"I n prudence pereles is this moste comely kynge
A nd as for his strength and magnanymyte
C oncernynge his noble dedes in euery thynge
O ne founde or grounde lyke to hym can not be
B y byrth borne to boldnes and audacyte
V nder the bolde planet of Mars the champyon
S urely to subdue his ennemyes echone."
There, we are convinced, speaks not the prejudiced, Scot-hating English
critic, but the heart beating true to its fatherland and loyal to its
native Sovereign.
That "he was born beyonde the cold river of Twede," about the year 1476, as
shall be shown anon, is however all the length we can go. His training was
without doubt mainly, if not entirely English. He must have crossed the
border very early in life, probably for the purpose of pursuing his
education at one of the Universities, or, even earlier than the period of
his University career, with parents or guardians to reside in the
neighbourhood of Croydon, to which he frequently refers. Croydon is
mentioned in the following passages in Eclogue I.:
"While I in youth in Croidon towne did dwell."
"He hath no felowe betwene this and Croidon,
Save the proude plowman Gnatho of Chorlington."
"And as in Croidon I heard the Collier preache"
"Such maner riches the Collier tell thee can"
"As the riche Shepheard that woned in Mortlake."
It seems to have become a second home to him, for there, we find, in 1552,
he died and was buried.
At which University he studied, whether Oxford or Cambridge, is also a
matter of doubt and controversy. Wood claims him for Oxford and Oriel,
apparently on no other ground than that he dedicates the "Ship of Fools" to
Thomas Cornish, the Suffragan bishop of Tyne, in the Diocese of Bath and
Wells, who was provost of Oriel College from 1493 to 1507. That the Bishop
was the first to give him an appointment in the Church is certainly a
circumstance of considerable weight in favour of the claim of Oxford to be
his _alma mater_, and of Cornish to be his intellectual father; and if the
appointment proceeded from the Provost's good opinion of the young
Scotchman, then it says much for the ability and talents displayed by him
during his College career. Oxford however appears to be nowhere mentioned
in his various writings, while Cambridge is introduced thus in Eclogue
I.:--
"And once in Cambridge I heard a scoller say."
From which it seems equally, if not more, probable that he was a student at
that university. "There is reason to believe that both the universities
were frequented by Scotish students; many particular names are to be traced
in their annals; nor is it altogether irrelevant to mention that Chaucer's
young clerks of Cambridge who played such tricks to the miller of
Trompington, are described as coming from the north, and as speaking the
Scotish language:--
'John highte that on, and Alein highte that other,
Of o toun were they born that highte Strother,
Fer in the North, I cannot tellen where.'
"It may be considered as highly probable that Barclay completed his studies
in one of those universities, and that the connections which he thus had an
opportunity of forming, induced him to fix his residence in the South; and
when we suppose him to have enjoyed the benefit of an English education it
need not appear peculiarly 'strange, that in those days, a Scot should
obtain so great reputation in England.'" (Irving, Hist. of Scot. Poetry).
In the "Ship" there is a chapter "Of unprofytable Stody" in which he makes
allusion to his student life in such a way as to imply that it had not been
a model of regularity and propriety:
"The great foly, the pryde, and the enormyte
Of our studentis, and theyr obstynate errour
Causeth me to wryte two sentences or thre
More than I fynde wrytyn in myne actoure
The tyme hath ben whan I was conductoure
Of moche foly, whiche nowe my mynde doth greue
Wherfor of this shyp syns I am gouernoure
I dare be bolde myne owne vyce to repreue."
If these lines are meant to be accepted literally, which such confessions
seldom are, it may be that he was advised to put a year or two's foreign
travel between his University career, and his entrance into the Church. At
any rate, for whatever reason, on leaving the University, where, as is
indicated by the title of "Syr" prefixed to his name in his translation of
Sallust, he had obtained the degree of Bachelor of Arts, he travelled
abroad, whether at his own charges, or in the company of a son of one of
his patrons is not recorded, principally in Germany, Italy, and France,
where he applied himself, with an unusual assiduity and success, to the
acquirement of the languages spoken in those countries and to the study of
their best authors. In the chapter "Of unprofytable Stody," above
mentioned, which contains proof how well he at least had profited by study,
he cites certain continental seats of university learning at each of which,
there is indeed no improbability in supposing he may have remained for some
time, as was the custom in those days:
"One rennyth to Almayne another vnto France
To Parys, Padway, Lumbardy or Spayne
Another to Bonony, Rome, or Orleanse
To Cayne, to Tolows, Athenys, or Colayne."
Another reference to his travels and mode of travelling is found in the
Eclogues. Whether he made himself acquainted with the English towns he
enumerates before or after his continental travels it is impossible to
determine:
CORNIX.
"As if diuers wayes laye vnto Islington,
To Stow on the Wold, Quaueneth or Trompington,
To Douer, Durham, to Barwike or Exeter,
To Grantham, Totnes, Bristow or good Manchester,
To Roan, Paris, to Lions or Floraunce.
CORIDON.
(What ho man abide, what already in Fraunce,
Lo, a fayre iourney and shortly ended to,
With all these townes what thing haue we to do?
CORNIX.
By Gad man knowe thou that I haue had to do
In all these townes and yet in many mo,
To see the worlde in youth me thought was best,
And after in age to geue my selfe to rest.
CORIDON.
Thou might haue brought one and set by our village.
CORNIX.
What man I might not for lacke of cariage.
To cary mine owne selfe was all that euer I might,
And sometime for ease my sachell made I light."
ECLOGUE I.
Returning to England, after some years of residence abroad, with his mind
broadened and strengthened by foreign travel, and by the study of the best
authors, modern as well as ancient, Barclay entered the church, the only
career then open to a man of his training. With intellect, accomplishments,
and energy possessed by few, his progress to distinction and power ought to
have been easy and rapid, but it turned out quite otherwise. The road to
eminence lay by the "backstairs," the atmosphere of which he could not
endure. The ways of courtiers--falsehood, flattery, and fawning--he
detested, and worse, he said so, wherefore his learning, wit and eloquence
found but small reward. To his freedom of speech, his unsparing exposure
and denunciation of corruption and vice in the Court and the Church, as
well as among the people generally, must undoubtedly be attributed the
failure to obtain that high promotion his talents deserved, and would
otherwise have met with. The policy, not always a successful one in the
end, of ignoring an inconvenient display of talent, appears to have been
fully carried out in the instance of Barclay.
His first preferment appears to have been in the shape of a chaplainship in
the sanctuary for piety and learning founded at Saint Mary Otery in the
County of Devon, by Grandison, Bishop of Exeter; and to have come from
Thomas Cornish, Suffragan Bishop of Bath and Wells under the title of the
Bishop of Tyne, "meorum primitias laborum qui in lucem eruperunt," to whom,
doubtless out of gratitude for his first appointment, he dedicated "The
Ship of Fools." Cornish, amongst the many other good things he enjoyed,
held, according to Dugdale, from 1490 to 1511, the post of warden of the
College of S. Mary Otery, where Barclay no doubt had formed that regard and
respect for him which is so strongly expressed in the dedication.
A very eulogistic notice of "My Mayster Kyrkham," in the chapter "Of the
extorcion of Knyghtis," (Ship of Fools,) has misled biographers, who were
ignorant of Cornish's connection with S. Mary Otery, to imagine that
Barclay's use of "Capellanus humilimus" in his dedication was merely a
polite expression, and that Kyrkham, of whom he styles himself, "His true
seruytour his chaplayne and bedeman" was his actual ecclesiastical
superior. The following is the whole passage:--
"Good offycers ar good and commendable
And manly knyghtes that lyue in rightwysenes
But they that do nat ar worthy of a bable
Syns by theyr pryde pore people they oppres
My mayster Kyrkhan for his perfyte mekenes
And supportacion of men in pouertye
Out of my shyp shall worthely be fre
I flater nat I am his true seruytour
His chaplayne and his bede man whyle my lyfe shall endure
Requyrynge God to exalt hym to honour
And of his Prynces fauour to be sure
For as I haue sayd I knowe no creature
More manly rightwyse wyse discrete and sad
But thoughe he be good, yet other ar als bad."
That this Kyrkham was a knight and not an ecclesiastic is so plainly
apparent as to need no argument. An investigation into Devonshire history
affords the interesting information that among the ancient families of that
county there was one of this name, of great antiquity and repute, now no
longer existent, of which the most eminent member was a certain Sir John
Kirkham, whose popularity is evinced by his having been twice created High
Sheriff of the County, in the years 1507 and 1523. (Prince, Worthies of
Devon; Izacke, Antiquities of Exeter.)
That this was the Kirkham above alluded to, there can be no reasonable
doubt, and in view of the expression "My mayster Kyrkham," it may be
surmised that Barclay had the honour of being appointed by this worthy
gentleman to the office of Sheriff's or private Chaplain or to some similar
position of confidence, by which he gained the poet's respect and
gratitude. The whole allusion, however, might, without straining be
regarded as a merely complimentary one. The tone of the passage affords at
any rate a very pleasing glimpse of the mutual regard entertained by the
poet and his Devonshire neighbours.
After the eulogy of Kyrkham ending with "Yet other ar als bad," the poet
goes on immediately to give the picture of a character of the opposite
description, making the only severe personal reference in his whole
writings, for with all his unsparing exposure of wrong-doing, he carefully,
wisely, honourably avoided personality. A certain Mansell of Otery is
gibbeted as a terror to evil doers in a way which would form a sufficient
ground for an action for libel in these degenerate days.--Ship, II. 82.
"Mansell of Otery for powlynge of the pore
Were nat his great wombe, here sholde haue an ore
But for his body is so great and corporate
And so many burdens his brode backe doth charge
If his great burthen cause hym to come to late
Yet shall the knaue be Captayne of a barge
Where as ar bawdes and so sayle out at large
About our shyp to spye about for prayes
For therupon hath he lyued all his dayes."
It ought however to be mentioned that no such name as Mansell appears in
the Devonshire histories, and it may therefore be fictitious.
The ignorance and reckless living of the clergy, one of the chief objects
of his animadversion, receive also local illustration:
"For if one can flater, and beare a Hauke on his fist,
He shalbe made parson of Honington or Clist."
A good humoured reference to the Secondaries of the College is the only
other streak of local colouring we have detected in the Ship, except the
passage in praise of his friend and colleague Bishop, quoted at p. liii.
"Softe, fooles, softe, a little slacke your pace,
Till I haue space you to order by degree,
I haue eyght neyghbours, that first shall haue a place
Within this my ship, for they most worthy be,
They may their learning receyue costles and free,
Their walles abutting and ioyning to the scholes;
Nothing they can, yet nought will they learne nor see,
Therfore shall they guide this our ship of fooles."
In the comfort, quiet, and seclusion of the pleasant Devonshire retreat,
the "Ship" was translated in the year 1508, when he would be about
thirty-two, "by Alexander Barclay Preste; and at that tyme chaplen in the
sayde College," whence it may be inferred that he left Devon, either in
that year or the year following, when the "Ship" was published, probably
proceeding to London for the purpose of seeing it through the press.
Whether he returned to Devonshire we do not know; probably not, for his
patron and friend Cornish resigned the wardenship of St Mary Otery in 1511,
and in two years after died, so that Barclay's ties and hopes in the West
were at an end. At any rate we next hear of him in monastic orders, a monk
of the order of S. Benedict, in the famous monastery of Ely, where, as is
evident from internal proof, the Eclogues were written and where likewise,
as appears from the title, was translated "The mirrour of good maners," at
the desire of Syr Giles Alington, Knight.
It is about this period of his life, probably the period of the full bloom
of his popularity, that the quiet life of the poet and priest was
interrupted by the recognition of his eminence in the highest quarters, and
by a request for his aid in maintaining the honour of the country on an
occasion to which the eyes of all Europe were then directed. In a letter of
Sir Nicholas Vaux, busied with the preparations for the meeting of Henry
VIII., and Francis I., called the Field of the Cloth of Gold, to Wolsey, of
date 10th April 1520, he begs the cardinal to "send to them ... Maistre
Barkleye, the Black Monke and Poete, to devise histoires and convenient
raisons to florisshe the buildings and banquet house withal" (Rolls
Calendars of Letters and Papers, Henry VIII., III. pt. 1.). No doubt it was
also thought that this would be an excellent opportunity for the eulogist
of the Defender of the Faith to again take up the lyre to sing the glories
of his royal master, but no effort of his muse on the subject of this great
chivalric pageant has descended to us if any were ever penned.
Probably after this employment he did not return to Ely; with his position
or surroundings there he does not seem to have been altogether satisfied
("there many a thing is wrong," see p. lxix.); and afterwards, though in
the matter of date we are somewhat puzzled by the allusion of Bulleyn, an
Ely man, to his Franciscan habit, he assumed the habit of the Franciscans
at Canterbury, ('Bale MS. Sloan, f. 68,') to which change we may owe, if it
be really Barclay's, "The life of St Thomas of Canterbury."
Autumn had now come to the poet, but fruit had failed him. The advance of
age and his failure to obtain a suitable position in the Church began
gradually to weigh upon his spirits. The bright hopes with which he had
started in the flush of youth, the position he was to obtain, the influence
he was to wield, and the work he was to do personally, and by his writings,
in the field of moral and social reformation were all in sad contrast with
the actualities around. He had never risen from the ranks, the army was in
a state of disorganisation, almost of mutiny, and the enemy was more bold,
unscrupulous, and numerous than ever. It is scarcely to be wondered at
that, though not past fifty, he felt prematurely aged, that his youthful
enthusiasm which had carried him on bravely in many an attempt to instruct
and benefit his fellows at length forsook him and left him a prey to that
weakness of body, and that hopelessness of spirit to which he so
pathetically alludes in the Prologue to the Mirror of good Manners. All his
best work, all the work which has survived to our day, was executed before
this date. But the pen was too familiar to his hand to be allowed to drop.
His biographers tell us "that when years came on he spent his time mostly
in pious matters, and in reading and writing histories of the Saints." A
goodly picture of a well-spent old age. The harness of youth he had no
longer the spirit and strength to don, the garments of age he gathered
resignedly and gracefully about him.
On the violent dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, when their inmates,
the good and bad, the men of wisdom and the "fools," were alike cast adrift
upon a rock-bound and stormy coast, the value of the patronage which his
literary and personal popularity had brought him, was put to the test, and
in the end successfully, though after considerable, but perhaps not to be
wondered at, delay. His great patrons, the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of
Kent, Bishop Cornish, and probably also Sir Giles Alington, were all dead,
and he had to rely on newer and necessarily weaker ties. But after waiting,
till probably somewhat dispirited, fortune smiled at last. Two handsome
livings were presented to him in the same year, both of which he apparently
held at the same time, the vicarage of Much Badew in Essex, by the
presentation of Mr John Pascal, to which he was instituted on February 7th,
1546, holding it (according to the Lansdowne MS. (980 f. 101), in the
British Museum) till his death; and the vicarage of S. Mathew at Wokey, in
Somerset, on March 30th of the same year. Wood dignifies him with the
degree of doctor of divinity at the time of his presentation to these
preferments.
That he seems to have accepted quietly the gradual progress of the reformed
religion during the reign of Edward VI., has been a cause of wonder to
some. It would certainly have been astonishing had one who was so unsparing
in his exposure of the flagrant abuses of the Romish Church done otherwise.
Though personally disinclined to radical changes his writings amply show
his deep dissatisfaction with things as they were. This renders the more
improbable the honours assigned him by Wadding (Scriptores Ordinis Minorum,
1806, p. 5), who promotes him to be Suffragan Bishop of Bath and Wells, and
Bale, who, in a slanderous anecdote, the locale of which is also Wells,
speaks of him as a chaplain of Queen Mary's, though Mary did not ascend the
throne till the year after his death. As these statements are nowhere
confirmed, it is not improbable that their authors have fallen into error
by confounding the poet Barclay, with a Gilbert Berkeley, who became Bishop
of Bath and Wells in 1559. One more undoubted, but tardy, piece of
preferment was awarded him which may be regarded as an honour of some
significance. On the 30th April 1552, the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury,
London, presented him to the Rectory of All Hallows, Lombard Street, but
the well-deserved promotion came too late to be enjoyed. A few weeks after,
and before the 10th June, at which date his will was proved, he died, as
his biographers say, "at a very advanced age;" at the good old age of
seventy-six, as shall be shown presently, at Croydon where he had passed
his youth, and there in the Church he was buried. "June 10th 1552,
Alexander Barkley sepult," (Extract from the Parish Register, in Lyson's
Environs of London).
A copy of his will, an extremely interesting and instructive document, has
been obtained from Doctors' Commons, and will be found appended. It bears
in all its details those traits of character which, from all that we
otherwise know, we are led to associate with him. In it we see the earnest,
conscientious minister whose first thought is of the poor, the loyal
churchman liberal in his support of the house of God, the kind relative in
his numerous and considerate bequests to his kith and kin, the amiable,
much loved man in the gifts of remembrance to his many friends, and the
pious Christian in his wishes for the prayers of his survivors "to
Almightie God for remission of my synnes, and mercy upon my soule."
Barclay's career and character, both as a churchman and a man of letters,
deserve attention and respect from every student of our early history and
literature. In the former capacity he showed himself diligent, honest, and
anxious, at a time when these qualities seemed to have been so entirely
lost to the church as to form only a subject for clerical ridicule. In the
latter, the same qualities are also prominent, diligence, honesty, bold
outspokenness, an ardent desire for the pure, the true, and the natural,
and an undisguised enmity to everything false, self-seeking, and vile.
Everything he did was done in a pure way, and to a worthy end.
