The Ship of Fools, Volume 1-2 by Sebastian Brant (novels in english TXT) 📕

concluding this imperfect notice of one of the most remarkable of our

early writers, we cannot but echo the regret expressed by one of his

biographers, that “What ought most to be lamented is, that we are able to

say so very little of one in his own time so famous, and whose works ought

to have transmitted him to posterity with much greater honour.”

 

*

 

THE WILL OF ALEXANDER BARCLAY.

 

EXTRACTED FROM THE PRINCIPAL REGISTRY OF HER MAJESTY’S COURT OF PROBATE.

 

In the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.

 

IN THE NAME OF GOD. AMEN.—The xxv^{th} day of July in the yere of our

Lorde God a thousande fyve hundreth fyftie and one…. I ALEXANDER

BARQUELEY Doctor of Divinitie Vicar of myche badowe in the countie of Essex

do make dispose and declare this my pute testament conteyning my last Will

in forme and order as hereafter followethe That ys to saye First I

bequeathe my soule unto Almightie God my maker and Redemer and my bodye to

be buried where it shall please God to dispose after de[=p]ting my soule

from the bodye Also I bequeathe to the poore people of the said [=p]ish of

Badowe fyftie shillings to be disposed where as yt shall appere to be most

nede by the discrescon of myne Executours And also I bequeathe towardes the

repacons of the same Churche vj^s viij^d Item I bequeathe to the poore

people of the [=P]ish of Owkley in the Countie of Somersett fiftie

shillings likewise to be distributed And towardes the repacons of the same

Churche vj^s viij^d Item I bequeathe to Mr Horsey of Tawnton in the saide

Countie of Somersett one fether bed and a bolster which I had of hym or els

twentie shillings in redye money Item I bequeathe to Edword Capper

otherwise called Edwarde Mathewe of Tawnton aforesaid xxxiij^s iiij^d of

currant money of England Item I bequeathe to Johane Atkynson the daughter

of Thomas Atkynson of London Scryvener one fetherbed wheruppon I use to lye

having a newe tyke with the bolster blanketts and coverlett tester pillowe

and two payer of my best shetes Item I bequeth to the same Johane Atkynson

eight pounds current money of England to be receyved of the money due unto

me by Cutbeard Crokk of Wynchester to be paide in two yeres (that is to

saye foure poundes in the first yere and foure poundes in the secounde

yere) Item I bequeathe to the saide Johane a flocke bed a quylte and all my

pewter and brasse and other stuf of my kechen Item I give and bequeathe to

Jeronymy Atkynson the daughter of the saide Thomas Atkynson vj^{li} xiij^s

iiij^d currant money of England to be receyved of the said Cutbeard Crok in

two yeres that is to saye every yere fyve markes Item I bequeathe to

Tymothy and Elizabeth Atkynson the daughters of the said Thomas Atkynson to

everye of theym five pounds currant money of England to be receyved of the

said Cutbeard Croke so that the eldest of thes two daughters be paide the

first two yeres and the other to be paide in other two yeres then next

following Item The rest of the money whiche the saide Cutbeard Croke oweth

to me amounting in the hole to the some of four score poundes I bequeathe

to be devyded amonge poore and nedye [=p]sones after the discretion of myn

Executours and manely to such as be bedred blynde lame ympotent wydowes and

fatherless children…. Item I bequeathe to Syr John Gate Knight S^r Henry

Gate Knight and to M^r Clerke to everye of theym fouer angell nobles to

make every of theym a ringe of golde to be worne by theym in remembraunce

of me Item I give and bequeathe to Hugh Rooke of London Scryvener to Henry

bosoll of London Gold Smythe to Thomas Wytton of London Screvener and to

the wief of Humfrey Stevens of London Goldsmythe to Humfrey Edwards Clerke

to John Owhan of the [=P]ish of Badowe aforesaid to every of them one

angell noble of gold or ells y^e valew therof in sylver Item I bequeathe to

M^r Thomas Clerk of Owkey aforesaid to Thomas Edey Gentelman and to the

said Thomas Atkynson to every of them foure angell nobles to make therof

for every of them a ringe to were in remembraunce of oure olde

acquayntaunce and famyliarytie Item my will is that my Executours shall

distribute at the daye of my buriall among poore and nedy people sixe

pounds fyftene shillings Item I bequeathe to Parnell Atkynson the wief of

the said Thomas Atkynson my cosyn thirtenne pounds thirtene shillings and

foure pence of currant money of England Item I bequeathe to John Watson of

London Clotheworker three angell nobles to make a ring therof to be worne

in remembraunce of oure olde famyliaritie Also I desire all suche as have

or shall hereafter have eny benyfytt by thes my legacies and all other good

chrestian people to praye to Almightie God for remission of my synnes and

mercy upon my soule Item I bequeath to Johan Bowyer the syster of the said

[=P]nell my cosen fourtie shillings Item I bequeathe to the said Thomas

Atkynson Tenne pounds currant money of England whome with the said Thomas

Eden I constitute the executours of this my last Will to whome I bequeathe

the rest and residue of all my goodes chattells and debts to be distributed

at their discrescion in works of mercy to poore people not peny mele but by

larger por[=c]on after theyr discrecon namely to [=p]sons bedred maydens

widowes and other ympotent [=p]sons Item I ordeyne and desire the said M^r

Rochester to be the Overseer of this my last Will to be well and truely

[=p]formed and fulfilled to whome for his labor and paynes I bequeathe fyve

marks currant money of England In wytnes of whiche this my last Will I the

said Alexander Barqueley hereunto have set my seale and subscribed the same

with my owne hands the day and yere fyrst above written [p=] me. ALEXANDRU

BARQUELEY.

