addressed to king Henry the Seventh: in which our author professes to follow the manner of his maister Lydgate. t To folowe the trace and all the perfytness Of the poetes olde a tale to surmyse, In the course of the poem he complains, that since Lydgate, the most dulcet sprynge of famous rhetoryke, that species of poetry which deals in fiction and allegoric fable, had been entirely lost and neglected. He allows, that some of Lydgate's successors had been skilful versifiers in the balade royall or octave stanza, which Lydgate carried to such perfection: but adds this remarkable restriction, They fayne no fables pleasaunt and covert :- As gestes and tryfles." These lines, in a small compass, display the general state of poetry which now prevailed. Coeval with Hawes was William Walter, a retainer to sir Henry Marney, chancellous of the duchy of Lancaster: an unknown and obscure writer whom I should not have named, but that he versified, in the octave stanza, Boccacio's story, so beautifully paraphrased by Dryden, of Sigismonda and Guiscard. This poem, I think, was printed by Wynkyn de Worde [1532], and afterwards reprinted in the year 1597, under the title of THE STATELY TRAGEDY of GUISCARD and SIGISMOND*. t invent. "Ch. xiv. So Barklay, in the SHIP or FOOLES, finished in 1508, fol. 18. a. edit. 1570. He is speaking of the profane and improper conversation of priests in the choir. And all of fables and jestes of Robin Hood, 1 Or other trifles. * Viz. "Certaine worthye manuscript poems of great antiquitie, reserved long in the studie of a Northfolke gentleman, now first published by J. S. Lond. R.D. 1597." 12mo. In this edition, beside the story of SIGISMUNDA, mentioned in the text, there is "The Northern Motler's Blessing, written nine yeares bcfore the death of G. Chaucer. And It is in two books. He also wrote a dialogue in verse, called the Spectacle of Lovers', and the History of Titus and Gesippus, a translation from a Latin romance concerning the siege of Jerusalem *. About the year 1490, Henry Medwall, chaplain to Morton archbishop of Canterbury, composed an interlude, called NATURE, which was afterwards translated into Latin. It is not improbable, that it was played before the archbishop. It was the business of chaplains in great houses to compose interludes for the family. This piece was printed by Rastel, in 1538, and entitled, "NATURE, a goodly interlude of nature, compylyd by mayster Henry Medwall, chaplayn to the right reverent father in God, Johan Morton, sometyme cardynall, and archebyshop of Canterbury." In the year 1497, Laurence Wade, a Benedictine monk of Canterbury, translated, into English rhymes, THhe Life of THOMAS A BECKETT, written about the year 1180, in Latin", by Herbert Bosham. The manuscript, which will not bear a citation, is preserved in Benet college in Cambridge. The original had been translated into French verse by Peter Langtoftd. Bosham was Becket's secretary, and present at his martyrdom. "The Way to Thrift." This collection is dedicated to the worthiest Poet MAISTER EDMOND SPENSER. y Begins the PROLOGUE, "Forasmuche as ydelness is rote of all vices." This and the following piece are also printed in quarto, by Wynkyn de Worde. He likewise compiled "A lytell contravers dialogue bytwene love and counsell, with many goodly argumentes of good women and bad, very compendyous to all estates."-RITSON.] * [This opinion Warton afterwards rejected. Vid. infra, Sect. xxxIII.— EDIT.] z Professed in the year 1467. CATAL. Mon. Cant. inter MSS. C. C. C. C. N. 7. 2 VITA ET RES GESTE THOME EPISCOPI CANTUARIENSIS, published in the QUADRILOGUS, Paris. 1495. 4to. b See supr. vol. i. p. 89. C MSS. Coll. C. C. Cant. cccxcvi. 1. Beginn. Prol. "O ye vertuous soverayns spirituall and temporall." Pits. p. 890. Append. SECTION XXIX. I PLACE Alexander Barklay within the year 1500, as his SHIP OF FOOLS appears to have been projected about that period. He was educated at Oriel college in Oxford, accomplished his academical studies by travelling, and was appointed one of the priests, or prebendaries, of the college of saint Mary Ottery in Devonshire. Afterwards he became a Benedictine monk of Ely monasteryf; and at length took the habit of the Franciscans at Canterbury 8. He temporised with the changes of religion; for he possessed some church-preferments in the reign of Edward the Sixth h. He died, very old, at Croydon, in Surry i, in the year 1552. He seems to have spent some time at Cambridge, EGLOG. i. Signat. A. iii. And once in Cambridge I heard a scol ler say, One of the same that go in copès gay. One of the stanzas of this pa- f In the title to his translation from Mancinus, called the MIRROUR OF GOOD MANNERS. 