The Ship of Fools, Volume 1 2

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

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"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 11/2 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 Athenae 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 L2.

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, L2. 4s.;
Sotheby's, 1821, L28; Dent, L30. 9s.; Bib. Anglo-Poetica, L105;
Perkins, 1873, L130.

The following amusing note on prices is taken from Renouard's
"Catalogue d'un Amateur." "Les premieres editions latines de ce
singulier livre, celles des traductions francoises, toutes egalement
remplies de figures en bois, ne deplaisent pas aux amateurs, mais
jamais ils ne les ont payees un haut prix. La traduction angloise faite
en 1509, sur le francois, et avec des figures en bois, plus mauvaises
encore que leurs modeles, se paye en Angleterre 25, 30 et meme 60
guinees; c'est la, si l'on veut, du zele patriotique, de l'esprit
national."

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