"Yet sometimes riches is geuen by some chance
To such as of good haue greatest aboundaunce.
Likewise as streames unto the sea do glide.
But on bare hills no water will abide.
. . . . . .
So smallest persons haue small rewarde alway
But men of worship set in authoritie
Must haue rewardes great after their degree."--ECLOGUE I.
"And so such thinges which princes to thee geue
To thee be as sure as water in a siue
. . . . . . .
So princes are wont with riches some to fede
As we do our swine when we of larde haue nede
We fede our hogges them after to deuour
When they be fatted by costes and labour."--ECLOGUE I.
The everlasting conceit of musical humanity is very truthfully hit off.
"This is of singers the very propertie
Alway they coueyt desired for to be
And when their frendes would heare of their cunning
Then are they neuer disposed for to sing,
But if they begin desired of no man
Then shewe they all and more then they can
And neuer leaue they till men of them be wery,
So in their conceyt their cunning they set by."--ECLOGUE II.
Pithy sayings are numerous. Comparing citizens with countrymen, the
countryman says:--
"Fortune to them is like a mother dere
As a stepmother she doth to us appeare."
Of money:
"Coyne more than cunning exalteth every man."
Of clothing:
"It is not clothing can make a man be good
Better is in ragges pure liuing innocent
Than a soule defiled in sumptuous garment."
It is as the graphic delineator of the life and condition of the country in
his period that the chief interest of Barclay's writings, and especially of
the "Ship of Fools," now lies. Nowhere so accessibly, so fully, and so
truthfully will be found the state of Henry the Eighth's England set forth.
Every line bears the character of truthfulness, written as it evidently is,
in all the soberness of sadness, by one who had no occasion to exaggerate,
whose only object and desire was, by massing together and describing
faithfully the follies and abuses which were evident to all, to shame every
class into some degree of moral reformation, and, in particular, to effect
some amelioration of circumstances to the suffering poor.
And a sad picture it is which we thus obtain of merrie England in the good
old times of bluff King Hal, wanting altogether in the _couleur de rose_
with which it is tinted by its latest historian Mr Froude, who is ably
taken to task on this subject by a recent writer in the Westminster Review,
whose conclusions, formed upon other evidence than Barclay's, express so
fairly the impression left by a perusal of the "Ship of Fools," and the
Eclogues, that we quote them here. "Mr Froude remarks: 'Looking therefore,
at the state of England as a whole, I cannot doubt that under Henry the
body of the people were prosperous, well-fed, loyal, and contented. In all
points of material comfort, they were as well off as ever they had been
before; better off than they have ever been in later times.' In this
estimate we cannot agree. Rather we should say that during, and for long
after, this reign, the people were in the most deplorable condition of
poverty and misery of every kind. That they were ill-fed, that loyalty was
at its lowest ebb, that discontent was rife throughout the land. 'In all
points of material comfort,' we think they were worse off than they had
ever been before, and infinitely worse off than they have ever been since
the close of the sixteenth century,--a century in which the cup of
England's woes was surely fuller than it has ever been since, or will, we
trust, ever be again. It was the century in which this country and its
people passed through a baptism of blood as well as 'a baptism of fire,'
and out of which they came holier and better. The epitaph which should be
inscribed over the century is contained in a sentence written by the famous
Acham in 1547:--'Nam vita, quæ nunc vivitur a plurimis, non vita sed
miseria est.'" So, Bradford (Sermon on Repentance, 1533) sums up
contemporary opinion in a single weighty sentence: "All men may see if they
will that the whoredom pride, unmercifulness, and tyranny of England far
surpasses any age that ever was before." Every page of Barclay corroborates
these accounts of tyranny, injustice, immorality, wretchedness, poverty,
and general discontent.
Not only in fact and feeling are Barclay's Ship of Fools and Eclogues
thoroughly expressive of the unhappy, discontented, poverty-stricken,
priest-ridden, and court-ridden condition and life, the bitter sorrows and
the humble wishes of the people, their very texture, as Barclay himself
tells us, consists of the commonest language of the day, and in it are
interwoven many of the current popular proverbs and expressions. Almost all
of these are still "household words" though few ever imagine the garb of
their "daily wisdom" to be of such venerable antiquity. Every page of the
"Eclogues" abounds with them; in the "Ship" they are less common, but still
by no means infrequent. We have for instance:--
"Better is a frende in courte than a peny in purse"--(I. 70.)
"Whan the stede is stolyn to shyt the stable dore"--(I. 76.)
