תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

Befydes this gyaunt, upon every tree
I did fee hanging many a goodly shielde

Of noble knygtes, that were of hie degree,
Whiche he had slayne and murdred in the fielde:
From farre this gyaunt I ryght well behelde;
And towarde hym as I rode on my way,

On his first heade I sawe a banner gay'.

To this poem a dedication of eight octave stanzas is prefixed, addreffed to king Henry the feventh: in which our author profeffes to follow the manner of his maister Lydgate.

To folowe the trace and all the perfytness
Of my maister Lydgate, with due exercise,
Such fayned tales I do fynde' and devyse:
For under coloure a truthe may aryse,
As was the guyfe, in old antiquitie,
Of the poetes olde a tale to furmyfe,
To cloake the truthe.

In the course of the poem he complains, that fince Lydgate, the most dulcet fprynge of famous rhetoryke, that species of poetry which deals in fiction and allegoric fable, had been entirely loft and neglected. He allows, that some of Lydgate's fucceffors had been skilful verfifiers in the balade royall or octave ftanza, which Lydgate carried to fuch perfection but adds this remarkable restriction,

They fayne no fables pleafaunt and covert :-
Makyng balades of fervent amytie,

As geftes and tryfles ".

s Ch. xxxv.

↑ Invent.

Ch. xiv. So Barklay, in the SHIP OF FOOLES, finished in 1508, fol. 18. a. edit. 1570. He is speaking of the profane

[blocks in formation]

These lines, in a small compafs, difplay the general state of poetry which now prevailed.

Coeval with Hawes was William Walter, a retainer to fir Henry Marney, chancellour of the duchy of Lancaster: an unknown and obfcure writer whom I should not have named, but that he verfified, in the octave stanza, Boccacio's ftory, fo beautifully paraphrased by Dryden, of Sigifmonda and Guifcard. This poem, I think, was printed by Wynkyn de Worde, and afterwards reprinted in the year 1597, under the title of THE STATELY TRAGEDY OF GUISCARD AND SIGISMOND *. It is in two books. He alfo wrote a dialogue in verfe, called the Spectacle of Lovers', and the Hiftory of Titus and Gefippus, a tranflation from a Latin romance concerning the fiege of Jerufalem.

About the year 1490, Henry Medwall, chaplain to Morton archbishop of Canterbury, compofed an interlude, called NATURE, which was afterwards tranflated 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 Raftel, in 1538, and entitled, " NATURE, a goodly interlude of nature, compylyd by mayfter Henry Medwall, chaplayn to "the right reverent father in God, Johan Morton, fometyme cardynall, and archebyshop of Canterbury.”

In the year 1497, Laurence Wade, a Benedictine monk of Canterbury, translated, into English rhymes, THE LIFE OF THOMAS A BECKETT, written about the year 1180, in

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Latin, by Herbert Bosham'. The manufcript, which will not bear a citation, is preserved in Benet college in Cambridge. The original had been tranflated into French verse by Peter Langtoft. Bofham was Becket's fecretary, and prefent at his martyrdom.

A VITA ET RES GESTE THOME EPISCOPI CANTUARIENSIS, published in the QUADRILOGUS, Parif. 1495. 4to.

See fupr. vol. i. 61.

c MSS. Coll. C. C. Cant. CCCXCVII. I. Beginn. Prol. "O ye vertuous foverayns "fpirituall and temporall." d Pitf. p. 890. APPEND.

SECT

I

SE C T. VII.

Place Alexander Barklay within the year 1500, as his Alexans a

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 faint Mary Ottery in Devonshire. Afterwards he became a Benedictine monk of Ely monastery'; and at length took the habit of the Francifcans at Canterbury. He temporised with the changes of religion; for he poffeffed fome church-preferments in the reign of Edward the fixth". He died, very old, at Croydon, in Surry', in the year 1552.

d He seems to have spent fome time at Cambridge, EGLOG. i. Signat. A. iii.

