"That fiue Egloges this whole treatise doth holde
To imitation of other Poetes olde,"
Which appears to be a correction of the printer's upon the original, as in
Powell's edition:--
"That X. egloges this hole treatyse dothe holde."
Whether other five were ever published there is no record to show; it
appears, however, highly improbable, that, if they had, they could have
been entirely lost,--especially considering the popularity and repeated
issue of the first five,--during the few years that would have elapsed
between their original publication and the appearance of Cawood's edition.
Possibly the original reading may be a typographical blunder, for Cawood is
extremely sparing of correction, and appears to have made none which he did
not consider absolutely necessary. This is one of the literary puzzles
which remain for bibliography to solve. (See below, p. lxxix.)
The next of Barclay's works in point of date, and perhaps the only one
actually entitled to the merit of originality, is his Introductory to write
and pronounce French, compiled at the request of his great patron, Thomas
Duke of Norfolk, and printed by Copland in 1521. It is thus alluded to in
the first important authority on French grammar, "Lesclarissement de la
langue Francoyse compose par maistre Jehan Palsgraue, Angloys, natyf de
Londres," 1530: "The right vertuous and excellent prince Thomas, late Duke
of Northfolke, hath commanded the studious clerke, Alexandre Barkelay, to
embusy hymselfe about this exercyse." Further on he is not so complimentary
as he remarks:--"Where as there is a boke, that goeth about in this realme,
intitled The introductory to writte and pronounce frenche, compiled by
Alexander Barcley, in which k is moche vsed, and many other thynges also by
hym affirmed, contrary to my sayenges in this boke, and specially in my
seconde, where I shall assaye to expresse the declinations and
coniugatynges with the other congruites obserued in the frenche tonge, I
suppose it sufficient to warne the lernar, that I haue red ouer that boke
at length: and what myn opinion is therin, it shall well inough apere in my
bokes selfe, though I make therof no ferther expresse mencion: saue that I
haue sene an olde boke written in parchement, in maner in all thynkes like
to his sayd Introductory: whiche, by coniecture, was not vnwritten this
hundred yeres. I wot nat if he happened to fortune upon suche an other: for
whan it was commaunded that the grammar maisters shulde teche the youth of
Englande ioyntly latin with frenche, there were diuerse suche bokes
diuysed: wherupon, as I suppose, began one great occasyon why we of England
sounde the latyn tong so corruptly, whiche haue as good a tonge to sounde
all maner speches parfitely as any other nacyon in Europa."--Book I. ch.
xxxv. "According to this," Mr Ellis (Early English Pronunciation, 804)
pertinently notes: "1º, there ought to be many old MS. treatises on French
grammar; and 2º, the English pronunciation of Latin was moulded on the
French."
To Barclay, as nine years before Palsgrave, belongs at least the credit,
hitherto generally unrecognised, of the first published attempt at a French
grammar, by either Frenchman or foreigner.
"The mirror of good manners, containing the four cardinal vertues,"
appeared from the press of Pynson, without date, "which boke," says the
typographer, "I haue prynted at the instance and request of the ryght noble
Rychard Yerle of Kent." This earl of Kent died in 1523, and as Barclay
speaks of himself in the preface as advanced in age, the date of
publication may be assigned to close upon that year. It is a translation,
in the ballad stanza, of the Latin elegiac poem of Dominicus Mancinus, _De
quatuor virtutibus_, first published in 1516, and, as appears from the
title, was executed while Barclay was a monk of Ely, at "the desire of the
righte worshipfull Syr Giles Alington, Knight." From the address to his
patron it would seem that the Knight had requested the poet to abridge or
modernise Gower's Confessio amantis. For declining this task he pleads,
that he is too old to undertake such a light subject, and also the sacred
nature of his profession. He then intimates his choice of the present more
grave and serious work instead--
Which a priest may write, not hurting his estate,
Nor of honest name obumbring at all his light.
"But the poet," says Warton, "declined this undertaking as unsuitable to
his age, infirmities, and profession, and chose rather to oblige his patron
with a grave system of ethics. It is certain that he made a prudent choice.
The performance shows how little qualified he was to correct Gower."
Instead of a carping criticism like this, it would have been much more to
the point to praise the modesty and sensibility of an author, who had the
courage to decline a task unsuited to his tastes or powers.