Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/367

 The Life of Alexander Barclay 363 a Scot, an opinion that seems to have the weight of evidence. The main testimony is that of Wm. Bullein, 11 a contemporary of Barclay and a native of the Isle of Ely where for a time Barclay lived and wrote. Bullein says of Barclay that he was " borne beyonde the cold river of Twede." Another argument is that in the Ship of Fools there is an acrostic passage in eulogy of James IV of Scotland. Moreover, throughout the works of Barclay there is a large number of Scottish words. Jamieson lists several examples from the Ship of Fools, while in other works many dialectic peculiarities occur that are undoubtedly of northern origin. It seems safe, therefore, to assume that Barclay was a Scot. Jamieson's conjecture that Barclay in his early days lived at Croyden seems plausible because of his frequent mention of that town throughout the Eclogues, and the fact that he was buried in the church there. At what university he studied it is impossible to say. He is claimed for Cambridge because of a single mention of the place in the Eclogues; and for Oxford on the ground that he received his first preferment from Thomas Cornish, the Suffragan Bishop of Tyne, in the diocese of Bath and Wells, who was earlier a Provost of Oriel College. It is also impossible to say whether he traveled and studied abroad. Certain passages in his works would indicate such travels, if we are to believe that Barclay puts his own experience into the mouths of his characters, and his apparent knowledge of foreign languages might lead to the same inference. But there is no direct evidence. At any rate he entered the church and became chaplain at the College of Saint Mary Ottery in Devonshire. Here he wrote his first work, The Ship of Fools, as is stated in the preface, in the year 1508. 12 After leaving Devonshire, Barclay is next heard of, says Jamieson, "in monastic orders, a monk of the order of St. Benedict, in the famous monastery of Ely." This brings up the question whether Barclay was a Benedictine or a Fran- ciscan, or as Jamieson says, following the statements of preceding writers, at different times both. The statement of 11 A Dialogue Both Pleasaunt and Pietiful. . . against the Fever Pestilence. Cf. Jameieson, op. tit., XXII. 12 Cf. Jamieson, op. tit., CXVI.