John Bale, most of all a controversialist of the first water, hence the nickname “Bilious Bale,” but also variously a Carmelite friar, an Anglican bishop, literary antiquarian, poet, and playwright, was born on this day in 1495.
While his penchant for bile, scandalous parody, and outright denunciation spewed on the page threatens to overtake most everything else about him, the good bishop also wrote two editions of a catalog of the writers of Great Britain that are essential to the literary history of that Island nation, as well as the play Kynge Johan, which is a major literary bridge between passion plays and the historical drama.
Despite his ability to really, really get under people’s skin, he avoided several of those events where colleagues perished sometimes by axe, sometimes by flame, and died at about sixty-seven or eight, a pretty good run, particularly considering.
Pretty sure I would never have liked him, but giving the devil his due, along with that major assist to literary historians he can be said to have paved the way for Shakespeare (in both general, having introduced the historical play and as a likely source for the master’s play on King John) and all who followed.
So, a lift of the cup to the old reprobate. At least one cheer.
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