[i]

THE
POETICAL WORKS OF SKELTON.

[ii]

LONDON:
PRINTED BY LEVEY, ROBSON, AND FRANKLYN,
Great New Street, Fetter Lane.

[iii]

THE
POETICAL WORKS
OF
JOHN SKELTON:

WITH NOTES,
AND
SOME ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOR AND HIS WRITINGS,
BY THE
REV. ALEXANDER DYCE.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:
THOMAS RODD, GREAT NEWPORT STREET.
MDCCCXLIII.

[iv]

[v]

PREFACE.

The very incomplete and inaccurate volume of 1736, and the reprint of it in Chalmers’s English Poets,[1] 1810, have hitherto been the only editions of Skelton accessible to the general reader.

In 1814, the Quarterly Reviewer,—after censuring Chalmers for having merely reprinted the volume of 1736, with all its errors, and without the addition of those other pieces by Skelton which were known to be extant,—observed, that “an editor who should be competent to the task could[vi] not more worthily employ himself than by giving a good and complete edition of his works.”[2] Prompted by this remark, I commenced the present edition,—perhaps with too much self-confidence, and certainly without having duly estimated the difficulties which awaited me. After all the attention which I have given to the writings of Skelton, they still contain corruptions which defy my power of emendation, and passages which I am unable to illustrate; nor is it, therefore, without a feeling of reluctance that I now offer these volumes to the very limited class of readers for whom they are intended. In revising my Notes for press, I struck out a considerable portion of conjectures and explanations which I had originally hazarded, being unwilling to receive from any one that equivocal commendation which Joseph Scaliger bestowed on a literary labourer of old; “Laudo tamen studium tuum; quia in rebus obscuris ut errare necesse est, ita fortuitum non errare.”[3]

Having heard that Ritson had made some collections[vii] for an edition of our author, I requested the use of those papers from his nephew, the late Joseph Frank, Esq., who most obligingly put them into my hands: they proved, however, to be only a transcript of Vox Populi, vox Dei (from the Harleian MS.), and a few memoranda concerning Skelton from very obvious sources.

The individual to whom I have been the most indebted for assistance and encouragement in this undertaking has not survived to receive my acknowledgments; I mean the late Mr. Heber, who not only lent me his whole collection of Skelton’s works, but also took a pleasure in communicating to me from time to time whatever information he supposed might be serviceable. Indeed, without such liberality on the part of Mr. Heber, a complete edition of the poet’s extant writings could not have been produced; for his incomparable library (now unfortunately dispersed) contained some pieces by Skelton, of which copies were not elsewhere to be found.

To Miss Richardson Currer; the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville; the Hon. and Rev. G. N. Grenville, Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge; Sir Harris Nicolas; Sir Francis Palgrave; Rev. Dr. Bandinel; Rev. Dr. Bliss; Rev. John[viii] Mitford; Rev. J. J. Smith of Caius College, Cambridge; Rev. Joseph Hunter; Rev. Joseph Stevenson; W. H. Black, Esq.; Thomas Amyot, Esq.; J. P. Collier, Esq.; Thomas Wright, Esq.; J. O. Halliwell, Esq.; Albert Way, Esq.; and David Laing, Esq.;—I have to return my grateful thanks for the important aid of various kinds which they so readily and courteously afforded me.

ALEXANDER DYCE.

London, Gray’s Inn,
Nov. 1st, 1843.

The preceding Preface was already in type, when Mr. W. H. Black discovered, among the Public Records, an undoubted poem by Skelton (hitherto unprinted), which I now subjoin.

[ix]

A LAWDE AND PRAYSE MADE FOR OUR SOUEREIGNE LORD THE KYNG.[4]

[i]

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.

[iv]

CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.

[v]

SOME ACCOUNT
OF
SKELTON AND HIS WRITINGS.

John Skelton[15] is generally said to have been descended from the Skeltons of Cumberland;[16] but there is some reason to believe that Norfolk was his native county. The time of his birth, which is left to conjecture, cannot well be carried back to an earlier year than 1460.

[vi]

The statement of his biographers, that he was educated at Oxford,[17] I am not prepared to contradict: but if he studied there, it was at least after he had gone through an academical course at the sister university; for he has himself expressly declared,

adding in a marginal note, “Cantabrigia Skeltonidi laureato primam mammam eruditionis pientissime propinavit.”[18] Hence it is probable that the poet was the “one Scheklton,” who, according to Cole, became M.A. at Cambridge in 1484.[19]

Of almost all Skelton’s writings which have descended[vii] to our times, the first editions[20] have perished; and it is impossible to determine either at what period he commenced his career as a poet, or at what dates his various pieces were originally printed. That he was the author of many compositions which are no longer extant, we learn from the pompous enumeration of their titles in the Garlande of Laurell[21]. The lines Of the death of the noble prince,[viii] ynge Edwarde the forth[22], who deceased in 1483, were probably among his earliest attempts in verse.

In 1489 Skelton produced an elegy Vpon the doulourus dethe and muche lamentable chaunce of the most honorable[ix] Erle of Northumberlande,[23] who was slain during a popular insurrection in Yorkshire. His son Henry Algernon Percy, the fifth earl, who is there mentioned as the “yonge lyon, but tender yet of age,”[24] appears to have[x] afterwards extended his patronage to the poet:[25] at a time when persons of the highest rank were in general grossly illiterate, this nobleman was both a lover and a liberal encourager of letters.

[xi]

Skelton had acquired great reputation as a scholar, and had recently been laureated at Oxford,[26] when Caxton, in 1490, published The boke of Eneydos compyled by Vyrgyle,[27] in the Preface to which is the following passage: “But I praye mayster John Skelton, late created poete laureate in the vnyuersite of oxenforde, to ouersee and correcte this sayd booke, And taddresse and expowne where as shalle be founde faulte to theym that shall requyre it. For hym I knowe for suffycyent to expowne and englysshe euery dyffyculte that is therin. For he hath late translated the epystlys of Tulle,[28] and the boke of dyodorus syculus,[29] and[xii] diuerse other werkes oute of latyn in to englysshe, not in rude and olde langage, but in polysshed and ornate termes craftely, as he that hath redde vyrgyle, ouyde, tullye, and all the other noble poetes and oratours, to me vnknowen: And also he hath redde the ix. muses and vnderstande theyr musicalle scyences, and to whom of theym eche scyence is appropred. I suppose he hath dronken of Elycons well. Then I praye hym & suche other to correcte adde or mynysshe where as he or they shall fynde faulte,”[30] &c. The laureatship in question, however, was not the office of poet laureat according to the modern acceptation of the term: it was a degree in grammar, including rhetoric and versification, taken at the university, on which occasion the graduate was presented with a wreath of laurel.[31] To this academical honour Skelton proudly alludes in his fourth poem Against Garnesche;

Our laureat, a few years after, was admitted ad eundem at Cambridge: “An. Dom. 1493, et Hen. 7 nono. Conceditur Johī Skelton Poete in partibus transmarinis atque Oxon. Laurea ornato, ut apud nos eadem decoraretur;” again, “An. 1504-5, Conceditur Johi Skelton, Poetæ Laureat. quod possit stare eodem gradu hic, quo stetit Oxoniis, et quod possit uti habitu sibi concesso a Principe.” Warton, who cites both these entries,[33] remarks, “the latter clause, I believe, relates to some distinction of habit, perhaps of fur or velvet, granted him by the king.” There can be no doubt that Skelton speaks of this peculiar apparel in the lines just quoted, as also in his third poem Against Garnesche, where he says,

from which we may infer that he wore, as laureat, a dress of white and green, or, perhaps, a white dress with a wreath of laurel. It was most probably on some part of the same habit that the word Calliope was embroidered in letters of silk and gold:

[xiv]

In the following passage Barclay perhaps glances at Skelton, with whom (as will afterwards be shewn) he was on unfriendly terms;

Warton has remarked, that some of Skelton’s Latin verses, which are subscribed—“Hæc laureatus Skeltonis, regius orator”—“Per Skeltonida laureatum, oratorem regium,”—seem to have been written in the character of royal laureate;[37] and perhaps the expression “of fame royall” in Skelton’s lines on Calliope already cited, may be[xv] considered as strengthening this supposition. There would, indeed, be no doubt that Skelton was not only a poet laureated at the universities, but also poet laureat or court poet to Henry the Eighth, if the authenticity of the following statement were established; “la patente qui declare Skelton poète laureat d’Henry viii. est datée de la cinquième année de son règne, ce qui tombe en 1512 ou 1513:” so (after giving correctly the second entry concerning Skelton’s laureation at Cambridge) writes the Abbé du Resnel in an essay already mentioned; having received, it would seem, both these statements concerning Skelton from Carte the historian,[38] who, while he communicated to Du Resnel one real document, was not likely to have forged another for the purpose of misleading the learned Frenchman. On this subject I can only add, that no proof has been discovered of Skelton’s having enjoyed an annual salary from the crown in consequence of such an office.

The reader will have observed that in the first entry given above from the Cambridge Univ. Regist., Skelton is described as having been laureated not only at Oxford but also “transmarinis partibus.” That the foreign seat of learning at which he received this honour was the university of Louvaine,[39] may be inferred from the title of a poem which I subjoin entire, not only because it occurs in a volume of the greatest rarity, but because it evinces the celebrity which Skelton had attained.

[xvi]

[xx]

Another laudatory notice of Skelton by a contemporary writer will not here be out of place;

Skelton frequently styles himself “orator regius;”[44] but the nature of the office from which he derived the title is not, I believe, understood. The lines in which, as we have just seen, Whittington so lavishly praises his “rhetoricus sermo,” allude most probably to his performances in the capacity of royal orator.

In 1498 Skelton took holy orders. The days on which, during that year, he was ordained successively subdeacon, deacon, and priest, are ascertained by the following entries:

When Arthur, the eldest son of Henry the Seventh, was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, in 1489,[46] Skelton celebrated the event in a composition (probably poetical) called Prince Arturis Creacyoun,[47] of which the title alone remains; and when Prince Henry, afterwards Henry the Eighth, was created Duke of York, in 1494,[48] he was hailed by our author in some Latin verses—Carmen ad principem, quando insignitus erat ducis Ebor. titulo,—a copy of which (not to be found at present) was once among the MSS. in the Library of Lincoln Cathedral, having been seen by Tanner, who cites the initial words,—“Si quid habes, mea Musa.”[49]

As at the last-mentioned date Prince Henry was a mere infant, there can be no doubt that the care of his education had not yet been entrusted to our poet. It must have been several years after 1494 that Skelton was appointed tutor to that prince,—an appointment which affords a striking proof of the high opinion entertained of his talents and learning, as well as of the respectability of his character. He has himself recorded that he held this important situation:

[xxii]

And in another poem he informs us that he composed a treatise for the edification of his royal pupil:

[xxiii]

The Speculum Principis has perished: we are unable to determine whether it was the same work as that entitled Methodos Skeltonidis laureati, sc. Præcepta quædam moralia Henrico principi, postea Henr. viii, missa. Dat. apud Eltham A.D. MDI., which in Tanner’s days[54] was extant (mutilated at the beginning) among the MSS. in the Lincoln-Cathedral Library, but which (like the Latin verses mentioned in a preceding page) has since been allowed to wander away from that ill-guarded collection.

