The Ship of Fools, Volume 1-2 by Sebastian Brant (love story books to read .txt) đź“–
- Author: Sebastian Brant
- Performer: -
Book online «The Ship of Fools, Volume 1-2 by Sebastian Brant (love story books to read .txt) 📖». Author Sebastian Brant
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
Comments (0)