The Ship of Fools, Volume 1-2, Sebastian Brant [good books to read TXT] 📗

>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