The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) - Theophilus Cibber
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Solitary Sonnets.
The Art of dying well.
--------Speaking eloquently.
Manners of the Court.
Invective against William Lyle the Grammarian.
Epitaphs on Kings, Princes, and Nobles,
Collin Clout.
Poetical Fancies and Satires.
Verses on the Death of Arthur Prince of Wales.
* * * * *
ALEXANDER BARCLAY.
He was an author of some eminence and merit, tho' there are few things
preserved concerning him, and he has been neglected by almost all the
biographers of the poets. That excellent writer Mrs. Cooper seems to
have a pretty high opinion of his abilities; it is certain that he
very considerably refined the language, and his verses are much
smoother than those of Harding, who wrote but a few years before him.
He stiles himself Priest, and Chaplain in the College of St. Mary,
Otory, in the county of Devon, and afterwards Monk of Ely. His
principal work is a translation of a satirical piece, written
originally in high Dutch, and entitled the Ship of Fools: It exposes
the characters, vices, and follies of all degrees of men, and tho'
much inferior in its execution to the Canterbury Tales, has yet
considerable merit, especially when it is considered how barren and
unpolite the age was in which he flourished. In the prologue to this
he makes an apology for his youth, and it appears that the whole was
finished Anno Dom.-1508, which was about the close of the reign of
Henry VII. In elegancy of manners he has the advantage of all his
predecessors, as is particularly remarkable in his address to Sir
Giles Alington, his patron. The poet was now grown old, and the knight
desiring him to abridge and improve Gower's Confessio Amantis, he
declines it in the politest manner, on account of his age, profession,
and infirmities; 'but tho' love is an improper subject, 'says he, I
am still an admirer of the sex, and shall 'introduce to the honour of
your acquaintance, 'four of the finest ladies that nature ever framed,
'Prudence, Temperance, Justice, and Magnanimity;' the whole of the
address is exceeding courtly, and from this I shall quote a few lines,
which will both illustrate his politeness and versification
To you these accorde; these unto you are due,
Of you late proceeding as of their head fountayne;
Your life as example in writing I ensue,
For, more then my writing within it can contayne:
Your manners performeth and doth there attayne:
So touching these vertues, ye have in your living
More than this my meter conteyneth in writing.
My dities indited may counsell many one,
But not you, your maners surmounteth my
doctrine
Wherefore, I regard you, and your maners all
one,
After whose living my processes, I combine:
So other men instrusting, I must to you encline
Conforming my process, as much as I am able,
To your sad behaviour and maners commendable.
He was author of the following pieces.
Lives of several of the Saints.
Salust's History of the Jugurthiam war translatcd into English.
The Castle of Labour, translated from the French into English.
Bale gives this author but an indifferent character as to his morals;
he is said to have intrigued with women, notwithstanding his clerical
profession: It is certain he was a gay courtly man, and perhaps, tho'
he espoused the Church in his profession, he held their celebacy and
pretended chastity in contempt, and being a man of wit, indulged
himself in those pleasures, which seem to be hereditary to the poets.
* * * * *
Sir THOMAS MORE.
Tho' poetry is none of the excellencies in which this great man was
distinguished, yet as he wrote some verses with tolerable spirit, and
was in almost every other respect one of the foremost geniusses our
nation ever produced, I imagine a short account of his life here will
not be disagreable to the readers, especially as all Biographers of
the Poets before me have taken notice of him, and ranked him amongst
the number of Bards. Sir Thomas More was born in Milk-street, London,
A.D. 1480. He was son to Sir John More, Knight, and one of the
Justices of the King's-Bench, a man held in the highest esteem at
that time for his knowledge in the law and his integrity in the
administration of justice. It was objected by the enemies of Sir
Thomas, that his birth was obscure, and his family mean; but far
otherwise was the real case. Judge More bore arms from his birth,
having his coat of arms quartered, which proves his having come to his
inheritance by descent. His mother was likewise a woman of family, and
of an extraordinary virtue.
