Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Bent, James" to "Bibirine" by Various
introduction to his story of Arthur of Little Britain he excuses its
"fayned mater" and "many unpossybylytees" on the ground that other well
reputed histories are equally incredible. He goes on to excuse his
deficiencies by saying that he knew himself to be unskilled in the
"facundyous arte of retoryke," and that he was but a "lerner of the
language of Frensshe." The want of rhetoric is not to be deplored. The
style of his translation is clear and simple, and he rarely introduces
French words or idioms. Two romances from the French followed: _The Boke
of Duke Huon of Burdeux_ (printed 1534? by Wynkyn de Worde), and _The
Hystory of the Moost noble and valyaunt knight Arthur of lytell
brytayne_. His other two translations, _The Castell of Love_ (printed
1540), from the _Carcel de Amor_ of Diego de San Pedro, and _The Golden
Boke of Marcus Aurelius_ (completed six days before his death, printed
1534), from a French version of Antonio Guevara's book, are in a
different manner. _The Golden Boke_ gives Berners a claim to be a
pioneer of Euphuism, although Lyly was probably acquainted with Guevara
not through his version, but through Sir Thomas North's _Dial of
Princes_. Berners is also credited with a book on the duties of the
inhabitants of Calais, which Mr Sidney Lee thinks may be identical with
the ordinance for watch and ward of Calais preserved in the Cotton MSS.
and with a lost comedy, _Ite in vineam meam_, which used to be acted at
Calais after vespers.
A biographical account of Berners is to be found in Mr Sidney Lee's