Whether this distinguished poet was an Englishman or a Scotchman has long
been a _quæstio vexata_ affording the literary antiquary a suitable field
for the display of his characteristic amenity. Bale, the oldest authority,
simply says that some contend he was a Scot, others an Englishman, (Script.
Illust. Majoris Britt. Catalogus, 1559). Pits (De Illust. Angliæ Script.,)
asserts that though to some he appears to have been a Scot, he was really
an Englishman, and probably a native of Devonshire, ("_nam_ ibi ad S.
Mariam de Otery, Presbyter primum fuit"). Wood again, (Athen. Oxon.), by
the reasoning which finds a likeness between Macedon and Monmouth, because
there is a river in each, arrives at "Alexander de Barklay, seems to have
been born at or near a town so called in Somersetshire;" upon which Ritson
pertinently observes, "there is no such place in Somersetshire, the onely
Berkeley known is in Gloucestershire." Warton, coming to the question
double-shotted, observes that "he was most probably of Devonshire or
Gloucestershire," in the one case following Pits, and in the other
anticipating Ritson's observation.
On the other hand Bale, in an earlier work than the _Catalogus_, the
_Summarium Ill. Maj. Britt. Script._, published in 1548, during Barclay's
life time, adorns him with the epithets "Scotus, rhetor ac poeta insignis."
Dempster (Hist. ecclesiastica), styles him "Scotus, ut retulit ipse Joannes
Pitsæus." Holinshed also styles him "Scot"! Sibbald gives him a place in
his (MS.) Catalogues of Scottish poets, as does also Wodrow in his
Catalogues of Scots writers. Mackenzie (Lives of the Scots writers) begins,
"The Barklies, from whom this gentleman is descended, are of a very ancient
standing in Scotland." Ritson (Bib. Poetica), after a caustic review of the
controversy, observes "both his name of baptism and the orthography of his
surname seem to prove that he was of Scottish extraction." Bliss (Additions
to Wood) is of opinion that he "undoubtedly was not a native of England,"
and Dr Irving (Hist. of Scot. Poetry) adheres to the opinion of Ritson.
Such contention, whatever may be the weight of the evidence on either side,
is at any rate a sufficient proof of the eminence of the individual who is
the subject of it; to be his birthplace being considered an honour of so
much value to the country able to prove its claim to the distinction as to
occasion a literary warfare of several centuries' duration.
We cannot profess to have brought such reinforcements to either side as to
obtain for it a complete and decisive victory, but their number and
character are such as will probably induce one of the combatants quietly to
retire from the field. In the first place, a more explicit and
unimpeachable piece of evidence than any contained in the authors mentioned
above has been found, strangely enough, in a medical treatise, published
about twenty years after Barclay's death, by a physician and botanist of
great eminence in the middle of the sixteenth century, who was a native of
the isle of Ely, at the Monastery of which Barclay was for some time a
monk.
It is entitled "A dialogue both pleasaunt and pietifull, wherein is a
godlie regiment against the Fever Pestilence, with a consolation and
comforte against death.--Newlie corrected by William Bullein, the author
thereof.--Imprinted at London by Ihon Kingston. Julij, 1573." [8vo., B.L.,
111 leaves.] "There was an earlier impression of this work in 1564, but the
edition of 1573 was 'corrected by the author,' the last work on which he
probably was engaged, as he died in 1576. It is of no value at this time of
day as a medical treatise, though the author was very eminent; but we
advert to it because Bullein, for the sake of variety and amusement,
introduces notices of Chaucer, Gower, Lidgate, Skelton, and Barclay, which,
coming from a man who was contemporary with two of them, may be accepted as
generally accurate representations.... Alexander Barclay, Dr Bullein calls
Bartlet, in the irregular spelling of those times; and, asserting that he
was 'born beyond the cold river of Tweed,' we see no sufficient reason for
disbelieving that he was a native of Scotland. Barclay, after writing his
pastorals, &c., did not die until 1552, so that Bullein was his
contemporary, and most likely knew him and the fact. He observes:--'Then
Bartlet, with an hoopyng russet long coate, with a pretie hoode in his
necke, and five knottes upon his girdle, after Francis tricks. He was borne
beyonde the cold river of Twede. He lodged upon a swete bed of chamomill,
under the sinamum tree; about hym many shepherdes and shepe, with
pleasaunte pipes; greatly abhorring the life of Courtiers, Citizens,
Usurers, and Banckruptes, &c., whose olde daies are miserable. And the
estate of shepherdes and countrie people he accoumpted moste happie and
sure." (Collier's "Bibliographical Account of Early English Literature,"
Vol. 1., P. 97).