Doctor Clement relates from the authority of our author himself, a
vision which his mother had, the next night after her marriage. She
thought she saw in her sleep, as it were engraven in her wedding ring,
the number and countenances of all the children she was to have, of
whom the face of one was so dark and obscure, that she could not well
discern it, and indeed she afterwards suffered an untimely delivery of
one of them: the face of the other she beheld shining most gloriously,
by which the future fame of Sir Thomas was pre-signified. She also
bore two daughters. But tho' this story is told with warmth by his
great grandson, who writes his life, yet, as he was a Roman Catholic,
and and disposed to a superstitious belief in miracles and visions,
there is no great stress to be laid upon it. Lady More might perhaps
communicate this vision to her son, and he have embraced the belief
of it; but it seems to have too little authority, to deserve credit
from posterity.
Another miracle is related by Stapleton, which is said to have
happened in the infancy of More. His nurse one day crossing a river,
and her horse stepping into a deep place, exposed both her and the
child to great danger. She being more anxious for the safety of the
child than her own, threw him over a hedge into a field adjoining, and
escaping likewise from the imminent danger, when she came to take him
up, she found him quite unhurt and smiling sweetly upon her.
He was put to the free-school in London called St. Anthony's, under
the care of the famous Nicholas Holt, and when he had with great
rapidity acquired a knowledge of his grammar rules, he was placed by
his father's interest under the great Cardinal Merton, archbishop of
Canterbury, and Lord High Chancellor, whose gravity and learning,
generosity and tenderness, allured all men to love and honour him.
To him More dedicated his Utopia, which of all his works is
unexceptionably the most masterly and finished. The Cardinal finding
himself too much incumbered with business, and hurried with state
affairs to superintend his education, placed him in Canterbury
College in Oxford, whereby his assiduous application to books, his
extraordinary temperance and vivacity of wit, he acquired the first
character among the students, and then gave proofs of a genius that
would one day make a great blaze in the world. When he was but
eighteen years old such was the force of his understanding, he wrote
many epigrams which were highly esteemed by men of eminence, as
well abroad as at home. Beatus Rhenanus in his epistle to Bilibalus
Pitchemerus, passes great encomiums upon them, as also Leodgarius a
Quercu, public reader of humanity at Paris. One Brixius a German, who
envied the reputation of this young epigramatist, wrote a book against
these epigrams, under the title of Antimorus, which had no other
effect than drawing Erasmus into the field, who celebrated and
honoured More; whose high patronage was the greatest compliment the
most ambitious writer could expect, so that the friendship of Erasmus
was cheaply purchased by the malevolence of a thousand such critics as
Brixius. About the same time of life he translated for his exercise
one of Lucian's orations out of Greek into Latin, which he calls his
First Fruits of the Greek Tongue; and adds another oration of his own
to answer that of Lucian; for as he had defended him who had slain a
tyrant, he opposed against it another with such forcible arguments,
that it seems not to be inferior to Lucian's, either in invention or
eloquence: When he was about twenty years old, finding his appetites
and passions very predominant. He struggled with all the heroism of a
christian against their influence, and inflicted severe whippings and
austere mortifications upon himself every friday and on high fasting
days, left his sensuality would grow too insolent, and at last subdue
his reason. But notwithstanding all his efforts, finding his lusts
ready to endanger his soul, he wisely determined to marry, a remedy
much more natural than personal inflictions; and as a pattern of life,
he proposed the example of a singular lay-man, John Picas Earl of
Mirandula, who was a man famous for chastity, virtue, and learning. He
translated this nobleman's life, as also many of his letters, and his
twelve receipts of good life, which are extant in the beginning of his
English works. For this end he also wrote a treatise of the four last
things, which he did not quite finish, being called to other studies.
At his meals he was very abstemious, nor ever eat but of one dish,
which was most commonly powdered beef, or some such saltmeat. In his
youth he abstained wholly from wine; and as he was temperate in his
diet, so was he heedless and negligent in his apparel. Being once told
by his secretary Mr. Harris, that his shoes were all torn, he bad him
tell his man to buy him new ones, whose business it was to take care
of his cloaths, whom for this cause he called his tutor. His first
wife's name was Jane Cole, descended of a genteel family, who bore him
four children, and upon her decease, which in not many years happened,
he married a second time a widow, one Mrs. Alice Middleton, by whom he
had no children. This he says he did not to indulge his passions (for
he observes that it it harder to keep chastity in wedlock than in a
single life,) but to take care of his children and houshold affairs.
Upon what principle this observation is founded, I cannot well
conceive, and wish Sir Thomas had given his reasons why it is harder
to be chaste in a married than single life. This wife was a worldly
minded woman, had a very indifferent person, was advanced in years,
and possessed no very agreeable temper. Much about this time he became
obnoxious to Henry VII for opposing his exactions upon the people.
