The Ship of Fools, Volume 1 2

S >> Sebastian Brandt >> The Ship of Fools, Volume 1 2

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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 Miseriae
Curialium, the most popular of the works of one of the most successful
literary adventurers of the middle ages, AEneas 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. Catherinae, Lib. I.,
[Libros tres, Pits]; Vitam D. Margaritae, Lib. I.; Vitam Etheldredae, 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 AEneas 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:

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