That this was the Kirkham above alluded to, there can be no reasonable doubt, and in view of the expression "My mayster Kyrkham," it may be surmised that Barclay had the honour of being appointed by this worthy gentleman to the office of Sheriff's or private Chaplain or to some similar position of confidence, by which he gained the poet's respect and gratitude. The whole allusion, however, might, without straining be regarded as a merely complimentary one. The tone of the passage affords at any rate a very pleasing glimpse of the mutual regard entertained by the poet and his Devonshire neighbours.
After the eulogy of Kyrkham ending with "Yet other ar als bad," the poet goes on immediately to give the picture of a character of the opposite description, making the only severe personal reference in his whole writings, for with all his unsparing exposure of wrong-doing, he carefully, wisely, honourably avoided personality. A certain Mansell of Otery is gibbeted as a terror to evil doers in a way which would form a sufficient ground for an action for libel in these degenerate days.--Ship, II. 82.
"Mansell of Otery for powlynge of the pore Were nat his great wombe, here sholde haue an ore
But for his body is so great and corporate And so many burdens his brode backe doth charge If his great burthen cause hym to come to late Yet shall the knaue be Captayne of a barge Where as ar bawdes and so sayle out at large About our shyp to spye about for prayes For therupon hath he lyued all his dayes."
It ought however to be mentioned that no such name as Mansell appears in the Devonshire histories, and it may therefore be fictitious.
The ignorance and reckless living of the clergy, one of the chief objects of his animadversion, receive also local illustration:
"For if one can flater, and beare a Hauke on his fist, He shalbe made parson of Honington or Clist."
A good humoured reference to the Secondaries of the College is the only other streak of local colouring we have detected in the Ship, except the passage in praise of his friend and colleague Bishop, quoted at p. liii.
"Softe, fooles, softe, a little slacke your pace, Till I haue space you to order by degree, I haue eyght neyghbours, that first shall haue a place Within this my ship, for they most worthy be, They may their learning receyue costles and free, Their walles abutting and ioyning to the scholes; Nothing they can, yet nought will they learne nor see, Therfore shall they guide this our ship of fooles."