Bale stands alone in casting aspersions upon his moral character,
asserting, as Ritson puts it, "in his bigoted and foul-mouthed way," that
"he continued a hater of truth, and under the disguise of celibacy a filthy
adulterer to the last;" and in his Declaration of Bonner's articles (1561,
fol. 81), he condescends to an instance to the effect that "Doctoure
Barkleye hadde greate harme ones of suche a visitacion, at Wellys, before
he was Quene Maryes Chaplayne. For the woman whome he so religiouslye
visited did light him of all that he had, sauinge his workinge tolas. For
the whiche acte he had her in prison, and yet coulde nothing recouer
againe." Whether this story be true of any one is perhaps doubtful, and, if
true of a Barclay, we are convinced that he is not our author. It may have
arisen as we have seen from a mistake as to identity. But apart from the
question of identity, we have nothing in support of the slander but Bale's
"foul-mouthed" assertion, while against it we have the whole tenor and aim
of Barclay's published writings. Everywhere he inculcates the highest and
purest morality, and where even for that purpose he might be led into
descriptions of vice, his disgust carries him past what most others would
have felt themselves justified in dealing with. For example, in the chapter
of "Disgysyd folys" he expressly passes over as lightly as possible what
might to others have proved a tempting subject:
"They disceyue myndes chaste and innocent
With dyuers wayes whiche I wyll nat expres
Lyst that whyle I labour this cursyd gyse to stynt
I myght to them mynyster example of lewdnes
And therfore in this part I shall say les
Than doth my actour."
Elsewhere he declares:
"for my boke certaynly
I haue compyled: for vertue and goodnes
And to reuyle foule synne and vyciousnes"
But citation is needless; there is not a page of his writings which will
not supply similar evidence, and our great early moralist may, we think, be
dismissed from Court without a stain on his character.
Indeed to his high pitched morality, he doubtless owed in some degree the
great and extended popularity of his poetical writings in former times and
their neglect in later. Sermons and "good" books were not yet in the
sixteenth century an extensive branch of literature, and "good" people
could without remorse of conscience vary their limited theological reading
by frowning over the improprieties and sins of their neighbours as depicted
in the "Ship," and joining, with a serious headshaking heartiness, in the
admonitions of the translator to amendment, or they might feel
"strengthened" by a glance into the "Mirrour of good Maners," or edified by
hearing of the "Miseryes of Courtiers and Courtes of all princes in
generall," as told in the "Eclogues."
Certain it is that these writings owed little of their acceptance to
touches of humour or satire, to the gifts of a poetical imagination, or the
grace of a polished diction. The indignation of the honest man and the
earnestness of the moralist waited not for gifts and graces. Everything
went down, hard, rough, even uncouth as it stood, of course gaining in
truth and in graphic power what it wants in elegance. Still, with no
refinement, polish or elaboration, there are many picturesque passages
scattered throughout these works which no amount of polishing could have
improved. How could a man in a rage be better touched off than thus ("Ship"
I. 182, 15).
"This man malycious whiche troubled is with wrath
Nought els soundeth but the hoorse letter R."
The passion of love is so graphically described that it is difficult to
imagine our priestly moralist a total stranger to its power, (I. 81).
"For he that loueth is voyde of all reason
Wandrynge in the worlde without lawe or mesure
In thought and fere sore vexed eche season
And greuous dolours in loue he must endure
No creature hym selfe, may well assure
From loues soft dartis: I say none on the grounde
But mad and folysshe bydes he whiche hath the wounde
Aye rennynge as franatyke no reason in his mynde
He hath no constaunce nor ease within his herte
His iyen ar blynde, his wyll alwaye inclyned
To louys preceptes yet can nat he departe
The Net is stronge, the sole caught can nat starte
The darte is sharpe, who euer is in the chayne
Can nat his sorowe in vysage hyde nor fayne"
For expressive, happy simile, the two following examples are capital:--
"Yet sometimes riches is geuen by some chance
To such as of good haue greatest aboundaunce.
Likewise as streames unto the sea do glide.
But on bare hills no water will abide.
. . . . . .
So smallest persons haue small rewarde alway
But men of worship set in authoritie
Must haue rewardes great after their degree."--ECLOGUE I.
"And so such thinges which princes to thee geue
To thee be as sure as water in a siue
. . . . . . .
So princes are wont with riches some to fede
As we do our swine when we of larde haue nede
We fede our hogges them after to deuour
When they be fatted by costes and labour."--ECLOGUE I.
The everlasting conceit of musical humanity is very truthfully hit off.
"This is of singers the very propertie
Alway they coueyt desired for to be
And when their frendes would heare of their cunning
Then are they neuer disposed for to sing,
But if they begin desired of no man
Then shewe they all and more then they can
And neuer leaue they till men of them be wery,
So in their conceyt their cunning they set by."--ECLOGUE II.
Pithy sayings are numerous. Comparing citizens with countrymen, the
countryman says:--
"Fortune to them is like a mother dere
As a stepmother she doth to us appeare."
Of money:
"Coyne more than cunning exalteth every man."
Of clothing:
"It is not clothing can make a man be good
Better is in ragges pure liuing innocent
Than a soule defiled in sumptuous garment."
It is as the graphic delineator of the life and condition of the country in
his period that the chief interest of Barclay's writings, and especially of
the "Ship of Fools," now lies. Nowhere so accessibly, so fully, and so
truthfully will be found the state of Henry the Eighth's England set forth.
Every line bears the character of truthfulness, written as it evidently is,
in all the soberness of sadness, by one who had no occasion to exaggerate,
whose only object and desire was, by massing together and describing
faithfully the follies and abuses which were evident to all, to shame every
class into some degree of moral reformation, and, in particular, to effect
some amelioration of circumstances to the suffering poor.
And a sad picture it is which we thus obtain of merrie England in the good
old times of bluff King Hal, wanting altogether in the _couleur de rose_
with which it is tinted by its latest historian Mr Froude, who is ably
taken to task on this subject by a recent writer in the Westminster Review,
whose conclusions, formed upon other evidence than Barclay's, express so
fairly the impression left by a perusal of the "Ship of Fools," and the
Eclogues, that we quote them here. "Mr Froude remarks: 'Looking therefore,
at the state of England as a whole, I cannot doubt that under Henry the
body of the people were prosperous, well-fed, loyal, and contented. In all
points of material comfort, they were as well off as ever they had been
before; better off than they have ever been in later times.' In this
estimate we cannot agree. Rather we should say that during, and for long
after, this reign, the people were in the most deplorable condition of
poverty and misery of every kind. That they were ill-fed, that loyalty was
at its lowest ebb, that discontent was rife throughout the land. 'In all
points of material comfort,' we think they were worse off than they had
ever been before, and infinitely worse off than they have ever been since
the close of the sixteenth century,--a century in which the cup of
England's woes was surely fuller than it has ever been since, or will, we
trust, ever be again. It was the century in which this country and its
people passed through a baptism of blood as well as 'a baptism of fire,'
and out of which they came holier and better. The epitaph which should be
inscribed over the century is contained in a sentence written by the famous
Acham in 1547:--'Nam vita, quæ nunc vivitur a plurimis, non vita sed
miseria est.'" So, Bradford (Sermon on Repentance, 1533) sums up
contemporary opinion in a single weighty sentence: "All men may see if they
will that the whoredom pride, unmercifulness, and tyranny of England far
surpasses any age that ever was before." Every page of Barclay corroborates
these accounts of tyranny, injustice, immorality, wretchedness, poverty,
and general discontent.
Not only in fact and feeling are Barclay's Ship of Fools and Eclogues
thoroughly expressive of the unhappy, discontented, poverty-stricken,
priest-ridden, and court-ridden condition and life, the bitter sorrows and
the humble wishes of the people, their very texture, as Barclay himself
tells us, consists of the commonest language of the day, and in it are
interwoven many of the current popular proverbs and expressions. Almost all
of these are still "household words" though few ever imagine the garb of
their "daily wisdom" to be of such venerable antiquity. Every page of the
"Eclogues" abounds with them; in the "Ship" they are less common, but still
by no means infrequent. We have for instance:--
"Better is a frende in courte than a peny in purse"--(I. 70.)
"Whan the stede is stolyn to shyt the stable dore"--(I. 76.)
"It goeth through as water through a syue."--(I. 245.)
"And he that alway thretenyth for to fyght
Oft at the prose is skantly worth a hen
For greattest crakers ar nat ay boldest men."--(I. 198.)
"I fynde foure thynges whiche by no meanes can
Be kept close, in secrete, or longe in preuetee
The firste is the counsell of a wytles man
The seconde is a cyte whiche byldyd is a hye
Upon a montayne the thyrde we often se
That to hyde his dedes a louer hath no skyll
The fourth is strawe or fethers on a wyndy hyll."--(I. 199.)
"A crowe to pull."--(II. 8.)
"For it is a prouerbe, and an olde sayd sawe
That in euery place lyke to lyke wyll drawe."--(II. 35.)
"Better haue one birde sure within thy wall
Or fast in a cage than twenty score without"--(II. 74)
"Gapynge as it were dogges for a bone."--(II. 93.)
"Pryde sholde haue a fall."--(II. 161).
"For wyse men sayth ...
One myshap fortuneth neuer alone."
"Clawe where it itchyth."--(II. 256.) [The use of this, it occurs again in
the Eclogues, might be regarded by some of our Southern friends, as
itself a sufficient proof of the author's Northern origin.]
The following are selected from the Eclogues as the most remarkable:
"Each man for himself, and the fende for us all."
"They robbe Saint Peter therwith to clothe Saint Powle."
"For might of water will not our leasure bide."
"Once out of sight and shortly out of minde."
"For children brent still after drede the fire."
"Together they cleave more fast than do burres."
"Tho' thy teeth water."
"I aske of the foxe no farther than the skin."
"To touche soft pitche and not his fingers file."
"From post unto piller tost shall thou be."
"Over head and eares."
"Go to the ant."
"A man may contende, God geueth victory."
"Of two evils chose the least."
These are but the more striking specimens. An examination of the "Ship,"
and especially of the "Eclogues," for the purpose of extracting their whole
proverbial lore, would be well worth the while, if it be not the duty, of
the next collector in this branch of popular literature. These writings
introduce many of our common sayings for the first time to English
literature, no writer prior to Barclay having thought it dignified or worth
while to profit by the popular wisdom to any perceptible extent. The first
collection of proverbs, Heywood's, did not appear until 1546, so that in
Barclay we possess the earliest known English form of such proverbs as he
introduces. It need scarcely be said that that form is, in the majority of
instances, more full of meaning and point than its modern representatives.
Barclay's adoption of the language of the people naturally elevated him in
popular estimation to a position far above that of his contemporaries in
the matter of style, so much so that he has been traditionally recorded as
one of the greatest improvers of the language, that is, one of those who
helped greatly to bring the written language to be more nearly in
accordance with the spoken. Both a scholar and a man of the world, his
phraseology bears token of the greater cultivation and wider knowledge he
possessed over his contemporaries. He certainly aimed at clearness of
expression, and simplicity of vocabulary, and in these respects was so far
in advance of his time that his works can even now be read with ease,
without the help of dictionary or glossary. In spite of his church training
and his residence abroad, his works are surprisingly free from Latin or
French forms of speech; on the contrary, they are, in the main,
characterised by a strong Saxon directness of expression which must have
tended greatly to the continuance of their popularity, and have exercised a
strong and advantageous influence both in regulating the use of the common
spoken language, and in leading the way which it was necessary for the
literary language to follow. Philologists and dictionary makers appear,
however, to have hitherto overlooked Barclay's works, doubtless owing to
their rarity, but their intrinsic value as well as their position in
relation to the history of the language demand specific recognition at
their hands.
Barclay evidently delighted in his pen. From the time of his return from
the Continent, it was seldom out of his hand. Idleness was distasteful to
him. He petitions his critics if they be "wyse men and cunnynge," that:--
"They shall my youth pardone, and vnchraftynes
Whiche onely translate, to eschewe ydelnes."
Assuredly a much more laudable way of employing leisure then than now,
unless the translator prudently stop short of print. The modesty and
singleness of aim of the man are strikingly illustrated by his thus
devoting his time and talents, not to original work as he was well able to
have done had he been desirous only of glorifying his own name, but to the
translation and adaptation or, better, "Englishing" of such foreign authors
as he deemed would exercise a wholesome and profitable influence upon his
countrymen. Such work, however, moulded in his skilful hands, became all
but original, little being left of his author but the idea. Neither the
Ship of Fools, nor the Eclogues retain perceptible traces of a foreign
source, and were it not that they honestly bear their authorship on their
fore-front, they might be regarded as thoroughly, even characteristically,
English productions.
The first known work from Barclay's pen[3] appeared from the press of De
Worde, so early as 1506, probably immediately on his return from abroad,
and was no doubt the fruit of continental leisure. It is a translation, in
seven line stanzas, of the popular French poet Pierre Gringore's Le Chateau
de labour (1499)--the most ancient work of Gringore with date, and perhaps
his best--under the title of "The Castell of laboure wherein is richesse,
vertu, and honour;" in which in a fanciful allegory of some length, a
somewhat wearisome Lady Reason overcomes despair, poverty and other such
evils attendant upon the fortunes of a poor man lately married, the moral
being to show:--
"That idleness, mother of all adversity,
Her subjects bringeth to extreme poverty."
The general appreciation of this first essay is evidenced by the issue of a
second edition from the press of Pynson a few years after the appearance of
the first.
Encouraged by the favourable reception accorded to the first effort of his
muse, Barclay, on his retirement to the ease and leisure of the College of
St Mary Otery, set to work on the "Ship of Fools," acquaintance with which
Europe-famous satire he must have made when abroad. This, his _magnum
opus_, has been described at some length in the Introduction, but two
interesting personal notices relative to the composition of the work may
here be added. In the execution of the great task, he expresses himself,
(II. 278), as under the greatest obligations to his colleague, friend, and
literary adviser, Bishop:--
"Whiche was the first ouersear of this warke
And vnto his frende gaue his aduysement
It nat to suffer to slepe styll in the darke
But to be publysshyd abrode: and put to prent
To thy monycion my bysshop I assent
Besechynge god that I that day may se
That thy honour may prospere and augment
So that thy name and offyce may agre
. . . . . .
In this short balade I can nat comprehende
All my full purpose that I wolde to the wryte
But fayne I wolde that thou sholde sone assende
To heuenly worshyp and celestyall delyte
Than shoulde I after my pore wyt and respyt,
Display thy name, and great kyndnes to me
But at this tyme no farther I indyte
But pray that thy name and worshyp may agre."
Pynson, in his capacity of judicious publisher, fearing lest the book
should exceed suitable dimensions, also receives due notice at p. 108 of
Vol. I., where he speaks of
"the charge Pynson hathe on me layde
With many folys our Nauy not to charge."
The concluding stanza, or colophon, is also devoted to immortalising the
great bibliopole in terms, it must be admitted, not dissimilar to those of
a modern draper's poet laureate:--
Our Shyp here leuyth the sees brode
By helpe of God almyght and quyetly
At Anker we lye within the rode
But who that lysteth of them to bye
In Flete strete shall them fynde truly
At the George: in Richarde Pynsonnes place
Prynter vnto the Kynges noble grace.
Deo gratias.
Contemporary allusions to the Ship of Fools there could not fail to be, but
the only one we have met with occurs in Bulleyn's Dialogue quoted above, p.
xxvii. It runs as follows:--_Uxor_.--What ship is that with so many owers,
and straunge tacle; it is a greate vessell. _Ciuis_.--This is the ship of
fooles, wherin saileth bothe spirituall and temporall, of euery callyng
some: there are kynges, queenes, popes, archbishoppes, prelates, lordes,
ladies, knightes, gentlemen, phisicions, lawiers, marchauntes,
housbandemen, beggers, theeues, hores, knaues, &c. This ship wanteth a good
pilot: the storme, the rocke, and the wrecke at hande, all will come to
naught in this hulke for want of good gouernement.
The Eclogues, as appears from their Prologue, had originally been the work
of our author's youth, "the essays of a prentice in the art of poesie," but
they were wisely laid past to be adorned by the wisdom of a wider
experience, and were, strangely enough, lost for years until, at the age of
thirty-eight, the author again lighted, unexpectedly, upon his lost
treasures, and straightway finished them off for the public eye.
The following autobiographical passage reminds one forcibly of Scott's
throwing aside Waverley, stumbling across it after the lapse of years, and
thereupon deciding at once to finish and publish it. After enumerating the
most famous eclogue writers, he proceeds:--
"Nowe to my purpose, their workes worthy fame,
Did in my yonge age my heart greatly inflame,
Dull slouth eschewing my selfe to exercise,
In such small matters, or I durst enterprise,
To hyer matter, like as these children do,
Which first vse to creepe, and afterwarde to go.
. . . . . . . .
So where I in youth a certayne worke began,
And not concluded, as oft doth many a man:
Yet thought I after to make the same perfite,
But long I missed that which I first did write.
But here a wonder, I fortie yere saue twayne,
Proceeded in age, founde my first youth agayne.
To finde youth in age is a probleme diffuse,
But nowe heare the truth, and then no longer muse.
As I late turned olde bookes to and fro,
One litle treatise I founde among the mo
Because that in youth I did compile the same,
Egloges of youth I did call it by name.
And seing some men haue in the same delite,
At their great instance I made the same perfite,
Adding and bating where I perceyued neede,
All them desiring which shall this treatise rede,
Not to be grieued with any playne sentence,
Rudely conuayed for lacke of eloquence."
The most important revelation in the whole of this interesting passage,
that relating to the author's age, seems to have been studiously overlooked
by all his biographers. If we can fix with probability the date at which
these Eclogues were published, then this, one of the most regretted of the
lacunæ in his biography, will be supplied. We shall feel henceforth
treading on firmer ground in dealing with the scanty materials of his life.
From the length and favour with which the praises of the Ely Cathedral and
of Alcock its pious and munificent bishop, then but recently dead, are sung
in these poems (see p. lxviii.), it is evident that the poet must have
donned the black hood in the monastery of Ely for at least a few years.
Warton fixes the date at 1514, because of the praises of the "noble Henry
which now departed late," and the after panegyric of his successor Henry
VIII. (Eclogue I.), whose virtues are also duly recorded in the Ship of
Fools (I. 39 and II. 205-8), but not otherwise of course than in a
complimentary manner. Our later lights make this picture of the noble pair
appear both out of drawing and over-coloured:--
"Beside noble Henry which nowe departed late,
Spectacle of vertue to euery hye estate,
The patrone of peace and primate of prudence,
Which on Gods Church hath done so great expence.
Of all these princes the mercy and pitie,
The loue of concorde, iustice and equitie,
The purenes of life and giftes liberall,
Not lesse vertuous then the said princes all.
