Alexander Barclay

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Alexander Barclay (* around 1476 probably in Scotland , † June 10, 1552 in Croydon ( Surrey )) was an English humanist poet .

life and work

Barclay studied at Oxford or Cambridge and became a priest at the College of St. Mary Ottery in Devon , in which position he published the allegorical poem The Castell of Labore (London 1506) based on a poem by Pierre Gringoires and a very free translation, probably based on a Latin adaptation by Sebastian Brant's Ship of Fools , entitled The Shyp of Folys of the Worlde . This work was printed by Richard Pynson (London 1509, new edition 1570), although only a few copies of the first edition from 1509 are available.

Around 1511 Barclay entered the monastery of Ely as a Benedictine monk , where he wrote the Myrrour of Good Maners , which was also printed by Pynson, based on Dominic Mancini's Latin poem De quatuor virtutibus . Barclay probably also wrote his five Eclogues (1515–1521) in Ely , the first in English. These are moral-satirical pastoral poems. The first three of them make paraphrases of Misery curialium of Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini . The Eclogues were often some time under the title The miseries or miserable lives of courtiers printed. Through trips to Holland, Germany, France and Italy, Barclay became familiar with the languages ​​of these countries and wrote an Introductory to wryte and to pronoynce Frenche (London 1521) dedicated to the Duke of Norfolk .

After exercising his ministry in Ely Barclay Franciscan was in Canterbury , then approved apparently by King Henry VIII. Decreed the introduction of Protestantism in England, was after the dissolution of the monasteries clergyman in Wokey in Somerset , in 1552 rector of All Hallows in London and died shortly afterwards in Croydon in June of that year.

Barclay had also provided an English translation of Sallust's Jugurthinisches Krieg (printed around 1557), as he was one of the first English popular humanists.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Barclay, Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English poet
DATE OF BIRTH around 1476
PLACE OF BIRTH Scotland
DATE OF DEATH June 10, 1552
Place of death Croydon