Henry was a covetous mean prince, and entirely devoted to the
council of Emson and Dudley, who then were very justly reckoned the
caterpillars of the state. The King demanded a large subsidy to bestow
on his eldest daughter, who was then about to be married to James IV.
of Scotland. Sir Thomas being one of the burgesses, so influenced the
lower house by the force of his arguments, (who were cowardly enough
before not to oppose the King) that they refused the demands, upon
which Mr. Tiler of the King's Privy-Chambers went presently to
his Majesty, and told him that More had disappointed all their
expectations, which circumstance not a little enraged him against
More. Upon this Henry was base enough to pick a quarrel without a
cause against Sir John More, his venerable father, and in revenge to
the son, clapt him in the Tower, keeping him there prisoner till he
had forced him to pay one hundred pounds of a fine, for no offence.
King Henry soon after dying, his son who began his reign with some
popular acts, tho' afterwards he degenerated into a monstrous tyrant,
caused Dudley and Emson to be impeached of high treason for giving bad
advice to his father; and however illegal such an arraignment might
be, yet they met the just fate of oppressors and traitors to their
country.
About the year 1516, he composed his famous book called the Utopia,
and gained by it great reputation. Soon after it was published, it
was translated both into French and Italian, Dutch and English. Dr.
Stapleton enumerates the opinions of a great many learned men in its
favour. This work tho' not writ in verse, yet in regard of the fancy
and invention employed in composing it, may well enough pass for an
allegorical poem. It contains the idea of a compleat Commonwealth in
an imaginary island, (pretended to be lately discovered in America)
and that so well counterfeited, that many upon reading it, mistook it
for a real truth, in so much (says Winstanly) that some learned men,
as Budeus, Johannes Plaudanus, out of a principle of fervent zeal,
wished that some excellent divines might be sent hither to preach
Christ's Gospel.
Much about the same time he wrote the history of Richard III. which
was likewise held in esteem; these works were undertaken when he was
discharged from the business of the state.
Roper, in his life of our author, relates that upon an occasion in
which King Henry VIII. and the Pope were parties in a cause tryed in
the Star Chamber, Sir Thomas most remarkably distinguished himself,
and became so great a favourite with that discerning monarch, that he
could no longer forbear calling him into his service.
A ship of the Pope's, by the violence of a storm was driven into
Southampton, which the King claimed as a forfeiture; when the day of
hearing came on before the Lord High Chancellor, and other Judges,
More argued so forcibly in favour of the Pope, that tho' the Judges
had resolved to give it for the King, yet they altered their opinion,
and confirmed the Pope's right. In a short time after this, he was
created a Knight, and after the death of Mr. Weston, he was made
Treasurer of the Exchequer, and one of the Privy Council. He was now
Speaker of the House of Commons, and thus exalted in dignity, the
eyes of the nation were fixed upon him. Wolsey, who then governed the
realm, found himself much grieved by the Burgesses, because all their
transactions were so soon made public, and wanting a fresh subsidy,
came to the house in person to complain of this usage. When the
burgesses heard of his coming, it was long debated whether they should
admit him or no, and Sir Thomas strongly urged that he should be
admitted, for this reason, that if he shall find fault with the
spreading of our secrets, (says he) we may lay the blame upon those
his Grace brought with him. The proud Churchman having entered the
House, made a long speech for granting the subsidy, and asked several
of the Members opinion concerning it; they were all so confounded as
not to be able to answer, and the House at last resolved that their
Speaker should reply for them. Upon this Sir Thomas shewed that the
cardinal's coming into the House was unprecedented, illegal, and a
daring insult on the liberty of the burgesses, and that the subsidy
demanded was unnecessary; upon which Wolsey suddenly departed in
a rage, and ever after entertained suspicions of More, and became
jealous of his great abilities. Our author's fame was not confined
to England only; all the scholars and statesmen in every country in
Europe had heard of, and corresponded with him, but of all strangers
he had a peculiar esteem for Erasmus, who took a journey into England
in order to converse with him, and enter more minutely into the merit
of one whose learning he had so high an opinion of. They agreed to
meet first at my Lord Mayor's table, and as they were personally
unknown, to make the experiment whether they could discover one
another by conversation. They met accordingly, and remained some hours
undiscovered; at last an argument was started in which both engaged
with great keenness, Erasmus designedly defended the unpopular side,
but finding himself so strongly pressed, that he could hold it no
longer, he broke out in an extasy, aut tu es Morus, aut Nullus. Upon
which More replied, aut tu es Erasmus, aut Diabolus, as at that time
Erasmus was striving to defend very impious propositions, in order to
put his antagonist's strength to the proof.