And Henry the eyght moste hye and triumphant,
No gifte of vertue nor manlines doth want,
Mine humble spech and language pastorall
If it were able should write his actes all:
But while I ought speake of courtly misery,
Him with all suche I except vtterly.
But what other princes commonly frequent,
As true as I can to shewe is mine intent,
But if I should say that all the misery,
Which I shall after rehearse and specify
Were in the court of our moste noble kinge,
I should fayle truth, and playnly make leasing."--ECLOGUE I.
This eulogy of Henry plainly implies some short experience of his reign.
But other allusions contribute more definitely to fix the precise date,
such as the following historical passage, which evidently refers to the
career of the notorious extortioners, Empson and Dudley, who were executed
for conspiracy and treason in the first year of the new king's reign.
"Such as for honour unto the court resort,
Looke seldome times upon the lower sort;
To the hyer sort for moste part they intende,
For still their desire is hyer to ascende
And when none can make with them comparison,
Against their princes conspire they by treason,
Then when their purpose can nat come well to frame,
Agayne they descende and that with utter shame,
Coridon thou knowest right well what I meane,
We lately of this experience haue seene
When men would ascende to rowmes honorable
Euer is their minde and lust insaciable."
The most definite proof of the date of publication, however, is found in
the fourth Eclogue. It contains a long poem called The towre of vertue and
honour, which is really a highly-wrought elegy on the premature and
glorious death, not of "the Duke of Norfolk, Lord High admiral, and one of
Barclay's patrons," as has been repeated parrot-like, from Warton
downwards, but of his chivalrous son, Sir Edward Howard, Lord High Admiral
for the short space of a few months, who perished in his gallant, if
reckless, attack upon the French fleet in the harbour of Brest in the year
1513. It is incomprehensible that the date of the publication of the
Eclogues should be fixed at 1514, and this blunder still perpetuated. No
Duke of Norfolk died between Barclay's boyhood and 1524, ten years after
the agreed upon date of the Elegy; and the Duke (Thomas), who was Barclay's
patron, never held the position of Lord High Admiral (though his son Lord
Thomas, created Earl of Surrey in 1514, and who afterwards succeeded him,
also succeeded his brother Sir Edward in the Admiralship), but worthily
enjoyed the dignified offices of Lord High Steward, Lord Treasurer, and
Earl Marshal, and died one of Henry's most respected and most popular
Ministers, at his country seat, at a good old age, in the year above
mentioned, 1524. The other allusions to contemporary events, and especially
to the poet's age, preclude the idea of carrying forward the publication to
the latter date, did the clearly defined points of the Elegy allow of it,
as they do not.
Minalcas, one of the interlocutors, thus introduces the subject:--
"But it is lamentable
To heare a Captayne so good and honorable,
_So soone_ withdrawen by deathes crueltie,
Before his vertue was at moste hye degree.
If death for a season had shewed him fauour,
To all his nation he should haue bene honour."
"'The Towre of Vertue and Honor,' introduced as a song of one of the
shepherds into these pastorals, exhibits no very masterly strokes of a
sublime and inventive fancy. It has much of the trite imagery usually
applied in the fabrication of these ideal edifices. It, however, shows our
author in a new walk of poetry. This magnificent tower, or castle is built
on inaccessible cliffs of flint: the walls are of gold, bright as the sun,
and decorated with 'olde historyes and pictures manyfolde:' the turrets are
beautifully shaped. Among its heroic inhabitants are Henry VIII., ['in his
maiestie moste hye enhaunsed as ought a conquerour,' no doubt an allusion
to the battle of the Spurs and his other exploits in France in 1513],
Howard Duke of Norfolk, ['the floure of chiualry'], and the Earl of
Shrewsbury, ['manfull and hardy, with other princes and men of dignitie'].
Labour is the porter at the gate, and Virtue governs the house. Labour is
thus pictured, with some degree of spirit:--
'Fearefull is labour without fauour at all,
Dreadfull of visage, a monster intreatable,
Like Cerberus lying at gates infernall;
To some men his looke is halfe intollerable,
His shoulders large, for burthen strong and able,
His body bristled, his necke mightie and stiffe;
By sturdy senewes, his ioyntes stronge and stable,
Like marble stones his handes be as stiffe.
Here must man vanquishe the dragon of Cadmus,
Against the Chimer here stoutly must he fight,
Here must he vanquish the fearefull Pegasus,
For the golden flece here must he shewe his might:
If labour gaynsay, he can nothing be right,
This monster labour oft chaungeth his figure,
Sometime an oxe, a bore, or lion wight,
Playnely he seemeth, thus chaungeth his nature,
Like as Protheus ofte chaunged his stature.
. . . . . . .
Under his browes he dreadfully doth loure,
With glistering eyen, and side dependaunt beard,
For thirst and hunger alway his chere is soure.
His horned forehead doth make faynt heartes feard.
Alway he drinketh, and yet alway is drye,
The sweat distilling with droppes aboundaunt,'
. . . . . . .
"The poet adds, 'that when the noble Howard had long boldly contended with
this hideous monster, had broken the bars and doors of the castle, had
bound the porter, and was now preparing to ascend the tower of Virtue and
Honour, Fortune and Death appeared, and interrupted his progress.'"
(Warton, Eng. Poetry, III.)
The hero's descent and knightly qualities are duly set forth:--
"Though he were borne to glory and honour,
Of auncient stocke and noble progenie,
Yet thought his courage to be of more valour,
By his owne actes and noble chiualry.
Like as becommeth a knight to fortifye
His princes quarell with right and equitie,
So did this Hawarde with courage valiauntly,
Till death abated his bolde audacitie."
The poet, gives "cursed fortune" a severe rating, and at such length that
the old lady no doubt repented herself, for cutting off so promising a hero
_at so early an age_:--
"Tell me, frayle fortune, why did thou breuiate
The liuing season of suche a captayne,
That when his actes ought to be laureate
Thy fauour turned him suffring to be slayne?"
And then he addresses the Duke himself in a consolatory strain,
endeavouring to reconcile him to the loss of so promising a son, by
recalling to his memory those heroes of antiquity whose careers of glory
were cut short by sudden and violent deaths:--
"But moste worthy duke hye and victorious,
Respire to comfort, see the vncertentie
Of other princes, whose fortune prosperous
Oftetime haue ended in hard aduersitie:
Read of Pompeius," [&c.]
. . . . . .
"This shall be, this is, and this hath euer bene,
That boldest heartes be nearest ieopardie,
To dye in battayle is honour as men wene
To suche as haue ioy in haunting chiualry.
"Suche famous ending the name doth magnifie,
Note worthy duke, no cause is to complayne,
His life not ended foule nor dishonestly,
In bed nor tauerne his lustes to maynteyne,
But like as besemed a noble captayne,
In sturdie harnes he died for the right,
From deathes daunger no man may flee certayne,
But suche death is metest vnto so noble a knight.
"But death it to call me thinke it vnright,
Sith his worthy name shall laste perpetuall," [&c.]
This detail and these long quotations have been rendered necessary by the
strange blunder which has been made and perpetuated as to the identity of
the young hero whose death is so feelingly lamented in this elegy. With
that now clearly ascertained, we can not only fix with confidence the date
of the publication of the Eclogues, but by aid of the hint conveyed in the
Prologue, quoted above (p. lv.), as to the author's age, "fortie saue
twayne," decide, for the first time, the duration of his life, and the
dates, approximately at least, of its incidents, and of the appearance of
his undated works. Lord Edward Howard, perhaps the bravest and rashest of
England's admirals, perished in a madly daring attack upon the harbour of
Brest, on the 25th of April, 1514. As the eclogues could not therefore have
been published prior to that date, so, bearing in mind the other allusions
referred to above, they could scarcely have appeared later. Indeed, the
loss which the elegy commemorates is spoken of as quite recent, while the
elegy itself bears every appearance of having been introduced into the
eclogue at the last moment. We feel quite satisfied therefore that Warton
hit quite correctly upon the year 1514 as that in which these poems first
saw the light, though the ground (the allusion to the Henries) upon which
he went was insufficient, and his identification of the hero of the elegy
contradicted his supposition. Had he been aware of the importance of fixing
the date correctly, he would probably have taken more care than to fall
into the blunder of confounding the father with the son, and adorning the
former with the dearly earned laurels of the latter.
It may be added that, fixing 1514 as the date at which Barclay had arrived
at the age of 38, agrees perfectly with all else we know of his years, with
the assumed date of his academical education, and of his travels abroad,
with the suppositions formed as to his age from his various published works
having dates attached to them, and finally, with the traditional "great
age" at which he died, which would thus be six years beyond the allotted
span.
After the Ship of Fools the Eclogues rank second in importance in a
consideration of Barclay's writings. Not only as the first of their kind in
English, do they crown their author with the honour of introducing this
kind of poetry to English literature, but they are in themselves most
interesting and valuable as faithful and graphic pictures of the court,
citizen, and country life of the period. Nowhere else in so accessible a
form do there exist descriptions at once so full and so accurate of the
whole condition of the people. Their daily life and habits, customs,
manners, sports, and pastimes, are all placed on the canvas before us with
a ready, vigorous, unflinching hand. Witness for instance the following
sketch, which might be entitled, "Life, temp. 1514":--
"Some men deliteth beholding men to fight,
Or goodly knightes in pleasaunt apparayle,
Or sturdie souldiers in bright harnes and male.
. . . . . . . .
Some glad is to see these Ladies beauteous,
Goodly appoynted in clothing sumpteous:
A number of people appoynted in like wise:
In costly clothing after the newest gise,
Sportes, disgising, fayre coursers mount and praunce,
Or goodly ladies and knightes sing and daunce:
To see fayre houses and curious picture(s),
Or pleasaunt hanging, or sumpteous vesture
Of silke, of purpure, or golde moste orient,
And other clothing diuers and excellent:
Hye curious buildinges or palaces royall,
Or chapels, temples fayre and substanciall,
Images grauen or vaultes curious;
Gardeyns and medowes, or place delicious,
Forestes and parkes well furnished with dere,
Colde pleasaunt streames or welles fayre and clere,
Curious cundites or shadowie mountaynes,
Swete pleasaunt valleys, laundes or playnes
Houndes, and suche other thinges manyfolde
Some men take pleasour and solace to beholde."
The following selections illustrative of the customs and manners of the
times will serve as a sample of the overflowing cask from which they are
taken. The condition of the country people is clearly enough indicated in a
description of the village Sunday, the manner of its celebration being
depicted in language calculated to make a modern sabbatarian's hair stand
on end:--
"What man is faultlesse, remember the village,
Howe men vplondish on holy dayes rage.
Nought can them tame, they be a beastly sort,
In sweate and labour hauing most chiefe comfort,
On the holy day assoone as morne is past,
When all men resteth while all the day doth last,
They drinke, they banket, they reuell and they iest
They leape, they daunce, despising ease and rest.
If they once heare a bagpipe or a drone,
Anone to the elme or oke they be gone.
There vse they to daunce, to gambolde and to rage
Such is the custome and vse of the village.
When the ground resteth from rake, plough and wheles,
Then moste they it trouble with burthen of their heles:
FAUSTUS.
To Bacchus they banket, no feast is festiuall,
They chide and they chat, they vary and they brall,
They rayle and they route, they reuell and they crye,
Laughing and leaping, and making cuppes drye.
What, stint thou thy chat, these wordes I defye,
It is to a vilayne rebuke and vilany.
Such rurall solace so plainly for to blame,
Thy wordes sound to thy rebuke and shame."
Football is described in a lively picture:--
"They get the bladder and blowe it great and thin,
With many beanes or peason put within,
It ratleth, soundeth, and shineth clere and fayre,
While it is throwen and caste vp in the ayre,
Eche one contendeth and hath a great delite,
With foote and with hande the bladder for to smite,
If it fall to grounde they lifte it vp agayne,
This wise to labour they count it for no payne,
Renning and leaping they driue away the colde,
The sturdie plowmen lustie, stronge and bolde,
Ouercommeth the winter with driuing the foote ball,
Forgetting labour and many a greuous fall."
A shepherd, after mentioning his skill in shooting birds with a bow,
says:--
"No shepheard throweth the axeltrie so farre."
A gallant is thus described:--
"For women vse to loue them moste of all,
Which boldly bosteth, or that can sing and iet,
Which are well decked with large bushes set,
Which hath the mastery ofte time in tournament,
Or that can gambauld, or daunce feat and gent."
The following sorts of wine are mentioned:--
"As Muscadell, Caprike, Romney, and Maluesy,
From Gene brought, from Grece or Hungary."
As are the dainties of the table. A shepherd at court must not think to
eat,
"Swanne, nor heron,
Curlewe, nor crane, but course beefe and mutton."
Again:
"What fishe is of sauor swete and delicious,--
Rosted or sodden in swete hearbes or wine;
Or fried in oyle, most saporous and fine.--
The pasties of a hart.--
The crane, the fesant, the pecocke and curlewe,
The partriche, plouer, bittor, and heronsewe--
Seasoned so well in licour redolent,
That the hall is full of pleasaunt smell and sent."
At a feast at court:--
"Slowe be the seruers in seruing in alway,
But swift be they after, taking thy meate away;
A speciall custome is vsed them among,
No good dish to suffer on borde to be longe:
If the dishe be pleasaunt, eyther fleshe or fishe,
Ten handes at once swarme in the dishe:
And if it be flesh ten kniues shalt thou see
Mangling the flesh, and in the platter flee:
To put there thy handes is perill without fayle,
Without a gauntlet or els a gloue of mayle."
"The two last lines remind us of a saying of Quin, who declared it was not
safe to sit down to a turtle-feast in one of the city-halls, without a
basket-hilted knife and fork. Not that I suppose Quin borrowed his bon-mots
from black letter books." (Warton.)
The following lines point out some of the festive tales of our ancestors:--
"Yet would I gladly heare some mery fit
Of mayde Marion, or els of Robin hood;
Or Bentleyes ale which chafeth well the bloud,
Of perre of Norwich, or sauce of Wilberton,
Or buckishe Joly well-stuffed as a ton."
He again mentions "Bentley's Ale" which "maketh me to winke;" and some of
our ancient domestic pastimes and amusements are recorded:--
"Then is it pleasure the yonge maydens amonge
To watche by the fire the winters nightes long:
At their fonde tales to laugh, or when they brall
Great fire and candell spending for laboure small,
And in the ashes some playes for to marke,
To couer wardens [pears] for fault of other warke:
To toste white sheuers, and to make prophitroles;
And after talking oft time to fill the bowles."
He mentions some musical instruments:
" . . . . Methinkes no mirth is scant,
Where no reioysing of minstrelcie doth want:
The bagpipe or fidle to vs is delectable."
And the mercantile commodities of different countries and cities:--
"Englande hath cloth, Burdeus hath store of wine,
Cornewall hath tinne, and Lymster wools fine.
London hath scarlet, and Bristowe pleasaunt red,
Fen lands hath fishes, in other place is lead."
Of songs at feasts:--
"When your fat dishes smoke hote vpon your table,
Then layde ye songes and balades magnifie,
If they be mery, or written craftely,
Ye clappe your handes and to the making harke,
And one say to other, lo here a proper warke."
He says that minstrels and singers are highly favoured at court, especially
those of the French gise. Also jugglers and pipers.
The personal references throughout the Eclogues, in addition to those
already mentioned, though not numerous, are of considerable interest. The
learned Alcock, Bishop of Ely (1486-1500), and the munificent founder of
Jesus College, Cambridge, stands deservedly high in the esteem of a poet
and priest, so zealous of good works as Barclay. The poet's humour thus
disguises him.--(Eclogue I., A iii., recto.):--
"Yes since his dayes a cocke was in the fen,
I knowe his voyce among a thousande men:
He taught, he preached, he mended euery wrong;
But, Coridon alas no good thing bideth long.
He all was a cocke, he wakened vs from slepe,
And while we slumbred, he did our foldes hepe.
No cur, no foxes, nor butchers dogges wood,
Coulde hurte our fouldes, his watching was so good.
The hungry wolues, which that time did abounde,
What time he crowed, abashed at the sounde.
This cocke was no more abashed of the foxe,
Than is a lion abashed of an oxe.
When he went, faded the floure of all the fen;
I boldly dare sweare this cocke neuer trode hen!
This was a father of thinges pastorall,
And that well sheweth his Church cathedrall,
There was I lately about the middest of May,
Coridon his Church is twenty sith more gay
Then all the Churches betwene the same and Kent,
There sawe I his tome and Chapell excellent.
I thought fiue houres but euen a little while,
Saint John the virgin me thought did on me smile,
Our parishe Church is but a dongeon,
To that gay Churche in comparison.
If the people were as pleasaunt as the place
Then were it paradice of pleasour and solace,
Then might I truely right well finde in my heart.
There still to abide and neuer to departe,
But since that this cocke by death hath left his song,
Trust me Coridon there many a thing is wrong,
When I sawe his figure lye in the Chapell-side,
Like death for weping I might no longer bide.
Lo all good thinges so sone away doth glide,
That no man liketh to long doth rest and abide.
When the good is gone (my mate this is the case)
Seldome the better reentreth in the place."
The excellence of his subject carries the poet quite beyond himself in
describing the general lamentation at the death of this worthy prelate;
with an unusual power of imagination he thus pictures the sympathy of the
towers, arches, vaults and images of Ely monastery:
"My harte sore mourneth when I must specify
Of the gentle cocke whiche sange so mirily,
He and his flocke wer like an union
Conioyned in one without discention,
All the fayre cockes which in his dayes crewe
When death him touched did his departing rewe.
The pretie palace by him made in the fen,
The maides, widowes, the wiues, and the men,
With deadly dolour were pearsed to the heart,
When death constrayned this shepheard to departe.
Corne, grasse, and fieldes, mourned for wo and payne,
For oft his prayer for them obtayned rayne.
The pleasaunt floures for wo faded eche one,
When they perceyued this shepheard dead and gone,
The okes, elmes, and euery sorte of dere
Shronke vnder shadowes, abating all their chere.
The mightie walles of Ely Monastery,
The stones, rockes, and towres semblably,
The marble pillers and images echeone,
Swet all for sorowe, when this good cocke was gone,
Though he of stature were humble, weake and leane,
His minde was hye, his liuing pure and cleane,
Where other feedeth by beastly appetite,
On heauenly foode was all his whole delite."