6 MS. Bale, Sloan. f. 68. h He was instituted to Much Badew in Essex, in 1546. Newcourt, REP. i. 254. And to Wokey in Somersetshire, the same year. Registr. Wellens. He had also the church of All Saints, in Lombard-street, London, on the presentation of the dean and chapter of Canterbury, which was vacant by his death, Aug. 24, 1552. Newcourt, ut supr. i He frequently mentions Croydon in his EGLOGES. He was buried in Croydon church. EGL. i. Signat. A. iii. And as in CROIDON I heard the Collier preache. Again, ibid. While I in youth in CROIDON towne did dwell. Again, ibid. He hath no felowe betwene this and Save the proude plowman Gnatho of He mentions the collier again, ibid. can. Also, ibid. As the riche shepheard that woned in Barklay's principal work is the SHIP OF FOOLES, above mentioned. About the year 1494 [1470*], Sebastian Brandt, a learned civilian of Basil, and an eminent philologist, published a satire in German with this title. The design was to ridicule the reigning vices and follies of every rank and profession, under the allegory of a Ship freighted with Fools of all kinds, but without any variety of incident, or artificiality of fable; yet although the poem is destitute of plot, and the voyage of adventures, a composition of such a nature became extremely popular. It was translated into French; and, in the year 1488+, into tolerable Latin verse, by James Locher, a German, and a scholar of the inventour Brandt'. From the original, and the two translations, Barklay formed a large English poem, in the balade or octave stanza, with considerable additions gleaned from the follies of his countrymen. It was printed by Pinson, in 1509, whose name occurs in the poem. Howbeit the charge PINSON has on me layde It was finished in the year 1508, and in the college of saint * [In the Additions to this volume, Warton instructed the reader to expunge the date 1494, and substitute that of 1470. But Brandt was not born till the year 1458, a circumstance which makes this correction quite untenable. The German bibliographers speak of an edition printed at Basle without date, as the earliest known to them, though others maintain the Strasburg edition of 1494 to be the first of the German original. If this be true, Locher must have translated from Brandt's manuscript. EDIT.] J I presume this is the same Sebastian Brandt, to whom Thomas Acuparius, poet laureate, dedicates a volume of Poggius's works, Argentorat. 1513. fol. He is here styled, "Juris utriusque doctor, et S. P. Q. Argentinensis cancellarius." The dedication is dated 1511. See Hendreich. PANDECT. p. 703.[Brandt was a doctor of laws, an imperial counsellor, and Syndic to the Senate of Strasburg.-EDIT.] * By Joce Bade. Paris, 1497. [In verse. From which the French prose translation was made the next year.ADDITIONS.] [With this title, "Sebastiani Brandt. NAVIS STULTIFERA Mortalium, a vernaculo ac vulgari sermone in Latinum conscripta, per JACOBUM LOCHER Cognomine Philomusum Suevum cum figuris. Per Jacobum Zachoni de Romano, anno 1488." 4to. In the colophon, it is said to have been jampridem traducta from the German original by Locher; and that this Latin translation was revised by the inventor Brandt, with the addition of many new FooLS. A second edition of Locher's Latin was printed at Paris in 1498. 4to. There is a French prose translation by Jehan Drouyn, at Lyons, 1498. fol. In the royal library at Paris, there is a curious copy of Barklay's English SHIP of FOLYS, by Pinson, on vellum, with the wood-cuts: a rarity not, I believe, to be found in England. -ADDITIONS.] 1 See THE PROLOGUE. In another place he com Mary Ottery, as appears by this rubric, "The SHYP OF FOLYS, translated in the colege of saynt Mary Otery, in the counte of Devonshyre, oute of Laten, Frenche, and Doch, into Englishe tonge, by Alexander Barclay, preste and chaplen in the sayd colledge, M.CCCCC.VIII. " Our author's stanza is verbose, prosaic, and tedious and for many pages together, his poetry is little better than a trite homily in verse. The title promises much character and pleasantry: but we shall be disappointed, if we expect to find the foibles of the crew of our ship touched by the hand of the author of the CANTERBURY TALES, or exposed in the rough yet strong satire of Pierce Plowman. He sometimes has a stroke of humour: as in the following stanza, where he wishes to take on board the eight secondaries, or minor canons, of his college. "Alexander Barclay ad FATUOS, ut dent locum ocTO SECUNDARIIS beatæ Mariæ de Ottery, qui quidem prima hujus ratis transtra merentur°" Softe, Foolis, softe, a litle slacke your pace, I have eyght neyghbours, that first shall have a place The ignorance of the English clergy is one of the chief objects of his animadversion. He says', plains that some of his wordes are amis, on account of the printers not perfect in science. And adds, that The printers in their busynes folly of all states, with divers other works adjoined to the same," &c. This has both Latin and English. But Ames, under Wynkyn de Worde, recites "The Do all their workes speediely and in Ship of Fools in this World," 4to. 1517. haste. HIST. PRINT. p. 94. |