The Affordances of Allegory: Ships, Travel, and the Atlantic in Henry Watson’s ‘Shyppe of Fooles’ (1509) and Alexander Barclay’s ‘Shyp of Folys of the Worlde’ (1509)

Abstract

The first two English translations of the ›Ship of Fools’ – Henry Watson’s ›Shyppe of Fooles‹ (1509) and Alexander Barclay’s ›Shyp of Folys of the Worlde‹ (1509) – differ significantly in their allegorical depiction of ships, travels, and the Atlantic. These variances can be explained partly by the texts’ different translation routes as well as by their distinctive use of allegory as a formal device. Drawing on James J. Gibson’s (1966) concept of ›affordances‹ and on Caroline Levine’s (2015) study of the affordances of literary forms, this article examines the representations of maritime voyages in Watson’s and Barclay’s texts with a particular focus on the forms and functions of the ship allegory. In Barclay’s verse translation, ship symbolism takes on a distinctly material dimension that responds to nautical developments around 1500. Watson’s prose translation, in contrast, works predominantly with the religious potential of the ›ship of fools‹ allegory. Taken together, the two texts remind us how differently allegories of maritime journeys are put to use in the early sixteenth century and, in so doing, illustrate the literary potential of real and imaginary travels in an increasingly globalized world.