BARCLAY

BARCLAY, ALEXANDER, an English poet of considerable celebrity, appears to have been a native of Scotland. The place of his nativity has indeed been disputed; but Bishop Bale, in a work published during Barclay's lifetime, mentions him as a Scotsman;¹ and, according to Dr. Bulleyn, another contemporary writer, he "was born beyond the cold river of Tweed." Holinshed likewise describes him as a Scot. On the other hand, Dr. Pitts, who wrote at a more recent period, avers that he was an Englishman, and that his native district was probably Devonshire; but this aversion is apparently founded on the mere circumstance of his having obtained preferment in that county.² Wood, adopting a similar opinion, designates him Alexander de Barklay, and suggests that he seems to have been born at or near a town so called in Somersetshire.³ It is however to be remarked that the poet's name is altered to suit this hypothesis, and that there is no such town or village in the county of Somerset. Berkeley is the name of a place in the county of Gloucester, but Berkeley and Barclay are not the same; and we adhere to the opinion of Ritson, that "both his name of baptism and the orthography of his surname seem to prove that he was of Scottish extraction."⁴ Certain however it is that he spent most of his life in England. He is said to have been partly educated in the university of Oxford, and is conjectured to have belonged to Oriel College; but this account is apparently to be received with some degree of caution, and may rest on no better foundation than the fact of his having dedicated his Ship of Fools to Dr. Cornish, provost of that college, and suffragan bishop of Tyne in the diocese of Bath. He describes himself as the bishop's humble chaplain, but this may perhaps be considered as merely a courteous form of speech; for in the poem itself, he represents himself as the "chaplain and bedeman" of "my master Kyrkham." Barclay appears to have taken the degree of doctor of divinity. On one occasion he makes an allusion to what he had observed at Cambridge. It may be considered as highly probable that he completed his studies in one of those universities, and that the connexions 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."⁵ From his first eclogue, we learn that he spent some of his earlier days at Croydon in Surrey; and in the year 1508 we find him a prebendary of the collegiate church of St Mary Ottery

in Devonshire. He afterwards became a Benedictine monk of the monastery of Ely, and at length assumed the habit of St Francis at Canterbury. Having survived the dissolution of the monasteries, he became successively vicar of Much-Badew in Essex, and, in 1546, of Wokey in Somersetshire; and was finally presented by the dean and chapter of Canterbury to the rectory of All-Saints in Lombard-street. As he retained some of his preferments in the reign of Edward VI., it is presumed that he must have complied with the changes of the times. Having reached a very advanced age, he died in the year 1552, and was interred at Croydon.

Barclay wrote at a period when the standard of English poetry was extremely low; and, as excellence is always comparative, this circumstance may partly enable us to account for the high reputation which he enjoyed among his contemporaries. If not entitled to the name of a poet, he is at least a copious versifier. His most conspicuous performance is the Ship of Fools, first printed by Pinson in the year 1509. The original design, and many of the details, were derived from Sebastian Brandt,¹ a civilian of Strasburg, who in 1494 published a poem entitled Das Narren Schuff,² which was so well adapted to the taste of the age that a Latin and a French version appeared in 1497, and another French version in 1498. Barclay professes to have translated "oute of Laten, Frenche, and Doche;" but to the original cargo he has added many fools of English growth. Under the representation of a ship freighted with fools of various denominations, the poet exposes the prevalent vices and follies of the age; and although, as Warton remarks, the poem is destitute of plot, and the voyage of adventures,³ the general design was found to possess many attractions. Another publication of Barclay is the Mirror of good Manners, translated from the poem of Mancini De quatuor Virtutibus. His Eglogues chiefly excite curiosity as the earliest specimen of pastoral poetry in the English language, but their other attractions are not very powerful. They are of a more recent date than Henryson's Robene and Makyne, and are certainly very inferior in poetical merit. Among his prose works we find a version of Sallust's history of the war with Jugurtha: it was twice printed by Pinson, and is an early specimen of an English translation from the classics. (x.)