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John Barclay: Neo-Latinist at the Jacobean Court

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

David A. Fleming S.M.
David A. Fleming S.M.*
Affiliation:
St. Mary's University
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Extract

Among the numerous men of letters patronized by James I, few held a place so close to the king during the early years of his reign as the Scottish-French Neo-Latinist John Barclay. Yet none of the biographical studies of Barclay to date have attempted to collect with any thoroughness the pertinent information regarding the author's ten years (1605-15) at the British court. It seems worthwhile then to present here such information about Barclay's period of service to the king as can be gleaned from the few records available.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance News , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1966 , pp. 228 - 236
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1966

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References

1 The more important biographical studies are the following: Becker, August, Johann Barclay 1582-1621. (Berlin, 1903)Google Scholar; Collignon, Albert C., ‘Notes sur VEuphormion. de Jean Barclay’ in Annales de l’Est XIV (1900), 497–530 Google Scholar, and xv (1901), 1-39; Dukas, Jules, Etude bibliographique et littéraire sur le Satyricon dejean Barclay. (Paris, 1880)Google Scholar; Urbain, Charles, ‘A ProposdeJ. de Barclay’ in Bulletin du Bibliophile et du Bibliothécaire. (Paris, 1891), pp. 315–330 Google Scholar.

2 Dubois, Ernest, ‘Guillaume Barclay, Jurisconsulte Ecossais,’ in Mémoires de l’Académie de Stanislas, 1870. (Nancy, 1872), pp. lxii–lxiv Google Scholar, xcii-xciv.

3 De Regno et Regali Potestate, adversus Buchananum, Brutum, Boucherium, et reliquos Monarchomachos (Paris, 1600); De Potestate Papae, ed. John Barclay (n.p., 1609).

4 In P. Statii Papinii Thebaidis Libros IIII Commentarii et in Totidem Sequentes Notae (Pont-à-Mousson, 1601).

5 Dubois, pp. lxvii-lxxii, exvii-exxxiv. Becker, p. 4.

6 Euphormionis Lusinini Satyricon, 1, I I I V ff.; 11, 31V ff. All page references are made to the first extant editions (Paris, 1605 and 1607 respectively).

7 Dubois, p. clxxii; Dukas, p. 6; Bayle, Dictionnaire Historique et Critique, art. ‘Barclai (Jean).’

8 Collignon, XIV, 522-523; Becker, pp. 3-5 and passim. The ultimate source for this assertion is Nicolas Abram, Historia Universitatis et Collegii Mussipontani (Bibliothèque Municipale de Nancy, MS. 41), from which Collignon quotes at length.

9 Epistres françoises des personnages illustres et doctes à Mons. Joseph Juste de la Scala, ed. Jacques de Reves (Harderwyck, 1624), pp. 15, 361.

10 Lettres de Peiresc, ed. Philippe Tamizey de Larroque (Paris, 1898), VH, 348.

11 Series Patefacti Divinitus Parricidii in Ter Maximum Regem Regnumque Britanniae Cogitati et Instmcti (London, 1605). No author is mentioned on the title page, but the verses which conclude the work were reprinted in Barclay's Sylvae (London, 1606) and the work was included as Barclay's in editions of his Satyricon from 1628 on.

12 Sylvae, p. 24.

13 Jr.Williams, Franklin B., Index of Dedications and Commendatory Verses in English Books Before 1641. (London, 1962)Google Scholar.

14 For other dedications to Cecil, see Historical Manuscripts Commission, A Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Most Honourable the Marquess of Salisbury, ed. M. S. Giuseppe, Part xvm (London, 1940), p. 378. Financial favors sought or obtained by Barclay from Cecil are recorded in the Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series under the dates of October 26, 1607; September 2, 1610; and December 21, 1611.

15 Allusions to his greatest honor, assisting at the royal meals, appear in Euphormionis Satyricon, n, 157v, and in Paraenesis ad Sectarios (Cologne, 1638), p. 218. Other allusions to his close familiarity with the king appear in Paraenesis, sigs. *3V, *6V, pp. 256, 273, 275, 299, 323.

16 Instances of royal gifts to Barclay are recorded in the Cal. S. P., Dom. under January 7, 1610; September 2, 1610;July 18, 1611. Yet under date of December 21, 1611, Barclay is constrained to write Cecil begging for the payment of his pension. Several poems in the Sylvae and in the Poematum Libri Duo (London, 1615) are outright requests for gifts.

17 See Willson, D. Harris, King James VI and I. (London, 1956), pp. 85–86 Google Scholar and 144-145.

18 de l'Estoile, Pierre, Mémoires-Journaux. ed. Brunet et al. (Paris, 1881), ix, 46 Google Scholar.

19 The extent of Barclay's correspondence with Sarpi is uncertain. See a discussion of this question in Sarpi, Paolo, Lettere ai Gallicani. ed. Ulianich, Boris (Wiesbaden, 1961), p. 280 Google Scholar.

20 Epistres françoises, p. 198.

21 Epistres françoises, p. 361. The Baptism was solemnized on September 14, 1606.

22 Collignon, XIV, 513, 524-525. Collignon notes that documents in the departmental archives of Meurthe-et-Moselle record a mission sent by James to Duke Charles III of Lorraine in 1607.

23 Sylvae, pp. 26-27. For the date of William Barclay's death, see the document printed in Dubois, p. cxxxiv.

24 See Cal. S. P., Dom., April 27, 1609, where Barclay is named as translator, together with several others. Correr says that Barclay ‘has had the largest hand in translating it into Latin’ (Cal. S. P., Fen., June 25, 1609).

25 Regius, Lusus, being Poems and Other Pieces by King James I. ed. Rait, Robert S. (Westminster, 1901), p. x Google Scholar.

26 According to the Cal. S. P., Fen., June 10, 1609, Barclay was charged to include it among his presentations to various European princes. An undated bill of 1609 (Cal. S. P., Dom., vin, 577) relates that sundry copies of Barclay's book were specially bound for the king at royal expense.

27 See Cal. S. P., Ven., November 18, 1610; Cal. S. P., Dom., December 10, 1610.

28 Euphormionis Satyricon was placed on the Index on December 13, 1608; De Potestate Papae, on November 9, 1609; Pietas on May 10, 1613. See Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Vatican, 1901).

29 Cal. S. P., Ven., June 25, 1609.

30 See Cal. S. P., Ven., June 10, 1609-November 19, 1609, passim; Ambassades de M. de la Boderie en Angleterre (n.p., 1750), IV, 376.

31 Cat. S. P., Horn., December 21, 1611.

32 See note 16 above. But Barclay's search for patronage did not end once he was established at Rome. Letters from Peiresc to Barclay, beginning with one dated February 13, 1619, enter into details about negotiations for a pension from the French king (Lettres de Peiresc, VII, 383-492 passim).

33 This letter is printed at the beginning of Barclay's Argents (Leyden, 1659).

34 Urbain, pp. 319-320.

35 The Life and Letters of Sir Henry Wotton, ed. Logan Pearsall Smith (London, 1907), II. 93.