"The certainty with which Bulleyn here speaks of Barclay, as born beyond
the Tweed, is not a little strengthened by the accuracy with which even in
allegory he delineates his peculiar characteristics. 'He lodged upon a bed
of sweet camomile.' What figure could have been more descriptive of that
agreeable bitterness, that pleasant irony, which distinguishes the author
of the 'Ship of Fools?' 'About him many shepherds and sheep with pleasant
pipes, greatly abhorring the life of courtiers.' What could have been a
plainer paraphrase of the title of Barclay's 'Eclogues,' or 'Miseries of
Courtiers and Courtes, and of all Princes in General.' As a minor feature,
'the five knots upon his girdle after Francis's tricks' may also be
noticed. Hitherto, the fact of Barclay having been a member of the
Franciscan order has been always repeated as a matter of some doubt; 'he
was a monk of the order of St Benedict, and afterwards, as some say, a
Franciscan. Bulleyn knows, and mentions, with certainty, what others only
speak of as the merest conjecture. In short, everything tends to shew a
degree of familiar acquaintance with the man, his habits, and his
productions, which entitles the testimony of Bulleyn to the highest
credit.'" (Lives of the Scottish Poets, Vol. I., pt. ii., p. 77).
But there are other proofs pointing as decidedly to the determination of
this long-continued controversy in favour of Scotland, as the soil from
which this vagrant child of the muses sprung. No evidence seems to have
been hitherto sought from the most obvious source, his writings. The writer
of the memoir in the Biographia Brittanica, (who certainly dealt a
well-aimed, though by no means decisive, blow, in observing, "It is pretty
extraordinary that Barclay himself, in his several addresses to his patrons
should never take notice of his being a stranger, which would have made
their kindness to him the more remarkable [it was very customary for the
writers of that age to make mention in their works of the countries to
which they belonged, especially if they wrote out of their own];[1] whereas
the reader will quickly see, that in his address to the young gentlemen of
England in the 'Mirror of Good Manners,' he treats them as his
countrymen,") has remarked, "It seems a little strange that in those days a
Scot should obtain so great reputation in England, especially if it be
considered from whence our author's rose, viz., from his enriching and
improving the English tongue. Had he written in Latin or on the sciences,
the thing had been probable enough, but in the light in which it now
stands, I think it very far from likely." From which it is evident that the
biographer understood not the versatile nature of the Scot and his ability,
especially when caught young, in "doing in Rome as the Romans do."
Barclay's English education and foreign travel, together extending over the
most impressionable years of his youth, could not have failed to rub off
any obvious national peculiarities of speech acquired in early boyhood, had
the difference between the English and Scottish speech then been wider than
it was. But the language of Barbour and Chaucer was really one and the
same. It will then not be wondered at that but few Scotch words are found
in Barclay's writings. Still, these few are not without their importance in
strengthening the argument as to nationality. The following from "The Ship
of Fools," indicate at once the clime to which they are native, "gree,"
"kest," "rawky," "ryue," "yate," "bokest," "bydeth," "thekt," and "or," in
its peculiar Scottish use.[2] That any Englishman, especially a South or
West of England Englishman, should use words such as those, particularly at
a time of hostility and of little intercourse between the nations, will
surely be admitted to be a far more unlikely thing than that a Scotchman
born, though not bred, should become, after the effects of an English
education and residence had efficiently done their work upon him, a great
improver and enricher of the English tongue.
But perhaps the strongest and most decisive argument of all in this
much-vexed controversy is to be found in the panegyric of James the Fourth
contained in the "Ship of Fools," an eulogy so highly pitched and
extravagant that no Englishman of that time would ever have dreamed of it
or dared to pen it. Nothing could well be more conclusive. Barclay precedes
it by a long and high-flown tribute to Henry, but when he comes to "Jamys
of Scotlonde," he, so to speak, out-Herods Herod. Ordinary verse suffices
not for the greatness of his subject, which he must needs honour with an
acrostic,--
"I n prudence pereles is this moste comely kynge
A nd as for his strength and magnanymyte
C oncernynge his noble dedes in euery thynge
O ne founde or grounde lyke to hym can not be
B y byrth borne to boldnes and audacyte
V nder the bolde planet of Mars the champyon
S urely to subdue his ennemyes echone."