"It goeth through as water through a syue."--(I. 245.)
"And he that alway thretenyth for to fyght
Oft at the prose is skantly worth a hen
For greattest crakers ar nat ay boldest men."--(I. 198.)
"I fynde foure thynges whiche by no meanes can
Be kept close, in secrete, or longe in preuetee
The firste is the counsell of a wytles man
The seconde is a cyte whiche byldyd is a hye
Upon a montayne the thyrde we often se
That to hyde his dedes a louer hath no skyll
The fourth is strawe or fethers on a wyndy hyll."--(I. 199.)
"A crowe to pull."--(II. 8.)
"For it is a prouerbe, and an olde sayd sawe
That in euery place lyke to lyke wyll drawe."--(II. 35.)
"Better haue one birde sure within thy wall
Or fast in a cage than twenty score without"--(II. 74)
"Gapynge as it were dogges for a bone."--(II. 93.)
"Pryde sholde haue a fall."--(II. 161).
"For wyse men sayth ...
One myshap fortuneth neuer alone."
"Clawe where it itchyth."--(II. 256.) [The use of this, it occurs again in
the Eclogues, might be regarded by some of our Southern friends, as
itself a sufficient proof of the author's Northern origin.]
The following are selected from the Eclogues as the most remarkable:
"Each man for himself, and the fende for us all."
"They robbe Saint Peter therwith to clothe Saint Powle."
"For might of water will not our leasure bide."
"Once out of sight and shortly out of minde."
"For children brent still after drede the fire."
"Together they cleave more fast than do burres."
"Tho' thy teeth water."
"I aske of the foxe no farther than the skin."
"To touche soft pitche and not his fingers file."
"From post unto piller tost shall thou be."
"Over head and eares."
"Go to the ant."
"A man may contende, God geueth victory."
"Of two evils chose the least."
These are but the more striking specimens. An examination of the "Ship,"
and especially of the "Eclogues," for the purpose of extracting their whole
proverbial lore, would be well worth the while, if it be not the duty, of
the next collector in this branch of popular literature. These writings
introduce many of our common sayings for the first time to English
literature, no writer prior to Barclay having thought it dignified or worth
while to profit by the popular wisdom to any perceptible extent. The first
collection of proverbs, Heywood's, did not appear until 1546, so that in
Barclay we possess the earliest known English form of such proverbs as he
introduces. It need scarcely be said that that form is, in the majority of
instances, more full of meaning and point than its modern representatives.
Barclay's adoption of the language of the people naturally elevated him in
popular estimation to a position far above that of his contemporaries in
the matter of style, so much so that he has been traditionally recorded as
one of the greatest improvers of the language, that is, one of those who
helped greatly to bring the written language to be more nearly in
accordance with the spoken. Both a scholar and a man of the world, his
phraseology bears token of the greater cultivation and wider knowledge he
possessed over his contemporaries. He certainly aimed at clearness of
expression, and simplicity of vocabulary, and in these respects was so far
in advance of his time that his works can even now be read with ease,
without the help of dictionary or glossary. In spite of his church training
and his residence abroad, his works are surprisingly free from Latin or
French forms of speech; on the contrary, they are, in the main,
characterised by a strong Saxon directness of expression which must have
tended greatly to the continuance of their popularity, and have exercised a
strong and advantageous influence both in regulating the use of the common
spoken language, and in leading the way which it was necessary for the
literary language to follow. Philologists and dictionary makers appear,
however, to have hitherto overlooked Barclay's works, doubtless owing to
their rarity, but their intrinsic value as well as their position in
relation to the history of the language demand specific recognition at
their hands.
Barclay evidently delighted in his pen. From the time of his return from
the Continent, it was seldom out of his hand. Idleness was distasteful to
him. He petitions his critics if they be "wyse men and cunnynge," that:--
"They shall my youth pardone, and vnchraftynes
Whiche onely translate, to eschewe ydelnes."
Assuredly a much more laudable way of employing leisure then than now,
unless the translator prudently stop short of print. The modesty and
singleness of aim of the man are strikingly illustrated by his thus
devoting his time and talents, not to original work as he was well able to
have done had he been desirous only of glorifying his own name, but to the
translation and adaptation or, better, "Englishing" of such foreign authors
as he deemed would exercise a wholesome and profitable influence upon his
countrymen. Such work, however, moulded in his skilful hands, became all
but original, little being left of his author but the idea. Neither the
Ship of Fools, nor the Eclogues retain perceptible traces of a foreign
source, and were it not that they honestly bear their authorship on their
fore-front, they might be regarded as thoroughly, even characteristically,
English productions.
