The Ship of Fools | Page 9

time of hostility and of
little intercourse between the nations, will surely be admitted to be a far
more unlikely thing than that a Scotchman born, though not bred,
should become, after the effects of an English education and residence
had efficiently done their work upon him, a great improver and enricher
of the English tongue.
But perhaps the strongest and most decisive argument of all in this
much-vexed controversy is to be found in the panegyric of James the
Fourth contained in the "Ship of Fools," an eulogy so highly pitched
and extravagant that no Englishman of that time would ever have
dreamed of it or dared to pen it. Nothing could well be more conclusive.
Barclay precedes it by a long and high-flown tribute to Henry, but
when he comes to "Jamys of Scotlonde," he, so to speak, out-Herods
Herod. Ordinary verse suffices not for the greatness of his subject,
which he must needs honour with an acrostic,--
"I n prudence pereles is this moste comely kynge
A nd as for his
strength and magnanymyte
C oncernynge his noble dedes in euery
thynge
O ne founde or grounde lyke to hym can not be
B y byrth
borne to boldnes and audacyte
V nder the bolde planet of Mars the
champyon
S urely to subdue his ennemyes echone."
There, we are convinced, speaks not the prejudiced, Scot-hating
English critic, but the heart beating true to its fatherland and loyal to its
native Sovereign.
That "he was born beyonde the cold river of Twede," about the year
1476, as shall be shown anon, is however all the length we can go. His
training was without doubt mainly, if not entirely English. He must
have crossed the border very early in life, probably for the purpose of
pursuing his education at one of the Universities, or, even earlier than
the period of his University career, with parents or guardians to reside
in the neighbourhood of Croydon, to which he frequently refers.
Croydon is mentioned in the following passages in Eclogue I.:

"While I in youth in Croidon towne did dwell."
"He hath no felowe betwene this and Croidon,
Save the proude
plowman Gnatho of Chorlington."
"And as in Croidon I heard the Collier preache"
"Such maner riches the Collier tell thee can"
"As the riche Shepheard that woned in Mortlake."
It seems to have become a second home to him, for there, we find, in
1552, he died and was buried.
At which University he studied, whether Oxford or Cambridge, is also
a matter of doubt and controversy. Wood claims him for Oxford and
Oriel, apparently on no other ground than that he dedicates the "Ship of
Fools" to Thomas Cornish, the Suffragan bishop of Tyne, in the
Diocese of Bath and Wells, who was provost of Oriel College from
1493 to 1507. That the Bishop was the first to give him an appointment
in the Church is certainly a circumstance of considerable weight in
favour of the claim of Oxford to be his _alma mater_, and of Cornish to
be his intellectual father; and if the appointment proceeded from the
Provost's good opinion of the young Scotchman, then it says much for
the ability and talents displayed by him during his College career.
Oxford however appears to be nowhere mentioned in his various
writings, while Cambridge is introduced thus in Eclogue I.:--
"And once in Cambridge I heard a scoller say."
From which it seems equally, if not more, probable that he was a
student at that university. "There is reason to believe that both the
universities were frequented by Scotish students; many particular
names are to be traced in their annals; nor is it altogether irrelevant to
mention that Chaucer's young clerks of Cambridge who played such
tricks to the miller of Trompington, are described as coming from the
north, and as speaking the Scotish language:--

'John highte that on, and Alein highte that other,
Of o toun were they
born that highte Strother,
Fer in the North, I cannot tellen where.'
"It may be considered as highly probable that Barclay completed his
studies in one of those universities, and that the connections which he
thus had an opportunity of forming, induced him to fix his residence in
the South; and when we suppose him to have enjoyed the benefit of an
English education it need not appear peculiarly 'strange, that in those
days, a Scot should obtain so great reputation in England.'" (Irving,
Hist. of Scot. Poetry).
In the "Ship" there is a chapter "Of unprofytable Stody" in which he
makes allusion to his student life in such a way as to imply that it had
not been a model of regularity and propriety:
"The great foly, the pryde, and the enormyte
Of our studentis, and
theyr obstynate errour
Causeth me to wryte two sentences or thre

More than I fynde