e form of an allegory--a ship laden with
fools and steered by fools to the fools' paradise of Narragenia--Brant
here lashes with unsparing vigour the weaknesses and vices of his time.
Although, like most of the German humanists, essentially conservative in
his religious views, Brant's eyes were open to the abuses in the church,
and the _Narrenschiff_ was a most effective preparation for the
Protestant Reformalion. Alexander Barclay's _Ship of Fools_ (1509) is a
free imitation of the German poem, and a Latin version by Jacobus
Locher (1497) was hardly less popular than the German original. There is
also a large quantity of other "fool literature." Nigel, called Wireker
(fl. 1190), a monk of Christ Church Priory, Canterbury, wrote a
satirical _Speculum stultorum_, in which the ambitious and discontented
monk figured as the ass Brunellus, who wanted a longer tail. Brunellus,
who has been educated at Paris, decides to found an order of fools,
which shall combine the good points of all the existing monastic orders.
_Cock Lovell's Bote_ (printed by Wynkyn de Worde, c. 1510) is another
imitation of the _Narrenschiff_. Cock Lovell is a fraudulent currier who
gathers round him a rascally collection of tradesmen. They sail off in a
riotous fashion up hill and down dale throughout England. Brant's other
works, of which the chief was a version of Freidank's _Bescheidenheit_
(1508), are of inferior interest and importance.

Brant's _Narrenschiff_ has been edited by F. Zarncke (1854); by K.
Goedeke (1872); and by F. Bobertag (Kurschner's _Deutsche
Nationalliteratur_, vol. xvi., 1889). A modern German translation was
published by K. Simrock in 1872. On the influence of Brant in England
see especially C.H. Herford, _The Literary Relations of England and
Germany in the 16th Century_ (1886).

BRANTFORD, a city and port of entry of Ontario, Canada, on the Grand
river, and on the Grand Trunk, and Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo railways.
The river is navigable to within 2-1/2 m. of the town; for the remaining
distance a canal has been constructed. Agricultural implements, plough,
engine, bicycle and stove works, potteries and large railway shops
constitute the important industrial establishments. It contains an
institute for the education of the blind, maintained by the provincial
government, and a women's college. The city is named in honour of the
Mohawk Indian chief, Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea), who settled in the
neighb