The Life of Alexander Barclay 361 lished subsequent to Jamieson's work, and was apparently unknown to Koelbing. It is barely mentioned by Jusserand 4 in his history of English Literature. Gardiner, in his introduc- tion to the Letters and Papers, calls attention to the letters concerning Barclay as a source of biographical material, but apparently no attempt has been made to reconstruct the details of Barclay's life in the light of this new information. An examination of the majority of the accounts of Barclay's life discloses the fact that stripped of all speculation and doubt- ful statements they draw their information very largely from John Bale's short sketch printed in his Scriptorum Illustrium Maioris Brytannie? published seven years after Barclay's death. When this account is carefully analysed at least one point that has puzzled Barclay's biographers, the question of whether he was a Franciscan or a Benedictine, can be cleared up; and by the aid of the Letters and Papers Barclay's later career may be traced. The following is Bale's account of Barclay in full: "Alexander Barkeley, quern alii Scotum, alii Anglum fuisse contendunt, poeta ac rhetor insignis, ab eruditis artibus magnam sibi, dum viveret, existi- mationem peperit. Plures sectas ille probavit, quandoque sacrificulum, quan- doque Benedictum aut Franciscanum indunes, nulli certus; sed in illis omnibus veritatis osor, & sub coelibatus fuco foedus adulter perpetue mansit. Multa tamen in Anglicum sermonem eleganter ille transtulit ac scripsit, praesertim De miseriis aulicorum, Illustres poetae novem Musis. Contra Skeltonum, Vitam Georgii, ex Mantuano, Quinque Eglogas eiusdem, Vitam D. Catharinae, Vitam D. Margaretae, De pronounciatione Gallica, Salustium de Bello lurguthino, Navim Stultiferam, Vitam D. Etheldredae, Bucolicam Codri, Eglogam quartam, Castellum laboris, Mancinum de virtutibus, Aliique plura fecit. Obiit anno Domini 1552, in mense lunio, Croydone prope Londinum sepultus." 4 J. J. Jusserand, Histoire Litteraire du Peuple Anglais, Paris, 1904, p. 103 N. 8 No. 723. Multii ac varii homines literati.
Memini me superioribus annis
