The Ship of Fools Part 4

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 s.p.a.ce 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 Admirals.h.i.+p), 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.

Minalcas, one of the interlocutors, thus introduces the subject:--

"But it is lamentable To heare a Captayne so good and honorable, _So soone_ withdrawen by deathes crueltie, Before his vertue was at moste hye degree.

If death for a season had shewed him fauour, To all his nation he should haue bene honour."

"'The Towre of Vertue and Honor,' introduced as a song of one of the shepherds into these pastorals, exhibits no very masterly strokes of a sublime and inventive fancy. It has much of the trite imagery usually applied in the fabrication of these ideal edifices. It, however, shows our author in a new walk of poetry. This magnificent tower, or castle is built on inaccessible cliffs of flint: the walls are of gold, bright as the sun, and decorated with 'olde historyes and pictures manyfolde:' the turrets are beautifully shaped. Among its heroic inhabitants are Henry VIII., ['in his maiestie moste hye enhaunsed as ought a conquerour,' no doubt an allusion to the battle of the Spurs and his other exploits in France in 1513], Howard Duke of Norfolk, ['the floure of chiualry'], and the Earl of Shrewsbury, ['manfull and hardy, with other princes and men of dignitie'].

Labour is the porter at the gate, and Virtue governs the house. Labour is thus pictured, with some degree of spirit:--

'Fearefull is labour without fauour at all, Dreadfull of visage, a monster intreatable, Like Cerberus lying at gates infernall; To some men his looke is halfe intollerable, His shoulders large, for burthen strong and able, His body bristled, his necke mightie and stiffe; By st.u.r.dy senewes, his ioyntes stronge and stable, Like marble stones his handes be as stiffe.

Here must man vanquishe the dragon of Cadmus, Against the Chimer here stoutly must he fight, Here must he vanquish the fearefull Pegasus, For the golden flece here must he shewe his might: If labour gaynsay, he can nothing be right, This monster labour oft chaungeth his figure, Sometime an oxe, a bore, or lion wight, Playnely he seemeth, thus chaungeth his nature,

Like as Protheus ofte chaunged his stature.

Under his browes he dreadfully doth loure, With glistering eyen, and side dependaunt beard, For thirst and hunger alway his chere is soure.

His horned forehead doth make faynt heartes feard.

Alway he drinketh, and yet alway is drye, The sweat distilling with droppes aboundaunt,'

"The poet adds, 'that when the n.o.ble Howard had long boldly contended with this hideous monster, had broken the bars and doors of the castle, had bound the porter, and was now preparing to ascend the tower of Virtue and Honour, Fortune and Death appeared, and interrupted his progress.'"

(Warton, Eng. Poetry, III.)

The hero's descent and knightly qualities are duly set forth:--

"Though he were borne to glory and honour, Of auncient stocke and n.o.ble progenie, Yet thought his courage to be of more valour, By his owne actes and n.o.ble chiualry.

Like as becommeth a knight to fortifye His princes quarell with right and equitie, So did this Hawarde with courage valiauntly, Till death abated his bolde audacitie."

The poet, gives "cursed fortune" a severe rating, and at such length that the old lady no doubt repented herself, for cutting off so promising a hero _at so early an age_:--

"Tell me, frayle fortune, why did thou breuiate The liuing season of suche a captayne, That when his actes ought to be laureate Thy fauour turned him suffring to be slayne?"

And then he addresses the Duke himself in a consolatory strain, endeavouring to reconcile him to the loss of so promising a son, by recalling to his memory those heroes of antiquity whose careers of glory were cut short by sudden and violent deaths:--

"But moste worthy duke hye and victorious, Respire to comfort, see the vncertentie Of other princes, whose fortune prosperous Oftetime haue ended in hard aduersitie: Read of Pompeius," [&c.]

"This shall be, this is, and this hath euer bene, That boldest heartes be nearest ieopardie, To dye in battayle is honour as men wene To suche as haue ioy in haunting chiualry.

"Suche famous ending the name doth magnifie, Note worthy duke, no cause is to complayne, His life not ended foule nor dishonestly, In bed nor tauerne his l.u.s.tes to maynteyne, But like as besemed a n.o.ble captayne, In st.u.r.die harnes he died for the right, From deathes daunger no man may flee certayne, But suche death is metest vnto so n.o.ble a knight.

"But death it to call me thinke it vnright, Sith his worthy name shall laste perpetuall," [&c.]

This detail and these long quotations have been rendered necessary by the strange blunder which has been made and perpetuated as to the ident.i.ty of the young hero whose death is so feelingly lamented in this elegy. With that now clearly ascertained, we can not only fix with confidence the date of the publication of the Eclogues, but by aid of the hint conveyed in the Prologue, quoted above (p. lv.), as to the author's age, "fortie saue twayne," decide, for the first time, the duration of his life, and the dates, approximately at least, of its incidents, and of the appearance of his undated works. Lord Edward Howard, perhaps the bravest and rashest of England's admirals, perished in a madly daring attack upon the harbour of Brest, on the 25th of April, 1514. As the eclogues could not therefore have been published prior to that date, so, bearing in mind the other allusions referred to above, they could scarcely have appeared later. Indeed, the loss which the elegy commemorates is spoken of as quite recent, while the elegy itself bears every appearance of having been introduced into the eclogue at the last moment. We feel quite satisfied therefore that Warton hit quite correctly upon the year 1514 as that in which these poems first saw the light, though the ground (the allusion to the Henries) upon which he went was insufficient, and his identification of the hero of the elegy contradicted his supposition. Had he been aware of the importance of fixing the date correctly, he would probably have taken more care than to fall into the blunder of confounding the father with the son, and adorning the former with the dearly earned laurels of the latter.

