A Note on Alexander BarclayAuthor(s): Beatrice WhiteSource: The Modern Language Review, Vol. 26, No. 2 (Apr., 1931), pp. 169-170Published by: Modern Humanities Research AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3715451 .

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Miscellaneous Notes Miscellaneous Notes

Ages. Du Cange sub 'ceratus' quotes Regula S. Caesarii ad Virgines, cap. 42: 'nec vela cerata appendi, nec tabulae pictse affigi, nec in parie- tibus vel cameris ulla pictura fieri debet.' Chaucer has cered pokets, Cant. Tales, G. 808; the N.E.D. records cere vb. 'to wrap in cerecloth' from c. 1465 but cerecloth sb. not earlier than 1540. As the habit of a

religious woman was also her shroud it is conceivable that the cire- claaenan tunic, hood and wimple may have been bequeathed for such a

purpose. A. C. PAUES.

CAMBRIDGE.

A NOTE ON ALEXANDER BARCLAY.

The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, is rich in editions of Alexander Barclay's poems. It possesses two unique editions in the undated edition of the first three eclogues by an anonymous printer, and

Pynson's edition of the fourth eclogue. These two are bound up in the same quarto volume with Wynkyn de Worde's edition of the fifth

eclogue. The title-page of the anonymous quarto edition runs: 'Here begynneth

the Egloges of Alexader Barclay prest wher of the fyrst thre conteyneth the myseryes of courters & courtes of all prynces in generall | The matter wherof was translated into Englysshe by the sayd Alexander in fourme of Dialoges I out of a boke named in latin Miserie curialiu I compyled by Eneas Siluius Poete and oratour I whiche after was Pope of Rome I & named Pius. Cornix. Coridon.' This is over a cut, not without merit, of the two shepherds, Cornix and Coridon, with their sheep. In the back-

ground is a building with towers and turrets. This cut is repeated on F 4 v and M 3 v. On the verso is a cut, very well executed, of David and Bathsheba, and under this cut is a small decorative panel. The text

begins on [A] ii, but the A signatures are omitted, the signatures begin- ning with B. [A]-O in 4's-P 5. The colophon reads: 'Thus endyth the

thyrde and last egloge of the mysery of court and courters I composed by Alexander Barclay preste in his youthe.'

The Short Title Catalogue suggests that Wynkyn de Worde was the

printer of this edition c. 1515. I would like to put forward the suggestion that this may be Herford's edition, c. 1546. There is a fragment in the British Museum of Eclogue I. 11. 781-830 which is almost identical (it is slightly mutilated) with this edition.

Whoever the printer, there is an important divergence in the Prologue

Ages. Du Cange sub 'ceratus' quotes Regula S. Caesarii ad Virgines, cap. 42: 'nec vela cerata appendi, nec tabulae pictse affigi, nec in parie- tibus vel cameris ulla pictura fieri debet.' Chaucer has cered pokets, Cant. Tales, G. 808; the N.E.D. records cere vb. 'to wrap in cerecloth' from c. 1465 but cerecloth sb. not earlier than 1540. As the habit of a

religious woman was also her shroud it is conceivable that the cire- claaenan tunic, hood and wimple may have been bequeathed for such a

purpose. A. C. PAUES.

CAMBRIDGE.

A NOTE ON ALEXANDER BARCLAY.

The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, is rich in editions of Alexander Barclay's poems. It possesses two unique editions in the undated edition of the first three eclogues by an anonymous printer, and

Pynson's edition of the fourth eclogue. These two are bound up in the same quarto volume with Wynkyn de Worde's edition of the fifth

eclogue. The title-page of the anonymous quarto edition runs: 'Here begynneth

the Egloges of Alexader Barclay prest wher of the fyrst thre conteyneth the myseryes of courters & courtes of all prynces in generall | The matter wherof was translated into Englysshe by the sayd Alexander in fourme of Dialoges I out of a boke named in latin Miserie curialiu I compyled by Eneas Siluius Poete and oratour I whiche after was Pope of Rome I & named Pius. Cornix. Coridon.' This is over a cut, not without merit, of the two shepherds, Cornix and Coridon, with their sheep. In the back-

ground is a building with towers and turrets. This cut is repeated on F 4 v and M 3 v. On the verso is a cut, very well executed, of David and Bathsheba, and under this cut is a small decorative panel. The text

begins on [A] ii, but the A signatures are omitted, the signatures begin- ning with B. [A]-O in 4's-P 5. The colophon reads: 'Thus endyth the

thyrde and last egloge of the mysery of court and courters I composed by Alexander Barclay preste in his youthe.'