When Prince Henry was a boy of nine years old, Erasmus dedicated to him an ode De Laudibus Britanniæ, Regisque Henrici Septimi ac Regiorum Liberorum. The Dedication contains the following memorable encomium on Skelton; “Et hæc quidem interea tamquam ludicra munuscula tuæ pueritiæ dicavimus, uberiora largituri ubi tua virtus una cum ætate accrescens uberiorem carminum materiam suppeditabit. Ad quod equidem te adhortarer, nisi et ipse jamdudum sponte tua velis remisque (ut aiunt) eo tenderes, et domi haberes Skeltonum, unum Britannicarum literarum lumen ac decus, qui tua studia possit, non solum accendere, sed etiam consummare;” and in the Ode are these lines;

[xxiv]

The circumstances which led to the production of this Ode are related by Erasmus in the following curious passage: “Is erat labor tridui, et tamen labor, quod jam annos aliquot nec legeram nec scripseram ullum carmen. Id partim pudor a nobis extorsit, partim dolor. Pertraxerat me Thomas Morus,[56] qui tum me in prædio Montjoii[57] agentem inviserat, ut animi causa in proximum vicum[58] expatiaremur. Nam illic educabantur omnes liberi regii, uno Arcturo excepto, qui tum erat natu maximus. Ubi ventum est in aulam, convenit tota pompa, non solum domus illius, verum etiam Montjoiicæ. Stabat in medio Henricus annos natus novem, jam tum indolem quandam[xxv] regiam præ se ferens, h. e. animi celsitudinem cum singulari quadam humanitate conjunctam. A dextris erat Margareta, undecim ferme annos nata, quæ post nupsit Jacobo Scotorum Regi. A sinistris, Maria lusitans, annos nata quatuor. Nam Edmondus adhuc infans, in ulnis gestabatur. Morus cum Arnoldo sodali salutato puero Henrico, quo rege nunc floret Britannia, nescio quid scriptorum obtulit. Ego, quoniam hujusmodi nihil expectabam, nihil habens quod exhiberem, pollicitus sum aliquo pacto meum erga ipsum studium aliquando declaraturum. Interim subirascebar Moro, quod non præmonuisset; et eo magis, quod puer Epistolio inter prandendum ad me misso, meum calamum provocaret. Abii domum, ac vel invitis Musis, cum quibus jam longum fuerat divortium, Carmen intra triduum absolvi. Sic et ultus sum dolorem meum, et pudorem sarsi.”[59]

The mother of Henry the Seventh, the Countess of Richmond and Derby, is well known to have used her utmost exertions for the advancement of literature: she herself translated some pieces from the French; and, under her patronage, several works (chiefly works of piety) were rendered into English by the most competent scholars of the time. It is to her, I apprehend, that Skelton alludes in the following passage of the Garlande of Laurell, where he mentions one of his lost performances;

[xxvi]

According to Churchyard, Skelton was “seldom out of princis grace:”[61] yet among the Actes, Orders, and Decrees made by the King and his Counsell, remaining amongst the Records of the Court, now commonly called the Court of Requests, we find, under anno 17. Henry vii.; “10 Junii apud Westminster Jo. Skelton commissus carceribus Janitoris Domini Regis.”[62] What could have occasioned this restraint, I cannot even conjecture: but in those days of extra-judicial imprisonments he might have been incarcerated for a very slight offence. It is, however, by no means certain that the “Jo. Skelton” of the above entry was the individual who forms the subject of the present essay;[63] and it is equally doubtful whether or not the following entry, dated the same year, relates to the mother of the poet;

It has been already shewn that Skelton took holy orders in 1498.[65] How soon after that period he became rector of[xxvii] Diss in Norfolk, or what portion of his life was spent there in the exercise of his duties, cannot be ascertained. He certainly resided there in 1504 and 1511,[66] and, as it would seem from some of his compositions,[67] in 1506, 1507, and 1513; in the year of his decease he was, at least nominally, the rector of Diss.[68]

We are told[69] that for keeping, under the title of a concubine,[xxviii] a woman whom he had secretly married, Skelton was called to account, and suspended from his ministerial functions by his diocesan, the bloody-minded and impure Richard Nykke (or Nix),[70] at the instigation of the friars, chiefly the Dominicans, whom the poet had severely handled[xxix] in his writings. It is said, too, that by this woman he had several children, and that on his death-bed he declared that he conscientiously regarded her as his wife, but that such had been his cowardliness, that he chose rather to confess adultery (concubinage) than what was then reckoned more criminal in an ecclesiastic,—marriage.

It has been supposed that Skelton was curate of Trumpington near Cambridge[71] (celebrated as the scene of Chaucer’s Milleres Tale), because at the end of one of his smaller poems are the following words:

But the meaning evidently is, that the curate of Trumpington had written out the verses composed by the rector of Diss; and that the former had borrowed them from the latter for the purpose of transcription, is rendered probable by two lines which occur soon after among some minor pieces of our author;

[xxx]

Anthony Wood affirms that “at Disse and in the diocese” Skelton “was esteemed more fit for the stage than the pew or pulpit.”[75] It is at least certain that anecdotes of the irregularity of his life, of his buffoonery as a preacher, &c. &c. were current long after his decease, and gave rise to that tissue of extravagant figments which was put together for the amusement of the vulgar, and entitled the Merie Tales of Skelton.[76]

Churchyard informs us that Skelton’s “talke was as he wraet [wrote];”[77] and in this propensity to satire, as well in conversation as in writing, originated perhaps those quarrels with Garnesche, Barclay, Gaguin, and Lily, which I have now to notice.

As the four poems Against Garnesche were composed “by the kynges most noble commaundement,” we may conclude that the monarch found amusement in the angry rhymes with which Skelton overwhelmed his opponent. Garnesche, it appears, was the challenger in this contest;[78] and it is to be regretted that his verses have perished, because in all probability they would have thrown some light on the private history of Skelton. The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy[79] bears a considerable resemblance[xxxi] to the verses against Garnesche; but the two Scottish poets are supposed to have carried on a sportive warfare of rude raillery, while a real animosity seems to have existed between our author and his adversary.[80] At the time of this quarrel (the exact date of which cannot be determined) Christopher Garnesche was gentleman-usher to Henry the Eighth, and dignified with knighthood;[81] and (if Skelton may be credited) had risen from the performance of very menial offices to the station which he then occupied. As he had no claims on the remembrance of posterity, little is known concerning him; but since we have evidence that his services were called for on more than one occasion of importance, he must have been a person of considerable note. He is twice incidentally mentioned in connexion with the royal sisters of Henry the Eighth. In 1514, when the Princess Mary embarked for France, in order to join her decrepit bridegroom Louis the Twelfth, Garnesche formed one of the numerous retinue selected to[xxxii] attend her, and had an opportunity of particularly distinguishing himself during that perilous voyage: “The ii. daye of October at the hower of foure of the clocke in the morenynge thys fayre ladye tooke her ship with all her noble compaignie: and when they had sayled a quarter of the see, the wynde rose and seuered some of the shyppes to Caleys, and some in Flaunders, and her shippe with greate difficultie was brought to Bulleyn, and with great ieopardy at the entryng of the hauen, for the master ran the ship hard on shore, but the botes were redy and receyued this noble lady, and at the landyng Sir Christopher Garnyshe stode in the water, and toke her in his armes, and so caryed her to land, where the Duke of Vandosme and a Cardynall with many estates receyued her and her ladyes,”[82] &c. Again, in a letter, dated Harbottle 18th Oct. 1515, from Lord Dacre of Gillesland and T. Magnus to Henry the Eighth, concerning the confinement in childbed of Margaret widow of James the Fourth, &c. we find; “Sir Christofer Garneis came to Morpeth immediatly vpon the queneis delyueraunce, and by our aduice hath contynued there with suche stuff as your grace hath sent to the said quene your suster till Sondaye laste paste, whiche daye he delyuered your letter and disclosed your credence, gretely to the quenes comforte. And for somiche as the quene lieth as yet in childe bedde, and shall kepe her chambre these thre wookes at the leiste, we haue aduised the said sir Christofer Garneis to remaigne at Morpeth till the queneis comyng thidder, and then her grace may order and prepare euery parte of the said stuf after her pleasure and as her grace semeth moste conuenient,” &c.[83] A few particulars concerning Garnesche[xxxiii] may be gleaned from the Books in the Public Record Office:

(i. e. in reward out of moneys forfeited by John Crawford and another upon bail-bond.)

and we find that afterwards by letters patent dated 21st May, 7th Henry viii., in consideration of his services the king granted him an annuity of thirty pounds for life, payable half-yearly at the Exchequer.[87]

see above: this entry is several times repeated, and occurs for the last time in 26th Henry viii.[91]

Bale mentions among the writings of Alexander Barclay a piece “against Skelton.”[92] It has not come down[xxxv] to us; but the extant works of Barclay bear testimony to the hearty dislike with which he regarded our author. At the conclusion of The Ship of Fooles is this contemptuous notice of one of Skelton’s most celebrated poems;

a sneer to which Skelton most probably alludes, when, enumerating his own productions in the Garlande of Laurell, he mentions,

[xxxvi]

That a portion of the following passage in Barclay’s Fourth Egloge was levelled at Skelton, appears highly probable;

[xxxvii]

In the Garlande of Laurell we are told by Skelton, that among the famous writers of all ages and nations, whom he beheld in his vision, was

and in the catalogue of his own writings which is subsequently given in the same poem, he mentions a piece which he had composed against this personage,

Robert Gaguin was minister-general of the Maturines, and enjoyed great reputation for abilities and learning.[101] He wrote various works; the most important of which is his Compendium supra Francorum gestis from the time of Pharamond to the author’s age. In 1490 he was sent by Charles the Eighth as ambassador to England, where he probably became personally acquainted with Skelton.

That Skelton composed certain Latin verses against the celebrated grammarian William Lily, we are informed by Bale,[102] who has preserved the initial words, viz.