The first known work from Barclay's pen[3] appeared from the press of De
Worde, so early as 1506, probably immediately on his return from abroad,
and was no doubt the fruit of continental leisure. It is a translation, in
seven line stanzas, of the popular French poet Pierre Gringore's Le Chateau
de labour (1499)--the most ancient work of Gringore with date, and perhaps
his best--under the title of "The Castell of laboure wherein is richesse,
vertu, and honour;" in which in a fanciful allegory of some length, a
somewhat wearisome Lady Reason overcomes despair, poverty and other such
evils attendant upon the fortunes of a poor man lately married, the moral
being to show:--
"That idleness, mother of all adversity,
Her subjects bringeth to extreme poverty."
The general appreciation of this first essay is evidenced by the issue of a
second edition from the press of Pynson a few years after the appearance of
the first.
Encouraged by the favourable reception accorded to the first effort of his
muse, Barclay, on his retirement to the ease and leisure of the College of
St Mary Otery, set to work on the "Ship of Fools," acquaintance with which
Europe-famous satire he must have made when abroad. This, his _magnum
opus_, has been described at some length in the Introduction, but two
interesting personal notices relative to the composition of the work may
here be added. In the execution of the great task, he expresses himself,
(II. 278), as under the greatest obligations to his colleague, friend, and
literary adviser, Bishop:--
"Whiche was the first ouersear of this warke
And vnto his frende gaue his aduysement
It nat to suffer to slepe styll in the darke
But to be publysshyd abrode: and put to prent
To thy monycion my bysshop I assent
Besechynge god that I that day may se
That thy honour may prospere and augment
So that thy name and offyce may agre
. . . . . .
In this short balade I can nat comprehende
All my full purpose that I wolde to the wryte
But fayne I wolde that thou sholde sone assende
To heuenly worshyp and celestyall delyte
Than shoulde I after my pore wyt and respyt,
Display thy name, and great kyndnes to me
But at this tyme no farther I indyte
But pray that thy name and worshyp may agre."
Pynson, in his capacity of judicious publisher, fearing lest the book
should exceed suitable dimensions, also receives due notice at p. 108 of
Vol. I., where he speaks of
"the charge Pynson hathe on me layde
With many folys our Nauy not to charge."
The concluding stanza, or colophon, is also devoted to immortalising the
great bibliopole in terms, it must be admitted, not dissimilar to those of
a modern draper's poet laureate:--
Our Shyp here leuyth the sees brode
By helpe of God almyght and quyetly
At Anker we lye within the rode
But who that lysteth of them to bye
In Flete strete shall them fynde truly
At the George: in Richarde Pynsonnes place
Prynter vnto the Kynges noble grace.
Deo gratias.
Contemporary allusions to the Ship of Fools there could not fail to be, but
the only one we have met with occurs in Bulleyn's Dialogue quoted above, p.
xxvii. It runs as follows:--_Uxor_.--What ship is that with so many owers,
and straunge tacle; it is a greate vessell. _Ciuis_.--This is the ship of
fooles, wherin saileth bothe spirituall and temporall, of euery callyng
some: there are kynges, queenes, popes, archbishoppes, prelates, lordes,
ladies, knightes, gentlemen, phisicions, lawiers, marchauntes,
housbandemen, beggers, theeues, hores, knaues, &c. This ship wanteth a good
pilot: the storme, the rocke, and the wrecke at hande, all will come to
naught in this hulke for want of good gouernement.
The Eclogues, as appears from their Prologue, had originally been the work
of our author's youth, "the essays of a prentice in the art of poesie," but
they were wisely laid past to be adorned by the wisdom of a wider
experience, and were, strangely enough, lost for years until, at the age of
thirty-eight, the author again lighted, unexpectedly, upon his lost
treasures, and straightway finished them off for the public eye.
The following autobiographical passage reminds one forcibly of Scott's
throwing aside Waverley, stumbling across it after the lapse of years, and
thereupon deciding at once to finish and publish it. After enumerating the
most famous eclogue writers, he proceeds:--
"Nowe to my purpose, their workes worthy fame,
Did in my yonge age my heart greatly inflame,
Dull slouth eschewing my selfe to exercise,
In such small matters, or I durst enterprise,
To hyer matter, like as these children do,
Which first vse to creepe, and afterwarde to go.
. . . . . . . .
So where I in youth a certayne worke began,
And not concluded, as oft doth many a man:
Yet thought I after to make the same perfite,
But long I missed that which I first did write.
