|
BALLENTYNE, (or Bellenden,)
JOHN,—otherwise spelt Ballanden and Ballentyn—an eminent poet of the
reign of James V., and the translator of Boece’s Latin History, and of
the first five books of Livy, into the vernacular language of his
time, was a native of Lothian, and appears to have been born towards the
close of the 15th century. He studied at the university of St
Andrews, where his name is thus entered in the records: "1508, Jo.
Balletyn nae Lau(doniae)." It is probable that he remained there
for several years, which was necessary before he could be laureated. His
education was afterwards completed at the university of Paris, where he
took the degree of Doctor of Divinity; and as has been remarked by his
biographer, (Works of Bellenden, I., xxxvii,) "the effects of
his residence upon the continent may be traced both in his idiom and
language."
He returned to Scotland
during the minority of James V., and became attached to the establishment
of that monarch as "Clerk of his Comptis." This appears from
"the Proheme of the Cosmographe," prefixed to his translation of
Boece, in which he says: -
And first occurrit to my
remembering,
How that I wes in service with the king;
But to his grace in yeris tenderest,
Clerk of his compts, thoucht I wes indign (unworthy,)
With hart and hand and every other thing
That micht him pleis in my maner best;
Quhill hie invy me from his service kest,
Be thame that had the court in governing,
As bird but plumes heryit of the nest.
The biographer of
Ballentyne, above quoted, supposed that he must have been the "Maister
Johnne Ballentyne," who, in 1528, was "secretar and servitour"
to Archibald Earl of Angus, and in that capacity appeared before
parliament to state his master’s reasons for not answering the summons
of treason which had been issued against him. We can scarecely, however,
reconcile the circumstance of his being then a "Douglas’s
man," with the favour he is found to have enjoyed a few years after
with James V., whose antipathy to that family was so great as probably to
extend to all its connections. However this may be, Ballentyne is thus
celebrated, in 1530, as a court poet, by Sir David Lyndsay, who had been
in youth his fellow-student at St Andrews, and was afterwards his
fellow-servant in the household of the king:
But now of late has start up
heastily
A cunning clerk that writch craftily;
A plant of poets, called Ballenten,
Whose ornate writs my wit cannot
define;
Get he into the court authority,
He will precel Quintin and Kenedy.
In 1530 and 1531,
Ballentyne was employed, by command of the king, in translating Boece’s
History, which had been published at Paris in 1526. The object of this
translation was to introduce the king and others who had "missed
their Latin," to a knowledge of the history of their country. In the
epistle to the king at the conclusion of this work, Ballenden passes a
deserved compliment upon his majesty, for having "Dantit this region
and brocht the same to sicken rest, gud peace and tranquility; howbeit the
same could nocht be done be your gret baronis during your tender
age;" and also says, without much flattery, "You nobill and
worthy deidis proceeds mair be naturall inclination and active curage,
than only gudly persuasioun of assiteries." He also attests his own
sincerity, by a lecture to the king on the difference between tyrannical
and just government; which, as a curious specimen of the prose composition
of that time, and also a testimony to the enlightened and upright
character of Ballentyne, we shall extract into these pages:
"As Seneca says in his
tragedeis, all ar nocht kingis that bene clothit with purpure and dredoure,
but only they that sekis na singulare proffet, in dammage of the
commonweill; and sa vigilant that the life of their subdetis is mair deir
and precious to them than thair awin life. Ane tyrane sekis riches; ane
king sells honour, conquest he virtew. Ane tyrane governis his
realmis he slauchter, dredoure, and falset; ane king gidis his realme be
prudence, integrite, and favour. Ane tyrane suspeckis all them that hes
riches, gret dominioun, auctorite, or gret rentis; ane king haldis sic men
for his maist helply friendis. Ane tyrane luffis nane bot vane fleschouris,
vicious and wicket lyminaris, be quhais counsall he rages in slauchter and
tyranny; ane king laffis men of wisdom, gravite, and science; knawing
weill that his gret materis maybe weill dressit be thair prudence. Treuth
is that kingis and tyrannis hes mony handis, mony ene, and mony mo
memberis. Ane tyrane sets him to be dred; ane king to be luffet. Ane
tyrane rejoises to mak his pepill pure; ane king to mak thame riche. Ane
tyrane draws his pepill to sindry factiones, discord, and hatrent; ane
king maks peace, tranquillite, and concord; knawing nothing sa dammagious
as division amang his subdittis. Ane tyrane confounds all divine and
hummane lawis; ane king observis thaime, and rejoises in equite and
justice. All thir properteis sal be patent, in reding the livis of gud and
evil kingis, in the history precedent."
