Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

ALEXANDER BARCLAY (c. 1476-1552)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 394 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

ALEXANDER See also:BARCLAY (c. 1476-1552)  , See also:British poet, was See also:born about 1476 . His See also:nationality is See also:matter of dispute, but See also:William Bulleyn, who was a native of See also:Ely, and probably knew him when he was in the monastery there, asserts that he was born "beyonde the See also:cold See also:river of Twede "; moreover, the spelling of his name and the occasional Scottish words in his vocabulary point to a See also:northern' origin . His See also:early See also:life was spent at See also:Croydon, but it is not certain whether he was educated at See also:Oxford or See also:Cambridge . It may be presumed that he took his degree, as he uses the See also:title of " Syr " in his See also:translation of See also:Sallust, and in his will he is called See also:doctor of divinity . From the numerous incidental references in his See also:works, and from his knowledge of See also:European literature, it may be inferred that he spent some See also:time abroad . See also:Thomas Cornish, See also:suffragan See also:bishop in the See also:diocese of See also:Bath and See also:Wells, and See also:provost of See also:Oriel See also:College, Oxford, from 1493 to 1507, appointed him See also:chaplain of the college of St See also:Mary Ottery, See also:Devonshire . Here he translated See also:Sebastian See also:Brant's See also:Ship of See also:Fools, and even introduced his neighbours into the See also:satire: " For if one can flatter, and beare a Hauke on his fist, He shall be See also:parson of Honington or See also:Cist." The See also:death of his See also:patron in 1513 apparently put an end to his connexion with the See also:west, and he became a See also:monk in the See also:Benedictine monastery of Ely . In this See also:retreat he probably wrote his eclogues, but in 1520 " See also:Maistre Barkleye, the Blacke Monke and Poete " was desired to devise " histoires and convenient raisons to florisshe the buildings and banquet See also:house withal" at the See also:meeting between See also:Henry VIII. and See also:Francis I. at the See also:Field of the See also:Cloth of See also:Gold . He at length became a Franciscan monk of See also:Canterbury . It is presumed that he conformed with the See also:change' of See also:religion, for he retained under See also:Edward VI. the livings of See also:Great . Baddow, See also:Essex, and of Wokey, See also:Somerset, which he had received in 1546, and was presented in 1552 by the See also:dean and See also:chapter of Canterbury to the rectory of All Hallows, Lombard See also:Street, See also:London . He died shortly after this last preferment at Croydon, See also:Surrey, where he was buried on the loth of See also:June 1552 .

All the See also:

evidence in See also:Barclay's own See also:work goes to prove that he was sincere in his reproof of contemporary follies and See also:vice, and the See also:gross accusations which See also:John See also:Bale' brings against his moral See also:character may be put down to his hatred of Barclay's cloth . The Ship of Fools was as popular in its See also:English See also:dress as it had been in See also:Germany . It was the starting-point of a new satirical literature . In itself a product of the See also:medieval conception of the See also:fool who figured so largely in the Shrovetide and other pageants, it differs entirely from the See also:general allegorical satires of the preceding centuries . The figures are no longer abstractions; they are See also:concrete examples of the folly of the bibliophile who collects books but learns nothing from them, of the evil See also:judge who takes bribes to favour the guilty, of the old fool whom time merely strengthens in his folly, of those who are eager to follow the fashions, of the priests who spend their time in See also:church telling " gestes " of See also:Robin See also:Hood and so forth . The spirit of the See also:book reflects the general transition between See also:allegory and narrative, morality and See also:drama . The Narrenschiff of Sebastian Brant was essentially See also:German in conception and treatment, but his See also:hundred and thirteen types of fools possessed, nevertheless, universal See also:interest . It was in reality sins and vices, however, rather than follies that came under his censure, and this didactic See also:temper was reflected in Barclay . The book appeared in 1494 with woodcuts said to have been devised and perhaps partly executed by Brant himself . In these illustrations, which gave an impulse to the See also:production of " enblems " and were copied in the English version, there appears a See also:humour quite absent from the See also:text . In the Latin elegiacs of the Stultifera Navis (1497) of See also:Jacob Locher the book was read throughout See also:Europe . Barclay's The Shyp of Folys of the Worlde was first printed by See also:Richard Pynson in 1509 .