[xxxviii]

and that Lily repaid our poet in kind, we have the following proof;

It would seem that Skelton occasionally repented of the severity of his compositions, and longed to recall them; for in the Garlande of Laurell, after many of them have been enumerated, we meet with the following curious passage;

The piece which commenced with the words “Apollo that whirllid vp his chare,” and which gave such high displeasure to some of Skelton’s contemporaries, has long ago perished,—in spite of Fame’s refusal to erase it from her books!

The title-page of the Garlande of Laurell,[105] ed. 1523, sets forth that it was “studyously dyuysed at Sheryfhotton Castell,” in Yorkshire; and there seems no reason to doubt that it was written by Skelton during a residence at that mansion. The date of its composition is unknown; but it was certainly produced at an advanced period of his life;[106] and the Countess of Surrey, who figures in it so conspicuously as his patroness, must have been Elizabeth Stafford, daughter of Edward Duke of Buckingham, second wife of Thomas Howard Earl of Surrey, and mother of that illustrious Surrey “whose fame for aye endures.” Sheriff-Hutton Castle was then in the possession of her father-in-law, the Duke of Norfolk,[107] the victor of Flodden Field; and she was probably there as his guest, having[xl] brought Skelton in her train. Of this poem, unparalleled for its egotism, the greater part is allegorical; but the incident from which it derives its name,—the weaving of a garland for the author by a party of ladies, at the desire of the Countess, seems to have had some foundation in fact.

From a passage in the poem just mentioned, we may presume that Skelton used sometimes to reside at the ancient college of the Bonhommes at Ashridge;

That Skelton once enjoyed the patronage of Wolsey, at whose desire he occasionally exercised his pen, and from whose powerful influence he expected preferment in the church, we learn from the following passages in his works:

[xli]

[xlii]

We also find that Skelton “gaue to my lord Cardynall” The Boke of Three Fooles.[112]

What were the circumstances which afterwards alienated the poet from his powerful patron, cannot now be discovered: we only know that Skelton assailed the full-blown pride of Wolsey with a boldness which is astonishing, and with a fierceness of invective which has seldom been surpassed. Perhaps, it would have been better for the poet’s memory, if the passages just quoted had never reached us; but nothing unfavourable to his character ought to be hastily inferred from the alteration in his feelings towards Wolsey while the cause of their quarrel is buried in obscurity. The provocation must have been extraordinary, which transformed the humble client of the Cardinal into his “dearest foe.”

We are told by Francis Thynne, that Wolsey was his father’s “olde enymye, for manye causes, but mostly for that my father had furthered Skelton to publishe his Collin Cloute againste the Cardinall, the moste parte of whiche Booke was compiled in my fathers howse at Erithe in Kente.”[113] But though Colyn Cloute contains passages which manifestly point at Wolsey, it cannot be termed a piece “againste the Cardinall:” and I have no doubt that the poem which Thynne had in view, and which by mistake he has mentioned under a wrong title, was our[xliii] author’s Why come ye nat to Courte. In Colyn Cloute Skelton ventured to aim only a few shafts at Wolsey: in Why come ye nat to Courte, and in Speke, Parrot, he let loose against him the full asperity of reproach.

The bull appointing Wolsey and Campeggio to be Legates a latere jointly, is dated July 27th, 1518, that appointing Wolsey to be sole Legate a latere, 10th June, 1519;[114] and from the first two passages which I have cited above (pp. xl, xli) we ascertain the fact, that Wolsey continued to be the patron of Skelton for at least some time after he had been invested with the dignity of papal legate. If the third passage cited above (p. xli), “Go, lytell quayre, apace,” &c. really belong to the poem How the douty Duke of Albany, &c., to which it is appended in Marshe’s ed. of Skelton’s Workes, 1568, our author must have been soliciting Wolsey for preferment as late as November 1523: but his most direct satire on the Cardinal, Why come ye nat to Courte, was evidently composed anterior to that period; and his Speke, Parrot (which would require the scholia of a Tzetzes to render it intelligible) contains seeming allusions to events of a still earlier date. The probability (or rather certainty) is, that the L’Envoy, “Go, lytell quayre,” &c. has no connexion with the poem on the Duke of Albany: in Marshe’s volume the various pieces are thrown together without any attempt at arrangement; and it ought to be particularly noticed that between[xliv] the poem against Albany and the L’Envoy in question, another L’Envoy is interposed.[115] Wolsey might have forgiven the allusions made to him in Colyn Cloute; but it would be absurd to imagine that, in 1523, he continued to patronise the man who had written Why come ye nat to Courte.

The following anecdote is subjoined from Hall: “And in this season [15 Henry viii.], the Cardinall by his power legantine dissolued the Conuocacion at Paules, called by the Archebishop of Cantorbury [Warham], and called hym and all the clergie to his conuocacion to Westminster, which was neuer seen before in Englande, wherof master Skelron, a mery Poet, wrote,

From the vengeance of the Cardinal,[118] who had sent[xlv] out officers to apprehend him, Skelton took sanctuary at Westminster, where he was kindly received and protected by the abbot Islip,[119] with whom he had been long acquainted. In this asylum he appears to have remained till his death, which happened June 21st, 1529. What he is reported to have declared on his death-bed concerning the woman whom he had secretly married, and by whom he left several children, has been already mentioned:[120] he is[xlvi] said also to have uttered at the same time a prophecy concerning the downfal of Wolsey.[121] He was buried in the chancel of the neighbouring church of St. Margaret’s; and, soon after, this inscription was placed over his grave,

Joannes Skeltonus, vates Pierius, hic situs est.[122]

Concerning the personal appearance of Skelton we are left in ignorance;[123] for the portraits which are prefixed to[xlvii] the old editions of several of his poems must certainly not be received as authentic representations of the author.[124]

The chief satirical productions of Skelton (and the bent of his genius was decidedly towards satire) are The Bowge of Courte, Colyn Cloute, and Why come ye nat to Courte.—In the first of these, an allegorical poem of considerable invention, he introduces a series of characters delineated with a boldness and discrimination which no preceding poet had displayed since the days of Chaucer, and which none of his contemporaries (with the sole exception of the brilliant Dunbar) were able to attain: the merit of those personifications has been allowed even by Warton, whose ample critique on Skelton deals but little in praise;[125] and I am somewhat surprised that Mr. D’Israeli, who has lately come forward as the warm eulogist of our author,[126] should have passed over The Bowge of Courte without the slightest notice.—Colyn Cloute is a general satire on the corruptions of the Church, the friars and the bishops being attacked alike unsparingly; nor, when Skelton himself pronounced of this[xlviii] piece that “though his ryme be ragged, it hath in it some pyth,”[127] did he overrate its vigour and its weighty truth: Colyn Cloute not only shews that fearlessness which on all occasions distinguished him, but evinces a superiority to the prejudices of his age, in assailing abuses, which, if manifest to his more enlightened contemporaries, few at least had as yet presumed to censure.—In Why come ye nat to Courte the satire is entirely personal, and aimed at the all-powerful minister to whom the author had once humbly sued for preferment. While, throughout this remarkable poem, Skelton either overlooks or denies the better qualities, the commanding talents, and the great attainments of Wolsey, and even ungenerously taunts him with the meanness of his origin; he fails not to attack his character and conduct in those particulars against which a satirist might justly declaim, and with the certainty that invectives so directed would find an echo among the people. The regal pomp and luxury of the Cardinal, his insatiate ambition, his insolent bearing at the council-board, his inaccessibility to suitors, &c. &c. are dwelt on with an intensity of scornful bitterness, and occasionally give rise to vivid descriptions which history assures us are but little exaggerated. Some readers may perhaps object, that in this poem the satire of Skelton too much resembles the “oyster-knife that hacks and hews” (to which that of Pope was so unfairly likened[128]); but all must confess that[xlix] he wields his weapon with prodigious force and skill; and we know that Wolsey writhed under the wounds which it inflicted.

When Catullus bewailed the death of Lesbia’s bird, he confined himself to eighteen lines (and truly golden lines); but Skelton, while lamenting for the sparrow that was “slayn at Carowe,” has engrafted on the subject so many far-sought and whimsical embellishments, that his epicede is really what the old editions term it,—a “boke.” Phyllyp Sparowe exhibits such fertility and delicacy of fancy, such graceful sportiveness, and such ease of expression, that it might well be characterised by Coleridge as “an exquisite and original poem.”[129]

In The Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng, which would seem to have been one of Skelton’s most popular performances, we have a specimen of his talent for the low burlesque;—a description of a real ale-wife, and of the various gossips who keep thronging to her for liquor, as if under the influence of a spell. If few compositions of the kind have more coarseness or extravagance, there are few which have greater animation or a richer humour.

The Garlands of Laurell, one of Skelton’s longest and most elaborate pieces, cannot also be reckoned among his best. It contains, however, several passages of no mean beauty, which shew that he possessed powers for the higher kind of poetry, if he had chosen to exercise them; and is interspersed with some lyrical addresses to the ladies who weave his chaplet, which are very happily versified. In one respect the Garlande of Laurell stands without a parallel: the history of literature affords no second example of a poet having deliberately written sixteen hundred lines in honour of himself.

[l]

Skelton is to be regarded as one of the fathers of the English drama. His Enterlude of Vertue[130] and his Comedy callyd Achademios[131] have perished; so perhaps has his Nigramansir;[132] but his Magnyfycence is still extant. To those who carry their acquaintance with our early play-wrights no farther back than the period of Peele, Greene, and Marlowe, this “goodly interlude” by Skelton will doubtless appear heavy and inartificial; its superiority, however, to the similar efforts of his contemporaries, is, I apprehend, unquestionable.[133]

If our author did not invent the metre which he uses in the greater portion of his writings, and which is now known by the name Skeltonical, he was certainly the first who adopted it in poems of any length; and he employed it with a skill, which, after he had rendered it popular, was beyond the reach of his numerous imitators.[134] “The Skeltonical short verse,” observes Mr. D’Israeli, speaking of Skelton’s own productions, “contracted into five or six, and even four syllables, is wild and airy. In the quick-returning rhymes, the playfulness of the diction, and the pungency of new words, usually ludicrous, often expressive, and sometimes felicitous, there is a stirring spirit which will be best felt in an audible reading. The[li] velocity of his verse has a carol of its own. The chimes ring in the ear, and the thoughts are flung about like coruscations.”[135]

Skelton has been frequently termed a Macaronic poet, but it may be doubted if with strict propriety; for the passages in which he introduces snatches of Latin and French are thinly scattered through his works. “This anomalous and motley mode of versification,” says Warton, “is, I believe, supposed to be peculiar to our author. I am not, however, quite certain that it originated with Skelton.”[136] He ought to have been “quite certain” that it did not.[lii][137]

Since the Memoir of Skelton was sent to press, Mr. W. H. Black (with his usual kindness) has pointed out to me the following entry;

There is, Mr. Black thinks, a possibility that Skelton had been employed, while a youth, as an under-clerk in the Receipt of the Exchequer; and observes, that it would seem to have been a temporary occupation, as there is no trace of any person of that name among the admissions to offices in the Black Book.