And once in Cambridge I heard a fcoller fay,

One of the fame that go in copès gay.

• The chief patron of his ftudies appears to have been Thomas Cornish, provost of Oriel college, and Suffragan bishop of Tyne, in the diocese of Bath and Wells; to whom he dedicates, in a handsome Latin epiftle, his SHIP OF FOOLS. But in the poem, he mentions My Maifter Kyrkbam, calling himself" his true fervitour, his chap“layne, and bede-man." fol. 152. b. edit. 1570. Some biographers fuppofe Barklay to have been a native of Scotland. It is certain that he has a long and laboured encomium on James the fourth, king of Scotland; whom he compliments for his bravery, prudence, and other eminent virtues. One of the ftanzas of this panegyric is an acroftic on JACOBUS. fol. 206. a. He most probably was of Devonshire or Gloucestershire.

f In the title to his tranflation from Mancinus, called the MIRROUR OF GOOD MANNERS.

MS, Bale, Sloan. f. 68.

h He was inftituted to Much Badew in Effex, in 1546. Newcourt, REP. i. 254. And to Wokey in Somersetshire, the fame year. Regiftr. Wellenf. He had also the church of All Saints, in Lombard-street, London, on the prefentation of the dean. and chapter of Canterbury, which was vacant by his death, Aug. 24, 1552. Newcourt, ut fupr.

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
CROIDON

Save the proude plowman Gnatho of
Chorlington.

He mentions the collier again, ibid.

Such maner riches the collier tell thee can.
Alfo, ibid.

As the riche fhepheard that woned in
Mortlake.

Barklay's

Barklay's principal work is the SHIP OF FOOLES, abovementioned. About the year 1494, Sebastian Brandt, a learned civilian of Bafil, and an eminent philologist, published a fatire in German with this title '. The design was to ridicule the reigning vices and follies of every rank and profeffion, 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 compofition of fuch a nature became extremely popular. It was tranflated into French*; and, in the year 1497, into tolerable Latin verfe, by James Locher, a German, and a fcholar of the inventour Brandt'. From the original, and the two tranflations, Barklay formed a large English poem, in the balade or octave stanza, with confiderable additions gleaned from the follies of his countrymen. It was printed by Pinfon, in 1509, whofe name occurs in the poem.

Howbeit the charge PINSON has on me layde

With many fooles our navy not to charge ".

It was finished in the year 1508, and in the college of faint Mary Ottery, as appears by this rubric, " The SHYP OF "FOLYS, tranflated in the colege of faynt Mary Otery, in "the counte of Devonshyre, oute of Laten, Frenche, and "Doch, into Englishe tonge, by Alexander Barclay, preste " and chaplen in the fayd colledge, M.CCCCC.VIII".

I prefume this is the fame Sebastian Brandt, to whom Thomas Acuparius, poet laureate, dedicates a volume of Poggius's works, Argentorat. 1513. fol. He is here ftyled, "Juris utriufque doctor, et S. P. Q. "Argentinenfis cancellarius." The dedication is dated 1511. See Hendreich. PANDECT. P. 703..

* By Joce Bade. Paris, 1497.

1 See THE PROLOGUE.

m Fol. 38. In another place he complains that fome of his wordes are amis, on account of the printers not perfect in Science. And adds that,

[blocks in formation]

i

Our au

The printers in their bufynes Do all their workes speediely and in haste. fol. 258. b.

"In folio. A fecond edition, from which I cite, was printed with his other works, in the year 1570, by Cawood, in folio, with curious wooden cuts, taken from Pinfon's impreffion, viz. "The SHIP OF FOOLES, "wherein is fhewed the folly of all states, "with divers other works adjoined to the "fame, &c." This has both Latin and English. But Ames, under Wynkyn de Worde, recites "The Ship of Fools in this "World." 4to. 1517. HIST. PRINT. P.94. thor's

« הקודםהמשך »