Saints and the Social Order: Alexander Barclay’s The Life of St. George

Authors

Maggie Gallup Kopp, Brigham Young University

Publication Date

2010

Keywords

Alexander Barclay, The Life of St. George

Abstract

This paper examines The Life of St. George, Alexander Barclay’s 1515 translation of a humanist Latin prose poem. Barclay, who styled himself a laureate in the tradition of Lydgate, adapts laureate poetic practice in order to address a noble audience in a bid to gain court patronage. Barclay’s emendations and additions transform the hagiography of England’s patron saint into a commentary on traditional English ideals of citizenship and good governance, aimed at an audience comprised of both common citizens and noble elites, including, as this paper argues, the young king Henry VIII.

Recommended Citation

Kopp, Maggie Gallup (2010) "Saints and the Social Order: Alexander Barclay’s The Life of St. George," Quidditas: Vol. 31, Article 6.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/rmmra/vol31/iss1/6