 

PROBATUM fuit Test[=m] coram d[=n]o ca[=n]t Archie[=p]o apud London

decimo die mensis Junij Anno d[=n]o mille[=m]o quingentesimo

quinquagesimo secundo Juramento Thome Atkynson E[=x] in hmoi testamento

noiat Ac Approbatu et insumatu et comissa fuit admotraco om[=n] bonoru

&^c d[=c]i deft de bene et &^c ac de pleno Inv^{ro} &^c exhibend Ad

sancta dei Evangelia Jurat Re[=s]rvata [p=]tate Thome Eden alteri e[=x]

&^c cum venerit.

 

*

 

NOTES.

 

*

 

[1] BARCLAY’S NATIONALITY

 

The objection raised to claiming Barclay as a Scotsman, founded on the

ground that he nowhere mentions his nationality, though it was a common

practice of authors in his time to do so, especially when they wrote out of

their own country, appeared to me, though ingenious and pertinent, to be of

so little real weight, as to be dismissed in a parenthesis. Its importance,

however, may easily be overrated, and it may therefore be well to point out

that, apart from the possibility that this omission on his part was the

result of accident or indifference, there is also the probability that it

was dictated by a wise discretion. To be a Scotsman was not in the days of

Henry VIII., as it has been in later and more auspicious times, a passport

to confidence and popularity, either at the court or among the people of

England. Barclay’s fate having led him, and probably his nearest relatives

also, across that Border which no Scotsman ever recrosses, to live and

labour among a people by no means friendly to his country, it would have

been a folly which so sensible a man as he was not likely to commit to have

displayed the red rag of his nationality before his easily excited

neighbours, upon whose friendliness his comfort and success depended. The

farther argument of the Biographia Brittannica, that “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,” is sufficiently disposed

of by the succeeding statement, that the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of

Kent, Barclay’s principal patrons, “are known to have been the fiercest

enemies of the Scots.” Surely a man who was English in everything but his

birth could not be expected to openly blazon his Scottish nativity, without

adequate occasion for so doing, in the very face of his country’s chiefest

enemies, who were at the same time his own best friends. His caution in

this respect, indeed, may be regarded as an additional proof of his

Scottish origin.

 

[2] BARCLAY’S VOCABULARY

 

Some of the words, stated in popular fashion to be Scotch—they are of

course of Saxon origin—the usage of which by Barclay is adduced as an

evidence of his nationality, are also to be found in Chaucer, but that does

not invalidate the argument as stated. The employment of so many words of

northern usage must form at least a strong corroborative argument in favour

of northern origin.

 

[3] THE CASTLE OF LABOUR

 

It ought to be stated that the modesty of the young author prevented him

from affixing his name to his first production, The Castle of Labour. Both

editions are anonymous. Bale, Pits, Wood, &c., all include it in the list

of his works without remark.

 

[4] BULLEYN’S DIALOGUE

 

A notice of the history of this once popular Dialogue, its ever recurring

disappearance, and ever recurring “discovery” by some fortunate antiquary,

would form an interesting chapter in a new “History of the transmission of

ancient books to modern times.” Its chances of preservation and record were

unusually favourable. It must have been disseminated over the length and

breadth of the land in its day, having run through four editions in little

more than a dozen years. Maunsell’s Catalogue (1595) records the edition of

1578. Antony Wood (1721), and Bishop Tanner (1748) both duly give it a

place in their notices of the productions of its author, without any

special remark. But the Biographia Brittanica (1748) in a long article upon

Bulleyn, in which his various works are noticed in great detail, introduces

the Dialogue as “this long neglected and unknown treatise,” and gives an

elaborate account of it extending to about five columns of small print. The

now famous passage, descriptive of the early poets, is quoted at length,

and special notice of its bearing on Barclay’s nationality taken, the

writer (Oldys) announcing that the dispute must now be settled in favour of

Scotland, “Seeing our author (Bulleyn), a contemporary who lived in, and

long upon the borders of Scotland, says, as above, he was born in that

kingdom: and as much indeed might have been in great measure gathered from

an attentive perusal of this poet himself.”

 

The next biographer of Bulleyn, Aikin (Biog. Memoirs of Medicine, 1780),

makes no discovery, but contents himself with giving a brief account of the

Dialogue (in 1½ pages), in which the description of Chaucer, &c., is duly

noticed. Three years later, in spite of this, and the appearance of a

second edition of the Biographia Brittanica (1778), another really learned

and able antiquary, Waldron, in his edition of Jonson’s Sad Shepherd

(1783), comes forth triumphantly announcing his discovery of the Dialogue

as that of a hitherto totally unknown treasure; and in an appendix favours

the curious with a series of extracts from it, extending to more than

thirty pages, prefacing them thus: “Having, among the various Mysteries and

Moralities, whether original impressions, reprinted, or described only by

those writers who have given any account of these Embrios of the English

Drama, _never met with or read of any other copy