There, we are convinced, speaks not the prejudiced, Scot-hating English
critic, but the heart beating true to its fatherland and loyal to its
native Sovereign.
That "he was born beyonde the cold river of Twede," about the year 1476, as
shall be shown anon, is however all the length we can go. His training was
without doubt mainly, if not entirely English. He must have crossed the
border very early in life, probably for the purpose of pursuing his
education at one of the Universities, or, even earlier than the period of
his University career, with parents or guardians to reside in the
neighbourhood of Croydon, to which he frequently refers. Croydon is
mentioned in the following passages in Eclogue I.:
"While I in youth in Croidon towne did dwell."
"He hath no felowe betwene this and Croidon,
Save the proude plowman Gnatho of Chorlington."
"And as in Croidon I heard the Collier preache"
"Such maner riches the Collier tell thee can"
"As the riche Shepheard that woned in Mortlake."
It seems to have become a second home to him, for there, we find, in 1552,
he died and was buried.
At which University he studied, whether Oxford or Cambridge, is also a
matter of doubt and controversy. Wood claims him for Oxford and Oriel,
apparently on no other ground than that he dedicates the "Ship of Fools" to
Thomas Cornish, the Suffragan bishop of Tyne, in the Diocese of Bath and
Wells, who was provost of Oriel College from 1493 to 1507. That the Bishop
was the first to give him an appointment in the Church is certainly a
circumstance of considerable weight in favour of the claim of Oxford to be
his _alma mater_, and of Cornish to be his intellectual father; and if the
appointment proceeded from the Provost's good opinion of the young
Scotchman, then it says much for the ability and talents displayed by him
during his College career. Oxford however appears to be nowhere mentioned
in his various writings, while Cambridge is introduced thus in Eclogue
I.:--
"And once in Cambridge I heard a scoller say."
From which it seems equally, if not more, probable that he was a student at
that university. "There is reason to believe that both the universities
were frequented by Scotish students; many particular names are to be traced
in their annals; nor is it altogether irrelevant to mention that Chaucer's
young clerks of Cambridge who played such tricks to the miller of
Trompington, are described as coming from the north, and as speaking the
Scotish language:--
'John highte that on, and Alein highte that other,
Of o toun were they born that highte Strother,
Fer in the North, I cannot tellen where.'
"It may be considered as highly probable that Barclay completed his studies
in one of those universities, and that the connections which he thus had an
opportunity of forming, induced him to fix his residence in the South; and
when we suppose him to have enjoyed the benefit of an English education it
need not appear peculiarly 'strange, that in those days, a Scot should
obtain so great reputation in England.'" (Irving, Hist. of Scot. Poetry).
In the "Ship" there is a chapter "Of unprofytable Stody" in which he makes
allusion to his student life in such a way as to imply that it had not been
a model of regularity and propriety:
"The great foly, the pryde, and the enormyte
Of our studentis, and theyr obstynate errour
Causeth me to wryte two sentences or thre
More than I fynde wrytyn in myne actoure
The tyme hath ben whan I was conductoure
Of moche foly, whiche nowe my mynde doth greue
Wherfor of this shyp syns I am gouernoure
I dare be bolde myne owne vyce to repreue."
If these lines are meant to be accepted literally, which such confessions
seldom are, it may be that he was advised to put a year or two's foreign
travel between his University career, and his entrance into the Church. At
any rate, for whatever reason, on leaving the University, where, as is
indicated by the title of "Syr" prefixed to his name in his translation of
Sallust, he had obtained the degree of Bachelor of Arts, he travelled
abroad, whether at his own charges, or in the company of a son of one of
his patrons is not recorded, principally in Germany, Italy, and France,
where he applied himself, with an unusual assiduity and success, to the
acquirement of the languages spoken in those countries and to the study of
their best authors. In the chapter "Of unprofytable Stody," above
mentioned, which contains proof how well he at least had profited by study,
he cites certain continental seats of university learning at each of which,
there is indeed no improbability in supposing he may have remained for some
time, as was the custom in those days:
"One rennyth to Almayne another vnto France
To Parys, Padway, Lumbardy or Spayne
Another to Bonony, Rome, or Orleanse
To Cayne, to Tolows, Athenys, or Colayne."
Another reference to his travels and mode of travelling is found in the
Eclogues. Whether he made himself acquainted with the English towns he
enumerates before or after his continental travels it is impossible to
determine: