Bale, JOHN

Bale, JOHN, Bishop of Ossory, was born at Cove, near Dunwich, Suffolk, in 1495. From a Carmelite monastery at Norwich he passed to Jesus College, Cambridge, and obtained a living in his native country, though he had already turned Protestant. In 1540 he had to flee to Germany, whence, in 1547, he was recalled by Edward VI., who two years later made him Bishop of Ossory in Leinster. Here 'Bilious Bale' made himself so obnoxious to the Catholics that, on news of the death of Edward, his house was attacked and his effects destroyed, and he himself escaped to Holland with great difficulty. On the accession of Elizabeth he was made a prebendary of Canterbury. He died in 1563. His fame rests partly on a Latin history of English literature (1548), which is a valuable work, though sections of a book are often set down in it as distinct works, and persons who never wrote anything are given as authors. He occupies an important place in the history of the drama. His plays are sorry doggerel; yet his Kinge Johan (Camden Society, 1838) is a link between such moralities as his own Brefe Comedy of Johan Baptyste and the masterpieces of the Elizabethan stage. The Parker Society published his select works (1849).