1513 - Barclay, Alexander - Fourth Eclogue

Alexander Barclay, a wood cut included in many early editions of his works (from The Ship of Fools, 1874).

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2013-07-28. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2018-07-28.

Allusion

Yet would I gladly heare some mery fit
Of mayde Marion, or els of Robin hood;
Or Bentleyes ale which chafeth well the bloud,
Of perre of Norwich, or sauce of Wilberton,
Or buckishe Joly well-stuffed as a ton.

IRHB comments

Alexander Barclay's Eclogues were written 1513-14. These lines are spoken by a shepherd. Though earlier sources mention "Robin et Marion", this is the first literary source to mention "Maid Marian" eo nomine. Possibly "some mery fit" is an allusion to the A Gest of Robyn Hode, which was divided into fyttes and was then in all probability the most well known Robin Hood poem.

Editions

• Barclay, Alexander, adapt.; Mantovano, Battista Spagnuoli. The Boke of Codrus and Mynalcas ([London], [1521?]). First edition.
• Barclay, Alexander, adapt.; Brandt, Sebastian; Mantovano, Battista Spagnuoli; Mancini, Dominic. 'Certayne Egloges of Alexander Barclay', in: Barclay, Alexander, adapt.; Brandt, Sebastian; Mancini, Dominic; Piccolomini, Enea Silvio; Mantuanus, Baptista Spagnuoli; Locher, Jakob, transl. Stultifera Nauis, Qua Omnium Mortalium Narratur Stultitia [...] È Latino Sermone in Nostrum Vulgarem Versa [...] The Ship of Fooles, Wherin is Shewed the Folly of All States, with Diuers other Workes Adioyned Vnto the Same [...] (Imprinted at London in Paules Church-yarde, 1570), sigs. A-D6. Second edition.
• Barclay, Alexander, adapt.; [Mantovano, Battista Spagnuoli]; White, Beatrice, ed. The Eclogues of Alexander Barclay from the Original Edition by John Cawood (Early English Text Society, Original Series, vol. 175) (London, 1928). The only scholarly edition.
• Barclay, Alexander, adapt.; [Mantovano, Battista Spagnuoli]; White, Beatrice, ed. The Eclogues of Alexander Barclay from the Original Edition by John Cawood (Burt Franklin Research & Source Works Series, vol. 150) (New York, 1960). Reprint of 1928 ed.

Lists

• Not included in Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976).
• Sussex, Lucy, compil. 'References to Robin Hood up to 1600', in: Knight, Stephen. Robin Hood: A Complete Study of the English Outlaw (Oxford, UK; Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell, 1994), pp. 262-88, see p. 270.

Background

• Schultz, John Richie. 'The Life of Alexander Barclay', Journal of English and Germanic Philology, vol. XVIII (1919), pp. 360-68.
• Wikipedia: Alexander Barclay.

Brief mention

• Barclay, Alexander, adapt.; [Brandt, Sebastian]; [Jamieson, Thomas Hill], ed. The Ship of Fools (Edinburgh; London, 1874), vol. I, p. lxvii. Cites the passage noting it mentions "some of the festive tales of our ancestors".

Notes