Morton, Alcock's predecessor and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury
(1486-1500), is also singled out for compliment, in which allusion is made
to his troubles, his servants' faithfulness, and his restoration to favour
under Richard III. and Henry VII. (Eclogue III.):--
"And shepheard Morton, when he durst not appeare,
Howe his olde seruauntes were carefull of his chere;
In payne and pleasour they kept fidelitie
Till grace agayne gaue him aucthoritie
Then his olde fauour did them agayne restore
To greater pleasour then they had payne before.
Though for a season this shepheard bode a blast,
The greatest winde yet slaketh at the last,
And at conclusion he and his flocke certayne
Eche true to other did quietly remayne."
And again in Eclogue IV.:--
"Micene and Morton be dead and gone certayne."
The "Dean of Powles" (Colet), with whom Barclay seems to have been
personally acquainted, and to whom the reference alludes as to one still
living (his death occurred in 1519), is celebrated as a preacher in the
same Eclogue:--
"For this I learned of the Dean of Powles
I tell thee, Codrus this man hath won some soules."
as is "the olde friar that wonned in Greenwich" in Eclogue V.
The first three Eclogues are paraphrases or adaptations from the Miseriæ
Curialium, the most popular of the works of one of the most successful
literary adventurers of the middle ages, Æneas Sylvius (Pope Pius II., who
died in 1464). It appears to have been written with the view of relieving
his feelings of disappointment and disgust at his reception at the court of
the Emperor, whither he had repaired, in the hope of political advancement.
The tone and nature of the work may be gathered from this candid exposure
of the adventurer's morale: "Many things there are which compel us to
persevere, but nothing more powerfully than ambition which, rivalling
charity, truly beareth all things however grievous, that it may attain to
the honours of this world and the praise of men. If we were humble and
laboured to gain our own souls rather than hunt after vain glory, few of
us, indeed, would endure such annoyances." He details, with querulous
humour, all the grievances of his position, from the ingratitude of the
prince to the sordour of the table-cloths, and the hardness of the black
bread. But hardest of all to bear is the contempt shown towards literature.
"In the courts of princes literary knowledge is held a crime; and great is
the grief of men of letters when they find themselves universally despised,
and see the most important matters managed, not to say mismanaged, by
blockheads, who cannot tell the number of their fingers and toes."
Barclay's adaptation is so thoroughly Englished, and contains such large
additions from the stores of his own bitter experience, as to make it even
more truly his own than any other of his translations.
The fourth and fifth eclogues are imitations,--though no notice that they
are so is conveyed in the title, as in the case of the first three,--of the
fifth and sixth of the popular eclogue writer of the time, Jo. Baptist
Mantuan, which may have helped to give rise to the generally received
statement noticed below, that all the eclogues are imitations of that
author. The fourth is entitled "Codrus and Minalcas, treating of the
behauour of Riche men agaynst Poetes," and it may be judged how far it is
Barclay's from the fact that it numbers about twelve hundred lines,
including the elegy of the Noble Howard, while the original, entitled, "De
consuetudine Divitum erga Poetas," contains only about two hundred. The
fifth is entitled "Amintas and Faustus, of the disputation of citizens and
men of the countrey." It contains over a thousand lines, and the original,
"De disceptatione rusticorum et civium," like the fifth, extends to little
more than two hundred.
In the Prologue before mentioned we are told (Cawood's edition):--
"That fiue Egloges this whole treatise doth holde
To imitation of other Poetes olde,"
Which appears to be a correction of the printer's upon the original, as in
Powell's edition:--
"That X. egloges this hole treatyse dothe holde."
Whether other five were ever published there is no record to show; it
appears, however, highly improbable, that, if they had, they could have
been entirely lost,--especially considering the popularity and repeated
issue of the first five,--during the few years that would have elapsed
between their original publication and the appearance of Cawood's edition.
Possibly the original reading may be a typographical blunder, for Cawood is
extremely sparing of correction, and appears to have made none which he did
not consider absolutely necessary. This is one of the literary puzzles
which remain for bibliography to solve. (See below, p. lxxix.)
The next of Barclay's works in point of date, and perhaps the only one
actually entitled to the merit of originality, is his Introductory to write
and pronounce French, compiled at the request of his great patron, Thomas
Duke of Norfolk, and printed by Copland in 1521. It is thus alluded to in
the first important authority on French grammar, "Lesclarissement de la
langue Francoyse compose par maistre Jehan Palsgraue, Angloys, natyf de
Londres," 1530: "The right vertuous and excellent prince Thomas, late Duke
of Northfolke, hath commanded the studious clerke, Alexandre Barkelay, to
embusy hymselfe about this exercyse." Further on he is not so complimentary
as he remarks:--"Where as there is a boke, that goeth about in this realme,
intitled The introductory to writte and pronounce frenche, compiled by
Alexander Barcley, in which k is moche vsed, and many other thynges also by
hym affirmed, contrary to my sayenges in this boke, and specially in my
seconde, where I shall assaye to expresse the declinations and
coniugatynges with the other congruites obserued in the frenche tonge, I
suppose it sufficient to warne the lernar, that I haue red ouer that boke
at length: and what myn opinion is therin, it shall well inough apere in my
bokes selfe, though I make therof no ferther expresse mencion: saue that I
haue sene an olde boke written in parchement, in maner in all thynkes like
to his sayd Introductory: whiche, by coniecture, was not vnwritten this
hundred yeres. I wot nat if he happened to fortune upon suche an other: for
whan it was commaunded that the grammar maisters shulde teche the youth of
Englande ioyntly latin with frenche, there were diuerse suche bokes
diuysed: wherupon, as I suppose, began one great occasyon why we of England
sounde the latyn tong so corruptly, whiche haue as good a tonge to sounde
all maner speches parfitely as any other nacyon in Europa."--Book I. ch.
xxxv. "According to this," Mr Ellis (Early English Pronunciation, 804)
pertinently notes: "1º, there ought to be many old MS. treatises on French
grammar; and 2º, the English pronunciation of Latin was moulded on the
French."
To Barclay, as nine years before Palsgrave, belongs at least the credit,
hitherto generally unrecognised, of the first published attempt at a French
grammar, by either Frenchman or foreigner.
"The mirror of good manners, containing the four cardinal vertues,"
appeared from the press of Pynson, without date, "which boke," says the
typographer, "I haue prynted at the instance and request of the ryght noble
Rychard Yerle of Kent." This earl of Kent died in 1523, and as Barclay
speaks of himself in the preface as advanced in age, the date of
publication may be assigned to close upon that year. It is a translation,
in the ballad stanza, of the Latin elegiac poem of Dominicus Mancinus, _De
quatuor virtutibus_, first published in 1516, and, as appears from the
title, was executed while Barclay was a monk of Ely, at "the desire of the
righte worshipfull Syr Giles Alington, Knight." From the address to his
patron it would seem that the Knight had requested the poet to abridge or
modernise Gower's Confessio amantis. For declining this task he pleads,
that he is too old to undertake such a light subject, and also the sacred
nature of his profession. He then intimates his choice of the present more
grave and serious work instead--
Which a priest may write, not hurting his estate,
Nor of honest name obumbring at all his light.
"But the poet," says Warton, "declined this undertaking as unsuitable to
his age, infirmities, and profession, and chose rather to oblige his patron
with a grave system of ethics. It is certain that he made a prudent choice.
The performance shows how little qualified he was to correct Gower."
Instead of a carping criticism like this, it would have been much more to
the point to praise the modesty and sensibility of an author, who had the
courage to decline a task unsuited to his tastes or powers.
He professes little:--
This playne litle treatise in stile compendious,
Much briefly conteyneth four vertues cardinall,
In right pleasaunt processe, plaine and commodious,
With light foote of metre, and stile heroicall,
Rude people to infourme in language maternall,
To whose vnderstanding maydens of tender age,
And rude litle children shall finde easy passage.
Two editions of the work are sufficient evidence that this humble and
praiseworthy purpose was, in the eyes of his contemporaries, successfully
carried out.
The only remaining authentic production of Barclay which has come down to
us, is a translation of the Jugurthine War of Sallust, undertaken at the
request of, and dedicated to, his great patron, Thomas Duke of Norfolk, and
printed also at Pynson's press without date. The Latin and English are
printed side by side on the same page, the former being dedicated, with the
date "Ex cellula Hatfelde[=n] regii (_i.e._, King's Hatfield,
Hertfordshire) in Idus Novembris" to Vesey, the centenarian Bishop of
Exeter, with this superscription:--"Reueredissimo in Christo patri ac dno:
dno Joanni Veysy exonien episcopo Alexander Barclay presbyter debita cum
obseruantia. S." The dedication begins, "Memini me superioribus annis cu
adhuc sacelli regij presul esses: pastor vigilantissime: tuis suasionibus
incitatu: vt Crispi Salustij hystoria--e romana lingua: in anglicam
compendiose transferrem," &c. Vesey was probably one of Barclay's oldest
west country friends; for he is recorded to have been connected with the
diocese of Exeter from 1503 to 1551, in the various capacities of
archdeacon, precentor, dean, and bishop successively. Conjecture has placed
the date of this publication at 1511, but as Veysey did not succeed to the
Bishopric of Exeter till August 1519, this is untenable. We cannot say more
than that it must have been published between 1519 and 1524, the date of
the Duke of Norfolk's death, probably in the former year, since, from its
being dated from "Hatfield," the ancient palace of the bishops of Ely,
(sold to the Crown in the 30th of Henry VIII.; Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire,
II.) Barclay at the time of its completion was evidently still a monk of
Ely.
By his translation of Sallust (so popular an author at that period, that
the learned virgin queen is reported to have amused her leisure with an
English version), Barclay obtained the distinction of being the first to
introduce that classic to English readers. His version bears the reputation
of being executed not only with accuracy, but with considerable freedom and
elegance, and its popularity was evinced by its appearance in three
additions.
Two other works of our author are spoken of as having been in print, but
they have apparently passed entirely out of sight: "The figure of our holy
mother Church, oppressed by the Frenche King," (Pynson, 4to), known only
from Maunsell's Catalogue; and "The lyfe of the glorious martyr, saynt
George translated (from Mantuan) by Alexander Barclay, while he was a monk
of Ely, and dedicated to N. West, Bishop of Ely," (Pynson, 4to), (Herbert,
Typ. Antiquities.) West was Bishop of Ely from 1515 to 1533, and
consequently Barclay's superior during probably his whole stay there.
Whether these two works were in verse or prose is unknown.
There are two other books ascribed to Barclay, but nothing satisfactory can
be stated regarding their parentage except that, considering their subject,
and the press they issued from, it is not at all unlikely that they may
have been the fruit of his prolific pen. The first is "The lyfe of the
blessed martyr, Saynte Thomas," in prose, printed by Pynson, (Herbert, Typ.
Ant. 292), regarding which Ant. Wood says, "I should feel little difficulty
in ascribing this to Barclay." The other is the English translation of the
Histoire merveilleuse du Grand Khan (in Latin, De Tartaris siue Liber
historiarum partium Orientis) of the eastern soldier, and western monk,
Haytho, prince of Georgia at the end of the 13th, and beginning of the 14th
centuries. The History which gives an account of Genghis Khan, and his
successors, with a short description of the different kingdoms of Asia, was
very popular in the 15th and 16th centuries, as one of the earliest
accounts of the East, and the conjecture of the Grenville Catalogue is not
improbable, though there is no sufficient evidence, that Barclay was the
author of the English version which appeared from the press of Pynson.
Bale further enumerates in his list of Barclay's works "Contra Skeltonum,
Lib. I.; Quinq: eglogas ex Mantuano, Lib. I; Vitam D. Catherinæ, Lib. I.,
[Libros tres, Pits]; Vitam D. Margaritæ, Lib. I.; Vitam Etheldredæ, Lib.
I.; Aliaq: plura fecit." Tanner adds: "Orationes varias, Lib. I.; De fide
orthodoxa, Lib. I."
Of these various fruits of Barclay's fertility and industry no fragment has
survived to our day, nor has even any positive information regarding their
nature been transmitted to us.
The "Orationes varias," probably a collection of sermons with especial
reference to the sins of the day would have been historically, if not
otherwise, interesting, and their loss is matter for regret. On the other
hand the want of the treatise, "De fide orthodoxa," is doubtless a relief
to literature. There are too many of the kind already to encumber our
shelves and our catalogues.
The Lives of the Saints, the work, it is stated, of the author's old age,
were, according to Tanner, and he is no doubt right, translations from the
Latin. Barclay's reputation probably does not suffer from their loss.
"Quinque eglogas ex Mantuano," though Bale mentions also "De miserijs
aulicorum; Bucolicam Codri; Eglogam quartam," apparently the five, but
really the first four of the eclogues known to us, are, I am strongly
inclined to believe, nothing else than these same five eclogues, under, to
use a bibliographical phrase, "a made up" title. That he mentions first,
five from Mantuan, and afterwards adds "Bucolicam Codri" and "Eglogam
quartam," as two distinct eclogues, apparently not from Mantuan, while both
titles must refer to the same poem, an imitation of Mantuan's fifth
eclogue, is proof enough that he was not speaking with the authority of
personal knowledge of these works.
Johannes Baptista Spagnuoli, commonly called from his native city, Mantuan,
was the most popular and prolific eclogue writer of the fifteenth century,
to which Barclay himself testifies:--
"As the moste famous Baptist Mantuan
The best of that sort since Poetes first began."
Barclay's Eclogues being the first attempts of the kind in English, Bale's
"Ex Mantuano," therefore probably means nothing more than "on the model of
Mantuan;" otherwise, if it be assumed that five were the whole number that
ever appeared, it could not apply to the first three, which are expressly
stated in the title to be from Æneas Sylvius, while if ten be assumed, his
statement would account for nine, the "quinque eglogas" being the five now
wanting, but if so, then he has omitted to mention the most popular of all
the eclogues, the fifth, and has failed to attribute to Mantuan two which
are undoubtedly due to him.
The loss of the "Contra Skeltonum," is a matter for regret. That there was
no love lost between these two contemporaries and chief poets of their time
is evident enough. Skelton's scathing sarcasm against the priesthood no
doubt woke his brother satirist's ire, and the latter lets no opportunity
slip of launching forth his contempt for the laureate of Oxford.
The moralist in announcing the position he assumes in opposition to the
writer of popular tales, takes care to have a fling at the author of "The
boke of Phyllyp Sparowe":--
"I wryte no Ieste ne tale of Robyn Hode,
Nor sawe no sparcles, ne sede of vyciousnes;
Wyse men loue vertue, wylde people wantones,
It longeth nat to my scyence nor cunnynge,
For Phylyp the sparowe the (Dirige) to synge."
A sneer to which Skelton most probably alludes when, enumerating his own
productions in the Garlande of Laurell, he mentions,
"Of Phillip Sparow the lamentable fate,
The dolefull desteny, and the carefull chaunce,
Dyuysed by Skelton after the funerall rate;
Yet sum there be therewith that take greuaunce,
And grudge thereat with frownyng countenaunce;
But what of that? harde it is to please all men;
Who list amende it, let hym set to his penne."
The following onslaught in Barclay's Fourth Eclogue, is evidently levelled
at the abominable Skelton:
"Another thing yet is greatly more damnable:
Of rascolde poetes yet is a shamfull rable,
Which voyde of wisedome presumeth to indite,
Though they haue scantly the cunning of a snite;
And to what vices that princes moste intende,
Those dare these fooles solemnize and commende
Then is he decked as Poete laureate,
When stinking Thais made him her graduate;
When Muses rested, she did her season note,
And she with Bacchus her camous did promote.
Such rascolde drames, promoted by Thais,
Bacchus, Licoris, or yet by Testalis,
Or by suche other newe forged Muses nine,
Thinke in their mindes for to haue wit diuine;
They laude their verses, they boast, they vaunt and iet,
Though all their cunning be scantly worth a pet:
If they haue smelled the artes triuiall,
They count them Poetes hye and heroicall.
Such is their foly, so foolishly they dote,
Thinking that none can their playne errour note;
Yet be they foolishe, auoyde of honestie,
Nothing seasoned with spice of grauitie,
Auoyde of pleasure, auoyde of eloquence,
With many wordes, and fruitlesse of sentence;
Unapt to learne, disdayning to be taught,
Their priuate pleasure in snare hath them so caught;
And worst yet of all, they count them excellent,
Though they be fruitlesse, rashe and improuident.
To such ambages who doth their minde incline,
They count all other as priuate of doctrine,
And that the faultes which be in them alone,
And be common in other men eche one.
Thus bide good poetes oft time rebuke and blame,
Because of other which haue despised name.
And thus for the bad the good be cleane abject.
Their art and poeme counted of none effect,
Who wanteth reason good to discerne from ill
Doth worthy writers interprete at his will:
So both the laudes of good and not laudable
For lacke of knowledge become vituperable."
It has not hitherto been pointed out that Skelton did not disdain to borrow
a leaf from the enemy's book and try his hand at paraphrasing the Ship of
Fools also. "The Boke of three fooles, M. Skelton, poete laureate, gaue to
my lord Cardynall," is a paraphrase in prose, with introductory verses, of
three chapters of Brandt, corresponding to Barclay's chapters headed, Of
yonge folys that take olde wyme to theyr wyues nat for loue but for ryches
(I. 247); Of enuyous folys (I. 252); Of bodely lust or corporall
voluptuosyte (I. 239). Skelton's three fools, are, "The man that doth wed a
wyfe for her goodes and her rychesse;" "Of Enuye, the seconde foole"; and,
"Of the Voluptuousnes corporall, the third foole;" and his versions are
dashed off with his usual racy vigour. He probably, however, did not think
it worth while to compete with the established favourite. If he had we
would certainly have got a very different book from Barclay's.