When he lived in the city of London as a justice of peace, he used
to attend the sessions at Newgate. There was then upon the bench a
venerable old judge, who was very severe against those who had their
purses cut; (as the phrase then was) and told them that it was by
their negligence that so many purse-cutters came before him. Sir
Thomas, who was a great lover of a joke, contrived to have this
judge's purse cut from him in the sessions house by a felon. When the
felon was arraigned, he told the court, that if he were permitted to
speak to one of the judges in private, he could clear his innocence to
them; they indulged him in his request, and he made choice of this old
judge, and while he whispered something in his ear, he slily cut away
his purse; the judge returned to the bench, and the felon made a sign
to Sir Thomas of his having accomplished the scheme. Sir Thomas moved
the court, that each of them should bestow some alms on a needy person
who then stood falsly accused, and was a real object of compassion.
The motion was agreed to, and when the old man came to put his hand in
his purse, he was astonished to find it gone, and told the court,
that he was sure he had it when he came there. What, says More in
a pleasant manner, do you charge any of us with felony? the judge
beginning to be angry, our facetious author desired the felon, to
return his purse, and advised the old man never to be so bitter
against innocent men's negligence, when he himself could not keep his
purse safe in that open assembly.
Although he lived a courtier, and was much concerned in business, yet
he never neglected his family at home, but instructed his daughters
in all useful learning, and conversed familiarly with them; he was
remarkably fond of his eldest daughter Margaret, as she had a greater
capacity, and sprightlier genius than the rest. His children often
used to translate out of Latin, into English, and out of English into
Latin, and Dr. Stapleton observes, that he hath seen an apology of Sir
Thomas More's to the university of Oxford, in defence of learning,
turned into Latin by one of his daughters, and translated again into
English by another. Margaret, whose wit was superior to the rest, writ
a treatise on the four last things, which Sir Thomas declared was
finer than his; she composed several Orations, especially one in
answer to Quintilian, defending a rich man, which he accused for
having poisoned a poor man's bees with certain venomous flowers in his
garden, so eloquent and forcible that it may justly rival Quintilian
himself. She also translated Eusebius out of Greek.
Tho' Sir Thomas was thus involved in public affairs and domestic
concerns, yet he found leisure to write many books, either against
Heretics, or of a devotional cast; for at that time, what he reckoned
Heresy began to diffuse itself over all Germany and Flanders. He built
a chapel in his parish church at Chelsea, which he constantly attended
in the morning; so steady was he in his devotion. He hired a house
also for many aged people in the parish, which he turned into an
hospital, and supported at his own expence. He at last rose to the
dignity of Lord High Chancellor upon the fall of Wolsey, and while he
sat as the Chief Judge of the nation in one court, his father,
aged upwards of 90, sat as Chief Justice in the King's Bench; a
circumstance which never before, nor ever since happened, of a father
being a Judge, and his son a Chancellor at the same time. Every day,
as the Chancellor went to the Bench, he kneeled before his father, and
asked his blessing. The people soon found the difference between the
intolerable pride of Wolsey, and the gentleness and humility of More;
he permitted every one to approach him without reserve; he dispatched
business with great assiduity, and so cleared the court of tedious
suits, that he more than once came to the Bench, and calling for a
cause, there was none to try. As no dignity could inspire him with
pride, so no application to the most important affairs could divert
him from sallies of humour, and a pleasantry of behaviour. It once
happened, that a beggar's little dog which she had lost, was presented
to lady More, of which me was very fond; but at last the beggar
getting notice where the dog was, she came to complain to Sir Thomas
as he was sitting in his hall, that his lady withheld her dog from
her; presently my lady was sent for, and the dog brought with her,
which he taking in his hand, caused his wife to stand at the upper end
of the hall, and the beggar at the other; he then bad each of them
call the dog, which when they did, the dog went presently to the
beggar, forsaking my lady. When he saw this, he bad my lady be
contented for it was none of hers. My Lord Chancellor then gave the
woman a piece of gold, which would have bought ten such dogs, and bid
her be careful of it for the future.
