ngage as shal apere in my translacion."

"Wylling to redres the errours and vyces of this oure royalme of England
... I haue taken upon me ... the translacion of this present boke ... onely
for the holsome instruccion commodyte and doctryne of wysdome, and to
clense the vanyte and madness of folysshe people of whom ouer great nombre
is in the Royalme of Englonde."

Actuated by these patriotic motives, Barclay has, while preserving all the
valuable characteristics of his original, painted for posterity perhaps the
most graphic and comprehensive picture now preserved of the folly,
injustice, and iniquity which demoralized England, city and country alike,
at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and rendered it ripe for any
change political or religious.

"Knowledge of trouth, prudence, and iust symplicite
Hath vs clene left; For we set of them no store.
Our Fayth is defyled loue, goodnes, and Pyte:
Honest maners nowe ar reputed of: no more.
Lawyers ar lordes; but Justice is rent and tore.
Or closed lyke a Monster within dores thre.
For without mede: or money no man can hyr se.

Al is disordered: Vertue hath no rewarde.
Alas, compassion; and mercy bothe ar slayne.
Alas, the stony hartys of pepyl ar so harde
That nought can constrayne theyr folyes to refrayne."

His ships are full laden but carry not all who should be on board.

"We are full lade and yet forsoth I thynke
A thousand are behynde, whom we may not receyue
For if we do, our nauy clene shall synke
He oft all lesys that coueytes all to haue
From London Rockes Almyghty God vs saue
For if we there anker, outher bote or barge
There be so many that they vs wyll ouercharge."

The national tone and aim of the English "Ship" are maintained throughout
with the greatest emphasis, exhibiting an independence of spirit which few
ecclesiastics of the time would have dared to own. Barclay seems to have
been first an Englishman, then an ecclesiastic. Everywhere throughout his
great work the voice of the people is heard to rise and ring through the
long exposure of abuse and injustice, and had the authorship been unknown
it would most certainly have been ascribed to a Langlande of the period.
Everywhere he takes what we would call the popular side, the side of the
people as against those in office. Everywhere he stands up boldly in behalf
of the oppressed, and spares not the oppressor, even if he be of his own
class. He applies the c