He says he translated " oute of Laten, Frenche, and Doche," but he seems to have been most See also:

familiar with the Latin version . He used a See also:good See also:deal of freedom in his translation, " sometyme addynge, sometyme detractinge and takinge away suche thinges as semeth me necessary and superfine." The fools are given a See also:local See also:colour, and Barclay appears as the unsparing satirist of the social evils of his time . At the end of nearly every See also:section he adds an envoi of his own to drive See also:home the moral more surely . The poem is written in the See also:ordinary Chaucerian See also:stanza, and in See also:language which is more See also:modern than the See also:common See also:literary English of his See also:day . Certayne Ecloges of See also:Alexander Barclay, See also:Priest, written in his youth, were probably printed as early as 1513, although the earliest extant edition is that in John Cawood's reprint (1570) of the Ship of Fools . They See also:form, with the exception of See also:Henryson's Robin and Makyn, the earliest examples of the English See also:pastoral . The first three eclogues, in the form of dialogues between Coridon and Cornix, were borrowed from the Miseriae Curialium of See also:Aeneas Sylvius See also:Piccolomini (See also:Pope See also:Pius II.), and contain an eulogy of John See also:Alcock, bishop of Ely, the founder of Jesus College, Cambridge . The See also:fourth is based on Mantuan's See also:eclogue, De consuetudine divitum erga poetas, with large additions . It contains the " Descrypcion of the towre of Virtue and See also:Honour," an See also:elegy on See also:Sir Edward See also:Howard, See also:lord high See also:admiral of See also:England, who perished in the attack on the See also:French See also:fleet in the harbrnlr of See also:Brest in 1513 . The fifth, printed by Wynkyn de Worde, also without date, is entitled the " Fyfte Eglog of See also:Alexandre Barclay of the Cytezen and the uplondyshman " and is also based on Mantuan . Two shepherds, Amintas and Faustus, discuss the familiar theme of the respective merits of See also:town and See also:country life, and relate a See also:quaint See also:fable of the origin of the different classes of society . Barclay's pastorals contain many pictures of rustic life as he knew it .

He describes for instance the See also:

Sunday See also:games in the See also:village, See also:football, and the struggle for See also:food at great feasts; Script . See also:Ill . Maj . Brit . (1557, Cent. ix . No . 66) . but his eclogues were, like his See also:Italian See also:models, also satires on social evils . The shepherds are rustics of the See also:Colin Clout type, and discuss the follies and corruptions around them . Barclay had, however, no sympathy with the See also:anti-clerical diatribes of John See also:Skelton, whom he more than once attacks . Bale mentions an Anti-Skeltonum which is lost . His other works are:—The See also:Castell of Laboure (Wynkyn de Worde, 1506), from the French of See also:Pierre See also:Gringoire; the See also:Introductory to write and to pronounce Frenche (See also:Robert See also:Copland, 1521); The Myrrour of Good Maners (Richard Pynson, not dated), a translation of the De quatuor virtutibus of Dominicus Mancinus; Cronycle compyled in Latyn by the renowned Sallust (Richard Pynson, no date), a translation of the Bellum Jugurthinum; The Lyfe of the glorious See also:Martyr Saynt See also:George (R .

Pynson, c . 1530) . The Lyfe of Saynte Thomas, and Haython's Cronycle, both printed by Pynson, are also attributed to Barclay, but on very doubtful grounds . See T . H . See also:

Jamieson's edition of the Ship of Fools (See also:Edinburgh, 1874), which contains an See also:account of the author and a bibliography of his works; and J . W . See also:Fairholt's edition of The Cytezen and Uplondyshman (See also:Percy See also:Soc . 1847), which includes large extracts from the other eclogues; also See also:Zarncke's edition of Brant (See also:Leipzig, 1854); and Dr Fedor See also:Fraustadt, Ober See also:des Verhaltnis von Barclays Ship of Fools zu den lateinischen, franzosischen and deutschen Quellen (1894) . A See also:prose version of Locher's Stultifera See also:Nevis, by Henry See also:Watson, was printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1518 .

End of Article: ALEXANDER BARCLAY (c. 1476-1552)
[back]
MICHAEL ANDREAS BARCLAY DE TOLLY
[next]
JOHN BARCLAY (1582-1621)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click and select "copy." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.