, son of the preceding, was born at Pontamousson, Jan. 28, 1582. He was educated at the
, son of the preceding, was born at
Pontamousson, Jan. 28, 1582. He was educated at the
college of the Jesuits in his native place, and when only
nineteen years old, published notes on the Thebais of Statins. The Jesuits, as already noticed in his father’s life,
remarked his genius for literature, and attempted to win.
him to their order, but his father looked on that attempt as
a breach of trust. Hence there arose a quarrel between
him and the Jesuits, who at that time were in high credit
with the duke of Lorraine. He therefore quitted Lorraine
in disgust, and conducted his son to London. This was
in 1603, just after the accession of his native sovereign to
the English throne. In 1604 young Barclay presented to
the king a poetical panegyric, as a new year’s gift, and
soon after dedicated to him the first part of the Latin satire
entitled “Euphormion.
” “I had no sooner left school,
”
says Barclay in his Apology prefixed, “than the juvenile
desire of fame incited me to attack the whole world, rather
with a view of promoting my own reputation, than of dishonouring individuals,
” a candid and singular confession,
but which, in the opinion of his biographer, he ought to
have made before he had learnt that his satires disgusted
the public. In the dedication to Euphormion he intimated
his wish to enter into the service of king James, and professed himself alike ready in that service, “to convert his
sword into a pen, or his pen into a sword.
” To excel was
his ruling passion and youthful self-sufficiency led him to
hope that he might, excel in every department but his
flatteries, and even his confidence, availed not. His father
was conscientiously attached to the church of Rome, and
his son professed the same.