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The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Alexander Barclay (1475?–1552)
Barclay, Alexander. A British author; born about 1475; died in Croydon, June 1552. The best authorities call him a Scotchman, and suppose him to have been educated at either Cambridge or Oxford, or possibly at both those universities. He traveled extensively, spoke many languages, and was long a priest in the College of Ottery St. Mary in Devonshire. Afterward he was a priest and monk of Ely, and joined the Franciscans at Canterbury. His ‘Eclogues,’ undated but written at Ely, are the first in the English language. Of more value is his translation (1509) of Sebastian Brant’s ‘Ship of Fools,’ which had appeared in Basel in 1494. It had great influence on English literature. (See Critical and Biographical Introduction).