To have spoken in this way
to an absolute prince shows Ballentyne to have been not altogether a
courtier.
He afterwards adds, in a
finely impassioned strain:—"Quhat thing maybe mair plesand than to
se in this present volume, as in ane cleir mirroure all the variance of
tyme bygane; the sindry chancis of fourtoun; the bludy fechting and
terrible berganis sa mony years continuit, in the defence of your realm
and liberte; quhilk is fallen to your hieness with gret felicita, howbeit
the samin has aftimes been ransomit with maist nobill blude of your
antecessoris. Quhat is he that wil nocht rejoise to heir the knychtly
afaris of thay forcy campions, King Robert Bruce and William Wallace? The
first, be innative desyre to recover his realme, wes brocht to sic
calamite, that mony dayis he durst nocht appeir in sicht of pepill; but
amang desertis, levand on rutes and herbis, in esperance of better fortoun;
bot at last, be his singulare manheid, he come to sic preeminent glore,
that now he is reput the maist valyeant prince that was eftir or before
his empire. This other, of small beginning, be feris curage and corporall
strength, not only put Englishmen out of Scotland, but als, be feir of his
awful visage, put Edward king of England to flicht; and held all the
borders fornence Scotland waist."
Ballentyne delivered a
manuscript copy of his work to the king, in the summer of 1533, and about
the same time he appears to have been engaged in a translation of Livy.
The following entries in the treasurer’s book give a curious view of the
prices of literary labour, in the court of a king of those days.
"To Maister John
Ballentyne, be the kingis precept, for his translating of the Chronykill,
£30.
"1531, Oct. 4th. To Maister John Ballantyne, be the kingis precept,
for his translating of the Chroniclis, £30.
"Item, Thairefter to the said Maister Johne, be the kingis command,
£6.
"1533, July 26. To Maister John Ballentyne, for ane new Chronikle
gevin to the kingis grace, £12.
"Item, To him in part payment of the translation of Titus Livius,
£8.
"—Aug. 24. To Maister John Ballentyne, in part payment of the
second buke of Titus. Livius, £8.
"—Nov. 30. To Maister John Ballentyne, be the kingis precept, for
his laboris dune in translating of Livie, £20.
The literary labours of
Ballentyne were still further rewarded by his royal master, with an
appointment to the archdeanery of Moray, and the escheated property and
rents of two individuals, who became subject to the pains of treason for
having used influence with the Pope to obtain the same benefice, against
the king’s privilege. He subsequently got a vacant prebendaryship in the
cathedral of Ross. His translation of Boece was printed in 1536, by Thomas
Davidson, and had become in later times almost unique, till a new edition
was published in a remarkably elegant style, in 1821, by Messrs Tait,
Edinburgh. At the same time appeared the translation of the first two
books of Livy, which had never before been printed. The latter work seems
to have been carried no further by the translator.
Ballentyne seems to have
lived happily in the sunshine of court favour during the remainder of the
reign of James V. The opposition which he afterwards presented to the
reformation, brought him into such odium, that he retired from his country
in disgust, and died at Rome, about the year 1550.
The translations of
Ballentyne are characterised by a striking felicity of language, and also
by a freedom that shows his profound acquaintance with the learned
language upon which he wrought. His Chronicle, which closes with the reign
of James I., is rather a paraphrase than a literal translation of Boece,
and possesses in several respects the character of an original work. Many
of the historical errors of the latter are corrected—not a few of his
redundancies re-trenched—and his more glaring omissions supplied.
Several passages in the work are highly elegant, and some descriptions of
particular incidents reach to something nearly akin to the sublime. Many
of the works of Ballenden are lost—among others a tract, on the
Pythagoric letter, and a discourse upon Virtue and Pleasure. He also wrote
many political pieces, the most of which are lost. Those which have
reached us are principally Proems prefixed to his prose works, a
species of composition not apt to bring out the better qualities of a poet
yet they exhibit the workings of a rich and luxuriant fancy, and abound in
lively sallies of the imagination. They are generally allegorical, and
distinguished rather by incidental beauties, than by the skilful structure
of the fable. The story, indeed, is often dull, the allusions obscure, and
the general scope of the piece unintelligible. These faults, however, are
pretty general characteristics of allegorical poets, and they are atoned
for, in him, by the striking thoughts and the charming descriptions in
which he abounds, and which, "like threds of gold, the rich arias,
beautify his works quite thorow."
|