The Short Title Catalogue suggests that Wynkyn de Worde was the

printer of this edition c. 1515. I would like to put forward the suggestion that this may be Herford's edition, c. 1546. There is a fragment in the British Museum of Eclogue I. 11. 781-830 which is almost identical (it is slightly mutilated) with this edition.

Whoever the printer, there is an important divergence in the Prologue

169 169

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170 170 Miscellaneous Notes Miscellaneous Notes

of this edition from Powell's and from Cawood's. Line 118 in all editions reads: 'My hope is fixed [ of hym ayded to be'; but in this anonymous edition there are two lines (119 and 120) excised from the later ones, which read:

And that his mother [ the heuynly empres Shall to good endynge my wyt and pene addres.

It would be interesting to speculate on the reason for the excision. Is this really an indication or rather instance of Barclay's changeable religious views?

Then again, 11. 126 ff. of the Prologue: Fyrst of this thynge I I wyll thou be certayne That .x. egloggys this hole treatyse dothe holde To imitacion of other poetes olde.

Powell's edition also has the Roman numeral .x. here and this opens the question of that puzzling allusion of Bale's to 'Quinque eglogas ex Mantuano,' five eclogues translated out of Mantuan.

BEATRICE WHITE. PALO ALTO, CALiFOBIIA.

WILLIAM KEMP NOT FALSTAFF.

In 'The Roles of William Kempl,' Professor Henry David Gray offers some emendations to my conjectural assignment of original roles to actors in Shakespeare's plays. The chief of these suggested changes is the assignment of Falstaff in Henry IV and Merry Wives of Windsor to William Kemp. But this assignment overlooks some very important contemporary evidence as to the time the 'fat fool' disappeared from the company.

In The Poetaster, which Jonson himself dates 1601, 'Tucca has ex- tracted a promise from Histrio, manager of the Shakespearean company, to make a supper, and is instructing him as to the guests who are to be invited from the company.... Says Tucca "and your fat fool there, my mango, bring him too; but let him not beg rapiers nor scarfs, in his over-familiar playing face, nor roar out his barren bold jests with a tormenting laughter between drunk and dry. Do you hear, stiff-toe? give him warning, admonition, to forsake his saucy glavering grace, and his goggle eye; it does not become him, sirrah: tell him so2."' Jonson, therefore, is our warrant that there was an actor specifically recognised

1 Mod. Lang. Rev. xxv, pp. 261-73. 2 T. W. Baldwin, Organization and Personnel of the Shakespearean Company, p. 232.

of this edition from Powell's and from Cawood's. Line 118 in all editions reads: 'My hope is fixed [ of hym ayded to be'; but in this anonymous edition there are two lines (119 and 120) excised from the later ones, which read:

And that his mother [ the heuynly empres Shall to good endynge my wyt and pene addres.

It would be interesting to speculate on the reason for the excision. Is this really an indication or rather instance of Barclay's changeable religious views?

Then again, 11. 126 ff. of the Prologue: Fyrst of this thynge I I wyll thou be certayne That .x. egloggys this hole treatyse dothe holde To imitacion of other poetes olde.

Powell's edition also has the Roman numeral .x. here and this opens the question of that puzzling allusion of Bale's to 'Quinque eglogas ex Mantuano,' five eclogues translated out of Mantuan.

BEATRICE WHITE. PALO ALTO, CALiFOBIIA.

WILLIAM KEMP NOT FALSTAFF.

In 'The Roles of William Kempl,' Professor Henry David Gray offers some emendations to my conjectural assignment of original roles to actors in Shakespeare's plays. The chief of these suggested changes is the assignment of Falstaff in Henry IV and Merry Wives of Windsor to William Kemp. But this assignment overlooks some very important contemporary evidence as to the time the 'fat fool' disappeared from the company.

In The Poetaster, which Jonson himself dates 1601, 'Tucca has ex- tracted a promise from Histrio, manager of the Shakespearean company, to make a supper, and is instructing him as to the guests who are to be invited from the company.... Says Tucca "and your fat fool there, my mango, bring him too; but let him not beg rapiers nor scarfs, in his over-familiar playing face, nor roar out his barren bold jests with a tormenting laughter between drunk and dry. Do you hear, stiff-toe? give him warning, admonition, to forsake his saucy glavering grace, and his goggle eye; it does not become him, sirrah: tell him so2."' Jonson, therefore, is our warrant that there was an actor specifically recognised

1 Mod. Lang. Rev. xxv, pp. 261-73. 2 T. W. Baldwin, Organization and Personnel of the Shakespearean Company, p. 232.

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