mit pictures of familiar manners, and preferve popular cuftoms. In this In this light, at least, Barklay's SHIP OF FOOLS, which is a general fatire on the times, will be found entertaining. Nor muft it be denied, that his language is more. cultivated than that of many of his cotemporaries, and that he contributed his fhare to the improvement of the English phrafeology. His author, Sebaftian Brandt, appears to have been a man of univerfal erudition; and his work, for the moft part, is a tiffue of citations from the ancient poets and hiftorians. Barklay's other pieces are the MIRROUR OF GOOD Manners, and five EGLOGES. The MIRROUR is a tranflation from a Latin elegiac poem, written in the year 1516, by Dominic Mancini DE QUATUOR VIRTUTIBUS. It is in the ballad-ftanza. Our tranflator, He alfo wrote, The figure of our mother holy church oppreffed by the French king, printed for Pinfon, 4to.-Anfwer to John Skelton the Poet.-The Lives of S. Catharine, S. Margaret, and St. Etheldred.-The Life of S. George, from Mantuan: dedicated to N. Weft bishop of Ely, and written while our author was a monk of Ely. -De Pronuntiatione Gallica. John Palfgrave, a polite fcholar, and an eminent preceptour of the French language about the reign of Henry the eighth, and one of the firft who published in English a grammar or fyftem of rules for teaching that language, fays in his L' Eclairciffement de la language François, addreffed to Henry the eighth, and printed (fol. Lond.) in 1530, that our author Barklay wrote a tract on this fubject at the command of Thomas duke of Norfolk. The famous Cronycle of the Warre which the Romans bad agaynft Jugurth ufurper of the kyngdom of Numidy: which cronycle is compyled in Latyn by the renowned Romayn Salluft. And tranflated into Englishe by SYR ALEXANDER BARCLAY, preeft, at the commaundmente of the bye and mighty prince Thomas duke of Norfolk. In two editions, by Pinfon, of this work, both in folio, and in the public library at Cambridge, the Latin‹ • Printed as above, 1570. fol. And by. Pinfon, at the command of Richard earl of Kent. Without date, 4to. The Latin: elegiacs are printed in the margin, which have been frequently printed. At Bafil, as appears by the address prefixed, had been requested by fir Giles Alyngton to abridge, or modernife, Gower's CONFESSIO AMANTIS. But the poet declined this undertaking, as unfuitable to his age, infirmities, and profeffion; and chofe rather to oblige his patron with a grave system of ethics. It is certain that he made a prudent choice. The perfor'mance fhews how little qualified he was to correct Gower. Our author's EGLOGES, I believe, are the first that appeared in the English language'. They are, like Petrarch's and Mantuan's, of the moral and fatirical kind; and contain but few touches of rural description and bucolic imagery. They seem to have been written about the year 1514". The three firft are paraphrafed, with very large additions, from the MISERIE CURIALIUM of Eneas Sylvius', and treat of the Miferyes of Courtiers and Courtes of all Princes in general. The fourth, in which is introduced a long poem in stanzas, called the Tower of Vertue and Honour, of the behaviour of riche men agaynft poetes. The fifth, of the difputation of citizens and men of the country. These pastorals, if they deserve the name, contain many allufions to the times. The poet is 1543. At Antwerp, 1559. With the epigram of Peter Carmelian annexed. And often before. Lastly, at the end of MARTINI Braccarenfis Formula bonefta Vita, Helmftad. 1691. 8vo. They are dedicated "Frederico Severinati epifcopo Mallea"cenfi." They firft appeared at Leipfic, 1516. See Trithemius, concerning another of his poems, Mancini's, De paffione domini, cap. 995. f Printed as above, 1570, fol. First, I believe, by Humphry Powell. 