John Barclay, author of the “Argenis,” was born in 1582, at Pont-a-Mousson in Lorraine, where his father, a Scot, was professor of Law. Owing, it is said, to persecution by the Jesuits, he came with his father to England about 1603, and either then or in 1605 published his “Euphormionis Satyricon,” a politico-satirical romance, chiefly directed against the Jesuits, supplements to which were the second part (1607), the “Apologia” (1611), and the “Icon Animorum” (1614). In 1616 he went to Rome, where he died, a good Catholic, in 1621. In the same year appeared his Latin political allegory, “Argenis,” according to Cowper the “best romance that ever was written.” There are three English versions, the last by Clara Reeve in 1772.

  In it the various forms of government are investigated, the causes of faction detected, and the remedies pointed out for most of the evils that can arise in a state…. It affords such a variety of entertainment, that every kind of reader may find in it something suitable to his own taste and disposition: the statesman, the philosopher, the soldier, the lover, the citizen, the friend of mankind, each may gratify his favourite propensity, while the reader who comes for his amusement only, will not go away disappointed.

  It is interesting in a high degree; richer in incident than can be imagined, full of surprises, which the reader never forestalls, and yet free from all entanglement and confusion. The style too appears to me to be such as would not dishonour Tacitus himself.

  The “Argenis” of Barclay, a son of the defender of royal authority against republican theories, is a Latin romance, superior perhaps to those after Cervantes, which the Spanish or French language could boast. It has indeed always been reckoned among political allegories. That the state of France in the last years of Henry III. is partially shadowed in it, can admit of no doubt: several characters are faintly veiled either by anagram or Greek translation of their names; but whether to avoid the insipidity of servile allegory, or to excite the reader by perplexity, Barclay has mingled so much of mere fiction with his story, that no attempts at a regular key to the whole work can be successful; nor in fact does the fable of this romance run in any parallel stream with real events. His object seems, in great measure, to have been the discussion of political questions in feigned dialogue. But, though in these we find no want of acuteness or good sense, they have not at present much novelty in our eyes; and though the style is really pleasing, or, as some have judged, excellent, and the incidents not ill contrived, it might be hard to go entirely through a Latin romance of 700 pages, unless indeed we had no alternative given but the perusal of the similar works in Spanish or French.

  We may be permitted to remind classical critics of the recorded opinion of Grotius:

  Barclay is a writer of the highest merit, who has adapted the style of Petronius, elevated by the assiduous study of more dignified models, with signal success to the requirements of his own day. His “Satyricon” shows how completely at an early age he had appropriated the fascinating elegance of Petronius, while good taste or good morals kept his matter singularly pure considering his age and his vocation as a satirist. There is more of youthful vigour in the “Satyricon,” more weight and finish in the “Argenis,” which enjoys the further advantages of an interesting plot and a serious purpose. The “Satyricon” is partly autobiographical, partly based on his father’s adventures, and one main object is the ridicule of persons individually obnoxious to him, such as the Duke of Lorraine, who figures under the name of Callion. The jesuits are attacked under the collective designation of Acignii; and the puritans, whom Barclay hardly liked better, are impersonated under the figure of Catharinus. In the “Argenis,” though most of the characters are real personages, the merely personal element is less conspicuous; the author’s purpose is graver, and his scope wider. He designed to admonish princes and politicians, and above all to denounce political faction and conspiracy, and show how they might be repressed. The league and the Gunpowder plot had evidently made a strong impression on his youthful mind. The valour and conduct of Archombrotus and Poliarchus (both representing Henry IV), the regal dignity and feminine weakness of Hyanisbe (Elizabeth), the presumptuous arrogance of Radirobanes (Philip II), are powerfully depicted. As a story, the work occasionally flags, but the style and the thoughts maintain the reader’s interest…. His adherence to the catholic religion was probably the result of a sincere preference, but his writings are by no means those of a zealot.

  The one remarkable romance of the period that may be claimed for England is the “Argenis” (1621), by John Barclay. Born in France of Scotch father and French mother, Barclay lived in France and in England, and finally migrated to Italy, where he wrote the “Argentis” in Latin. He is thus a real example of the man without a country. His romance was at once diffused through Europe in five Latin editions, and translations into English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Dutch. It is a medley. It resembles the “Arcadia” in its shipwrecks, pirates, and disguises. In its weighty parts, which recommended it to the learned, it discusses the problems of statecraft, and is thus affiliated to the “Utopia.” But what gives it a date in the development of fiction is that it is “a stately fable in manner of a history.” In it Barclay extends to prose romance the allegorical method of Spenser’s “Faery Queen.”… Barclay opened the way for a long line of French romances, which, beginning about 1625, extended through the following fifty years.