Notwithstanding his popularity and industry, Barclay's name appears to be
but seldom mentioned by contemporary or later authors. As early as 1521
however, we find him placed in the most honourable company by Henry
Bradshaw, "Lyfe of Saynt Werburghe," (1521, Pynson, 4to). But the
compliment would probably lose half its sweetness from his being bracketed
with the detested Skelton:--
To all auncient poetes, litell boke, submytte the,
Whilom flouryng in eloquence facundious,
And to all other whiche present nowe be;
Fyrst to maister Chaucer and Ludgate sentencious,
Also to preignaunt Barkley nowe beying religious,
To inuentiue Skelton and poet laureate;
Praye them all of pardon both erly and late.
Bulleyn's repeated allusions to Barclay (see above, pp. xxvii., liv.),
apart from the probability that, as contemporaries resident in the same
provincial town, Ely, they were well acquainted with each other, leave
little doubt that the two were personal friends. Bulleyn's figurative
description of the poet, quoted at p. xxvii., is scarcely complete without
the following verses, which are appended to it by way of summary of his
teachings (similar verses are appended to the descriptions of Chaucer,
Gower, &c.):--[Barclay appears] saying
"Who entreth the court in yong and teder age
Are lightly blinded with foly and outrage:
But suche as enter with witte and grauitie,
Bow not so sone to such enormitie,
But ere thei enter if thei haue lerned nought
Afterwardes Vertue the least of theyr thought."
_Dialogue against the Fever Pestilence._
In another passage of the same Dialogue[4] the picture of the honourable
and deserving but neglected churchman is touched with so much strength and
feeling that, though no indication is given, one cannot but believe that
the painter was drawing from the life, the life of his friend. The
likeness, whether intentional or not, is a most faithful one: "The third
[picture] is, one whiche sheweth the state of learned men, labouring long
time in studie and diuine vertue, whiche are wrapped in pouertie, wantyng
the golden rake or gapyng mouth. This man hath verie fewe to preferre hym
to that promotion, he smiteth himselfe upo the breast, he wepeth and
lamenteth, that vice should thus be exalted, ignoraunce rewarded with
glorie, coueteous men spoilyng the Churche, by the names of patrones and
geuers, whiche extorcioners and tellers, they care not to whom, so that it
be raked with the golden racke. Wel, wel, God of his mercie, amed this
euill market."
In one of the many humorous sallies which lighten up this old-fashioned
antidote to the pestilence, Barclay again appears, dressed in the
metaphorical colour of the poet or minstrel--green, which has probably here
a double significance, referring no doubt to his popularity as the English
eclogue writer as well as to his fame as a poet and satirist. In
introducing "Bartlet, grene breche" as the antithesis to "Boner wepyng,"
allusion was also probably intended to the honourable position occupied by
Barclay amongst the promoters of the Reformation, compared with the
reapostacy, the career of brutal cruelty, and the deserved fate of the
Jefferies of the Episcopal bench.
Thus discourse _Civis et Uxor_.--
"_Uxor._ What are all these two and two in a table. Oh it is trim. _Civis._
These are old frendes, it is well handled and workemanly. Willyam Boswell
in Pater noster rowe, painted them. Here is Christ, and Sathan, Sainct
Peter, and Symon Magus, Paule, and Alexader the Coppersmith, Trace, and
Becket, Martin Luther, and the Pope ... bishop Cramer, and bishop Gardiner.
Boner wepyng, Bartlet, grene breche ... Salomon, and Will Sommer. The cocke
and the lyon, the wolfe and the lambe." This passage also necessarily
implies that Barclay's fame at that time was second to none in England.
Alas! for fame:
"What is the end of fame? 'Tis but to fill
A certain portion of uncertain paper."
In the seventeenth century Barclay still held a place in the first rank of
satirists, if we accept the evidence of the learned Catholic poet of that
time, Sir Aston Cokaine. He thus alludes to him in an address "To my
learned friend, Mr Thomas Bancroft, upon his Book of Satires. By Sir Aston
Cokayne."
"After a many works of divers kinds
Your muse to tread th' Aruncan path designs:
'Tis hard to write but Satires in these days,
And yet to write good Satires merits praise:
. . . . . .
So old Petronius Arbiter appli'd
Corsives unto the age he did deride:
So Horace, Persius, Juvenal, (among
Those ancient Romans) scourg'd the impious throng;
So Ariosto (in these later times)
Reprov'd his Italy for many crimes;
So learned Barclay let his lashes fall
Heavy on some to bring a cure to all."
In concluding this imperfect notice of one of the most remarkable of our
early writers, we cannot but echo the regret expressed by one of his
biographers, that "What ought most to be lamented is, that we are able to
say so very little of one in his own time so famous, and whose works ought
to have transmitted him to posterity with much greater honour."
* * * * *
THE WILL OF ALEXANDER BARCLAY.
EXTRACTED FROM THE PRINCIPAL REGISTRY OF HER MAJESTY'S COURT OF PROBATE.
_In the Prerogative Court of Canterbury._
IN THE NAME OF GOD. AMEN.--The xxv^{th} day of July in the yere of our
Lorde God a thousande fyve hundreth fyftie and one.... I ALEXANDER
BARQUELEY Doctor of Divinitie Vicar of myche badowe in the countie of Essex
do make dispose and declare this my pute testament conteyning my last Will
in forme and order as hereafter followethe That ys to saye First I
bequeathe my soule unto Almightie God my maker and Redemer and my bodye to
be buried where it shall please God to dispose after de[=p]ting my soule
from the bodye Also I bequeathe to the poore people of the said [=p]ish of
Badowe fyftie shillings to be disposed where as yt shall appere to be most
nede by the discrescon of myne Executours And also I bequeathe towardes the
repacons of the same Churche vj^s viij^d Item I bequeathe to the poore
people of the [=P]ish of Owkley in the Countie of Somersett fiftie
shillings likewise to be distributed And towardes the repacons of the same
Churche vj^s viij^d Item I bequeathe to Mr Horsey of Tawnton in the saide
Countie of Somersett one fether bed and a bolster which I had of hym or els
twentie shillings in redye money Item I bequeathe to Edword Capper
otherwise called Edwarde Mathewe of Tawnton aforesaid xxxiij^s iiij^d of
currant money of England Item I bequeathe to Johane Atkynson the daughter
of Thomas Atkynson of London Scryvener one fetherbed wheruppon I use to lye
having a newe tyke with the bolster blanketts and coverlett tester pillowe
and two payer of my best shetes Item I bequeth to the same Johane Atkynson
eight pounds current money of England to be receyved of the money due unto
me by Cutbeard Crokk of Wynchester to be paide in two yeres (that is to
saye foure poundes in the first yere and foure poundes in the secounde
yere) Item I bequeathe to the saide Johane a flocke bed a quylte and all my
pewter and brasse and other stuf of my kechen Item I give and bequeathe to
Jeronymy Atkynson the daughter of the saide Thomas Atkynson vj^{li} xiij^s
iiij^d currant money of England to be receyved of the said Cutbeard Crok in
two yeres that is to saye every yere fyve markes Item I bequeathe to
Tymothy and Elizabeth Atkynson the daughters of the said Thomas Atkynson to
everye of theym five pounds currant money of England to be receyved of the
said Cutbeard Croke so that the eldest of thes two daughters be paide the
first two yeres and the other to be paide in other two yeres then next
following Item The rest of the money whiche the saide Cutbeard Croke oweth
to me amounting in the hole to the some of four score poundes I bequeathe
to be devyded amonge poore and nedye [=p]sones after the discretion of myn
Executours and manely to such as be bedred blynde lame ympotent wydowes and
fatherless children.... Item I bequeathe to Syr John Gate Knight S^r Henry
Gate Knight and to M^r Clerke to everye of theym fouer angell nobles to
make every of theym a ringe of golde to be worne by theym in remembraunce
of me Item I give and bequeathe to Hugh Rooke of London Scryvener to Henry
bosoll of London Gold Smythe to Thomas Wytton of London Screvener and to
the wief of Humfrey Stevens of London Goldsmythe to Humfrey Edwards Clerke
to John Owhan of the [=P]ish of Badowe aforesaid to every of them one
angell noble of gold or ells y^e valew therof in sylver Item I bequeathe to
M^r Thomas Clerk of Owkey aforesaid to Thomas Edey Gentelman and to the
said Thomas Atkynson to every of them foure angell nobles to make therof
for every of them a ringe to were in remembraunce of oure olde
acquayntaunce and famyliarytie Item my will is that my Executours shall
distribute at the daye of my buriall among poore and nedy people sixe
pounds fyftene shillings Item I bequeathe to Parnell Atkynson the wief of
the said Thomas Atkynson my cosyn thirtenne pounds thirtene shillings and
foure pence of currant money of England Item I bequeathe to John Watson of
London Clotheworker three angell nobles to make a ring therof to be worne
in remembraunce of oure olde famyliaritie Also I desire all suche as have
or shall hereafter have eny benyfytt by thes my legacies and all other good
chrestian people to praye to Almightie God for remission of my synnes and
mercy upon my soule Item I bequeath to Johan Bowyer the syster of the said
[=P]nell my cosen fourtie shillings Item I bequeathe to the said Thomas
Atkynson Tenne pounds currant money of England whome with the said Thomas
Eden I constitute the executours of this my last Will to whome I bequeathe
the rest and residue of all my goodes chattells and debts to be distributed
at their discrescion in works of mercy to poore people not peny mele but by
larger por[=c]on after theyr discrecon namely to [=p]sons bedred maydens
widowes and other ympotent [=p]sons Item I ordeyne and desire the said M^r
Rochester to be the Overseer of this my last Will to be well and truely
[=p]formed and fulfilled to whome for his labor and paynes I bequeathe fyve
marks currant money of England In wytnes of whiche this my last Will I the
said Alexander Barqueley hereunto have set my seale and subscribed the same
with my owne hands the day and yere fyrst above written [p=] me. ALEXANDRU
BARQUELEY.
PROBATUM fuit Test[=m] coram d[=n]o ca[=n]t Archie[=p]o apud London
decimo die mensis Junij Anno d[=n]o mille[=m]o quingentesimo
quinquagesimo secundo Juramento Thome Atkynson E[=x] in hmoi testamento
noiat Ac Approbatu et insumatu et comissa fuit admotraco om[=n] bonoru
&^c d[=c]i deft de bene et &^c ac de pleno Inv^{ro} &^c exhibend Ad
sancta dei Evangelia Jurat Re[=s]rvata [p=]tate Thome Eden alteri e[=x]
&^c cum venerit.
* * * * *
NOTES.
* * * * *
[1] BARCLAY'S NATIONALITY
The objection raised to claiming Barclay as a Scotsman, founded on the
ground that he nowhere mentions his nationality, though it was a common
practice of authors in his time to do so, especially when they wrote out of
their own country, appeared to me, though ingenious and pertinent, to be of
so little real weight, as to be dismissed in a parenthesis. Its importance,
however, may easily be overrated, and it may therefore be well to point out
that, apart from the possibility that this omission on his part was the
result of accident or indifference, there is also the probability that it
was dictated by a wise discretion. To be a Scotsman was not in the days of
Henry VIII., as it has been in later and more auspicious times, a passport
to confidence and popularity, either at the court or among the people of
England. Barclay's fate having led him, and probably his nearest relatives
also, across that Border which no Scotsman ever recrosses, to live and
labour among a people by no means friendly to his country, it would have
been a folly which so sensible a man as he was not likely to commit to have
displayed the red rag of his nationality before his easily excited
neighbours, upon whose friendliness his comfort and success depended. The
farther argument of the Biographia Brittannica, that "it is pretty
extraordinary that Barclay himself, in his several addresses to his
patrons, should never take notice of his being a stranger, which would have
made their kindness to him the more remarkable," is sufficiently disposed
of by the succeeding statement, that the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of
Kent, Barclay's principal patrons, "are known to have been the fiercest
enemies of the Scots." Surely a man who was English in everything but his
birth could not be expected to openly blazon his Scottish nativity, without
adequate occasion for so doing, in the very face of his country's chiefest
enemies, who were at the same time his own best friends. His caution in
this respect, indeed, may be regarded as an additional proof of his
Scottish origin.
[2] BARCLAY'S VOCABULARY
Some of the words, stated in popular fashion to be Scotch--they are of
course of Saxon origin--the usage of which by Barclay is adduced as an
evidence of his nationality, are also to be found in Chaucer, but that does
not invalidate the argument as stated. The employment of so many words of
northern usage must form at least a strong corroborative argument in favour
of northern origin.
[3] THE CASTLE OF LABOUR
It ought to be stated that the modesty of the young author prevented him
from affixing his name to his first production, The Castle of Labour. Both
editions are anonymous. Bale, Pits, Wood, &c., all include it in the list
of his works without remark.
[4] BULLEYN'S DIALOGUE
A notice of the history of this once popular Dialogue, its ever recurring
disappearance, and ever recurring "discovery" by some fortunate antiquary,
would form an interesting chapter in a new "History of the transmission of
ancient books to modern times." Its chances of preservation and record were
unusually favourable. It must have been disseminated over the length and
breadth of the land in its day, having run through four editions in little
more than a dozen years. Maunsell's Catalogue (1595) records the edition of
1578. Antony Wood (1721), and Bishop Tanner (1748) both duly give it a
place in their notices of the productions of its author, without any
special remark. But the Biographia Brittanica (1748) in a long article upon
Bulleyn, in which his various works are noticed in great detail, introduces
the Dialogue as "_this long neglected and unknown treatise_," and gives an
elaborate account of it extending to about five columns of small print. The
now famous passage, descriptive of the early poets, is quoted at length,
and special notice of its bearing on Barclay's nationality taken, the
writer (Oldys) announcing that the dispute must now be settled in favour of
Scotland, "Seeing our author (Bulleyn), a contemporary who lived in, and
long upon the borders of Scotland, says, as above, he was born in that
kingdom: and as much indeed might have been in great measure gathered from
an attentive perusal of this poet himself."
The next biographer of Bulleyn, Aikin (Biog. Memoirs of Medicine, 1780),
makes no discovery, but contents himself with giving a brief account of the
Dialogue (in 1½ pages), in which the description of Chaucer, &c., is duly
noticed. Three years later, in spite of this, and the appearance of a
second edition of the Biographia Brittanica (1778), another really learned
and able antiquary, Waldron, in his edition of Jonson's Sad Shepherd
(1783), comes forth triumphantly announcing his discovery of the Dialogue
as that of a hitherto totally unknown treasure; and in an appendix favours
the curious with a series of extracts from it, extending to more than
thirty pages, prefacing them thus: "Having, among the various Mysteries and
Moralities, whether original impressions, reprinted, or described only by
those writers who have given any account of these Embrios of the English
Drama, _never met with or read of any other copy of the Dialogue, or
Morality, by Bulleyn, than the one_, [which I have used], an account of and
some extracts from it may not be unpleasing." The passage regarding the
poets is of course given _ad longum_.
The next notice of the Dialogue occurs in Herbert's Ames (1786), where two
editions, 1564 and 1578, are entered. Dibdin (1819), in addition, notices
the edition of 1573. In the biographical accounts of Bulleyn in
Hutchinson's Biographia Medica (1799), Aikin's General Biog. Dict. (1801),
and its successor, Chalmers's Biog. Dict. (1812), due mention is preserved
of the Dialogue in enumerating the works of its author. Sir Walter Scott
alludes to it in the Introduction to the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border
(1802) as a "mystery," but his only knowledge of it is evidently derived
from Waldron. Chalmers's Life of Lindsay (Poetical Works, 1806) has also
kept it prominently before a considerable class of inquirers, as he gives
that part of the description of the poets relating to Lindsay a conspicuous
place, with the following note: "Owing to the very obliging temper of Mr
Waldron I have been permitted to see that _rare book_ of Dr Bulleyn, with
the second edition of 1569, which is remarkably different from the first in
1564." To this use of it by Chalmers we owe the references to it in Lord
Lindsay's Lives of the Lindsays, i. 261 (1849), Seton's Scottish Heraldry,
480 (1863), and Notes and Queries, 3rd s., iv. 164 (1863). It was also
probably Chalmers that drew the attention of the writer of the Memoir of
Barclay in the Lives of the Scottish Poets (1822), to the possibility of
there being also in the Dialogue notice of that poet. At any rate, he
quotes the description of the early poets, showing in his preliminary
remarks considerable familiarity with Bulleyn's history, pointing out the
probability of his having known Barclay at Ely, and arguing that whether or
not, "from living in the same neighbourhood he had an opportunity of
knowing better than any contemporary whose evidence on the subject is
extant, to what country Barclay was, by all about him, reputed to belong."
He precedes his quotations thus: "As the whole passage possesses
considerable elegance, and has been so _universally overlooked_ by the
critics, the transcription of it here will not probably be deemed out of
place." No mention is made of the title of the book from which the
"Allegorical Description of the Early English Poets" is taken; hence it is
impossible to say whether the quoter made use of a copy of the Dialogue, or
of Waldron's Notes. The spelling is modernised.
In various well-known bibliographical publications the existence of this
fugitive Dialogue is carefully registered, and its title, at least, made
known to all inquirers,--in Watt's Bibliotheca Britt. (1824), in Lowndes'
Bibliog. Manual (1834), and in Atkinson's Medical Bibliog. (1834); and by
the published Catalogues of the British Museum (1813), the Douce Collection
(1840), and the Bodleian Library (1843), it is made known that there are
copies of it preserved in these great collections. In Warton's Hist. of
Eng. Poetry (ed. 1840), it is also recorded by Park, in his notes to the
chapter on Gower, in which he refers to Bulleyn's visionary description of
that poet. Cooper's Athenæ Cantabrigienses, art. Bulleyn (1858), also
carefully notes the Dialogue and its editions. And in 1865 Collier's
well-known Bibliographical Account of Early English Literature again gives
an account (two pages long) of the much neglected production, in which the
passage relating to the poets is once more extracted in full, with the
preliminary remarks as quoted at p. xxvii. _supra_, but without the usual
announcement that the work has hitherto been unknown.
But in 1873, by the very last man from whom we might have expected it (F.