It may be added that, fixing 1514 as the date at which Barclay had arrived at the age of 38, agrees perfectly with all else we know of his years, with the a.s.sumed date of his academical education, and of his travels abroad, with the suppositions formed as to his age from his various published works having dates attached to them, and finally, with the traditional "great age" at which he died, which would thus be six years beyond the allotted span.

After the s.h.i.+p of Fools the Eclogues rank second in importance in a consideration of Barclay's writings. Not only as the first of their kind in English, do they crown their author with the honour of introducing this kind of poetry to English literature, but they are in themselves most interesting and valuable as faithful and graphic pictures of the court, citizen, and country life of the period. Nowhere else in so accessible a form do there exist descriptions at once so full and so accurate of the whole condition of the people. Their daily life and habits, customs, manners, sports, and pastimes, are all placed on the canvas before us with a ready, vigorous, unflinching hand. Witness for instance the following sketch, which might be ent.i.tled, "Life, temp. 1514":--

"Some men deliteth beholding men to fight, Or goodly knightes in pleasaunt apparayle, Or st.u.r.die souldiers in bright harnes and male.

Some glad is to see these Ladies beauteous, Goodly appoynted in clothing sumpteous: A number of people appoynted in like wise: In costly clothing after the newest gise, Sportes, disgising, fayre coursers mount and praunce, Or goodly ladies and knightes sing and daunce: To see fayre houses and curious picture(s), Or pleasaunt hanging, or sumpteous vesture Of silke, of purpure, or golde moste orient, And other clothing diuers and excellent: Hye curious buildinges or palaces royall, Or chapels, temples fayre and substanciall, Images grauen or vaultes curious; Gardeyns and medowes, or place delicious, Forestes and parkes well furnished with dere, Colde pleasaunt streames or welles fayre and clere, Curious cundites or shadowie mountaynes, Swete pleasaunt valleys, laundes or playnes Houndes, and suche other thinges manyfolde Some men take pleasour and solace to beholde."

The following selections ill.u.s.trative of the customs and manners of the times will serve as a sample of the overflowing cask from which they are taken. The condition of the country people is clearly enough indicated in a description of the village Sunday, the manner of its celebration being depicted in language calculated to make a modern sabbatarian's hair stand on end:--

"What man is faultlesse, remember the village, Howe men vplondish on holy dayes rage.

Nought can them tame, they be a beastly sort, In sweate and labour hauing most chiefe comfort, On the holy day a.s.soone as morne is past, When all men resteth while all the day doth last, They drinke, they banket, they reuell and they iest They leape, they daunce, despising ease and rest.

If they once heare a bagpipe or a drone, Anone to the elme or oke they be gone.

There vse they to daunce, to gambolde and to rage Such is the custome and vse of the village.

When the ground resteth from rake, plough and wheles, Then moste they it trouble with burthen of their heles:

FAUSTUS.

To Bacchus they banket, no feast is festiuall, They chide and they chat, they vary and they brall, They rayle and they route, they reuell and they crye, Laughing and leaping, and making cuppes drye.

What, stint thou thy chat, these wordes I defye, It is to a vilayne rebuke and vilany.

Such rurall solace so plainly for to blame, Thy wordes sound to thy rebuke and shame."

Football is described in a lively picture:--

"They get the bladder and blowe it great and thin, With many beanes or peason put within, It ratleth, soundeth, and s.h.i.+neth clere and fayre, While it is throwen and caste vp in the ayre, Eche one contendeth and hath a great delite, With foote and with hande the bladder for to smite, If it fall to grounde they lifte it vp agayne, This wise to labour they count it for no payne, Renning and leaping they driue away the colde, The st.u.r.die plowmen l.u.s.tie, stronge and bolde, Ouercommeth the winter with driuing the foote ball, Forgetting labour and many a greuous fall."

A shepherd, after mentioning his skill in shooting birds with a bow, says:--

"No shepheard throweth the axeltrie so farre."

A gallant is thus described:--

"For women vse to loue them moste of all, Which boldly bosteth, or that can sing and iet, Which are well decked with large bushes set, Which hath the mastery ofte time in tournament, Or that can gambauld, or daunce feat and gent."

The following sorts of wine are mentioned:--

"As Muscadell, Caprike, Romney, and Maluesy, From Gene brought, from Grece or Hungary."

As are the dainties of the table. A shepherd at court must not think to eat,

"Swanne, nor heron, Curlewe, nor crane, but course beefe and mutton."

Again:

"What fishe is of sauor swete and delicious,-- Rosted or sodden in swete hearbes or wine; Or fried in oyle, most saporous and fine.-- The pasties of a hart.-- The crane, the fesant, the pec.o.c.ke and curlewe, The partriche, plouer, bittor, and heronsewe-- Seasoned so well in licour redolent, That the hall is full of pleasaunt smell and sent."

At a feast at court:--

"Slowe be the seruers in seruing in alway, But swift be they after, taking thy meate away; A speciall custome is vsed them among, No good dish to suffer on borde to be longe: If the dishe be pleasaunt, eyther fleshe or fishe, Ten handes at once swarme in the dishe: And if it be flesh ten kniues shalt thou see Mangling the flesh, and in the platter flee: To put there thy handes is perill without fayle, Without a gauntlet or els a gloue of mayle."

"The two last lines remind us of a saying of Quin, who declared it was not safe to sit down to a turtle-feast in one of the city-halls, without a basket-hilted knife and fork. Not that I suppose Quin borrowed his bon-mots from black letter books." (Warton.)

The following lines point out some of the festive tales of our ancestors:--