BARCLAY

BARCLAY, John, son of the eminent civilian mentioned in the last article, was born at Pontamousson on the 28th of January 1582. He was there educated in the College of the Jesuits, and excited in his instructors so favourable an opinion of his capacity, that they made an attempt to entice him into their order; an attempt which was indignantly resisted by his father. At the age of nineteen, he evinced his literary ambition by publishing annotations on the Thebais of Statius. In 1603, when his father resigned his professorship in disgust, the young and aspiring scholar accompanied him to London; and at the beginning of the following year he presented his Kalendæ Januariae as a poetical offering to King James, to whom he soon afterwards dedicated the first part of his work entitled Euphormionis Lusini Satyricon. Both the father and the son were willing to accept of employment, and no doubt they both expected preferment. But, as Lord Hailes has remarked, "William Barclay was conscientiously attached to the church of Rome, and his son possessed the religion of his forefathers. In those days a pension bestowed upon a Scottish Papist would have been numbered among the national grievances; and the vulgar would not have distinguished between favour shown to genius or learning, and partiality for the opinions of the person favoured."² In the year 1604 they both returned to France, and Dr Barclay was again placed in a situation suited to his talents and learning, having been appointed first professor of the civil law in the university of Angers. His taste for external magnificence appears to have been somewhat prominent: when he went to read his lecture, he was dressed in a superb gown, with a massy chain of gold about his neck, and was followed by his son and two valets.³

The younger Barclay, whose hopes of advancement had begun to revive, returned to England in 1605; but after a further residence of twelve months, he still found himself unsuccessful in his pursuit. His father died towards the close of the same year; and he afterwards removed to Paris, where he married Louise, the daughter of Michael Debonnaire, "Trésorier des Vieilles Bandes." He speedily fixed his abode in London, and there his wife bore him a son and two daughters, William, Anne, and Louise. M. de Peirese, who was himself a man of learning, and was very extensively connected with the learned, found him in this metropolis in the year 1608, and their acquaintance was succeeded by an intimate friendship. During this year he published the second part of his Satyricon, which he dedicated to the earl of Salisbury; and likewise a brief narrative of the gunpowder plot, bearing the title of Series patet facti divinitus Parricidi, in ter maximum Regem Regnumque Britannia cogitati et instructi. In 1610 he published an apology for his Satyricon, which had excited so much resentment that he found it necessary to attempt some palliatives and explanations. A tract was published at Paris in 1620, under the title of Censura Euphormionis; and this was answered in a Censura Censurae Euphormionis, written by Pierre Musnier, canon of Vezelay.

Barclay. During the same year, 1610, he published an able work of his father, De Potestate Papæ, to which he prefixed a preface of nine pages, concluding with a clear intimation of his purpose to defend his father's memory against any unseemly attack. "Quod si aliquis hoc opus refellere instituerit, velim ne oratoria fraude tantum levia quadam carpat, in quibus nec ipse author multum subsidii posuerit; sed ipsam vim rationum exequat, diluendi aut asserendi vitia accuset. Si quis aliter faxit, sciat Guilielmi Barclai cineres loqui posse." It was not the object of this treatise to controvert the spiritual supremacy of the pope, which the author was ready to admit in its most orthodox sense; but while he acknowledged his power and jurisdiction in things spiritual, he strenuously contended against his usurped power over sovereign princes in things temporal. The work, which is written with learning and ability, excited no small degree of attention; and it was soon attacked by Cardinal Bellarmin, one of the most formidable defenders of the doctrines of the church, and of the pretensions of its visible head. The son was anxious to evince that the ashes of his revered father were yet capable of speaking. He had not neglected to study the law under so excellent a preceptor; and as he was by no means deficient of his own abilities, he did not shrink from a contest with so redoubtable an antagonist. He accordingly published a large volume bearing the title of Joannis Barclai Pictus; sive publica pro Regibus ac Principibus, ac privata pro Guilielmo Barclao Parente Vindicta, adversus Roberti S. R. E. Cardinalis Bellarmini Tractatum de Potestate Summi Pontificis in Rebus Temporalibus. Parisiis, 1612, 4to. To this work the cardinal did not himself reply, but an answer was speedily published under the name of Andrea Eudamon-Johannis Epistola monitoria ad Joannem Barclaium de Libro ab eo pro Potre suo contra Robertum Bellarminum S. R. E. Cardinalem scripto. Col. Agrip. 1613, 8vo.

