John Barclay

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Barclay

John Barclay (born January 28, 1582 in Pont-à-Mousson , † August 12, 1621 in Rome ) was a Scottish poet and satirist who wrote in Latin .

life and work

John Barclay, son of the Scottish legal scholar William Barclay († 1608) and the Frenchwoman Anne de Malleville, who came from an elegant family, studied in the Jesuit college of Pont-à-Mousson. There he wrote a commentary on Statius' Thebais at the age of 19 . He then went to England with his father in 1603, where he drew the attention of Jacob I , who had just taken the throne . He dedicated the first part of his Satyricon to this ruler , which is a novel written in classical Latin in the style of Petronius and directed against the Jesuits . Barclay published this work under the pseudonym Euphormio Lusininus . Soon he returned to France and went first to Angers and in 1605 to Paris . In the same year he married the Frenchwoman Louise Debonnaire, daughter of a paymaster employed in the military and herself a poet who was well versed in Latin.

In 1606 Barclay went back to London with his wife, where he stayed until 1616 and enjoyed the favor of Jacob I. He published his Sylvae , a collection of Latin poems , there as early as 1606 . In 1607 the second part of his Satyricon was published in Paris . In 1609 he published De Potestate Papae , an anti-papal treatise by his father, who had died the previous year, which led him to a controversy with Robert Bellarmin . In 1610 he published his Apologia , a defense against the attacks of the Jesuits, who were probably bitter because of the harsh tone of his Satyricons directed against them . Barclay wrote the work Icon animorum in 1614. It is a description and description of customs of the most important European nations, which has long been used as a textbook.

Barclay left England in 1616 and went to Rome. Perhaps the reason for leaving England was that his children ran the risk of being raised Protestants, which was unacceptable to the Catholic Barclay. Furthermore, he was looking for a more generous patron than the stingy King James I. In fact, he received a pension of around 150 pounds from Pope Paul V and now had better relations with his old opponent Bellarmine and also with the Catholic Church in general. In 1617 he published the anti-Protestant text Paraenesis ad Sectarios . He lived a secluded life, indulged in growing tulips and worked on the drafting of his main work Argenis , which he completed shortly before his death. A few days after suffering a violent attack of fever, he died on August 12, 1621 at the age of only 39 in Rome. Rumor has it that he was poisoned. In the year he died, his novel Argenis was printed in Paris under the supervision of his friend Peirescius . According to his own request, Barclay's body was buried in the church of Sant'Onofrio al Gianicolo . A son of his became a clergyman. His widow returned to France and died in Orléans in 1652 .

Barclay's pseudo-historical novels were forerunners of the later moral novels and are more important than his Latin poetry. His main work Argenis is a Ludwig XIII. Dedicated political allegory in the form of a novel, with witty allusions to the situation in Europe, especially France, at the time of the Holy League . This novel shares similarities with Sidney's Arcadia and More's Utopia . It was published several times after its first appearance in 1621 (among others in Elzevier , Leiden 1630; Nuremberg 1769). In its time it was a widely read book and was translated into most European languages ​​(including English by Kingsmill Long, London 1625; German as Argenis by Martin Opitz , Breslau 1626 and others; Talander, Leipzig 1701; under the title Argenide by Johann Christian Ludwig Haken , 2 vols., Berlin 1794, Waltz, Munich 1891).

Works

Editions and translations

  • Paul Turner (translator): Euphormio's Satyricon. Euphormionis satyricon. By John Barclay. Translated from the Latin into English for the first time, from the 1605 edition. The Golden Cockerel Press, London 1954
  • David A. Fleming (Ed.): John Barclay: Euphormionis Lusinini Satyricon (Euphormio's Satyricon) 1605-1607. De Graaf, Nieuwkoop 1973, ISBN 90-6004-299-9 (Latin text and English translation)
  • Mark Riley (Ed.): John Barclay: Argenis. 2 volumes. Van Gorcum, Assen 2004, ISBN 90-232-4034-0 (Latin text and English translation)

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Barclay, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish poet and satirist
DATE OF BIRTH January 28, 1582
PLACE OF BIRTH Pont-à-Mousson
DATE OF DEATH August 12, 1621
Place of death Rome