A friend of his had spent much time in composing a book, and went to
Sir Thomas to have his opinion of it; he desired him to turn it
into rhime; which at the expence of many years labour he at last
accomplished, and came again to have his opinion: Yea marry, says he,
now it is somewhat; now it is rhime, but before it was neither rhime
nor reason.
But fortune, which had been long propitious to our author, began now
to change sides, and try him as well with affliction as prosperity,
in both which characters, his behaviour, integrity and courage were
irreproachable. The amorous monarch King Henry VIII, at last obtained
from his Parliament and Council a divorce from his lawful wife, and
being passionately fond of Anna Bullen, he married her, and declared
her Queen of England: This marriage Sir Thomas had always opposed, and
held it unlawful for his Sovereign to have another wife during his
first wife's life. The Queen who was of a petulant disposition, and
elated with her new dignity could not withhold her resentment against
him, but animated all her relations, and the parties inclined to the
protestant interest, to persecute him with rigour. Not long after the
divorce, the Council gave authority for the publication of a book,
in which the reasons why this divorce was granted were laid down; an
answer was soon published, with which Sir Thomas More was charged as
the author, of which report however he sufficiently cleared himself in
a letter to Mr. Cromwel, then secretary, and a great favourite with
King Henry. In the parliament held in the year 1534, there was an
oath, framed, called the Oath of Supremacy, in which all English
subjects should renounce the pope's authority, and swear also to the
succession of Queen Ann's children, and lady Mary illegitimate. This
oath was given to all the clergy as well bishops as priests, but no
lay-man except Sir Thomas More was desired to take it; he was summoned
to appear at Lambeth before archbishop Cranmer, the Lord Chancellor
Audley, Mr. Secretary Cromwel, and the abbot of Westminster, appointed
commissioners by the King to tender this oath. More absolutely
refused to take it, from a principle of conscience: and after various
expostulations he was ordered into the custody of the abbot of
Westminster; and soon after he was sent to the tower, and the
lieutenant had strict charge to prevent his writing, or holding
conversation with any persons but those sent by the secretary. The
Lord Chancellor, duke of Norfolk, and Mr. Cromwel paid him frequent
visits, and pressed: him to take the oath, which he still refused.
About a year after his commitment to the tower, by the importunity of
Queen Ann, he was arraign'd at the King's Bench Bar, for obstinately
refusing, the oath of supremacy, and wilfully and obstinately opposing
the King's second marriage. He went to the court leaning on his staff,
because he had been much weakened by his imprisonment; his judges
were, Audley, Lord Chancellor; Fitz James, Chief Justice; Sir John
Baldwin, Sir Richard Leister, Sir John Port, Sir John Spelman, Sir
Walter Luke, Sir Anthony Fitzherbert: The King's attorney opened
against him with a very opprobrious libel; the chief evidence were
Mr. secretary Cromwell, to whom he had uttered some disrespectful
expressions of the King's authority, the duke of Suffolk and earl
of Wiltshire: He replied to the accusation with great composure and
strength of argument; and when one Mr. Rich swore against him, he
boldly asserted that Rich was perjured, and wished he might never see
God's Countenance in mercy, if what he asserted was not true; besides
that, Rich added to perjury, the baseness of betraying private
conversation. But notwithstanding his defence, the jury, who were
composed of creatures of the court, brought in their verdict, guilty;
and he had sentence of death pronounced against him, which he
heard without emotion. He then made a long speech addressed to the
Chancellor, and observed to Mr. Rich, that he was more sorry for his
perjury, than for the sentence that had just been pronounced against
him: Rich had been sent by the secretary to take away all Sir Thomas's
books and papers, during which time some conversation passed, which
Rich misrepresented in order to advance himself in the King's favour.
He was ordered again to the Tower till the King's pleasure should be
known. When he landed at Tower Wharf, his favourite daughter Margaret,
who had not seen him since his confinement, came there to take her
last adieu, and forgetting the bashfulness and delicacy of her sex,
press'd thro' the multitude, threw her arms about her father's neck
and often embraced him; they had but little conversation, and their
parting was so moving, that all the spectators dissolved in tears, and
applauded the affection and tenderness of the lady which could enable
her to take her farewel under so many disadvantages.