In 1614 Barclay published at London his Icon Animorum, which forms the fourth part of his Satyricon. This work is written with talent and vivacity, and may still be perused with pleasure. It is, as Lord Hailes has correctly stated, a delineation of the genius and manners of the European nations, with remarks, moral and philosophical, on the various tempers of men. For the land of his forefathers the author has not failed to testify a sufficient degree of affection. He duly extols the antiquity of the royal line, "in clito sceptro supra fidem et ætatem regnorum cæterorum." Nor is the literary character of the people left without its share of commendation. "Animi illis in quæcunque studia inclinant, mirifico successu inclyti, ut nullis major patientia castrorum, vel audacia pugne, et Musæ nunquam delicatius habeant quam cum inciderunt in Scotos." Some of his sketches of the national character are happy and graphic.

After a residence of ten years in England, Barclay found himself without any sufficient inducement to prolong his stay. To some extent or other, he had experienced the bounty of the earl of Salisbury; and although it does not appear that he obtained any regular provision from the king, we may perhaps suppose that he at least received occasional gratuities; but his resources continued to be scanty, and his situation precarious. Towards the close of the year 1615 he proceeded to Paris, where he had the pleasure of meeting his friend M. de Peiresc, and the ho-

nour of being introduced by him to the keeper of the seals, Guillaume du Vair. Having been invited to Rome by Pope Paul V., he there fixed his residence in the beginning of the ensuing year, and by the publication of his next work he endeavoured to prove himself a worthy denizen of this pious city. The work to which we allude is entitled Joannis Barclai Parenesis ad Sectarios, libri ii. Romæ, 1617, 8vo. "It is probable," says Lord Hailes, "that by this exhortation to the sectaries, he meant to give evidence of his own orthodoxy, and to atone for the liberties, almost heretical, which he had taken, as well with the papal court, as with its most faithful adherents. But that court, which had Cardinal Bellarmin for its champion, required not the feeble and suspicious aid of the author of Euphormion.—Although Barclay found much civility at Rome, yet it does not appear that he obtained any emolument. Incumbered with a wife and family, and having a spirit above his fortune, he was left at full leisure to pursue his literary studies. It was at that time that he composed his Latin romance called Argénis. He employed his vacant hours in the cultivating of a flower-garden. Rossi (or Erythraeus) relates, in the turgid Italian style, that Barclay cared not for those bulbous roots which produce flowers of a sweet scent; and that he cultivated such as produced flowers void of smell, but having variety of colours. Hence we may conclude that he was amongst the first of those who were infected with that strange disease, a passion for tulips, which soon after overspread Europe, and is still remembered under the name of the Tulipo-mania. Barclay had it to that excess, that he placed two mastiffs as sentinels on his garden; and, rather than abandon his favourite flowers, chose to continue his residence in an ill-aired and unwholesome habitation." The preceding account of his success at Rome is not reconcilable with that of Erythraeus, who avers that from Cardinal Barberini he obtained riches as well as civility; but as these benefits are said to have been conferred after the cardinal's elevation to the papal chair, the narrative is liable to some degree of suspicion. The election of Urban VIII. did not take place till the year 1623, and Barclay was then beyond the reach of preferment. It is not however probable that a writer of high reputation, who had been invited by the pope, and was caressed by cardinals, was left without some substantial mark of favour. Bellarmin, whom he had formerly undertaken to refute, was so far from cherishing any resentment, that he honoured him with various marks of kindness.

Barclay died at Rome on the twelfth of August 1621, in the fortieth year of his age. The disease which proved fatal to him was the stone; a disease for which, in his Satyricon, he had pronounced the plant called golden rod to be a specific remedy. His remains were interred in the church of S. Onofrio; and at the church of S. Lorenzo, on the road to Tivoli, his widow erected for him a monument, with his bust in marble; but on learning that Cardinal Francesco Barberini had there erected a similar monument in honour of his preceptor, she indignantly caused the bust to be removed. The inscription on Barclay's monument was soon erased; but by whom, or for what reason, is not very clearly ascertained. There is however no improbability in the reason assigned by Freherus, who imputes this act to the vindictive feelings of the Jesuits, an order of men very frequently subjected to his satire.³

Barclay. At the time of his death, the romance of Argenis was printing under the superintendence of Peiresc,¹ and was soon afterwards given to the public. Paris, 1621, 8vo. Besides a son and two daughters born in England, Barclay had a son who was born at Rome. His elder son is represented by Erythraeus as having obtained a rich benefice from Urban VIII. With one of his sons Menage was acquainted at Paris in the year 1652; and, in his opinion, "ce n'estoit pas un grand personnage." Like his father, he was a writer of Latin verses, and at this period he there printed an elegy. We are not aware that the descendants of Barclay are at present to be traced either in France or Italy.

