Barclay’s <i>Eclogues</i> and the Mantuan-Commentary of Josse Bade

Greg Waite established that the early Tudor laureate Alexander Barclay (c. 1476–1552), in his English translation of the Bellum Iugurthinum of C. Sallustius Crispus (86–c. 35 BCE), made use, not only of the text of the historical monograph published by Josse Bade Ascensius (c. 1462–1535), but also of Bade’s commentary on Sallust, which the scholar-printer published with his edition of the ancient text. In some instances, Barclay inserted only Bade’s glosses on unusual Latin terms and other brief explanatory comments; in others, Barclay introduced into his English Jugurthine War the substance of longer comments that are in fact the writing, not of Sallust, but of the Sallust-editor; in any case, Bade’s comments found their way into Barclay’s Sallust translation directly.1 To Waite’s observation can be subjoined this cognate: in his Eclogues too, the English poet incorporated matter from the work of Josse Bade. For, multa inter alia, Bade published an edition of the Latin verse Eclogues of the contemporary Italian Carmelite poet Mantuan (Battista Spagnoli or Spagnuoli, also Battista Mantovano, 1447–1518), on whose poems some portions of the Eclogues of Barclay were based.2 Bade’s often reprinted edition included the editor’s own commentary on the Mantuan-eclogues; and again simple phrasing and longer passages from Bade’s Mantuan-commentary reappear, translated into English verse or paraphrased, in Barclay’s pastorals. A signal instance comes in ‘The Prologe’ that Barclay put at the beginning of his completed five-eclogues collection (Barclay, Ecl. 1.1–140).3 Barclay’s Eclogues-prologue sometimes derives substance from Mantuan, especially Mantuan’s Latin prose letter, circulating as a standard preface to his pastoral verse-compositions. In Barclay’s ‘Prologe’, his apparently autobiographical remarks—on his intentions in taking up pastoral (the ‘worthy fame’ of the ancient poets ‘Did in my yonge age my heart greatly inflame, | Dull slouth eschewing, my-selfe to exercise’ 1.49–51) and on his age at the time of the eclogues’ completion (‘fortie yere saue twayne’ 1.69)—are in fact versified translations of Mantuan’s own.4 In Barclay’s ‘Prologue’, however, comes too a passage evidently modelled, not on Mantuan, but on Bade’s prefatory general letter inaugurating his Mantuan-Eclogues commentary, where nothing like occurs in Mantuan or any other identified source. Bade’s letter ends, turning again to his readers, with remarks commending Mantuan’s Eclogues, for their emulation of the ancient canons of pastoral, as well as their suitability nonetheless for a non-ancient, Christian readership:5 Legetis ergo sine periculo castitatis hanc Adolescentiam, quam in decem eglogas ad imitationem (ni fallor) compatriote sui, Virgilii Maronis, diuisit. Quarum ultimas duas in religione composuit, ceteras nondum eam professus, ita ut illic maiorem grauitatem, hic plures sales inueniatis. Vtrobique autem urbani leporis citra superfluentiam plurimum. Nam pastoralem decorem sermonisque bucolici tenuitatem audeam hic quam in Marone anxius obseruata dicere… . Intentio maiorem imitando ingenii sui periculum facere, et nunc ad honestum amorem, si cui coniugium placet cohortari; nunc ab inhonestis, nunc a perniciosis, nunc a mulierum illecebris; nunc ab auaricia, nunc a ceteris urbanorum uitiis dehortari; nunc rursus ad religionem et ad diue uirginis preconia, illiusque nomini dicate religionis priscam obseruationem cohortari. Que decem eglogarum precipua farrago est! (sig. A2r Worde = fol. 106v Petit).6 Without risk to your innocence shall ye study these Adulescentia [of Mantuan], which he divided into ten eclogues, in imitation of a compatriot of his, unless I am mistaken, namely, P. Vergilius Maro. Of the ten, he wrote the last two after he had entered religious estate; the rest, when he had not yet been professed; with the consequence that, in the former [group of eclogues], a greater gravity shall ye find; in the latter, rather a good deal of pungent wit; in both, however, much of the polish of urbanity, though not to any excess of superfluity. For decorum about the pastoral speech of herdsmen and their bucolic refinement is the more sedulously observed herein than it is in Vergil, I dare say… . The intention [of Mantuan] is to make trial of his own talent by imitating that of his ancient [sc. Vergil]; betimes to encourage honest love, if any the marital estate does please; betimes