J. Furnivall, the Atlas on whose shoulders all our projects for the
preservation of our early literature rest, in Notes and Queries, 4th s.,
xii. 161), we are again introduced to this ever disappearing, ever
reappearing Dialogue as a fresh find in early English literature: "Few
things are pleasanter in reading old books than to come on a passage of
praise of our old poets, showing that in Tudor days men cared for the
'makers' of former days as we do still. To Mr David Laing's kindness I owe
the introduction to the following quotation from a rare tract, where one
wouldn't have expected to find such a passage," and then follows once more
the whole passage so often quoted for the first time. Dr Rimbault, in an
interesting note in a succeeding number of Notes and Queries (p. 234), is
the first one acquainted with the Dialogue to state that "this amusing old
work is perfectly well known, and has often been quoted from." So
henceforth we may presume that this interesting and long-fertile field of
discovery may be regarded as finally worked out.
[Illustration]
* * * * *
A
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL CATALOGUE
OF
BARCLAY'S WORKS.
CONTENTS.
* * * * *
I. THE CASTELL OF LABOURE.
II. THE SHYP OF FOLYS.
III. THE EGLOGES.
IV. THE INTRODUCTORY.
V. THE MYRROUR OF GOOD MANERS.
VI. CRONYCLE COMPLYED BY SALUST.
VII. FIGURE OF OUR MOTHER HOLY CHURCH.
VIII. THE LYFE OF SAYNT GEORGE.
IX. THE LYFE OF SAYNTE THOMAS.
X. HAYTHON'S CRONYCLE.
I. THE CASTELL OF LABOURE.--Wynkyn de Worde. 1506. Small Quarto. Black
letter.
The title, "The castell of laboure," is within a scroll above a woodcut
of men over a tub: on the verso, a cut of a man sitting at a desk. At
sign. a ii. (recto) "Here begynneth the prologue of this present
treatyse." [The Brit. Mus. copy has this on the verso of the title
instead of the cut, a peculiarity which may entitle it to be called a
separate edition, though it appears to agree otherwise with the copy
described.] There are many curious woodcuts. Colophon on the reverse of
sign. i iii. (51^b): "Thus endeth the castell of labour, wherin is
rychesse, vertue, and honour. Enprynted at London in Fletestrete in the
sygne of the sonne. by Wynkyn de worde. Anno d[=n]i M.ccccc.vi." There
is no indication of authorship. Signatures: a b c d e f g h,
alternately 8s and 4s, i 4; 52 leaves, not numbered. The British Museum
and Cambridge University Library copies of this book have been
collated, but as the former ends with H 3 and the latter wants the last
leaf, that leaf must remain undescribed. Mr Bradshaw, however, says,
"it almost certainly contained a woodcut on the recto, and one of the
devices on the verso."
A copy of this very scarce book was sold among Mr. West's books in 1773
for £2.
I.a. THE CASTELL OF LABOURE.--Pynson. No date. Small Quarto. Black letter.
The title, "Here begynneth the castell of laboure," is over a woodcut;
and on the reverse is a woodcut; both the same as those in the previous
edition. In the body of the work there are 30 woodcuts, which differ
from those of the first edition, one of these (at G 6) is a repetition
of that on the title page. Colophon: "Thus endeth the castell of labour
wherin is rychesse, vertue and honoure. Enprynted be me Richarde
Pynson." After the colophon comes another leaf (I 6), on the recto of
which is the printer's device, and on the verso a woodcut representing
a city on the banks of a river. Without indication of authorship.
Signatures: A, 8 leaves; B--I, in sixes.
"Neither Ames nor Herbert appear to have seen this rare volume; which
is probably a reprint of Wynkyn de Worde's impression of 1506."
(Dibdin's Typ. Antiq., II. 557.) There is a copy in the Library of H.
Huth, Esq.
* * * * *
II. THE SHIP OF FOLYS OF THE WORLDE.--Pynson. 1509. Folio.
On the recto of the first leaf there is a large woodcut of Pynson's
arms, or device No. VII., similar to that which is on the reverse of
the last leaf of each of the volumes of his edition of Lord Berners'
translation of Froissart's Chronicles; on the back of the first leaf is
the translator's dedication to "Thomas Cornisshe, bishop of Tine, and
suffragan bishop of Bath;" on the next leaf begins "The regyster or
table of this present boke in Englyshe," (all as on pp. cxiii.--cxx.),
succeeded by a Latin table. Then on sign. a i. and fol. i. a large
woodcut, the same as is used for the title page of Cawood's edition
(and on p. 313, Vol. II.), with a Latin description in the margin.
Beneath is the title in Latin. On the back, "Alexander Barclay
excusynge the rudeness of his translacion," followed with "An
exhortacion of Alexander Barclay." Then on fol. ii., etc., follow in
Latin, "Epigramma," "Epistola" in prose, and various "Carmina." On the
back of fol. v. "The exhortacion of Brant to the fools" in Latin verse,
followed by Barclay's version with the heading "Barclay the Translatour
tho the Foles." On fol. iiii. the "Prologus Jacobi Locher ... incipit,"
followed by its translation into English. On fol. ix., etc.,
"Hecatastichon in proludium auctoris et Libelli Narragonici" and the
English translation, "Here begynneth the prologe." On xii. "The
Argument" in Latin and English, and then on xiii. commences the first
chapter, "De inutilibus libris," in Latin, and then in English, which
is the order throughout, with the cuts at the beginning of either the
one or other as the page suited. The book concludes with a ballad in
honour of the virgin Mary, consisting of twelve octave stanzas: at the
end of which is the colophon in a stanza of seven lines. On the verso
of the last leaf is the printer's device, No. v.
The Latin is uniformly printed in the Roman type, and the English in
the Gothic. Herbert supposes the diphthongs to be "the first perhaps
used in this kingdom."
The cuts are rude, coarse, English imitations of those in the original
editions. They are, including the preliminary one, 118 in number. The
cut illustrating the chapter, "Of them that correct other," etc., fol.
liii. has been exchanged with the cut of the succeeding chapter. The
cut illustrating "The unyuersall shyp and generall Barke," fol.
cclxii., is repeated at the succeeding chapter. The one illustrating
Barclay's new chapter "Of folys that ar ouer worldly" is an imitation
of the illustration of "De singularitate quorundam novorum fatuorum" in
the Latin edition of March 1497. The cut illustrating the ballad of the
Virgin appears in the original at the head of "Excusatio Jacobi Locher
Philomusi," and illustrates, according to the margin, "Derisio boni
operis."
The word "Folium" is on the left hand page, and the number, in Roman
capitals, on the right throughout the book; the last is cclxxiiii.
Including the dedication and table (4 folios) there are 283 folios. The
numbering is a model of irregularity: iiii. is repeated for vi., xx.
stands for xv., xviii. is repeated, xx. is wanting, xxii. is repeated,
xxiv. is wanting, xxx. is repeated, xxxvi. is wanting, xxxix. is
repeated in place of xliv., xlviii. is wanting, xlix. is repeated, lvii
is repeated after lxi., lviii follows twice, lix., lx., lxi. being
repeated in succession after lviii., lxvii., lxviii. are repeated after
lxviii., lxxxii. is wanting, lxxxiii. is repeated, lxxxii. stands for
lxxxvii., lxxxiii. succeeds for lxxxviiii, cclxv. succeeds for lxxxix.,
lxxxxii. is repeated for lxxxxvii., [in the Grenville copy this leaf is
correctly numbered], cxxxii is wanting, cxl. stands for cxxxviii.,
cxlxi. stands for cxlvi., clxxiv. is wanting, clxxxxxi. stands for
cci., ccxii. is repeated for ccxvii., ccxxxviii. is wanting, cclx.
stands for ccl., cclviii. is repeated for cclx.
The numeration by signatures is as follows: + iiij; a, 8; b--p, 6 s; q,
7; r, s, t, v, x, y, z, &, 6 s; A--Y, 6 s.
The book is extremely rare. There is a fine copy in the Bodleian
Library among Selden's books, another in the British Museum, Grenville
Collection, and another in the Library of St. John's College, Oxford.
The following are the more notable prices: Farmer, 1798, £2. 4s.;
Sotheby's, 1821, £28; Dent, £30. 9s.; Bib. Anglo-Poetica, £105;
Perkins, 1873, £130.
The following amusing note on prices is taken from Renouard's
"Catalogue d'un Amateur." "Les premières éditions latines de ce
singulier livre, celles des traductions françoises, toutes également
remplies de figures en bois, ne déplaisent pas aux amateurs, mais
jamais ils ne les ont payées un haut prix. La traduction angloise faite
en 1509, sur le francois, et avec des figures en bois, plus mauvaises
encore que leurs modèles, se paye en Angleterre 25, 30 et mème 60
guinées; c'est là, si l'on veut, du zèle patriotique, de l'esprit
national."
II.a. STULTIFERA NAUIS.... THE SHIP OF FOOLES..... With diuers other
workes.... very profitable and fruitfull for all men.... Cawood. 1570.
Folio.
A large cut of vessels filled with fools (the same as on p. 313, Vol.
II.) is inserted between the Latin and English titles. This edition
omits the ballad to the Virgin at the end. The English is in black
letter, and the Latin in Roman, in the same order as in the preceding
edition. On the recto of leaf 259: Thus endeth the Ship of Fooles,
translated ... by Alexander Barclay Priest, at that time Chaplen in the
Colledge of S. Mary Otery in the Countie of Deuon. Anno Domini 1508. On
the back "Excusatio Iacobi Locher Philomusi," in Sapphic verse. On the
next page five stanzas by Barclay "excusing the rudenes of his
Translation." Lastly, an Index in Latin, and then in English. Then,
follow the "diuers other workes," the Mirrour of good maners, and the
Egloges. Colophon: Imprinted at London in Paules Church-yarde by Iohn
Cawood Printer to the Queenes Maiestie. Cum Priuilegio ad imprimendum
solum.
The woodcuts, including the one on the title-page, number 117. They are
the same as those of Pynson's edition, but show occasional traces of
the blocks having been chipped in the course of their preservation in a
printer's office for 60 years or so. The borders only differ, being of
a uniform type, while those of the previous edition are woodcuts of
several patterns.
The numbering is a little irregular; the preliminary leaves (12) are
unnumbered. The folios are numbered in figures on the left hand page,
'folio' being prefixed to the first six, 16 is repeated for 17, 13
stands for 31, [in one of the Adv. Lib. copies the latter irregularity
is found, though not the former; in the other, 17 and 31 are numbered
correctly], 96 is repeated for 99, 188 for 191, 100 for 200, and 205
for 201. The last number is 259, and there are three extra leaves, thus
making 274 for the Ship. The supplementary works are not numbered. The
signatures are as follows: _The Ship_, ¶ six leaves; ¶¶ six leaves; A
to U u, in sixes; X x, four leaves; _Mirrour of good manners_, A--G, in
sixes; _Egloges_, A to D, in sixes; in all 680 pp.
This book was licensed to Cawood in 1567-8, and is said to be the only
book he had license for. It is now very rare.
Prices: Digby, 1680, 4s. 4d. Bernard, 1698, 1s. 10d. Gulston, 1783, £1,
16s. White Knights, £8, 12s. Roxburghe, £9, 19s. 6d. Fonthill, £13,
13s. Bib. Anglo-Poet, £12, 12s. Heber, £8, 12s. Sotheby's, 1873, £48,
10s.
* * * * *
A complete bibliography of the various editions and versions of the
Ship of Fools will be found in Zarocke's edition of the original, or in
Graesse's Trésor de livres rares et précieux. A notice is subjoined of
the two editions of the English prose translation, and of the two other
publications bearing the title.
The abridged prose translation, by Henry Watson, from the French prose
version of Jehan Droyn, appeared from the press of De Worde in the same
year in which Barclay's fuller poetical version was issued. In both
text and illustrations it is a much inferior production to the latter.
As the existence of the first edition has been, and still is, denied,
it being frequently confounded with Barclay's book, we transcribe the
following description of the only known copy from Van Praet's
"Catalogue des livres imprimés sur vélin de la Bibliotheque du Roi."
The Shyppe of Fooles, translated out of frenche, by Henry Watson. London,
Wynkyn de Worde, 1509, petit in--4.
Edition en lettres de forme, sans chiffres ni réclames, avec
signatures, figures et initiales en bois; à longues lignes, au nombre
de 32 sur les pages entierès; cont. 169 f.; les 7 premiers renferment
1. le titre suivant, gravé audessus d'une figure qui représente le
navire des fous:
¶ The shyppe of fooles.
2. Le prologue du traducteur; 3. la préface; 4. la table des chapitres.
Au recto du dernier f. est cette souscription:
¶ Thus endeth the shyppe of fooles of this worde. Enprynted at London
in Flete strete by Wynk[=y] de worde prynter vnto the excellent
pryncesse Marguerete, Countesse of Rychemonde and Derbye, and grandame
vnto our moost naturall souereyne lorde kynge Henry [=y] viii. The yere
of our lorde. M.CCCCC. ix. ¶ The fyrste yere of the reygne of our
fouerayne lorde kynge Henry the viii. The. vi. daye of Julii. On
aperçoit au verso le monogramme et la marque de William Caxton, au bas
desquels on lit ces mots: Wynken de Worde."
This beautiful copy upon vellum is the only example of this edition
known.
The grete Shyppe of Fooles of this worlde. W[=y]kyn de Worde. 1517. Quarto.
This is the second edition of Watson's translation. Colophon: "Thus
endeth the shyppe of fooles of this worlde. Jmprynted at Londod in
flete strete by W[=y]kyn de Worde. ye yere of our lorde M.CCCCC. &
xvii.
¶ The nynthe yere of y^e reygne of our souerayne lorde kynge Henry y^e
VIII. The xx. daye of June." It contains G G 6, fours and eights
alternately (the signatures ending on G G iij.), besides 6 leaves, with
the prologue, prolude and table, before signature A.
Extremely rare. Roxburghe, £64.
The Ship of Fools Fully Fraught and Richly Laden with Asses, Fools,
Jack-daws, Ninnihammers, Coxcombs, Slenderwits, Shallowbrains, Paper-Skuls,
Simpletons, Nickumpoops, Wiseakers, Dunces, and Blockheads, Declaring their
several Natures, Manners and Constitutions; the occasion why this Ship was
built, with the places of their intended Voyage, and a list of the Officers
that bear Command therein.
If for this Voyage any have a mind,
They with Jack Adams may acceptance find,
Who will strain hard ere they shall stay behind.
Licensed, Roger L'Estrange.
[A large woodcut of the Ship.]
London, Printed by J. W. for J. Clark, at the Bible and Harp in
West-Smithfield. n. d. [Circa 1650.] 4to. 4 leaves.
"This book, or rather tract, has nothing in common with Barclay's Ship
of Fools, except the general idea. It is entirely in prose. My copy has
nothing to show to whom it formerly belonged."--(Letter of H. Huth,
Esq.) The last sentence was elicited by the inquiry whether Mr Huth's
copy were the one formerly belonging to Mr Heber.--See _Bibliotheca
Heberiana_, Part IV., No. 752.
Stultifera Navis ... The modern Ship of fools. Lond. 1807, 80. Pp. xxiv.,
295.
A wretched production in verse, in imitation of Barclay's Ship of
Fools, published anonymously by W. H. Ireland, the Shakesperian forger.
* * * * *
III. THE EGLOGES OF ALEXADER BARCLAY, PREST.--The first three, without
printer's name or device. No date. Quarto. Black letter.
"Here begynneth the Egloges of Alexader Barclay, prest, wherof the
fyrst thre conteyneth the myseryes of courters and courtes of all
prynces in generall, the matter wherof was translated into Englyshe by
the sayd Alexander in fourme of Dialogues, out of a boke named in latyn
Miserie Curialiu, compyled by Eneas Siluius, Poete and oratour, whiche
after was Pope of Rome, & named Pius." This title is over a cut of two
shepherds, Coridon and Cornix, the interlocutors in these three
eclogues. On the back is a cut of David and Bathsheba. At the end of
the third egloge: "Thus endyth the thyrde and last egloge of the mysery
of court and courters, composed by Alexander Barclay, preste, in his
youthe." A cut of the two shepherds and a courtier fills up the page.
Without date, printer's name, or device. Contains P 6, in fours, the
last leaf blank.
III.a. THE FOURTHE EGLOGE OF ALEXANDER BARCLAY.--Pynson. No date. Quarto.
Black letter.
It is entitled, "The Boke of Codrus and Mynaclus," over the cut of a
priest, with a shaven crown, writing at a plutus. It concludes with
"The discrypcion of the towre of Vertue & Honour, into whiche the noble
Hawarde contended to entre, by worthy acts of chiualry," related by
Menalcas, in stanzas of eight verses. At the end, "Thus endeth the
fourthe Eglogge of Alexandre Barcley, coteyning the maner of the riche
men anenst poets and other clerkes. Emprinted by Richarde Pynson priter
to the kynges noble grace." On the last leaf is his device, No. V.
Contains 22 leaves, with cuts.
III.b. THE FYFTE EGLOGE OF ALEXANDER BARCLAY. --Wynkyn de Worde. No date.
Quarto. Black letter.
"The fyfte Eglog of Alexandre Barclay of the Cytezen and vplondyshman."
This title is over a large woodcut of a priest, sitting in his study.
Beneath, "Here after foloweth the Prologe." On the verso of A ii. are
two cuts of two shepherds, whole lengths, with this head-title,
"Interlocutoures be Amyntas and Faustus." There are no other cuts.
Colophon: "Here endeth the v. Eglog of Alexandre Barclay of the Cytezyn
and vplondysshman. Imprynted at London in flete strete, at the sygne of
[the] Sonne, by Wynkyn de worde." Beneath, device No. v. Contains A 8,
B 4, C 6; 18 leaves. There is a copy in the British Museum.
With the first four Eclogues as above, Woodhouse, 1803, (Herbert's
copy), £25.; resold, Dent, 1827, £36.; resold, Heber, 1834, £24. 10s.
At Heber's sale this unique set, containing the only known copy of the
first edition of the first four Eclogues, was bought by Thorpe; further
I have not been able to trace it.
III.c. THE EGLOGES.--John Herforde. No date. Quarto.
"Here begynneth the Egloges of Alex. Barclay, Priest, whereof the first
three conteineth the Miseries of Courters and Courtes." "Probably a
reprint of Pynson's impression," Dibdin. Contains only Eclogues I.-III.
Herbert conjectures the date to be 1548; Corser, 1546; Hazlitt, 1545.
III.d. THE EGLOGES.--Humfrey Powell. No date. Quarto. Black letter.