This ingenious writer, who was thus arrested in the middle of his literary career, left an unpublished history of the conquest of Jerusalem by the Franks, and some fragments of a general history of Europe. Erythraeus informs us that he had himself transcribed a manuscript tract of his, relating to the defection of M. Ant. de Dominis, archbishop of Spalato; and that from his knowledge of the national character, as well as of the disposition of the king, the author foretold that he could not long remain in England.

The ambition of Barclay was greater than his fortune; nor did his propensity to satirize one class of individuals prevent him from offering abject flatteries to another. But at that period few men of letters knew how to blend self-respect with a proper deference to their superiors in the artificial scale of society. His personal character, with an ample allowance for his vanity as an author, appears to have been respectable. "Some very indecent descriptions in Euphormion," as Lord Hailes has remarked, "lead us to form an unfavourable conjecture as to the manners of Barclay. There is however no proof that he was a loose man; and indeed it is probable that he wrote loosely because Petronius, whom he had chosen for his model in satire, affected that style. Barclay entered into the married state at a very early period of life; and he appears to have continued the fond husband of his Aloysia.... There is a presumption, at least, that he who was a good son and a good husband, was also a virtuous man in other respects; and if there had been any remarkable blemish in the morals of Barclay, some of his numerous and virulent adversaries would have pointed it out." He appears to have been subjected to considerable annoyance in consequence of the jealousy of his wife; but in many cases jealousy is a wayward passion, and proceeds from the mere excess of affection, as well as from the knowledge or suspicion of specific and painful facts.

Barclay was evidently a man of genius, and with a vigorous imagination he united a competent share of learning. His literary efforts were sufficiently varied; quitting the regions of poetry and romance, he ventured to discuss subjects of jurisprudence and theology. His Latin poems exhibit marks of fancy and ingenuity, nor is his skill as a versifier less conspicuous.² The Satyricon is formed on the model of Petronius, and includes occasional verses interspersed with the prose. The talent displayed in this work would alone have been sufficient to secure him a high reputation among the writers of the age; but the fame of all his other productions has in a great measure been eclipsed by that of his Argenis, which,

after the lapse of two centuries, still finds readers and admirers. "Argenis," says Lord Hailes, "is generally supposed to be a history under feigned names, and not a romance. Barclay himself contributed to establish this opinion, by introducing some real characters into the work. But that was merely to compliment certain dignitaries of the church, whose good offices he courted, or whose power he dreaded. The key prefixed to Argenis has perpetuated the error. There are no doubt many incidents in it that allude to the state of France during the civil wars in the seventeenth century; but it requires a strong imagination indeed to discover Queen Elizabeth in Hyanisbe, or Henry III. of France in Meleander. On the whole, Argenis appears to be a poetical fable, replete with moral and political reflections." This is a sober and correct account of the work; but Cowper has expressed his approbation in more glowing terms. "The work I mean is Barclay's Argenis; and, if ever you allow yourself to read for mere amusement, I can recommend it to you (provided you have not already perused it) as the most amusing romance that ever was written. It is the only one indeed of an old date that I ever had the patience to go through with. It is interesting in a high degree, richer in incident than can be imagined, full of surprises, which the reader never forestalls, and yet free from all entanglement and confusion. The stile too appears to me to be such as would not dishonour Tacitus himself." In another letter he expresses himself thus:—"I have also read Barclay's Argenis, a Latin romance, and the best romance that was ever written."³ This romance was a special favourite with Cardinal Richelieu, and also with Leibnitz, a much greater man than the cardinal.

Cowper appears to have been struck with the point and vivacity of his style, which indeed are sufficiently distinguishable; but for the purity of his Latin diction Barclay is not entitled to equal commendation. Being probably impelled by the rapid current of his fancy, he adopts a variety of words and idioms which well express his meaning, but which nevertheless do not belong to the best ages of Latinity. The distich of Grotius, engraved under Barclay's portrait, seems therefore to contain a compliment which must not be too literally interpreted:

Gente Caledonius, Gallus natalibus, hic est
Romani Romano qui docet ore loqui.