to discourage dishonest, baneful amours, and the snares of women; betimes the greed and other vices of city-folk; betimes again, to encourage religion and laudation of the Blessed Virgin, the antique observation of that religion consecrated to her name. For, above all, such is the farraginous variety of these ten eclogues. Barclay’s ‘Prologue’-final remarks adapt these of Bade to Barclay’s own circumstance—five eclogues, not ten, for instance;7 nonetheless, still a pastoral verse of ‘shepheardes’, decorous in its ‘homely language, not passing their degree’, in imitation of the ‘Poetes olde’, as Bade too claimed. The two lists of topics for pastoral are not wholly coincident—the anti-war sentiment is peculiar to Barclay; nonetheless, Barclay still uses an English equivalent of Bade’s structuring figure, ‘nunc … nunc … nunc … .’ (seven times repeated, alike Barclay’s ‘sometime’), in his own versification of Bade’s Latin prose: What follows below is a list of other passages in Barclay’s Eclogues where he appears to have made use of Bade’s Mantuan-commentary. Again, as with Barclay’s Sallust-translation, these Eclogues-passages comprehend instances where Barclay took only a word or two: Bade’s glosses on hard terms that Mantuan used (e.g., at Barclay, Ecl. 5.65, below, ‘ise sicles’, for Mantuan's stiria, by way of Bade’s ‘id est, glacies concreta’); and the commentator’s brief explanations where Mantuan’s phrasing was elliptical or possibly obscure (e.g., at Barclay, Ecl. 4.263, below, ‘Mercury’, for Mantuan's ‘Maiae filius’, by way of Bade’s comment, ‘id est, Mercurius’). There also come instances where Barclay translated or paraphrased longer Bade-comments, as well as instances where Barclay has expanded considerably, evidently prompted by something in the Bade-commentary: the further anti-war remarks, Barclay, Ecl. 5.731–752, below, for example, appear considerably to expand on Bade’s period-long comment on less than a line of Mantuan’s hexametric verse, Ecl. 6.168 ‘pro stipe dat uitam [sc. miles]’. The distribution of these borrowings from Bade’s Mantuan-commentary within Barclay’s Eclogues—other than the passage from Barclay’s ‘Prologe’ detailed above, the borrowings occur only in Barclay’s Eclogues 4–5—may result from the sequence of Barclay’s composition. Barclay’s Eclogue 4, ‘Codrus and Minalcas’, translates all of Mantuan’s Eclogue 5 ‘Candidus’, ‘De consuetudine diuitum erga poetas’; and Barclay’s Eclogue 5 ‘Amintas and Faustus’, ’of the disputation of Citizens and men of the Countrey’, all of Mantuan’s Eclogue 6 ‘Cornix’, ‘De disceptatione rusticorum et ciuium’. Barclay’s Eclogues 4–5 use matter from other Mantuan-eclogues, as do also Barclay’s Eclogues 1–3.9 Nonetheless, Barclay’s Ecl. 1–3, ‘of the miseryes of Courtiers and Courtes of all princes in generall’, chiefly versify the De miseriis curialium of Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini, also Pope Pius II (sedit 1458–64), rather than Mantuan. In the view of Beatrice White, Barclay’s shift of basic source-material represents chronological difference too: the numerically higher, Mantuan-based Eclogues 4–5 were written before the numerically lower ones, based on the Piccolomini De miseriis, later added to make up the complete collection of five; in addition, White indicates that Barclay’s Eclogue 5, exhibiting ‘a greater dependence on the Latin’ of Mantuan, was written before Eclogue 4, ‘for it shows considerably more independence of treatment’.10 It would so appear that Barclay was working more closely with Bade’s Mantuan-edition and -commentary while writing the chronologically earlier Eclogues 4–5, as is reflected in the list of passages below. But Barclay retained what knowledge he had gained of Mantuan and Bade’s commentary on Mantuan when he came to write the chronologically later Eclogues 1–3. Barclay’s lower-numbered Eclogues continued to use matter from Mantuan; and although Eclogues 1–3 used less of Bade’s contribution, Barclay was still drawing on matter from Bade’s Mantuan commentary in the five Eclogues’ ‘Prologe’.11 On Mantuan, Ecl. 5.38 ‘Neue renascantur fruges secat [sc. formica] ore sepultas’ ‘And, so that they revivify not, with her mouth [the ant] cuts the seed-grains she had entombed’, cf. Bade ‘Neue pro nequam; id est, et ne renascantur; id est, germinentur; secat ore, id est, germen, auferendo disrumpit fruges sepultas; id est, absconditas in terris’ ‘“Lest not” stands for “never”, in other words; and “lest” they “revivify”, which is to say “sprout”, “she cuts” the seed—she removes “the seed-grains she had entombed”, in other words, that, in carrying them away, she had hidden in the ground’ (fol. 28v Worde = fol. 120r Petit). On Mantuan, Ecl. 5.39 ‘Scire genethliacos fatalia sidera dicunt’ ‘They say that genethliacists understand the fatal constellations’, cf. Bade ‘Genethliacos, id est, de genesi et natiuitate iudicantes, qui inspecto natiuitatis horoscopo futuram uitam prędicunt. Hi scilicet genethliaci et mathematici; locant sub Mercurio, id est, hora nascendi qua Mercurius dominatur’ ‘The genethliacists, in other words, such persons as evaluate generation and nativity, are those who study natal horoscopes, thereby making predictions of the life yet to come. These genethliacists are astrologers, of course; they reside under Mercury, i. e., in the hours of birthing over which Mercury is dominant’ (fol. 28v–29r Worde = fol. 120r Petit). On Mantuan, Ecl. 5.395.42–43 ‘dat Maiae filius illis | ingenium, linguam, citharas et carminis artem’ ‘Maia's son grants unto them genius, a voice, instruments of music, and the art of poetry’, cf. Bade ‘Maie filius, id est Mercurius, dat illis, scilicet uatibus sub se natis, ingenium; et ita uult eos contentos esse debere, sua sorte dicens: Sorte tua contentus abi; Sine, id est, derelinque; cetera, id est diuitias et opes, nobis, scilicet qui ingenium et carminis artem non habemus’ ‘“Maia's son”, namely Mercury, “grants unto them”, namely such bards as are born under his natal signs, “a special kind of genius”; and so wills it that they ought be content, of their lot saying unto them, “Rest thee content with thy lot; leave, or surrender, all else”—namely, riches and wealth—“unto the rest of us”, namely whoso have not that special kind of genius and poetic art’ (fol. 29r Worde = fol. 120r Petit). On Mantuan, Ecl. 5.114–116 ‘uesci | et lupus omne animal crudis existimat escis, | tuque putas alios quo tu pede claudere passum’ ‘The wolf believes it too that all animals feed on raw foodstuffs, and thou dost imagine it that others go lame by the same halt foot as thou dost’, cf. Bade ‘Et lupus existimat: id est, censet et iudicat omne animal uesci crudis; id est, incoctis escis, uidelicet carnibus quibus ipse uescitur. Tuque, id est, et tu; putas alios claudere passum, id est, ingredi; eo pede quo tu, id est, moueri ea affectione qua tu. Per pedes enim sepe intelliguntur affectiones: hoc est, quia tu cupis ditescere, censes omnes id cupere’ ‘“The wolf believes it too”, i. e., thinks and judges it, “that all animals feed on the raw”, i. e. on foodstuffs that are uncooked, namely, the kind of flesh that he feeds on. “And thou”, i. e. “thou too dost imagine it that others go lame”, i. e. walk, “by the same halt foot as thou dost use”, i. e. are moved by the same desire as thou art. For the term “feet” is often meant to represent desires; that is to say that, because thou dost desire to become rich, thou dost judge it that everyone else desires the same thing’ (fol. 31v Worde = fol. 121r Petit). On Mantuan, Ecl. 5.130–131 ‘tempestate ista reuerentia tanta poesi | quanta lupanari’ ‘In your sort of weather, poetry-writing gets about as much respect as a whore-house’, cf. Bade ‘Quanta lupanari, id est, prostibulo aut prostitutis. Lupas uocabant olim prostitutas; unde et prostibuli, Iupanaria—hinc fictum uolunt Romulum a lupa nutritum. Non decet per alium se castigat’ ‘“As much as a whore-house”, namely, in a brothel or with prostitutes. For “she-wolves” was formerly the term for prostitutes; whence likewise brothels were called “she-wolves' dens”—a figure of speech meant to recall it that Romulus was fostered by a she-wolf. For it is ungracious to use someone else's fault to castigate oneself’ (fol. 31v Worde = fol. 121v Petit).12 On Mantuan, Ecl. 5.178 ‘insulsi, illepidi, indociles’ ‘unflavoured, unpolished, ill-taught’, cf. Bade, ‘Insulsi, id est, sine salibus sermonis; illepidi, id est, sine lepore ac uenustate sermonis; indociles, quia dediscere nolunt et ita incorrigibiles’ ‘“Unflavoured” means without figures of speech; “unpolished”, without charm or comeliness of speech; “ill-taught”, inasmuch as they desire not to learn and so cannot be educated’ (fol. 33v Worde = fol. 122r Petit). Cf. Bade, summarizing at the beginning of Mantuan, Ecl. 6, ‘Contentio est inter Cornicem pastorem, qui partes rusticorum agit, et Fulicam, qui urbanorum, de prestantia Fortunę utrorumque. Occasione cuius multa quasi satyrice