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ligious zeal or desire for royal favor drew into this ink and paper warfare, the names of Donne and Barclay[1] are the only ones of much note in literature. For the latter's stay in England, and his services as the King's literary assistant and companion in scholarship, his biographers have hitherto depended largely on the references in his own writings and those of his friend Casaubon; but these may easily be supplemented by the records, in part given in the calendars of state papers, of the place and pension which he received for his reward. Barclay's father was a Scottish Catholic who in the reign of Mary had settled at Pont-á-Mousson as professor of law in a Jesuit college, and who as a Catholic had attracted attention in 1600 by a treatise defending the rights of kings against the Pope.[2] Father and son paid a short visit to England in 1603, and in 1606 the son was again in London, seeking patronage in the usual fashion by the composition of adulatory verses in Latin.[3] His first recorded recompense was ₤100, paid by Cecil, October 26, 1607,[4] and in the following June he was granted an annuity of ₤250.[5]
The date of his second departure from England and the nature of his mission abroad may be derived from a letter of Boderie, June 24, 1609, to the effect that Barclay had been appointed to carry the Premonition to the Emperor of Germany, the King of Hungary, and the Dukes of
- ↑ John Barclay (1582-1621) is remembered chiefly as the author of Euphormionis Satyricon (1603), one of the first examples of picaresque fiction outside of Spain, and of Argenis (1621), a widely read ideal romance in Latin, with allusions to contemporary courts and politics. Cf . Cam. Hist, of Eng. Lit., Vol. IV, Chap, xiii, and references there cited.
- ↑ De Regno el regali potestate, adversos Buchanum, Brutum, et Boucherium, et reliquos Monarchomachos, Paris, 1600.
- ↑ His poems entitled Sylvæ (London, 1606) are dedicated to Christian IV of Denmark, who visited England in July of that year. They contain verses to James, on the rumor of his death (March 24, 1606), and to Prince Henry, Cecil, Lennox, and Hay.
- ↑ Cal. S. P. Dom.
- ↑ "An annuity of 250 li. per anno for John Barklay gent, stranger, for terme of his lyfe, to beginne from our Lady day last past."—Signet Office Docquets, Public Records Office. (References to the original documents indicate that the payments do not appear in the calendars.)