But here a wonder, I fortie yere saue twayne,
Proceeded in age, founde my first youth agayne.
To finde youth in age is a probleme diffuse,
But nowe heare the truth, and then no longer muse.
As I late turned olde bookes to and fro,
One litle treatise I founde among the mo
Because that in youth I did compile the same,
Egloges of youth I did call it by name.
And seing some men haue in the same delite,
At their great instance I made the same perfite,
Adding and bating where I perceyued neede,
All them desiring which shall this treatise rede,
Not to be grieued with any playne sentence,
Rudely conuayed for lacke of eloquence."
The most important revelation in the whole of this interesting passage,
that relating to the author's age, seems to have been studiously overlooked
by all his biographers. If we can fix with probability the date at which
these Eclogues were published, then this, one of the most regretted of the
lacunæ in his biography, will be supplied. We shall feel henceforth
treading on firmer ground in dealing with the scanty materials of his life.
From the length and favour with which the praises of the Ely Cathedral and
of Alcock its pious and munificent bishop, then but recently dead, are sung
in these poems (see p. lxviii.), it is evident that the poet must have
donned the black hood in the monastery of Ely for at least a few years.
Warton fixes the date at 1514, because of the praises of the "noble Henry
which now departed late," and the after panegyric of his successor Henry
VIII. (Eclogue I.), whose virtues are also duly recorded in the Ship of
Fools (I. 39 and II. 205-8), but not otherwise of course than in a
complimentary manner. Our later lights make this picture of the noble pair
appear both out of drawing and over-coloured:--
"Beside noble Henry which nowe departed late,
Spectacle of vertue to euery hye estate,
The patrone of peace and primate of prudence,
Which on Gods Church hath done so great expence.
Of all these princes the mercy and pitie,
The loue of concorde, iustice and equitie,
The purenes of life and giftes liberall,
Not lesse vertuous then the said princes all.
And Henry the eyght moste hye and triumphant,
No gifte of vertue nor manlines doth want,
Mine humble spech and language pastorall
If it were able should write his actes all:
But while I ought speake of courtly misery,
Him with all suche I except vtterly.
But what other princes commonly frequent,
As true as I can to shewe is mine intent,
But if I should say that all the misery,
Which I shall after rehearse and specify
Were in the court of our moste noble kinge,
I should fayle truth, and playnly make leasing."--ECLOGUE I.
This eulogy of Henry plainly implies some short experience of his reign.
But other allusions contribute more definitely to fix the precise date,
such as the following historical passage, which evidently refers to the
career of the notorious extortioners, Empson and Dudley, who were executed
for conspiracy and treason in the first year of the new king's reign.
"Such as for honour unto the court resort,
Looke seldome times upon the lower sort;
To the hyer sort for moste part they intende,
For still their desire is hyer to ascende
And when none can make with them comparison,
Against their princes conspire they by treason,
Then when their purpose can nat come well to frame,
Agayne they descende and that with utter shame,
Coridon thou knowest right well what I meane,
We lately of this experience haue seene
When men would ascende to rowmes honorable
Euer is their minde and lust insaciable."
The most definite proof of the date of publication, however, is found in
the fourth Eclogue. It contains a long poem called The towre of vertue and
honour, which is really a highly-wrought elegy on the premature and
glorious death, not of "the Duke of Norfolk, Lord High admiral, and one of
Barclay's patrons," as has been repeated parrot-like, from Warton
downwards, but of his chivalrous son, Sir Edward Howard, Lord High Admiral
for the short space of a few months, who perished in his gallant, if
reckless, attack upon the French fleet in the harbour of Brest in the year
1513. It is incomprehensible that the date of the publication of the
Eclogues should be fixed at 1514, and this blunder still perpetuated. No
Duke of Norfolk died between Barclay's boyhood and 1524, ten years after
the agreed upon date of the Elegy; and the Duke (Thomas), who was Barclay's
patron, never held the position of Lord High Admiral (though his son Lord
Thomas, created Earl of Surrey in 1514, and who afterwards succeeded him,
also succeeded his brother Sir Edward in the Admiralship), but worthily
enjoyed the dignified offices of Lord High Steward, Lord Treasurer, and
Earl Marshal, and died one of Henry's most respected and most popular
Ministers, at his country seat, at a good old age, in the year above
mentioned, 1524. The other allusions to contemporary events, and especially
to the poet's age, preclude the idea of carrying forward the publication to
the latter date, did the clearly defined points of the Elegy allow of it,
as they do not.