[liii]

APPENDIX I.
MERIE TALES OF SKELTON
(see Memoir, p. xxx.);
AND NOTICES OF SKELTON FROM VARIOUS SOURCES.

[liv]

[lv]

MERIE TALES
Newly Imprinted
& made by Master
Skelton
Poet
Laureat.

¶ Imprinted at London
in Fleetstreat beneath the
Conduit at the signe of S.
John Euangelist,
by Thomas
Colwell.

[12ᵐᵒ. n. d.]

[lvi]

[lvii]

Here begynneth certayne merye tales of Skelton, Poet Lauriat.

¶ How Skelten came late home to Oxford from Abington. Tale i.

Skelton was an Englysheman borne as Skogyn was, and hee was educated & broughte vp in Oxfoorde: and there was he made a poete lauriat. And on a tyme he had ben at Abbington to make mery, wher that he had eate salte meates, and hee did com late home to Oxforde, and he did lye in an ine named yᵉ Tabere whyche is now the Angell, and hee dyd drynke, & went to bed. About midnight he was so thyrstie or drye that hee was constrained to call to the tapster for drynke, & the tapster harde him not. Then hee cryed to hys oste & hys ostes, and to the ostler, for drinke; and no man wold here hym: alacke, sayd Skelton, I shall peryshe for lacke of drynke! what reamedye? At the last he dyd crie out and sayd, Fyer, fyer, fyer! When Skelton hard euery man bustled hymselfe vpward, & some of them were naked, & some were halfe asleepe and amased, and Skelton dyd crye, Fier, fier, styll, that euerye man knewe not whether to resorte; Skelton did go to bed, and the oste and ostis, & the tapster with the ostler, dyd runne to Skeltons chamber with candles lyghted in theyr handes, saying, Where, where, where is the fyer? Here, here, here, said Skelton, & poynted hys fynger to hys moouth, saying, Fetch me some drynke to quenche the fyer and the heate and the drinesse in my mouthe: & so they dyd. Wherfore it is good for euerye man to helpe hys owne selfe in tyme of neede wythe some policie or crafte, so bee it there bee no deceit nor falshed vsed.

¶ How Skelton drest the Kendallman in the sweat time. [Tale ii.]

On a time Skelton rode from Oxforde to London with a Kendalman, and at Uxbridge they beyted. The Kendallman layd[lviii] hys cap vpon the borde in the hall, and he went to serue hys horse. Skelton tooke yᵉ Kendalmans cappe, and dyd put betwixte the linyng & the vtter syde a dishe of butter: and when the Kendalman had drest hys horse, hee dyd come in to diner, and dyd put on hys cappe (that tyme the sweating sycknes was in all Englande); at the last, when the butter had take heate of the Kendallmans heade, it dyd begynne to run ouer hys face and aboute hys cheekes. Skelton sayde, Syr, you sweate soore: beware yᵗ you haue not the sweatynge sycknesse. The Kendalman sayde, By the mysse, Ise wrang; I bus goe tyll bed. Skelton sayd, I am skild on phisicke, & specially in the sweatynge sycknesse, that I wyll warant any man. In gewd faith, saith the Kendallman, do see, and Ise bay for your skott to London. Then sayde Skelton, Get you a kerchiefe, and I wyll bryng you abed: the whiche was donne. Skelton caused the capp to bee sod in hoat lee, & dryed it: in the mornyng Skelton and the Kendalman dyd ride merely to London.

¶ Howe Skelton tolde the man that Chryst was very busye in the woodes with them that made fagots. Tale iii.

When Skelton did cum to London, ther were manye men at the table at diner. Amongest all other there was one sayde to Skelton, Be you of Oxforde or of Cambridge a scoler? Skelton sayd, I am of Oxford. Syr, sayde the man, I will put you a question: you do know wel that after Christ dyd rise from death to life, it was xl. days after ere he dyd ascend into heauen, and hee was but certaine times wyth hys discyples, and when that he did appeare to them, hee dyd neuer tary longe amongest them, but sodainely vanished from them; I wold fayne know (saith the man to Skelton) where Chryste was all these xl. dayes. Where hee was, saythe Skelton, God knoweth; he was verye busye in the woods among hys labourers, that dyd make fagottes to burne heretickes, & such as thou art the whych doest aske such diffuse questions: but nowe I wyll tell thee more; when hee was not with hys mother & hys disciples, hee was in Paradyce, to comforte the holye patriarches and prophets soules, the which before he had fet out of hell. And at the daye of hys ascencion, hee tooke them all vp wyth him into heauen.

[lix]

¶ Howe the Welshman dyd desyre Skelton to ayde hym in hys sute to the kynge for a patent to sell drynke. The iiii. Tale.

Skelton, when he was in London, went to the kynges courte, where there did come to hym a Welshman, saying, Syr, it is so, that manye dooth come vpp of my country to the kyngs court, and some doth get of the kyng by patent a castell, and some a parke, & some a forest, and some one fee and some another, and they dooe lyue lyke honest men; and I shoulde lyue as honestly as the best, if I myght haue a patyne for good dryncke: wherefore I dooe praye you to write a fewe woords for mee in a lytle byll to geue the same to the kynges handes, and I wil geue you well for your laboure. I am contented, sayde Skelton. Syt downe then, sayde the Welshman, and write. What shall I wryte? sayde Skelton. The Welshman sayde, Wryte, dryncke. Nowe, sayd the Welshman, wryte, more dryncke. What now? sayde Skelton. Wryte nowe, a great deale of dryncke. Nowe, sayd the Welshman, putte to all thys dryncke a littell crome of breade, and a great deale of drynke to it, and reade once agayne. Skelton dyd reade, Dryncke, more dryncke, & a great deale of dryncke, and a lytle crome of breade, and a great deale of dryncke to it. Then the Welsheman sayde, Put out the litle crome of breade, and sett in, all dryncke, and no breade: and if I myght haue thys sygned of the kynge, sayde the Welsheman, I care for no more as longe as I dooe lyue. Well then, sayde Skelton, when you haue thys signed of the kyng, then wyll I labour for a patent to haue bread, that you wyth your drynke, and I with the bread, may fare well, and seeke our liuinge with bagge and staffe.

¶ Of Swanborne the knaue, that was buried vnder Saint Peters wall in Oxford. [Tale v.]

There was dwelling in Oxford a stark knaue, whose name was Swanborn; and he was such a notable knaue that, if any scoler had fallen out thone wyth thother, the one woulde call thother Swanborn, the whyche they dyd take for a worser woorde then knaue. Hys wife woulde diuers tymes in the weeke kimbe his head with a iii. footed stoole: then hee woulde runne out of the doores wepinge, and if anye man had asked hym what he dyd[lx] aile, other whyle he woulde saye hee had the megrym in hys head, or ells, there was a great smoke wythin the house: & if the doores were shut, hys wyfe woulde beate him vnder the bed, or into the bench hole, and then he woulde looke out at the cat hole; then woulde his wife saye, Lookest thou out, whoreson? Yea, woulde he saye, thou shalt neuer let me of my manly lookes. Then with her distaff she would poore in at hym. I knewe him when that he was a boye in Oxforde; hee was a littell olde fellowe, and woulde lye as fast as a horse woulde trotte. At last hee dyed, and was buried vnder the wall of S. Peters church. Then Skelton was desyred to make an epitaphe vppon the churche wall, & dyd wryte wyth a role, saying, Belsabub his soule saue, Qui iacet hic hec a knaue: Jam scio[138] mortuus est, Et iacet hic hec a beast: Sepultus[139] est amonge the weedes: God forgiue him his misdeedes!

¶ Howe Skelton was complayned on to the bishop of Norwich. Tale vi.

Skelton dyd keepe a musket at Dys, vpon the which he was complayned on to the bishop of Norwych. The byshoppe sent for Skelton. Skelton dyd take two capons, to geue theym for a presente to the byshop. And as soone as hee had saluted the byshopp, hee sayde, My lorde, here I haue brought you a couple of capons. The byshop was blynde, and sayde, Who bee you? I am Skelton, sayd Skelton. The byshop sayd, A hoare head! I will none of thy capons: thou keepest vnhappye rule in thy house, for the whyche thou shalt be punished. What, sayde Skelton, is the winde at that doore? and sayd, God be with you, my lorde! and Skelton with his capons went hys way. The byshop sent after Skelton to come agayne. Skelton sayde, What, shal I come[140] agayne to speake wythe a madde man? At last hee retourned to the byshop, whyche sayde to hym, I would, sayd the byshop, that you shoulde not lyue suche a sclaunderouse lyfe, that all your parisshe shoulde not wonder & complaine on[lxi] you as they dooe; I pray you amende, and hereafter lyue honestlye, that I heare no more suche woordes of you; and if you wyll tarye dynner, you shall be welcome; and I thanke you, sayde the byshoppe, for your capons. Skelton sayde, My lord, my capons haue proper names; the one is named Alpha, the other is named Omega: my lorde, sayd Skelton, this capon is named Alpha, thys is the fyrst capon that I dyd euer geue to you; and this capon is named Omega, and this is the last capon that euer I wil giue you: & so fare you well, sayd Skelton.

¶ Howe Skelton, when hee came from the bishop, made a sermon. Tale vii.