"Here begynneth the Egloges of Alexander Barclay, priest, whereof the
first thre conteineth the miseries of courters and courtes, of all
Princes in general ... In the whiche the interloquutors be, Cornix, and
Coridon." Concludes: "Thus endeth the thyrde and last Eglogue of the
Misery of Courte and Courters, Composed by Alexander Barclay preest, in
his youth. Imprinted at London by Humfrey Powell." Contains only
Eclogues I.-III. Collation: Title, A 1; sig. A to P2, in fours; 58
leaves not numbered.
This is an edition of extreme rarity. It is very well printed, and the
title is surrounded with a woodcut border with ornamented pillars at
the sides. Herbert conjectures the date to be 1549, the Bib.
Anglo-Poetica, Lowndes, and Corser, 1548. There is a copy in the
Cambridge University Library, and another in the possession of David
Laing, Esq.
Prices: Inglis, £6. 2s. 6d.; Bright, 1845. £10. 10s.; Bib.
Anglo-Poetica, £15.
III.e. CERTAYNE EGLOGES OF ALEXANDER BARCLAY PRIEST.--Cawood. 1570. Folio.
Black letter.
Appended to Cawood's edition of the Ship of Fools. No title-page, cuts,
or pagination. The above heading on A i.
Colophon: Thus endeth the fifth and last Egloge of Alexander Barclay,
of the Citizen and the man of the countrey. Imprinted at London in
Paules Church-yarde by Iohn Cawood, Printer to the Queenes Maiestie.
Cum Priuilegio ad imprimendum solum.
Contains A--D, in sixes.
III._f_. THE CYTEZEN AND UPLONDYSHMAN: an Eclogue [the fifth] by Alexander
Barclay.
Printed from the original edition by Wynkyn de Worde. Edited, with an
Introductory Notice of Barclay and his other Eclogues, by F.W.
Fairholt, F.S.A. London; printed for the Percy Society [vol. XXII.],
1847. 8vo. Pp. + 6, lxxiv., 47.
* * * * *
IV. THE INTRODUCTORY TO WRITE AND TO PRONOUNCE FRENCHE. Coplande. 1521.
Folio. Black letter.
'Here begynneth the introductory to wryte, and to pronounce Frenche
compyled by Alexander Barcley compendiously at the commaudemet of the
ryght hye excellent and myghty prynce Thomas duke of Northfolke.' This
title is over a large woodcut of a lion rampant, supporting a shield,
containing a white lion in a border, (the same as that on the title of
the Sallust, VI.), then follows a French ballad of 16 lines in two
columns, the first headed, "R. Coplande to the whyte lyone, and the
second, "¶ Ballade." On the recto of the last leaf, 'Here foloweth the
maner of dauncynge of bace dauces after the vse of fraunce & other
places translated out of frenche in englysshe by Robert coplande.'
Col.: Jmprynted at London in the Fletestrete at the sygne of the rose
Garlande by Robert coplande, the yere of our lorde. M.CCCCC.xxi. y^e
xxii. day of Marche.' Neither folioed nor paged. Contains C 4, in
sixes, 16 leaves.
In the edition of Palsgrave (see above, p. lxxiii.), published among
the "Documents inédits sur l'histoire de France," the editor says of
this work of Barclay's: "Tous mes efforts pour découvrir un exemplaire
de ce curieux ouvrage ont été inutiles." There is a copy, probably
unique, in the Bodleian; it was formerly Herbert's, afterwards Douce's.
All the parts of this treatise relating to French pronunciation have
been carefully reprinted by Mr A. J. Ellis, in his treatise "On Early
English Pronunciation" (published by the Philological Society), Part
III., p. 804.
* * * * *
V. THE MYRROUR OF GOOD MANERS.----Pynson. No date. Folio. Black letter.
'Here begynneth a ryght frutefull treatyse, intituled the myrrour of
good maners, coteynyng the iiii. vertues, callyd cardynall, compyled in
latyn by Domynike Mancyn: And translate into englysshe: at the desyre
of syr Gyles Alyngton, knyght: by Alexander Bercley prest: and monke of
Ely. This title is over a cut, the same as at the head of Barclay's
preface to his translation of Sallust, a representation of the author
in a monkish habit on his knees, presenting a book to a nobleman. The
text begins on back of title. The original is printed in Roman letter
in the margins.----Colophon in a square woodcut border: Thus endeth the
ryght frutefull matter of the foure vertues cardynall: Jmprynted by
Rychard Pynson: prynter vnto the kynges noble grace: with his gracyous
pryuylege the whiche boke I haue prynted, at the instance & request, of
the ryght noble Rychard yerle of Kent. On the back, Pynson's device,
No. v. It has neither running titles, catch-words, nor the leaves
numbered. Signatures; A to G, in sixes, and H, in eights; 100 pp.
In the British Museum, Grenville collection, from Heber's collection.
"This edition differs materially from that used by Herbert, which has
led Dr Dibdin to the conclusion that there were two impressions." So
says a MS. note on the copy, (quoted in the Bib. Grenv.), but Dibdin
does not commit himself to the conclusion, his words being these: "This
description is given from a copy in the possession of Mr Heber; which,
from its varying with the account of Herbert, Mr H. supposes, with
justice, must be a different one from Herbert's." I have failed to
discover the difference.
Prices: Perry, £9.; Roxburghe (last leaf wanting), £10. 10s.;
Bibliotheca Anglo-Poetica, £12. 12s.; Sykes, £16. 16s.
To the above edition must belong the fragment entered in Bohn's Lowndes
under "Four," thus: "Four Vertues Cardinal. Lond. R. Pynson, n.d.
folio. Only a fragment of this Poem is known; it was printed at the
request of Rychard Erle of Kent."
V._a._. THE MIRROUR OF GOOD MANERS.----Cawood. 1570. Folio. Black letter.
Appended to Cawood's edition of the Ship of Fools. No title page,
pagination, or cuts. The above heading on A 1. The Latin original
printed in Roman by the side of the English. Contains A-G, in sixes.
It may be useful to give here the bibliography of the other English
translations of Mancyn.
Mancinus de quattuor Virtutibus. [The englysshe of Mancyne apon the foure
cardynale vertues.] No place, printer's name, or date, but with the types
of Wynkyn de Worde, circa 1518. 4to, a-d, in eights. Bodleian.
Following the title occurs: Petri Carmeliani exasticon in Dominici
Mancini de quattuor cardineis virtutibus libellum. The Latin portion is
in verse, printed in Roman letter, with marginal notes in black letter,
of a very small size, and the English in prose.
The English part, in black letter, is entitled: The englysshe of
Mancyne apon the foure cardynale vertues. n.p. or d. This portion has a
separate title and signatures; the title is on A 1. On sign. F ii.
occurs, "The correccion of the englysshe," and on the verso of the same
leaf is printed, "The correction of the texte." A, B, C, and D, 8
leaves each; E, 6 leaves; and F, 4 leaves; 42 leaves altogether. A copy
of this is in the British Museum. Only two perfect copies are known.
A Plaine Path to Perfect Vertue: Deuised and found out by Mancinus, a
Latine Poet, and translated into English by G. Turberuile, Gentleman.
Ardua ad virtutem via.
Imprinted at London in Knightrider-strete, by Henry Bynneman, for
Leonard Maylard. Anno. 1568. 8vo., 72 leaves. Black letter, in verse.
Dedicated "To the right Honorable and hys singular good Lady, Lady
Anne, Coutesse Warvvicke." There is also a metrical address to the
reader, and 8 4-line stanzas by James Sanford in praise of the
translator.
Freeling, 1836, No. 911, £7., bought for Mr Corser: now in the British
Museum. Supposed to be unique.
* * * * *
VI. CRONYCLE compyled in Latyn, by the renowned Sallust.----Pynson. No
date. Folio.
"Here begynneth the famous cronycle of the warre, which the romayns had
agaynst Jugurth, vsurper of the kyngdome of Numidy. which cronycle is
compyled in latyn by the renowmed romayne Salust. And translated into
englysshe by syr Alexander Barclay preest, at comaundement of the right
hye and mighty prince: Thomas duke of Northfolke." There are two
editions by Pynson of this book.
I. In this edition the lower half of the title page has a square
enclosed by double lines containing the Norfolk arms, a lion rampant,
holding a shield in his paws, on which is another lion, a cut which
also appears on the title of The Introductory. There is a full page cut
of the royal arms with portcullis, &c., on the back, followed by five
pages of Table. The preface to his patron, in English,----together with
a Latin dedication to Bishop Veysy, in parallel columns,----begins on
the verso of signature A iiii, under a cut of the author presenting his
book to him, the same as that which appears on the title of The myrrour
of good maners. [See the cut prefixed to the Notice of Barclay's life,
which is confined however to a reproduction of the two principal
figures only, two other figures, evidently of servants, and some
additional ornamentation of the room being omitted.] At the end of this
preface is another cut of the author, writing at a desk; also on the
back of the leaf is a cut of the disembarking of an army. There are no
other cuts, but the volume is adorned throughout with very fine woodcut
initials. Catchwords are given irregularly at the beginning, but
regularly towards the end, at the bottom of the left hand page only,
but the preface has them to every column. Colophon:----"Thus endeth the
famous cronycle of the war ... imprented at London by Rycharde Pynson
printer vnto the kynges noble grace: with priuylege vnto hym grauted by
our sayd souerayne lorde the kynge." On the back of the last leaf is
Pynson's device, No. v. The date is erroneously conjectured in Moss's
Classical Bib. to be 1511. It was probably 1519, certainly between 1519
and 1524. Contains 92 numbered leaves, and one leaf unnumbered, besides
eight leaves of preliminary matter: numbering quite regular:
signatures; a 8, A--O, 6 s, P, Q, 4 s. In the British Museum, Grenville
Collection, the Bodleian, and the Public Library at Cambridge.
Prices: Roxburghe, £23, 12s.; Sykes, £8, 12s.; Heber, £5, 15s. 6d.;
Sotheby's, 1857, £10.
II. In this edition, the title page is the same as in the other with
the exception of a semicolon for a full point after Numidy, the
succeeding which having an e added, and romayne being without the e,
but on the back instead of a cut of the royal arms The table commences;
the preface begins on the recto of sign. a 4, under the cut of the
author presenting his book to the Duke of Norfolk, and ends without the
leaf of woodcuts which is appended to the preface of the first edition.
Pynson's device at the end of the book is also wanting in this edition.
It contains only fol. lxxxvi., with six leaves of preliminary matter;
the pagination is a little irregular, xxi. and xxii. are wanting but
xxiii. is given three times, and lxxvii. is repeated for lxxviii.; the
British Museum copy is deficient in folios lxii. and lxv.: signatures;
a 6, A--N, 6 s, and O, P, 4 s. The initials are the same as those in
the first edition in the great majority of cases, but appear much more
worn. There are catch-words only at the end of every signature
throughout the book, except to the preface, which has them to every
column. In the British Museum, and the Public Library, Cambridge.
Both editions have the Latin in Roman letter in the margins, and
running-titles. Ames mentions an edition with cuts, which must be the
same as the first of these.
VI._a._ CRONICLE OF WARRE. Compiled in Laten by Saluste. Corrected by
Thomas Paynell. Waley, 1557. Quarto.
"Here begynneth the famous Cronicle of warre, whyche the Romaynes hadde
agaynst Jugurth vsurper of the kyngedome of Numidie: whiche Cronicle is
compiled in Laten by the renowmed Romayne Saluste: and translated into
englyshe by syr alexander Barklaye prieste. And nowe perused and
corrected by Thomas Paynell. Newely Jmprinted in the yere of oure Lorde
God M.D.L vij." On the verso of the title begins Paynell's
dedication--"To the ryghte honorable Lorde Antonye Vycounte Mountegue,
Knyghte of the ryghte honorable order of the garter, and one of the
Kynge and Queenes Magesties pryuie counsayle." "The prologue" begins on
a 1. Barclay's preface and dedication are omitted, as well as the Latin
of Sallust. Col.: "Thus endeth the famouse Cronicle of the warre ...
against Jugurth ... translated... by syr Alexander Barkeley, prieste,
at commaundemente of ... Thomas, duke of Northfolke, And imprinted at
London in Foster lane by Jhon Waley." Signatures; H h, 4 s, besides
title and dedication, two leaves: the pagination commences on a 4, at
"The fyrste chapter," the last folio being cxx.; xxi. is repeated for
xxii., xxiii. for xxiv., xix., stands for xxix., lvii. is repeated, and
lxxiv. is repeated for lxxv.
This edition forms the second part of a volume having the following
general title page: The Conspiracie of Catiline, written by Constancius
Felicius Durantinus, and translated bi Thomas Paynell: with the
historye of Jugurth, writen by the famous Romaine Salust, and
translated into Englyshe by Alexander Barcklaye.
* * * * *
VII. ALEX. BARCLAY HIS FIGURE OF OUR MOTHER HOLY CHURCH OPPRESSED BY THE
FRENCHE KING. Pynson. Quarto.
This is given by Herbert on the authority of Maunsell's Catalogue, p.
7.
* * * * *
VIII. THE LYFE OF THE GLORIOUS MARTYR SAYNT GEORGE. Translated by Alexander
Barclay, while he was a monk of Ely, and dedicated to N. West, Bp. of Ely.
Pinson [Circa 1530.] Quarto. [Herbert, 289].
* * * * *
IX. THE LYFE OF SAYNTE THOMAS. Pynson. No date. Quarto. Black letter.
"¶ Here begynneth the lyfe of the blessed martyr saynte Thomas." This
title is the headline of this little treatise; at the beginning of
which is indented a small woodcut of a man in armour, striking at the
bishop, with his cross-bearer before him. It begins "The martir saynte
Thomas was son to Gylberde Bequet a burgeys of the Cite of London. And
was borne in y^e place, whereas now standeth the churche called saynte
Thomas of Akers." It concludes, "¶ Thus endeth the lyfe of the blessed
martyr saynt Thomas of Caunturbury. Jmprynted by me Rycharde Pynson,
prynter vnto the kynges noble grace." Contains eight leaves. There is a
copy in the British Museum. Assigned to Barclay on tne authority of
Wood.
* * * * *
X. HAYTHON'S CRONYCLE. Pynson. No date. Folio. Black letter.
"Here begynneth a lytell Cronycle, translated & imprinted at the cost &
charge of Rycharde Pynson, by the comaundement of the ryght high and
mighty prince, Edwarde duke of Buckingham, yerle of Gloucestre,
Staffarde, and of Northamton," over a large woodcut. Colophon: "Here
endeth, [_&c_.] Imprinted by the sayd _Richarde Pynson_, printer unto
the Kinges noble grace." Date conjectured to be between 1520 and 1530.
Pynson's device, No. 5, at the end. Collation: A--E, and H, in sixes; F
and G, and I, in fours; forty-eight leaves.
On the verso of fol. 35, "Here endeth y^e boke of thistoris of thoriet
partes copyled by a relygious man frere Hayton frere of Premostre
order, sotyme lorde of court & cosyn german to the kyng of Armeny vpon
y^e passage of the holy lande. By the comaudement of y^e holy fader y^e
apostle of Rome Clemet the V. in y^e cite of Potiers which boke I
Nicholas Falcon, writ first in French ... I haue traslated it in Latyn
for our holy father y^e pope. In the yere of our lorde god M.CCC.VII.
in y^e moneth of August. Deo gras."
"The travels of Hayton into the Holy Land and Armenia, and his history
of Asia, is one of the most valuable of the early accounts of the east.
The present is the only translation into English, and from the
circumstances of its being printed by Pynson and having been (when in
Mr Heber's collection) bound with two other works (Mirrour of good
Maners and Sallust) both translated by Barclay, was probably also
translated by him. It is a book of extraordinaiy rarity, no perfect
copy that can be traced having previously occured for sale."
(Bibliotheca Grenvilliana, vol. I.)
Heber's copy (the one above mentioned), £40. 9s. 6d.
* * * * *
THE SHIP OF FOOLS.
[Illustration]
_Venerandissimo in Christo Patri ac Domino: domino Thome Cornisshe
Tenenensis pontifici ac diocesis Badonensis Suffraganio vigilantissimo, sue
paternitatis Capellanus humilimus Alexander Barclay suiipsius
recommendacionem cum omni summissione, et reuerentia._
_Tametsi crebris negocijs: varioque impedimentorum genere fatigatus paulo
diutiùs quàm volueram a studio reuulsus eram. Attamen obseruandissime
presul: Stultiferam classem (vt sum tue paternati pollicitus) iam tandem
absolui et impressam ad te destinaui. Neque tamen certum laborem pro
incerto premio (humano. s.) meis impossuissem humeris: nisi Seruianum illud
dictum (longe anteaqam inceperam) admonuisset. Satius esse non incipere
quàm inceptum minus perfectum relinquere. Completo tamen opere: nec
quemquam magis dignum quàm tua sit paternitas existimaui cui id dedicarem:
tum quia saluberrima tua prudentia, morum grauitas, vite sanctitas
doctrineque assiduitas: errantes fatuos mumdanis ab illecebris ad virtutis
tramites: difficiles licet: possint reducere: tum vero: quia sacros ad
ordines per te sublimatus et promotus, multisque aliis tuis beneficiis
ditatus non potui tibi meum obsequium non coartare. Opus igitur tue
paternitati dedicaui: meorum primicias laborum qui in lucem eruperunt Atque
vt tua consuluerit paternatis: autoris carmina cum meis vulgaribus
rithmicis vná alternatim coniunixi: et quantum a vero carminum sensu
errauerim, tue autoritatis iudicium erit. Fateor equidem multo plura
adiecisse quam ademisse: partim ad vicia que hac nostra in regione
abundantius pullulant mordacius carpenda: partimque ob Rithmi
difficultatem. Adieci etiam quasdam Biblie aliorumque autorum concordancias
in margine notatas quo singula magis lectoribus illucescant: Simul ad
inuidorum caninos latratus pacandos: et rabida ora obstruenda: qui vbi quid
facinorum: quo ipsi scatent: reprehensum audierint. continuo patulo gutture
liuida euomunt dicta, scripta dilacerant. digna scombris ac thus carmina
recensent: sed hi si pergant maledicere: vt stultiuagi comites classem
insiliant. At tu venerande Presul Discipuli tui exiguum munusculum: hilari
fronte accipito, Classemque nostram (si quid vagum, si quid erronium: si
quid denique superfluum emineat: optimam in partem interpretando: ab
inuidorum faucibus: tue autoritatis clipeo tucaris. Vale. Ex Impressoria
officina Richardi Pynson. iij. Idus Decembris._
¶ THIS PRESENT BOKE NAMED THE SHYP OF FOLYS OF THE WORLDE WAS TRANSLATED IN
THE COLLEGE OF SAYNT MARY OTERY IN THE COUNTE OF DEUONSHYRE: OUT OF LATEN,
FRENCH, AND DOCHE INTO ENGLYSSHE TONGE BY ALEXANDER BARCLAY PRESTE: AND AT
THAT TYME CHAPLEN IN THE SAYDE COLLEGE. TRANSLATED THE YERE OF OUR LORDE
GOD. M.CCCCC.VIII. IMPRENTYD IN THE CYTE OF LONDON IN FLETESTRE AT THE
SIGNE OF SAYNT GEORGE. BY RYCHARDE PYNSON TO HYS COSTE AND CHARGE: ENDED
THE YERE OF OUR SAUIOUR. M. D. IX. THE. XIIII. DAY OF DECEMBER.