Joseph Scaliger, whose literary judgments were frequently severe, and not unfrequently capricious, mentions Barclay's Satyricon in terms of great disparagement; but whether his censure is chiefly directed against the Latinity or against the general strain of the work, is not altogether certain.⁴ This book, whatever may be its demerits, has passed through many editions, and has been translated into the French and German languages.⁵ It has likewise had the advantage of being illustrated with notes. Lugd. Bat. 1674, 8vo. The fourth part, the Icon Animorum, has repeatedly been printed in a separate form. One edition bears this inscription: "Joannis Barclai Icon Animorum, celeberrimi viri Augusti Buchneri notis, adjecto rerum indice, illustrata." Dresdae, 1680, 8vo. The book soon appeared in an English dress: "The Mirror of Minds, or Barclay's Icon Animorum; Englished by Tho. May, Esq." Lond. 1633, 12mo. Of this translation there is another edition in the same form; but the only copy

Barclay. to which we have access contains a mutilated title, and we therefore cannot discover the date. Two French versions had appeared in the course of one year. "Le Pourtrait des Esprits de Jean Barclay, mis en Français." Paris, 1625, 12mo. "Le Tableau des Esprits de M. Jean Barclay: par lequel on cognoist les humeurs des Nations, leurs avantages et defautes, les inclinations des hommes, tant à cause de leurs propres naturels que des conditions de leurs charges. Nouvellement traduit de Latin en Français." Paris, 1625, 8vo. The dedication of the duodecimo is subscribed Nantevil de Boham; and he has taken such liberties with the original, that his work can scarcely claim the name of a translation. There is a German translation of a very recent date: "Johann Barklaj's Gemälde der menschlichen Charaktere nach Verschiedenheit der Alter, Zeiten, Länder, Individuen und Stände: aus dem Lateinischen übersetzt, und mit Anmerkungen und geschichtlichen Nachweisungen begleitet, von Anton Weddige, Pastor zu Lippsburg." Münster, 1821, 8vo. A continuation of the Satyricon had been published by Claude Morisot, under the title of Alitophili Veritatis Lachrymae; and Lord Hailes describes it as a masterpiece of absurdity.

The editions and versions of the Argenis are much more numerous. An edition with notes appeared under the title of "Joannis Barclai Argenis, nunc primum illustrata." Lugd. Bat. et Roter. 1664, 8vo. This was followed in 1669 by a uniform edition of the continuation: "Archombrotus et Theopompus, sive Argenidis secunda et tertia pars, ubi de Institutione Principis." The notes, which are not held in much estimation, were written by Bugnot, a Benedictine who taught rhetoric in the abbey of Tiron. Lord Hailes mentions a French translation published at Paris, 1622, 8vo; and another with the subsequent title now lies before us: "L'Argenis de Jean Barclay: traduction nouvelle, enrichie de figures." Paris, 1625, 8vo. There are other two French versions of a more recent date, one by the Abbé Josse, a canon of Chartres, 1732, 3 tom. 12mo; and another by M. Savin, Paris, 1776, 2 tom. 8vo. Barclay's romance soon appeared in Spanish; and a copy of this rare version belongs to the Astorga collection in the Advocates Library: "Argenis, por Don Joseph Pellicer de Salas y Tobar. A Don Antonio de Negro, Noble de la Serenissima Republica de Genoua." Madrid, 1626, 4to. Don Joseph has somewhat unfairly excluded Barclay's name from the title-page. An English version was speedily published by Sir Robert Le Grys and Thomas May, Esq. Lond. 1628, 4to. And another was executed by Kingsmill Long, Esq. Lond. 1636, 4to. After a long interval appeared "The Phoenix, or, the History of Polyarchus and Argenis. By a Lady." London, 1772, 4 vols. 12mo. The preface of this publication states that "the editor has made use of both the former translations occasionally, and, whenever a doubt arose, had recourse to the original." Lord Hailes has judiciously enough suggested that "the lady would have done as well had she made use of the original, and only consulted the translations when any doubt arose." The Argenis was at an early period translated into German: "Joan. Barclai Argenis, verdeutsch durch Martin Opitzen." Amsterdam, 1644, 12mo. In this country, the version of Opitz is extremely rare; and the only copy that has fallen under our inspection belongs to the writer of the present notice. Another German translation was published by J. Ch. L. Haken. Berlin, 1794, 2 Bde. 8vo. An Italian version was executed by Francesco Ponna; and this celebrated romance

has even been translated into the Polish, Swedish, and Icelandic languages. Among the northern manuscripts in the Advocates Library there is a Saga of Argenide, translated in the year 1694 by a schoolmaster named Einarson.¹ (D. I.)