Skelton the nexte Sondaye after wente into the pulpet to prech, and sayde, Vos estis, vos estis, that is to saye, You be, you be. And what be you? sayd Skelton: I saye, that you bee a sorte of knaues, yea, and a man might saye worse then knaues; and why, I shall shew you. You haue complayned of mee to the bysop that I doo keepe a fayre wench in my house: I dooe tell you, if you had any fayre wiues, it were some what to helpe me at neede; I am a man as you be: you haue foule wyues, and I haue a faire wenche, of the whyche I haue begotten a fayre boye, as I doe thinke, and as you all shall see. Thou wyfe, sayde Skelton, that hast my childe, be not afraid; bring me hither my childe to me: the whyche was doone. And he, shewynge his childe naked to all the parishe, sayde, How saye you, neibours all? is not this child as fayre as is the beste of all yours? It hathe nose, eyes, handes, and feete, as well as any of your: it is not lyke a pygge, nor a calfe, nor like no foule nor no monstruous beast. If I had, sayde Skelton, broughte forthe thys chylde without armes or legges, or that it wer deformed, being a monstruous thyng, I woulde neuer haue blamed you to haue complayned to the bishop of me; but to complain without a cause, I say, as I said before in my antethem, vos estis, you be, and haue be, & wyll and shall be knaues, to complayne of me wythout a cause resonable. For you be presumptuous, & dooe exalte yourselues, and therefore you shall be made low: as I shall shewe you a famyller example of a parish priest, the whiche dyd make a sermon in Rome. And he dyd take that for hys antethem, the which of late dayes is named a theme, and sayde, Qui se exaltat humiliabitur,[lxii] et qui se[141] humiliat exaltabitur, that is to say, he that doth exalte himselfe or dothe extoll hymselfe shalbe made meke, & he that doth humble hymselfe or is meke, shalbe exalted, extoulled, or eleuated, or sublimated, or such lyke: and that I will shewe you by this my cap. This cappe was fyrste my hoode, when that I was studente in Jucalico, & then it was so proude that it woulde not bee contented, but it woulde slippe and fall from my shoulders. I perceyuynge thys that he was proude, what then dyd I? shortly to conclude, I dyd make of hym a payre of breches to my hose, to brynge hym lowe. And when that I dyd see, knowe, or perceyue that he was in that case, and allmoste worne cleane oute, what dyd I then to extoll hym vppe agayne? you all may see that this my cap was made of it that was my breches. Therefore, sayde Skelton, vos estis, therfore you bee, as I dyd saye before: if that you exalte yourselfe, and cannot be contented that I haue my wenche still, some of you shall weare hornes; and therfore vos estis: and so farewell. It is merye in the hall, when beardes wagge all.

¶ How the fryer asked leaue of Skelton to preach at Dys, which Skelton wold not grant. Tale viii.

There was a fryer yᵉ whych dydde come to Skelton to haue licence to preach at Dys. What woulde you preache there? sayde Skelton: dooe not you thynke that I am sufficiente to preache there in myne owne cure? Syr, sayde the freere, I am the limyter of Norwych, and once a yeare one of our place dothe vse to preache wyth you, to take the deuocion of the people; and if I may haue your good wil, so bee it, or els I will come and preach against your will, by the authoritie of the byshope of Rome, for I haue hys bulles to preache in euerye place, and therfore I wyll be there on Sondaye nexte cummyng. Come not there, freere, I dooe counsell thee, sayd Skelton. The Sundaye nexte followynge Skelton layde watch for the comynge of the frere: and as sone as Skelton had knowledge of the freere, he went into the pulpet to preache. At last the freere dyd come into the churche with the bishoppe of Romes bulles in hys hande.[lxiii] Skelton then sayd to all hys parishe, See, see, see, and poynted to thee fryere. All the parish gased on the frere. Then sayde Skelton, Maisters, here is as wonderfull a thynge as euer was seene: you all dooe knowe that it is a thynge daylye seene, a bulle dothe begette a calfe; but here, contrarye to all nature, a calfe hathe gotten a bulle; for thys fryere, beeynge a calfe, hath gotten a bulle of the byshoppe of Rome. The fryere, beynge ashamed, woulde neuer after that time presume to preach at Dys.

¶ How Skelton handled the fryer that woulde needes lye with him in his inne. Tale ix.

As Skelton ryd into yᵉ countre, there was a frere that hapened in at an alehouse wheras Skelton was lodged, and there the frere dyd desire to haue lodgyng. The alewife sayd, Syr, I haue but one bed whereas master Skelton doth lye. Syr, sayd the frere, I pray you that I maye lye with you. Skelton said, Master freere, I doo vse to haue no man to lye with me. Sir, sayd the frere, I haue lyne with as good men as you, and for my money I doo looke to haue lodgynge as well as you. Well, sayde Skelton, I dooe see than that you wyll lye with me. Yea, syr, sayd the frere. Skelton did fill all the cuppes in the house, and whitled the frere, that at the last, the frere was in myne eames peason. Then sayde Skelton, Mayster freere, get you to bed, and I wyll come to bed within a while. The frere went, and dyd lye vpright, and snorted lyke a sowe. Skelton wente to the chaumber, and dyd see that the freere dyd lye soe; sayd to the wyfe, Geue me a washyng betle. Skelton then caste downe the clothes, and the freere dyd lye starke naked: then Skelton dyd shite vpon the freeres nauil and bellye; and then he did take the washyng betle, and dyd strike an harde stroke vppon the nauill & bellye of the freere, and dyd put out the candell, and went out of the chaumber. The freere felt hys bellye, & smelt a foule sauour, had thought hee had ben gored, and cried out and sayde, Helpe, helpe, helpe, I am kylled! They of the house with Skelton wente into the chaumber, and asked what the freere dyd ayle. The freere sayde, I am kylled, one hathe thrust me in the bellye. Fo, sayde Skelton, thou dronken soule, thou doost lye;[lxiv] thou haste beshytten thyselfe. Fo, sayde Skelton, let vs goe oute of the chaumber, for the knaue doothe stynke. The freere was ashamed, and cryed for water. Out with the whoreson, sayd Skelton, and wrap the sheetes togyther, and putte the freere in the hogge stye, or in the barne. The freere said, geue me some water into the barne: and there the freere dyd wasshe himselfe, and dydde lye there all the nyght longe. The chaumber and the bedde was dressed, and the sheetes shyfted; and then Skelton went to bed.

¶ Howe the cardynall desyred Skelton to make an epitaphe vpon his graue. Tale x.

Thomas Wolsey, cardynall and archbyshop of Yorke, had made a regall tombe to lye in after hee was deade: and he desyred Master Skelton to make for his tombe an epytaphe, whyche is a memoriall to shewe the lyfe with the actes of a noble man. Skelton sayde, If it dooe lyke your grace, I canne not make an epytaphe vnlesse that I do se your tombe. The cardynall sayde, I dooe praye you to meete wyth mee to morowe at the West Monesterye, and there shall you se my tombe a makynge. The pointment kept, and Skelton, seyng the sumptuous coste, more pertaynyng for an emperoure or a maxymyous kynge, then for suche a man as he was (although cardynals wyll compare wyth kyngs), Well, sayd Skelton, if it shall like your grace to creepe into thys tombe whiles you be alyue, I can make an epitaphe; for I am sure that when that you be dead you shall neuer haue it. The whyche was verifyed of truthe.

¶ Howe the hostler dyd byte Skeltons mare vnder the tale, for biting him by the arme. Tale xi.

Skelton vsed muche to ryde on a mare; and on a tyme hee happened into an inne, wher there was a folish ostler. Skelton said, Ostler, hast thou any mares bread? No, syr, sayd the ostler: I haue good horse bread, but I haue no mares bread. Skelton saide, I must haue mares bread. Syr, sayde the ostler, there is no mares bred to get in all the towne. Well, sayd Skelton, for this once, serue my mare wyth horse bread. In the meane time Skelton commaunded the ostler to sadle his mare; &[lxv] the hosteler dyd gyrde the mare hard, and the hostler was in hys ierkyn, and hys shirte sleues wer aboue his elbowes, and in the girding of the mare hard the mare bitte the hostler by the arme, and bitte him sore. The hostler was angry, and dyd bite the mare vnder the tayle, saying, A whore, is it good byting by the bare arme? Skelton sayde then, Why, fellowe, haste thou hurt my mare? Yea, sayde the hostler, ka me, ka thee: yf she dooe hurte me, I wyll displease her.

¶ Howe the cobler tolde maister Skelton, it is good sleeping in a whole skinne. Tale xii.

In the parysshe of Dys, whereas Skelton was person, there dwelled a cobler, beyng halfe a souter, which was a tall man and a greate slouen, otherwyse named a slouche. The kynges maiestye hauynge warres byyonde the sea, Skelton sayd to thys aforsayd doughtie man, Neybour, you be a tall man, and in the kynges warres you must bere a standard. A standerd! said the cobler, what a thing is that? Skelton saide, It is a great banner, such a one as thou dooest vse to beare in Rogacyon weeke; and a lordes, or a knyghtes, or a gentlemannes armes shall bee vpon it; and the souldiers that be vnder the aforesayde persons fayghtynge vnder thy banner. Fayghtynge! sayde the cobbeler; I can no skil in faighting. No, said Skelton, thou shalte not fayght, but holde vp, and aduaunce the banner. By my fay, sayd the cobler, I can no skill in the matter. Well, sayd Skelton, there is no reamedie but thou shalte forthe to dooe the kynges seruice in hys warres, for in all this countrey theare is not a more likelier manne to dooe suche a[142] feate as thou arte. Syr, sayde the cobbeler, I wyll geue you a fatte capon, that I maye bee at home. No, sayde Skelton, I wyll not haue none of thy capons; for thou shalte doe the kyng seruice in his wars. Why, sayd the cobler, what shuld I doo? wyll you haue me to goe in the kynges warres, and to bee killed for my labour? then I shall be well at ease, for I shall haue my mendes in my nown handes. What, knaue, sayd Skelton, art thou a cowarde, hauyng so great bones? No, sayde the cobler, I am not afearde: it is good to slepe in a whole skinne. Why, said Skelton, thou shalte bee harnessed to keepe away the[lxvi] strokes from thy skynne. By my fay, sayde the cobler, if I must needes forthe, I will see howe yehe shall bee ordered. Skelton dyd harnesse the doughtye squirell, and dyd put an helmet on his head; and when the helmet was on the coblers heade, the cobler sayde, What shall those hoales serue for? Skelton sayd, Holes to looke out to see thy enemyes. Yea, sayde the cobler, then am I in worser case then euer I was; for then one may come and thrust a nayle into one of the holes, and prycke out myne eye. Therfore, said the cobler to Master Skelton, I wyll not goe to warre: my wyfe shall goe in my steade, for she can fyghte and playe the deuell wyth her distaffe, and with stole, staffe, cuppe, or candlesticke; for, by my fay, I cham sicke; I chill go home to bed; I thinke I shall dye.

¶ How Master Skeltons miller deceyued hym manye times by playinge the theefe, and howe he was pardoned by Master Skelton, after the stealinge awaye of a preest oute of his bed at midnight. Tale xiii.

