Alexander Barclay

Alexander Barclay (c. 1476 – 10 June 1552) was a poet and clergyman of the Church of England, probably born in Scotland.

Quotes

Eclogues (1570)

Text from The Eclogues of Alexander Barclay, ed. Beatrice White (1928)

• Thy meat in the court is neither swan nor heron,
  Curlew nor crane, but coarse beef and mutton,
  Fat pork or veal, and namely such as is bought
  For Easter price when they be lean and nought.
  • The Miseries of Courtiers, Cornix, l. 3
  • After the Latin of Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini

• Make hunger thy sauce be thou never so nice,
  For there shalt thou find none other kind of spice.
  • The Miseries of Courtiers, Cornix, l. 13

• Seldom at cheese hast thou a little lick,
  And if thou aught have, within it shall be quick,
  All full of maggots and like to the rainbow,
  Of divers colours as red, green and yellow,
  On each side gnawen with mice or with rats,
  Or with vile worms, with dogs or with cats,
  Unclean and scurvy, and hard as the stone,
  It looketh so well thou wouldest it were gone.
  • The Miseries of Courtiers, Cornix, l. 21

• If the day be solemn perchance thou mayst feel
  The taste and the sapour of tench or eel;
  Their muddy sapour shall make thy stomach ache,
  And as for the eel, is cousin to a snake.
  • The Miseries of Courtiers, Cornix, l. 47

• For this unto courtiers most commonly doth hap,
  That while they have brown bread and cheese in their lap,
  On it fast gnawing as houndës ravenous,
  Anon by them passeth of meal delicious,
  And costly dishes a score may they tell;
  Their greedy gorges are rapt with the smell,
  The deinteous dishes which pass through the hall.
  • The Miseries of Courtiers, Cornix, l. 73

• That thou would have first and lovest principal
  Is brought to the board ofttimes last of all.
  • The Miseries of Courtiers, Cornix, l. 124

• If the dish be pleasant, either flesh or fish,
  Ten hands at once swarm in the dish....
  To put there thy hands is peril without fail,
  Without a gauntlet or else a glove of mail.
  • The Miseries of Courtiers, Cornix, l. 138

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Alexander Barclay on Wikipedia