TABULA.
¶ THE REGYSTER OR TABLE OF THIS PRESENT BOKE IN ENGLYSSHE.
[VOLUME I.]
¶ Alexander Barclay excusynge the rudenes of his translacion, y^e first
lefe Barclay y^e translatour to y^e folys.
A prologe in prose shewynge to what intent this Boke was firste made, & who
were the first Auctours of it.
Another Prologe: in Balade concernyng the same.
In what place this Boke was translate and to what purpose it was
translatyd.
¶ Here begynneth the Folys and firste of inprofytable bokys.
¶ Of euyll Counsellours Juges & men of lawe.
Of couetyse and prodigalyte.
Of newe disgysynges in apparayle.
¶ A lawde of the nobles and grauyte of Kynge Henry the eyght.
Of olde Folys encresynge foly with age.
Of negligent Fathers ayenst their Children.
Of taleberers: & mouers of debate.
Of nat folowers of good counsel.
Of vngoodly maners, and dysordred.
Of the hurtynge of frendshyp.
Of dispysers of holy scripture.
Of folys inprouydent.
Of disordred & venerious loue.
Of them that synne trustynge vpon the mercy of almyghty god.
Of folys y^t begyn great byldynge without sufficient prouysion.
Of glotons, and droncardes.
Of ryches vnprofytable.
Of folys that wyl serue two lordes both togyther.
Of superflue speche.
Of them that correct other, them self culpable in the same faut.
Of folys that fynde others good, nat restorynge the same to the owner.
¶ The sermon or doctryne of wysdom.
Of Folys bostyng them in fortune.
Of the superflue curyosyte of men.
Of great borowers, & slacke payers.
Of vnprofitable vowers & peticions.
Of negligent stodyers.
Of them that folvsshly speke ayenst the workes of god.
Of lewde Juges of others dedes.
Of pluralytees of benefyces.
Of synners that prolonge from daye to day to amende theyr myslyuyng.
Of men that ar Jelous.
Of auoutry, and specially of suche as ar bawdes to theyr wyues.
Of suche as nedys wyll contynue in theyr foly nat withstandynge holsom
erudicion.
An addicion of the secundaries of Otery saynt Mary, in Deuynshyre.
Of wrathfull folys.
Of the mutabylyte of fortune.
Of seke men inobedient.
Of to open councellers.
Of folys that can nat be ware by y^e mysfortune nor take example of others
damage.
Of folys that force or care for the bacbytynge of lewde people.
Of mockers and fals accusers.
Of them that despyse euerlastynge blys for worldly thynges & transitory.
Of talkers and makers of noyse in the Chirche of god.
Of folys that put them self in wylful ieopardy and peryll.
Of the way of felycyte, and godnes and the payne to come to synners.
Of olde folys y^t gyue example of vyce to youth negligent & vnexpert.
Of bodely lust or corporall voluptuosyte.
Of folys that can nat kepe secrete theyr owne counsell.
Of yonge folys that take olde wymen to theyr wyues nat for loue but for
ryches.
Of enuyous Folys.
Of impacient folys disdaynynge to abyde and suffer correccion, for theyr
profyte.
Of folysshe Fesicians vsynge theyr practyke without speculacyon.
Of the ende of worldly honour & power and of folys y^t trust in them.
An addicion of Alexander barclay.
Of predestinacyon.
Of folys that aply other mennys besynes leuynge theyr owne vndone.
Of the vyce of ingratytude or vnkyndnes and folys that vse it.
Of Folys that stande to moche in theyr owne conceyte.
Of folys that delyte them in daunsynge.
Of nyght watchers.
Of the vanyte of beggers.
[Illustration]
Alexander Barclay excusynge the rudenes of his translacion.
Go Boke: abasshe the thy rudenes to present.
To men auaunced to worshyp, and honour.
By byrthe or fortune: or to men eloquent.
By thy submyssion excuse thy Translatour.
But whan I remember the comon behauour
Of men: I thynke thou ought to quake for fere
Of tunges enuyous whose venym may the dere
Tremble, fere, and quake, thou ought I say agayne.
For to the Redar thou shewest by euydence
Thy selfe of Rethoryke pryuate and barayne
In speche superflue: and fruteles of sentence.
Thou playnly blamest without al difference
Bothe hye and lowe sparinge eche mannes name.
Therfore no maruayle thoughe many do the blame.
But if thou fortune to lye before a State
As Kynge or Prince or Lordes great or smal.
Or doctour diuyne or other Graduate
Be this thy Excuse to content theyr mynde withal
My speche is rude my termes comon and rural
And I for rude peple moche more conuenient.
Than for Estates, lerned men, or eloquent.
But of this one poynt thou nedest not to fere
That any goode man: vertuous and Just.
Wyth his yl speche shal the hurt or dere.
But the defende. As I suppose and trust.
But suche Unthriftes as sue theyr carnal lust
Whome thou for vyce dost sharply rebuke and blame
Shal the dysprayse: emperisshinge thy name.
An exhortacion of Alexander Barclay.
But ye that shal rede this boke: I you exhorte.
And you that ar herars therof also I pray
Where as ye knowe that ye be of this sorte:
Amende your lyfe and expelle that vyce away.
Slomber nat in syn. Amende you whyle ye may.
And yf ye so do and ensue Vertue and grace.
Wythin my Shyp ye get no rowme ne place.
Barclay the translatour tho the Foles.
To Shyp galantes the se is at the ful.
The wynde vs calleth our sayles ar displayed.
Where may we best aryue? at Lyn or els at Hulle?
To vs may no hauen in Englonde be denayd.
Why tary we? the Ankers ar vp wayed.
If any corde or Cabyl vs hurt, let outher hynder.
Let slyp the ende, or els hewe it in sonder.
Retourne your syght beholde vnto the shore.
There is great nomber that fayne wold be aborde.
They get no rowme our Shyp can holde no more.
Haws in the Cocke gyue them none other worde.
God gyde vs from Rockes, quicsonde tempest and forde
If any man of warre, wether, or wynde apere.
My selfe shal trye the wynde and kepe the Stere.
But I pray you reders haue ye no dysdayne.
Thoughe Barclay haue presumed of audacite
This Shyp to rule as chefe mayster and Captayne.
Though some thynke them selfe moche worthyer than he.
It were great maruayle forsoth syth he hath be.
A scoler longe: and that in dyuers scoles
But he myght be Captayne of a Shyp of Foles
But if that any one be in suche maner case.
That he wyl chalange the maystershyp fro me
Yet in my Shyp can I nat want a place.
For in euery place my selfe I oft may se.
But this I leue besechynge eche degre:
To pardon my youthe and to bolde interprise.
For harde is it duely to speke of euery vyce.
For yf I had tunges an hundreth: and wyt to fele
Al thinges natural and supernaturall
A thousand mouthes: and voyce as harde as stele.
And sene all the seuen Sciences lyberal.
Yet cowde I neuer touche the vyces all.
And syn of the worlde: ne theyr braunches comprehende:
Nat thoughe I lyued vnto the worldes ende.
But if these vyces whiche mankynde doth incomber.
Were clene expellyd and vertue in theyr place.
I cowde nat haue gathered of fowles so great a nomber.
Whose foly from them out chaseth goddys grace.
But euery man that knowes hym in that case
To this rude Boke let hym gladly intende.
And lerne the way his lewdnes to amende.
* * * * *
[The Prologe of James Locher.]
After that I haue longe mused by my self of the sore confounded and
vncertayne cours of mannys lyfe, and thinges therto belonginge: at the last
I haue by my vigilant meditacion found and noted many degrees of errours:
wherby mankynd wandreth from the way of trouth I haue also noted that many
wyse men and wel lettred haue writen right fruteful doctrines: wherby they
haue heled these dyseses and intollerable perturbacions of the mynde: and
the goostly woundes therof, moche better than Esculapius which was fyrst
Inuentour of Phesyke and amonge the Gentyles worshypped as a God. In the
contrey of Grece were stodyes fyrst founded and ordeyned in the which began
and sprange holsom medicyne which gaue vnto infect myndes frutful doctryne
and norisshinge. Amonge whome Socrates that great begynner and honourer of
wysdom began to dispute of ye maners of men. But for that he coude nat
fynde certayne ende of goodnes and hyest felicite in naturall thinges: nor
induce men to the same, he gaue the hye contemplacions of his mynde to
moral vertues. And in so moche passed he al other in Philosophy moral that
it was sayde that he called Philosophy down from the Imperial heuen. whan
this Socrates perceyued the mindes of men to be prone, and extremely
inclyned to viciousnes he had gret affeccion to subdue suche maners.
Wherfore in comon places of the Cyte of Athenes he instruct and infourmed
the peple in such doctrynes as compasith the clere and immaculate welles of
the moste excellent and souerayne gode. After the disces of Socrates
succeded ye godly Plato whiche in moral Philosophy ouerpassed also a great
part of his tyme And certaynly nat without a cause was he called godly. For
by what stody myght be more holely or better socour mankynde than by suche
doctrynes as he gaue. He wrote and ordeyned lawes moste egal and iust He
edityed vnto the Grekes a comon welthe stable, quyet and commendable. And
ordeyned the societe and company of them most iocund and amyable. He
prepared a brydel to refrayne the lust and sensualyte of the body. And
fynally he changed the yl ignorance feblenes and negligence of youth vnto
dylygence, strength and vertue. In tyme also of these Phylosophers sprange
the florisshynge age of Poetes: whiche amonge lettred men had nat smal
rowme and place. And that for theyr eloquent Retoryke and also for theyr
mery ficcions and inuencions. Of the whiche Poetes some wrote in moste
ornate termes in ditees heroycal wherin the noble actes and lyues both of
dyuyne and humayne creatures ar wont to be noted and writem. Some wrote of
tylling of the grounde. Some of the Planetes, of the courses of ye sterres:
and of the mouynge of the heuyn and fyrmament. Some of the Empyre and
shameful subieccion of disordred loue. And many other of the myserable
ruyne and fal of Kynges and princes for vice: as Tragedies. And some other
wrote Comedyes with great libertye of speche: which Comedies we cal
Interludes. Amonge whome Aristophanes Eupolis and Cratinus mooste laudable
Poetes passed al other. For whan they sawe the youth of Athenes and of al
the remanent of Grece inclyned to al ylles they toke occasion to note suche
myslyuinge. And so in playne wordes they repreued without fauour the vyces
of the sayd yl disposyd peple of what condicion or order they were: Of this
auncient wrytinge of Comedyes our laten Poetes deuysed a maner of wrytinge
nat inelegant. And fyrst Lucilius composed one Satyre in the whiche he
wrote by name the vices of certayne princes and Citezyns of Rome And that
with many bourdes so y^t with his mery speche myxt with rebukes he correct
al them of the cyte that disordredly lyued. But this mery speche vsed he
nat in his writing to the intent to excercyse wanton wordes or vnrefrayned
lascyuyte, or to put his pleasour in suche dissolute langage: but to ye
intent to quenche vyces and to prouoke the commons to wysdome and vertue,
and to be asshamed of theyr foly and excessyfe lyuynge. of hym all the
Latyn poetes haue takyn example, and begynnynge to wryte Satyrs whiche the
grekes named Comedyes: As Fabius specifyeth in his X boke of institucions.
After Lucilius succeded Horacius, moche more eloquent in wrytynge whiche in
the same deseruyd great laude: Persius also left to vs onely one boke by
the whiche he commyttyd his name and laude to perpetuall memory. The last
and prynce of all was Juuenall whiche in his iocunde poemys comprehendyd al
that was wryten most eloquent and pleasaunt of all the poetis of that sorte
afore his tyme: O noble men, and diligent hertes and myndes, o laudable
maners and tymes, these worthy men exyled ydelnes, wherby they haue
obtayned nat small worshyp and great commodyte example and doctryne lefte
to vs theyr posteryours why begyn we nat to vnderstonde and perceyue. Why
worshyp nat the people of our tyme these poetis why do nat they reuerence
to ye interpretours of them do they nat vnderstonde: that no poetes wryte,
but outher theyr mynde is to do pleasure or els profyte to the reder, or
ellys they togyther wyll doo bothe profyte and pleasoure why are they
dyspysed of many rude carters of nowe a dayes which vnderstonde nat them,
And for lacke of them haue nat latyn to vtter and expresse ye wyl of their
mynde. Se whether poetes ar to be dispised. they laude vertue and hym that
vseth it rebukyng vices with the vsers therof, They teche what is good and
what is euyll: to what ende vyce, and what ende vertue bringeth vs, and do
nat Poetis reuyle and sharply byte in their poemys all suche as ar vnmeke,
Prowde, Couetous, Lecherous, Wanton, delycyous, Wrathfull glotons, wasters,
Enuyours, Enchauntours, faythebrakers, rasshe, vnauysed, malapert, drunken,
vntaught foles, and suche lyke. Shulde theyr writyng that suche thinges
disprayse and reuyle be dyspised of many blynde Dotardes y^t nowe lyue
whiche enuy that any man shulde haue or vnderstonde ye thyng whiche they
knowe nat. The Poetes also wyth great lawdes commende and exalt the noble
folowers of vertue ascribyng to euery man rewardes after his merytes. And
shortly to say, the intencion of al Poetes hath euer ben to repreue vyce:
and to commende vertue. But syns it is so that nowe in our dayes ar so many
neglygent and folysshe peple that they ar almost innumerable whiche
despisynge the loue of vertue: folowe the blyndenes and vanyte of this
worlde: it was expedient that of newe some lettred man, wyse, and subtil of
wyt shulde awake and touche ye open vices of foles that now lyue: and blame
theyr abhomynable lyfe. This fourme and lybertye of writinge, and charge
hathe taken vpon hym the Right excellent and worthy Mayster Sebastian Brant
Doctour of both the Lawes and noble Oratour and Poete to the comon welthe
of al people in playne and comon speche of Doche in the contrey of Almayne:
to the ymytacion of Dant Florentyne: and Francis Petrarche Poetes heroycal
which in their maternal langage haue composed maruelous Poemes and
ficcions. But amonge diuers inuencions composed of the sayde Sebastian
brant I haue noted one named ye Shyp of Foles moche expedient and necessary
to the redar which the sayd Sebastian composed in doche langage. And after
hym one called James Locher his Disciple translated the same into Laten to
the vnderstondinge of al Christen nacions where Laten is spoken. Than
another (whose name to me is vnknowen) translated the same into Frenche. I
haue ouersene the fyrst Inuencion in Doche and after that the two
translations in Laten and Frenche whiche in blaminge the disordred lyfe of
men of our tyme agreeth in sentence: threfolde in langage wherfore wylling
to redres the errours and vyces of this oure Royalme of Englonde: as the
foresayde composer and translatours hath done in theyr Contrees I haue
taken vpon me: howbeit vnworthy to drawe into our Englysshe tunge the sayd
boke named ye shyp of folys as nere to ye sayd thre Langages as the parcyte
of my wyt wyll suffer me. But ye reders gyue ye pardon vnto Alexander de
Barklay If ignoraunce negligence or lacke of wyt cause hym to erre in this
translacion his purpose and synguler desyre is to content youre myndes. And
sothely he hathe taken vpon hym the translacion of this present Boke
neyther for hope of rewarde nor lawde of man: but onely for the holsome
instruccion commodyte and Doctryne of wysdome, and to clense the vanyte and
madnes of folysshe people of whom ouer great nombre is in the Royalme of
Englonde. Therfore let euery man beholde and ouerrede this boke: And than I
doute nat but he shal se the errours of his lyfe of what condycyon that he
be. in lyke wyse as he shal se in a Myrrour the fourme of his countenaunce
and vysage: And if he amende suche fautes as he redeth here wherein he
knoweth hymself gylty, and passe forth the resydue of his lyfe in the order
of good maners than shall he haue the fruyte and auauntage wherto I haue
translatyd this boke.
* * * * *
Here begynneth the prologe.
Amonge the people of euery regyon
And ouer the worlde, south north eest and west
Soundeth godly doctryne in plenty and foyson
Wherin the grounde of vertue and wysdome doth rest
Rede gode and bad, and kepe the to the best
Was neuer more plenty of holsome doctryne
Nor fewer people that doth therto enclyne
We haue the Bybyll whiche godly doth expresse
Of the olde testament the lawes mysticall
And also of the newe our erour to redresse
Of phylosophy and other artes liberall
With other bokes of vertues morall
But thoughe suche bokes vs godly wayes shewe
We all ar blynde no man wyll them ensue
Banysshed is doctryne, we wander in derknes
Throughe all the worlde: our selfe we wyll not knowe
Wysdome is exyled, alas blynde folysshenes
Mysgydeth the myndes of people hye and lowe
Grace is decayed, yll governaunce doth growe
Both prudent Pallas and Minerua are slayne
Or els to heuyn retourned are they agayne
Knowledge of trouth, Prudence, and iust Symplicite
Hath vs clene left: For we set of them no store.
Our Fayth
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