When Maister Skelton dyd dwell in the countrey, hee was agreede with a miller to haue hys corne grounde tolle free; and manye tymes when hys mayden[s] shoulde bake, they wanted of their mele, and complained to their mystres that they could not make their stint of breade. Mystres Skelton, beeynge verye angrye, tolde her husbande of it. Then Master Skelton sent for his miller, and asked hym howe it chansed that hee deceyued hym of his corne. I! saide John miller; nay, surely I neuer deceyued you; if that you can proue that by mee, do with mee as you lyste. Surely, sayd Skelton, if I doe fynde thee false anye more, thou shalt be hanged up by the necke. So Skelton apoynted one of hys seruauntes to stand at the mill whyle the corne was a grindyng. John myller, beyng a notable theefe, would feyn haue deceued him as he had don before, but beyng afrayd of Skeltons seruaunte, caused his wyfe to put one of her chyldren into yᵉ myll dam, and to crye, Help, help, my childe is drowned! With that, John myller and all went out of the myll; & Skeltons seruaunte, being dilygent to helpe the chylde, thought not of the meale, and the while the myllers boye was redy wyth a sacke, and stole awaye the corne; so, when they had taken vp the childe, and all was safe, they came in agayne; & so the seruaunt,[lxvii] hauynge hys gryste, went home mistrustyng nothynge; and when the maydes came to bake againe, as they dyd before, so they lacked of theyr meale agayne. Master Skelton calde for hys man, and asked him howe it chaunced that he was deceaued; & hee sayd that hee coulde not tell, For I dyd your commaundement. And then Master Skelton sent for the myller, and sayde, Thou hast not vsed mee well, for I want of my mele. Why, what wold you haue me do? sayde the miller; you haue set your own man to watche mee. Well, then, sayd Skelton, if thou doest not tell me whych waye thou hast played the theefe wyth mee, thou shalt be hanged. I praye you be good master vnto me, & I wyll tell you the trutthe: your seruaunt wold not from my myll, & when I sawe none other remedye, I caused my wyfe to put one of my chyldren into the water, & to crie that it was drowned; and whiles wee were helpyng of the chylde out, one of my boyes dyd steale your corne. Yea, sayde Skelton, if thou haue suche pretie fetchis, you can dooe more then thys; and therfore, if thou dooeste not one thynge that I shall tell thee, I wyll folow the lawe on thee. What is that? sayd the myller. If that thou dooest not steale my cuppe of the table, when I am sette at meate, thou shalt not eskape my handes. O good master, sayd John miller, I pray you forgeue me, and let me not dooe thys; I am not able to dooe it. Thou shalt neuer be forgeuen, sayde Skelton, withoute thou dooest it. When the miller saw no remedye, he went & charged one of hys boyes, in an euenyng (when that Skelton was at supper) to sette fyre in one of hys hogges sties, farre from any house, for doyng any harme. And it chaunced, that one of Skeltons seruauntes came oute, and spied the fire, and hee cryede, Helpe, helpe! for all that my master hath is lyke to be burnt. Hys master, hearing this, rose from hys supper with all the companie, and went to quenche the fyre; and the while John miller came in, and stole away hys cuppe, & went hys way. The fire being quickly slaked, Skelton cam in with his frendes, and reasoned wyth hys frendes which way they thought the fyre shoulde come; and euerye man made answer as thei thought good. And as they wer resonyng, Skelton called for a cup of beare; and in no wise his cuppe whyche hee vsed to drynke in woulde not be founde. Skelton was verye angrie that[lxviii] his cup was mysynge, and asked whiche waye it shoulde bee gone; and no manne coulde tell hym of it. At last he bethought him of the miller, & sayd, Surely, he, that theefe, hath done this deede, and he is worthye to be hanged. And hee sent for the miller: so the miller tolde hym all howe hee had done. Truely, sayd Skelton, thou art a notable knaue; and withoute thou canste do me one other feate, thou shalte dye. O good master, sayde the miller, you promised to pardon me, and wil you now breake your promise? I, sayd Skelton; wythout thou canste steale the sheetes of my bed, when my wyfe and I am aslepe, thou shalte be hanged, that all suche knaues shall take ensample by thee. Alas, sayd the miller, whych waye shall I dooe this thinge? it is vnpossible for me to get theym while you bee there. Well, sayde Skelton, withoute thou dooe it, thou knowest the daunger. The myller went hys way, beyng very heauy, & studyed whiche waye he myght doo thys deede. He hauynge a little boy, whyche knewe all the corners of Skeltons house & where hee lay, vpon a night when they were all busie, the boie crepte in vnder his bed, wyth a potte of yeste; and when Skelton & hys wyfe were fast aslepe, hee all to noynted the sheetes with yeste, as farre as hee coulde reache. At last Skelton awaked, & felt the sheetes all wete; waked his wife, and sayd, What, hast thou beshitten the bed? and she sayd, Naye, it is you that haue doone it, I thynke, for I am sure it is not I. And so theare fel a great strife betweene Skelton and his wyfe, thinkyng that the bedd had ben beshitten; and called for the mayde to geue them a cleane payre of shetes. And so they arose, & the mayde tooke the foule sheetes and threw them vnderneath the bed, thinkynge the nexte morning to haue fetched them away. The next time the maydes shuld goe to washynge, they looked all about, and coulde not fynde the sheetes; for Jacke the myllers boy had stollen them awaye. Then the myller was sent for agayne, to knowe where the sheetes were become: & the myller tolde Mayster Skelton all how he deuised to steale the sheetes. Howe say ye? sayde Skelton to hys frendes; is not this a notable theef? is he not worthy to be hanged that canne dooe these deedes? O good maister, quoth the miller, nowe forgeue mee accordynge to youre promyse; for I haue done all that you haue commaunded[lxix] mee, and I trust now you wyll pardon me. Naye, quoth Skelton, thou shalt doo yet one other feate, and that shall bee thys; thou shalte steale maister person out of hys bed at midnight, that he shall not know where he is become. The miller made great mone and lamented, saying, I can not tel in the world howe I shall dooe, for I am neuer able to dooe this feate. Well, sayde Skelton, thou shalt dooe it, or els thou shalt fynde no fauour at my hands; and therfore go thy way. The miller, beynge sorye, deuysed with himselfe which way he might bryng this thing to passe. And ii. or iii. nyghtes after, gathered a number of snailes, & greed with the sexten of the churche to haue the key of the churche dore, and went into the churche betwene the houres of a xi. and xii. in the night, & tooke the snayles, and lyghted a sorte of little waxe candles, & set vppon euerie snayle one, & the snayles crepte about the churche wyth the same candels vpon their backes; and then he went into the vestrey, and put a cope vppon hys backe, & stoode very solemnely at the hye alter with a booke in hys hand; and afterwarde tolled the bell, that the preest lyinge in the churche yard might heare hym. The preest, hearyng the bell tolle, starte oute of his slepe, and looked out of hys windowe, and sawe suche a lyght in the church, was very muche amased, and thought surely that the churche had ben on fire, and wente for to see what wonder it shoulde be. And when he came there, he founde the church dore open, and went vp into the quier; and see the miller standyng in hys vestementes, and a booke in hys hand, praying deuoutly, & all the lyghtes in the church, thought surely with hymselfe it was some angeil come downe from heauen, or some other great miracle, blessed hymselfe and sayde, In the name of the Father, the Sonne, and the Holy Ghoste, what arte thou that standest here in thys hollye place? O, sayde the myller, I am saynt Peter, whych kepe[143] the keyes of heauen gate, and thou knowest that none can enter into heauen excepte I let hym in; and I am sent oute from heauen for thee. For mee! quoth the preest: good saynt Peter, worship maye thou be! I am glad to heare that newes. Because thou hast done good deedes, sayd the myller, and serued God, hee hath sent for thee afore domes day come, that thou shalt not knowe the[lxx] troubles of yᵉ worlde. O, blessed be God! sayde the preest; I am very well contented for to goe: yet if it woulde please God to let me go home and distrybute such things as I haue to the poore, I woulde bee verye glad. No, sayde the miller; if thou dooest delite more in thy goodes then in the joyes of heauen, thou art not for God; therefore prepare thyselfe, and goe into this bagge which I have brought for thee. The miller hauyng a great quarter sacke, the poore priest wente into it, thynkyng verylye hee had gon to heauen, yet was very sory to parte from hys goodes; asked saynt Peter how long it wold be ere he came there. The miller sayd he should be there quickly; and in he got the priest, and tied vp the sacke, and put out the lightes, & layed euery thynge in their place, and tooke the preest on his backe, & locked the church dores, & to go: and when he came to go ouer the church stile, the preest was verye heauye, and the miller caste hym ouer the stile that the priest cryed oh. O good seint Peter, sayde the preeste, whyther goe I nowe? O, sayde the myller, these bee the panges that ye must abyde before you come to heauen. O, quoth the preest, I would I were there once! Vp he got the priest agayn, & caried hym tyll hee came to the toppe of an hye hyll, a litle from hys house, and caste hym downe the hyll, that hys head had many shrewde rappes, that hys necke was almost burst. O good saynt Peter, said the priest, where am I nowe? You are almost nowe at heauen; & caried hym with much a doo, tyll hee came to hys owne house, and then the miller threwe him ouer the thresholde. O good saynte Peter, sayde the preeste, where am I nowe? thys is the soreste pange that euer I bydde. O, sayd the[144] myller, geue God thankes that thou haste had pacience to abide all thys payne, for nowe thou arte goyng vppe into heauen; and tyed a rope aboute the sacke, and drewe hym vppe to the toppe of the chymnye, and there let him hange. O good S. Peter, tell me nowe where I am, sayde the preest. Marye, sayd he, thou art now in the tope of John millers chimney. A vengeaunce on thee, knaue! sayde the preeste: hast thou made me beleue al this while that I was goyng vp into heauen? well, nowe I am here, & ever I come downe again, I wil make thee to repent it. But John myller was gladd that[lxxi] he had brought hym there. And in the mornyng the sexten rang all in to seruise; & when the people were come to churche, the preest was lackynge. The parish asked the sexten wher the preest was; and the sexten sayd, I can not tell: then the parrishe sent to master Skelton, and tolde howe their prieste was lacking to saye them seruice. Mayster Skelton meruayled at that, and bethought hym of the crafty dooyng of the miller, sent for John myller; and when the miller was come, Skelton sayd to the miller, Canst thou tell wher the parish preest is? The myller vp and told him all togither how he had doone. Maister Skelton, considering the matter, sayde to the miller, Why, thou vnreuerent knaue, hast thou hanled the poore preest on this fashion, and putte on the holy ornaments vpon a knaues backe? thou shalte be hanged, & it coste me all the good I haue. John miller fell vppon his knees, and desyred maister Skelton to pardon hym; For I dyd nothynge, sayd the miller, but that you sayd you woulde forgeue me. Nay, not so, sayd Skelton; but if thou canst steale my gelding out of my stable, my two men watching him, I will pardon thee; and if they take thee, they shall strike of thy heade; for Skelton thoughte it better that such a false knaue shoulde lose hys head then to liue. Then John miller was very sad, & bethought him how to bring it to passe. Then he remembred that ther was a man left hangyng vppon the galowes the day before, went preuely in the nyght and tooke him downe, and cut of his head, and put it vpon a pole, & brake a hole into the stable, and put in a candle lighted, thrustyng in the head a lytle & a lytle. The men watching the stable, seynge that, got them selues neare to the hole (thinkinge that it was his head), & one of them wyth hys sworde cutte it of. Then they for gladnesse presented it vnto theyr master, leauynge the stable doore open: then John miller went in, and stole away the gelding. Master Skelton, lookyng vppon the head, sawe it was the theues head that was left hangyng vpon the galowes, sayd, Alas, how ofte hath this false knaue deceiued vs! Go quickly to the stable agayne, for I thinke my geldyng is gone. Hys men, goyng backe agayn, found it euen so. Then they came agayn, and told their maister hys horse was gone. Ah, I thought so, you doltish knaues! said Skelton; but if I had sent wise men about it,[lxxii] it had not ben so. Then Skelton sent for the miller, and asked hym if hee coulde tell where hys horse was. Safe ynough, maister, sayde the miller: for hee tolde Skelton all the matter how hee had done. Well, sayd Skelton, consyderyng hys tale, sayd, that he was worthie to bee hanged, For thou doost excell all the theeues that euer I knew or heard of; but for my promise sake I forgeue thee, vpon condition thou wilte become an honest man, & leaue all thy crafte & false dealyng. And thus John miller skaped vnpunished.