dicuntur in mores potius ciuium quam rusticorum’ ‘This is a contention of the herdsman Cornix, who takes the part of the country-folk, and of Fulica, who takes that of the city-dwellers, concerning the benevolences that Fortune bestows on each kind. On the occasion, by way of satire, they say a good deal more about the doings of the citizens than about those of the country-folk’ (fol. 34r Worde = fol. 122r Petit).13 On Mantuan, Ecl. 6.1–2 ‘mugit Boreas, a culmine pendet | Stiria’ ‘Boreas bellows, icicles hang from the rooves’, cf. Bade ‘Boreas, uentus frigidus, a septentrionali plaga, que frigida est, flans. Mugit: mugitum imitatur flato alto. Stiria, id est, glacies concreta. A culmine, a tecto’ ‘Boreas, a cold wind, is blowing in from northerly regions, which are cold. “Does bellow”, a low-pitched blowing represents bellowing. Stiria means solid ice, icicle; “from the top”, namely, from the roof-top’ (fol. 34r Worde = 122r–122v Petit). On Mantuan, Ecl. 6.3 ‘pastor tunicatus’ ‘tunic-wrapped the herdsman’, cf. Bade ‘Pastor tunicatus, quia ociosus, unde dictum est a poeta’ ‘“Tunic-wrapped the herdsman” is, as the has it, because the is at (fol. 34r Worde = fol. On Mantuan, Ecl. | at the and cf. Bade quia aut ‘The is because the is or she in she had her (fol. 34r Worde = fol. On Mantuan, Ecl. came after cf. Bade id est, (fol. Worde = fol. Petit). On Mantuan, Ecl. | olim | persons their I cannot so much do my up as though they had been but cf. Bade ut et namely, such as and (fol. Worde = fol. Petit). On Mantuan, Ecl. cf. Bade esse est pastorem, ut et that the like unto a in a more laudation of the herdsman is and the passage that, in was the herdsman and that too were such as and the (fol. Worde = fol. Petit). On Mantuan, Ecl. cuius | opes, ab | et in | ac persons whose but in where has found them they in and that so them into and are they from the cf. Bade urbanorum et cuius id est, id est, quam et non ut qui per ut id est, aut in qua opes, est qui ad quia hoc ad non ‘The passage other vices of city-dwellers, these the of as For, a kind of is, e., by namely, such as would be and not in with by the art of as they the of to as he it, has as yet it is that have found those in the matter say that can be found such as have the the means “from the though in what are is not unless it to to the they (fol. Worde = fol. Petit). On Mantuan, Ecl. | the are all in the same of the is cf. Bade non quia omnes the passage cannot their own or their own inasmuch as all of them are in is of (fol. Worde = fol. Petit). On Mantuan, Ecl. 6.168 ‘pro stipe dat uitam [sc. [the his life cf. Bade et et pro aut qui sua ut et pro periculum non pro et ac ‘The passage that and others who for or reside in for the more The who are up and the more in for a they put their in as would not do unless by of the of their or their and (fol. Worde = fol. Petit). in Barclay’s Eclogues The White edition of Eclogues takes its text from the Barclay edition of published about after Barclay writing and after his The White edition from some earlier of some of the Eclogues, the edition of of published by with Barclay was the edition of all five Eclogues, and the edition of the the White edition does not an of earlier published the of them the de Worde edition of ‘The of but also the edition of the of which is not and the edition of all the five A consequence is that the White edition a text often what Barclay would have the time of the the and had the kind of that Waite observed in the of Barclay’s Sallust translation too, inasmuch as of Barclay’s … to have been as or by In the Eclogues, the and especially and where Barclay used and or where Barclay used for example, as by the earlier in occur as such as ‘In these (Barclay, Ecl. and as a for and for for example, in of and ‘for and for in the White thou of this sorte | But that she from where the edition the thou of this | But that she more again White, his for they for the earlier his for they and with for with a and his other for other his so et The is in which the text has a to be to Barclay that appears to have been to Barclay’s Eclogues-prologue has the poet the in the ancient pastoral verse, the of | is and of other and the Blessed in the the In the and the that his the | to good my and is with a to the of the or possibly by simple but more on a all its edition the the taking their in and without of The White edition the with a at the foot of the to the Blessed

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