The Ship of Fools

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Barclay
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Title: The Ship of Fools, Volume 1-2
Author: Alexander Barclay
Release Date: December 23, 2006 [EBook #20179]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
0. START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SHIP OF
FOOLS, VOLUME 1-2 ***
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Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors in the 1874 introduction
have been corrected: they are listed at the end of the text. In the spirit of
that edition, the text of the Ship of Fools itself has been retained exactly
as it stands, even to the punctuation.
[Illustration]
THE SHIP OF FOOLS
TRANSLATED BY

ALEXANDER BARCLAY
[Illustration]
VOLUME FIRST
EDINBURGH: WILLIAM PATERSON
LONDON: HENRY SOTHERAN & CO.
MDCCCLXXIV.
PREFATORY NOTE.
It is necessary to explain that in the present edition of the Ship of Fools,
with a view to both philological and bibliographical interests, the text,
even to the punctuation, has been printed exactly as it stands in the
earlier impression (Pynson's), the authenticity of which Barclay himself
thus vouches for in a deprecatory apology at the end of his labours (II.
330):--
"... some wordes be in my boke amys
For though that I my selfe dyd
it correct
Yet with some fautis I knowe it is infect
Part by my owne
ouersyght and neglygence
And part by the prynters nat perfyte in
science
And other some escaped ar and past
For that the Prynters in theyr
besynes
Do all theyr workes hedelynge, and in hast"
Yet the differences of reading of the later edition (Cawood's), are
surprisingly few and mostly unimportant, though great pains were
evidently bestowed on the production of the book, all the misprints
being carefully corrected, and the orthography duly adjusted to the
fashion of the time. These differences have, in this edition, been placed
in one alphabetical arrangement with the glossary, by which plan it is
believed reference to them will be made more easy, and much
repetition avoided.

The woodcuts, no less valuable for their artistic merit than they are
interesting as pictures of contemporary manners, have been facsimiled
for the present edition from the _originals_ as they appear in the Basle
edition of the Latin, "denuo seduloque reuisa," issued under Brandt's
own superintendence in 1497. This work has been done by Mr J. T.
Reid, to whom it is due to say that he has executed it with the most
painstaking and scrupulous fidelity.
The portrait of Brandt, which forms the frontispiece to this volume, is
taken from Zarncke's edition of the Narrenschiff; that of Barclay
presenting one of his books to his patron, prefixed to the Notice of his
life, appears with a little more detail in the Mirror of Good Manners
and the Pynson editions of the Sallust; it is, however, of no authority,
being used for a similar purpose in various other publications.
For the copy of the extremely rare original edition from which the text
of the present has been printed, I am indebted to the private collection
and the well known liberality of Mr David Laing of the Signet Library,
to whom I beg here to return my best thanks, for this as well as many
other valuable favours in connection with the present work.
In prosecuting enquiries regarding the life of an author of whom so
little is known as of Barclay, one must be indebted for aid, more or less,
to the kindness of friends. In this way I have to acknowledge my
obligations to Mr Æneas Mackay, Advocate, and Mr Ralph Thomas,
("Olphar Hamst"), for searches made in the British Museum and
elsewhere.
For collations of Barclay's Works, other than the Ship of Fools, all of
which are of the utmost degree of rarity, and consequent inaccessibility,
I am indebted to the kindness of Henry Huth, Esq., 30 Princes' Gate,
Kensington; the Rev. W. D. Macray, of the Bodleian Library, Oxford;
W. B. Rye, Esq., of the British Museum; Henry Bradshaw, Esq., of the
University Library, Cambridge; and Professor Skeat, Cambridge.
For my brief notice of Brandt and his Work, it is also proper to
acknowledge my obligations to Zarncke's critical edition of the
Narrenschiff (Leipzig, 1854) which is a perfect encyclopædia of

everything Brandtian.
T. H. JAMIESON.
ADVOCATES' LIBRARY,
EDINBURGH, _December_ 1873.

Volume I.
INTRODUCTION
NOTICE OF BARCLAY AND HIS WRITINGS
BARCLAY'S WILL
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL CATALOGUE OF BARCLAY'S WORKS
THE SHIP OF