¶ How Skelton was in prison at the commaundement of the cardinall. [Tale xiv.]

On a tyme Skelton did meete with certain frendes of hys at Charyng crosse, after that hee was in prison at my lord cardynals commaundement: & his frende sayd, I am glad you bee abrode amonge your frendes, for you haue ben long pent in. Skelton sayd, By the masse, I am glad I am out indeede, for I haue ben pent in, like a roche or fissh, at Westminster in prison. The cardinal, hearing of those words, sent for him agayne. Skelton kneling of hys knees before hym, after long communication to Skelton had, Skelton desyred the cardinall to graunte hym[145] a boun. Thou shalt haue none, sayd the cardynall. Thassistence desirid that he might haue it graunted, for they thought it should be some merye pastime that he wyll shewe your grace. Say on, thou hore head, sayd the cardynall to Skelton. I pray your grace to let me lye doune and wallow, for I can kneele no longer.

¶ Howe the vinteners wife put water into Skeltons wine. Tale xv.

Skelton did loue wel a cup of good wyne. And on a daye he dyd make merye in a tauerne in London: and the morow after hee sent to the same place againe for a quart of yᵉ same wine he drunke of before; the whiche was clene chaunged & brued again. Skelton perceiuing this, he went to the tauerne, & dyd sytte down in a chaire, & dyd sygh very sore, and made great lamentacion. The wife of the house, perceiuinge this, said to master Skelton, Howe is it with you, master Skelton? He answered[lxxiii] and said, I dyd neuer so euill; and then he dyd reache another greate syghe, sayinge, I am afraide that I shal neuer be saued, nor cum to heauen. Why, said the wife, shuld you dispaire so much in Goddes mercy? Nay, said he, it is past all remedye. Then said the wife, I dooe praye you breake your mind vnto mee. O, sayd Skelton, I would gladlye shewe you the cause of my dolour, if that I wist that you would keepe my counsell. Sir, said shee, I haue ben made of councel of greater matters then you can shew me. Naye, nay, said Skelton, my matter passeth all other matters, for I think I shal sinke to hell for my great offences; for I sent thys daye to you for wyne to saye masse withall; and wee haue a stronge lawe that euery priest is bounde to put into hys chalice, when hee doth singe or saye masse, some wyne and water; the which dothe signifye the water & bloude that dyd runne oute of Chrystes syde, when Longeous the blynde knyght dyd thrust a speare to Christes harte; & thys daye I dyd put no water into my wyne, when that I did put wine into my chalys. Then sayd the vintiners wife, Be mery, maister Skelton, and keepe my counsell, for, by my faythe, I dyd put into the vessell of wyne that I did send you of to day x. gallandes of water; and therfore take no thought, master Skelton, for I warraunt you. Then said Skelton, Dame, I dooe beshrewe thee for thy laboure, for I thought so muche before; for throughe such vses & brewyng of wyne maye men be deceyued, and be hurte by drynkinge of suche euell wyne; for all wines must be strong, and fayre, and well coloured; it must haue a redolent sauoure; it must be colde, and sprinkclynge in the peece or in the glasse.

¶ Thus endeth the merie Tales of Maister Skelton, very pleasaunt for the recreacion of the minde.

[lxxiv]

NOTICES OF SKELTON
FROM VARIOUS SOURCES.

From the imperfect copy of A C. Mery Talys, small fol., printed by John Rastell. (See Singer’s reprint, p. 55.)

It fortuned ther was a great varyance bitwen the bysshop of Norwych and one mayster Skelton a poyet lauryat; in so much that the bysshop commaundyd hym that he shuld not come in his gatys. Thys mayster Skelton dyd absent hymselfe for a long seson. But at the laste he thought to do hys dewty to hym, and studyed weys how he myght obtayne the bysshopys fauour, and determynyd hemself that he wold come to hym wyth some present, and humble hymself to the byshop; and gat a cople of fesantes, and cam to the bysshuppys place, and requyryd the porter he myghte come in to speke wyth my lord. This porter, knowyng his lordys pleasure, wold not suffer him to come in at the gatys; wherfor thys mayster Skelton went on the baksyde to seke some other way to come in to the place. But the place was motyd that he cowlde se no way to come ouer, except in one place where there lay a long tree ouer the motte in maner of a brydge, that was fallyn down wyth wynd; wherfore thys mayster Skelton went along vpon the tree to come ouer, and whan he was almost ouer, hys fote slyppyd for lak of sure fotyng, and fel into the mote vp to myddyll; but at the last he recoueryd hymself, and, as well as he coud, dryed hymself ageyne, and sodenly cam to the byshop, beyng in hys hall, than lately rysen from dyner: whyche, whan he saw Skelton commyng sodenly, sayd to hym, Why, thow caytyfe, I warnyd the thow shuldys neuer come in at my gatys, and chargyd my porter to kepe the out. Forsoth, my lorde, quod Skelton, though ye gaue suche charge, and though your gatys by neuer so suerly kept, yet yt ys no more possible to kepe me out of your dorys than to kepe out crowes or pyes; for I cam not in at your gatys, but I cam ouer the mote, that I haue ben almost drownyd for my labour. And shewyd hys clothys how[lxxv] euyll he was arayed, whych causyd many that stode therby to laughe apace. Than quod Skelton, Yf it lyke your lordeshyp, I haue brought you a dyshe to your super, a cople of fesantes. Nay, quod the byshop, I defy the and thy fesauntys also, and, wrech as thou art, pyke the out of my howse, for I wyll none of thy gyft how [something lost here] Skelton than, consyderynge that the bysshoppe called hym fole so ofte, sayd to one of hys famylyers thereby, that thoughe it were euyll to be christened a fole, yet it was moche worse to be confyrmyd a fole of suche a bysshoppe, for the name of confyrmacyon muste nedes abyde. Therfore he ymagened howe he myghte auoyde that confyrmacyon, and mused a whyle, and at the laste sayde to the bysshope thus, If your lordeshype knewe the names of these fesantes, ye wold [be] contente to take them. Why, caytefe, quod the bisshoppe hastly and angrey, [what] be theyr names? Ywys, my lorde, quod Skelton, this fesante is called Alpha, which is, in primys the fyrst, and this is called O, that is, novissimus the last; and for the more playne vnderstandynge of my mynde, if it plese your lordeshype to take them, I promyse you, this Alpha is the fyrste that euer I gaue you, and this O is the laste that euer I wyll gyue you whyle I lyue. At which answere all that were by made great laughter, and they all de[sired the bishoppe] to be good lorde vnto him for his merye conceytes: at which [earnest entrety, as it] wente, the bysshope was contente to take hym vnto his fauer agayne.

By thys tale ye may se that mery conceytes dothe [a man more] good than to frete hymselfe with a[nger] and melancholy.”

From Tales, and quicke answeres, very mery, and pleasant to rede. 4to. n. d., printed by Thomas Berthelet. (See Singer’s reprint, p. 9.)

A poure begger, that was foule, blacke, and lothlye to beholde, cam vpon a tyme vnto mayster Skelton the poete, and asked him his almes. To whom mayster Skelton sayde, I praye the gette the awaye fro me, for thou lokeste as though thou camest out of helle. The poure man, perceyuing he wolde gyue him no thynge,[lxxvi] answerd, For soth, syr, ye say trouth; I came oute of helle. Why dyddest thou nat tary styl there? quod mayster Skelton. Mary, syr, quod the begger, there is no roume for suche poure beggers as I am; all is kepte for suche gentyl men as ye be.”

Prefixed to Pithy pleasaunt and profitable workes of maister Skelton, Poete Laureate. Nowe collected and newly published. Anno 1568. 12mo.

From Johannis Parkhvrsti Ludicra siue Epigrammata Juuenilia. 1573, 4to.

From A Treatise Against Jvdicial Astrologie. Dedicated to the Right Honorable Sir Thomas Egerton Knight, Lord Keeper of the Great Seale, and one of her Maiesties most honorable priuie Councell. Written by John Chamber, one of the Prebendaries of her Maiesties free Chappell of Windsor, and Fellow of Eaton College. 1601. 4to.

“Not much vnlike to merrie Skelton, who thrust his wife out at the doore, and receiued her in againe at the window. The storie is well known how the bishop had charged him to thrust his wife out of the doore: but that which was but a meriment in Skelton,” &c. p. 99.

“So that the leape yeare, for any thing I see, might well vse the defence of merie Skelton, who being a priest, and hauing a child by his wife, euerie one cryed out, Oh, Skelton hath a child, fie on him, &c. Their mouthes at that time he could not stop: but on a holy day, in a mery mood, he brought the child to church with him, and in the pulpit stript it naked, and held it out, saying, See this child: is it not a pretie child, as other children be, euen as any of yours? hath it not legs, armes, head, feet, limbes, proportioned euery way as it shuld be? If Skelton had begot a monster, as a calfe, or such like, what a life should poore Skelton haue had then? So we say for the leape yeare, if it had changed the nature of things, as it is charged, how should it haue done then to defende itselfe?” p. 113.

[lxxxi]

From The Life of Long Meg of Westminster: containing the mad merry prankes she played in her life time, not onely in performing sundry quarrels with diuers ruffians about London: But also how valiantly she behaued her selfe in the warres of Bolloingne. 1635. 4to. (Of this tract there is said to have been a much earlier edition. I quote from the reprint in Miscellanea Antiqua Anglicana, 1816.)