4to. Without date. Perhaps about 1550. Whom he mentions, fpeaking of EG- And in like maner, nowe lately in our dayes, h Because he praifes "noble Henry "which now departed late." Afterwards he falls into a long panegyric on his fucceffour Henry the eighth. EGLOG. i. As he does in the SHIP OF FOOLES, fol. 205. a. where he says, This noble prince beginneth vertuously He then wishes he may retake Jerufalem That is pope Pius the fecond, who died in 1464. This piece is among his EPISTLES, fome of which are called Tracts. EPIST. CLVI. * It is properly an elegy on the death of the duke of Norfolk, lord high admiral. prolix prolix in his praises of Alcock bishop of Ely, and founder of Jefus college in Cambridge *. Yes fince his dayes a cocke was in the fen1, This very learned and munificent prelate defervedly poffeffed fome of the highest dignities in church and state. He was appointed bishop of Ely in 1486. He died at Wifbich, 1501. See Whart. ANGL. SACR. i. 675. 801. 381. Roffe fays, that he was tutor to prince Edward, afterwards Edward the fifth, but removed by the king's uncle Richard. Roffe, I think, is the only historian who records this anecdote. HIST. REG. ANGL. p. 212. edit. Hearn. The ifle of Ely. tres fuos curatos in fynodo apud Barnwell, 25 Sept. 1498. To which is annexed his ConSTITUTION for celebrating certain feasts in his diocefe. Printed for Pinfon, 1498. 4to. In the beginning is the figure of the bishop preaching to his clergy, with two cocks on each fide. And there is a cock in the first page. By the way, Alcock wrote many other pieces. The HILL OF PERFECTION, from the Latin. For Pinson, 1497. 4to. For Wynkyn de Worde, 1497. 4to. Again, for the fame, 1501. 4to. THE ABBY OF THE HOLY GHOST that shall be founded and grounded in a clear confcience, in which abbey shall dwell twenty and nine ladies gheftly. For the fame, 1531. 4to. Again, for the fame, without date, but before 1500. 4to. At the end, "Thus "endeth without boft, The Abby of the "holi goft." [See MSS. Harl. 5272. 3. -1704. 9. fol. 32. b. And MSS. C. C. Č. Oxon. 155. And MSS. MORE, 191.] SPOUSAGE OF A VIRGIN TO CHRIST, 1486. 4to. HOMELIE VULGARES. MEDITATIONES PIÆ. A fragment of a comment upon the SEVEN PENITENTIAL PSALMS, in English verfe, is fuppofed to be by bishop Alcock, MSS. Harl. 1704. fol. 13. 4. When When he went, faded the floure of al the fen ; Alcock, while living, erected a beautiful fepulchral chapel in his cathedral, ftill remaining, but miferably defaced. To which the shepherd alludes in the lines that follow: This was the father of thinges pastorall, There was I lately, aboute the midst of May: Our parishe church is but a dongeon To that gay churche in comparison. When I fawe his figure lye in the chapel fide, &c. In another place he thus represents the general lamentation for the death of this worthy prelate: and he rises above himself in defcribing the fympathy of the towers, arches, vaults, and images, of Ely monastery. The pratie palace by him made in the fen", The maidès, widowes, the wives, and the men, Shrunke under fhadowes, abating all their chere. EGLOG. i. Signat. A. iii. P He rebuilt, or greatly improved, the epifcopal palace at Ely. 9 Beafts, quadrupeds of all kinds. So in the romance of SYR BEVIS, Signat. F. iii. Rattes and myfe and such smal dere Was his meate that seven yere. Whence Shakespeare took, as Dr. Percy has obferved, the well-known diftich of the madman in KING LEAR, ACT iii. Sc. 4. The mightie walles of Ely monaftery, Swete all for forrowe, when this cocke was gone, &c ". It should be remembered, that these paftorals were probably written while our poet was a monk of Ely: and although Alcock was then dead, yet the memory of his munificence and piety was recent in the monastery'. Speaking of the dignity and antiquity of fhepherds, and particularly of Christ at his birth being first seen by fhepherds, he seems to defcribe fome large and fplendid picture of the Nativity painted on the walls of Ely cathedral. I fawe them my felfe well paynted on the wall, I saw great wethers, in picture, and small lambes, |