After the carrier had set vp his horse, and dispatcht his lading, hee remembred his oath, and therefore bethought him how he might place these three maides: with that hee called to minde that the mistresse at the Eagle in Westminster had spoken diuers times to him for a seruant; he with his carriage passed ouer the fields to her house, where he found her sitting and drinking with a Spanish knight called sir James of Castile, doctor Skelton, and Will Sommers; told her how hee had brought vp to London three Lancashire lasses, and seeing she was oft desirous to haue a maid, now she should take her choyce which of them she would haue. Marry, quoth shee (being a very merry and a pleasant woman), carrier, thou commest in good time; for not onely I want a maid, but heere bee three gentlemen that shall giue me their opinions, which of them I shall haue. With that the maids were bidden come in, and she intreated them to giue their verdict. Streight as soone as they saw Long Meg, they began to smile; and doctor Skelton in his mad merry veine, blessing himselfe, began thus:

What is your opinion? quoth the hostesse to sir James of Castile. Question with her, quoth he, what she can do, and then Ile giue you mine opinion: and yet first, hostesse, aske Will Sommers opinion. Will smiled, and swore that his hostesse should not haue her, but king Harry should buy her. Why so, Will? quoth doctor Skelton. Because, quoth Will Sommers, that she shall be kept for breed; for if the king would marry her to long Sanders of the court, they would bring forth none but souldiers. Well, the hostesse demanded what her name was. Margaret, forsooth, quoth she. And what worke can you doe? Faith, little, mistresse, quoth she, but handy labour, as to wash and wring, to make cleane a house, to brew, bake, or any such drudgery: for my needle, to that I haue beene little vsed to. Thou art, quoth the hostesse, a good lusty wench, and therefore I like thee the better: I haue here a great charge, for I keepe a victualling house, and diuers times there come in swaggering fellowes, that, when they haue eat and dranke, will not pay what they call for: yet if thou take the charge of my drinke, I must be answered out of your wages. Content, mistresse, quoth she; for while I serue you, if any stale cutter comes in, and thinkes to pay the shot with swearing, hey, gogs wounds, let me alone! Ile not onely (if his clothes be worth it) make him pay ere hee passe, but lend him as many bats as his crag will carry, and then throw him out of doores. At this they all smiled. Nay, mistresse, quoth the carrier, ’tis true, for my poore pilch here is able with a paire of blew shoulders to sweare as much; and with that he told them how she had vsed him at her comming to London. I cannot thinke, quoth sir James of Castile, that she is so strong. Try her, quoth Skelton, for I haue heard that Spaniards are of wonderfull strength. Sir James in a brauery would needs make[lxxxiii] experience, and therefore askt the maide if she durst change a box on the eare with him. I, sir, quoth she, that I dare, if my mistresse will giue me leaue. Yes, Meg, quoth she; doe thy best. And with that it was a question who should stand first: Marry, that I will, sir, quoth she; and so stood to abide sir James his blow; who, forcing himselfe with all his might, gaue her such a box that she could scarcely stand, yet shee stirred no more than a post. Then sir James he stood, and the hostesse willed her not spare her strength. No, quoth Skelton; and if she fell him downe, Ile giue her a paire of new hose and shoone. Mistresse, quoth Meg (and with that she strooke vp her sleeue), here is a foule fist, and it hath past much drudgery, but, trust me, I thinke it will giue a good blow: and with that she raught at him so strongly, that downe fell sir James at her feet. By my faith, quoth Will Sommers, she strikes a blow like an oxe, for she hath strooke down an asse. At this they all laught. Sir James was ashamed, and Meg was entertained into seruice.”

There was a great suter to Meg’s mistresse, called sir James of Castile, to winne her loue: but her affection was set on doctor Skelton; so that sir James could get no grant of any fauour. Whereupon he swore, if hee knew who were her paramour, hee would runne him thorow with his rapier. The mistresse (who had a great delight to bee pleasant) made a match betweene her and Long Meg, that she should goe drest in gentlemans apparell, and with her sword and buckler goe and meet sir James in Saint Georges field[s]; if she beat him, she should for her labour haue a new petticote. Let me alone, quoth Meg; the deuill take me if I lose a petticote. And with that her mistris deliuered her a suit of white sattin, that was one of the guards that lay at her house. Meg put it on, and tooke her whinyard by her side, and away she went into Saint Georges fields to meet sir James. Presently after came sir James, and found his mistris very melancholy, as women haue faces that are fit for all fancies. What aile you, sweetheart? quoth he; tell me; hath any man wronged you? if[lxxxiv] he hath, be he the proudest champion in London, Ile haue him by the eares, and teach him to know, sir James of Castile can chastise whom he list. Now, quoth she, shall I know if you loue me: a squaring long knaue, in a white sattin doublet, hath this day monstrously misused me in words, and I haue no body to reuenge it; and in a brauery went out of doores, and bad the proudest champion I had come into Saint Georges fields and quit my wrong, if they durst: now, sir James, if euer you loued mee, learne the knaue to know how he hath wronged me, and I will grant whatsoeuer you will request at my hands. Marry, that I will, quoth he; and for that you may see how I will vse the knaue, goe with me, you and master doctor Skelton, and be eye-witnesses of my manhood. To this they agreed; and all three went into Saint Georges fields, where Long Meg was walking by the wind-mils. Yonder, quoth she, walkes the villain that abused me. Follow me, hostesse, quoth sir James; Ile goe to him. As soone as hee drew nigh, Meg began to settle herselfe, and so did sir James: but Meg past on as though she would haue gone by. Nay, sirrah, stay, quoth sir James; you and I part not so, we must haue a bout ere we passe; for I am this gentlewomans champion, and flatly for her sake will haue you by the eares. Meg replied not a word; but only out with her sword: and to it they went. At the first bout Meg hit him on the hand, and hurt him a little, but endangered him diuers times, and made him giue ground, following so hotly, that shee strucke sir James’ weapon out of his hand; then when she saw him disarm’d, shee stept within him, and, drawing her ponyard, swore all the world should not saue him. Oh, saue mee, sir! quoth hee; I am a knight, and ’tis but for a womans matter; spill not my blood. Wert thou twenty knights, quoth Meg, and were the king himselfe heere, hee should not saue thy life, vnlesse thou grant mee one thing. Whatsoeuer it bee, quoth sir James. Marry, quoth shee, that is, that this night thou wait on my trencher at supper at this womans house; and when supper is done, then confesse me to be thy better at weapon in any ground in England. I will do it, sir, quoth he, as I am a true knight. With this they departed, and sir James went home with his hostesse sorrowfull and ashamed, swearing that his adversary was the stoutest man in England. Well, supper was prouided,[lxxxv] and sir Thomas Moore and diuers other gentlemen bidden thither by Skeltons means, to make vp the jest; which when sir James saw inuited, hee put a good face on the matter, and thought to make a slight matter of it, and therefore beforehand told sir Thomas Moore what had befallen him, how entring in a quarrell of his hostesse, hee fought with a desperate gentleman of the court, who had foiled him, and giuen him in charge to wait on his trencher that night. Sir Thomas Moore answered sir James, that it was no dishonour to be foyled by a gentleman [of England?], sith Cæsar himselfe was beaten backe by their valour. As thus they were discanting of the valour of Englishmen, in came Meg marching in her mans attire: euen as shee entered in at the doore, This, sir Thomas Moore, quoth sir James, is that English gentleman whose prowesse I so highly commend, and to whom in all valour I account myselfe so inferiour. And, sir, quoth shee, pulling off her hat, and her haire falling about her eares, hee that so hurt him to day is none other but Long Meg of Westminster; and so you are all welcome. At this all the company fell in a great laughing, and sir James was amazed that a woman should so wap him in a whinyard: well, hee as the rest was faine to laugh at the matter, and all that supper time to wait on her trencher, who had leaue of her mistris that shee might be master of the feast; where with a good laughter they made good cheere, sir James playing the proper page, and Meg sitting in her maiesty. Thus was sir James disgraced for his loue, and Meg after counted for a proper woman.”

Scogan and Skelton, 1600, a play by Richard Hathwaye and William Rankins, is mentioned in Henslowe’s MSS.: see Malone’s Shakespeare (by Boswell), iii. 324.

Notices of Skelton may also be found in:—

A Dialogue bothe pleasaunt and pietifull, wherein is a godlie regiment against the Feuer Pestilence, with a consolation and comforte againste death. Newlie corrected by William Bullein, the authour thereof. 1573, 8vo. Of this piece I have seen only the above ed.: but it appeared originally in 1564. It contains notices[lxxxvi] of several poets, introduced by way of interlude or diversion in the midst of a serious dialogue; and (at p. 17) Skelton is described as sitting “in the corner of a Piller, with a frostie bitten face, frownyng,” and “writyng many a sharpe Disticons” against Wolsey—

(15 verses chiefly made up from Skelton’s works).—The Rewarde of Wickednesse, discoursing the sundrye monstrous abuses of wicked and vngodly Wordelings, &c. Newly compiled by Richard Robinson, seruaunt in householde to the right honorable Earle of Shrewsbury, &c. 4to, n. d. (The Address to the Reader dated 1574), at sig. Q 2.—A Discourse of English Poetrie, &c., By William Webbe, Graduate, 1586, 4to, at sig. c iii.—The Arte of English Poesie, &c. (attributed to one Puttenham: but see D’Israeli’s Amen. of Lit. ii. 278, sqq.), 1589, 4to, at pp. 48, 50, 69.—Fovre Letters, and certaine Sonnets: Especially touching Robert Greene, &c. (by Gabriell Harvey), 1592, 4to, at p. 7.—Pierces Supererogation or a New Prayse of the Old Asse, &c. [by] Gabriell Haruey, 1593, 4to, at p. 75.—Palladis Tamia. Wits Treasvry Being the Second part of Wits Commonwealth. By Francis Meres, &c., 1598, 12mo, at p. 279.—Virgidemiarvm. The three last Bookes. Of byting Satyres (by Joseph Hall), 1598, 12mo, at p. 83.—The Downfall of Robert Earle of Huntington, Afterward called Robin Hood of merrie Sherwodde, &c. (by Anthony Munday), 1601, 4to. In this play, which is supposed to be a rehearsal previous to its performance before Henry the Eighth, Skelton acts the part of Friar Tuck.—In The Death of Robert, Earle of Hvntington, &c. (by Anthony Munday and Henry Chettle), 1601, 4to, which forms a Second Part to the drama just described, Skelton, though his name is not mentioned throughout it, is still supposed to act the Friar.—Miscellanea, written out by “Joħnes Mauritius” between 1604 and 1605—MS. Reg. 12. B. v.—contains (at fol. 14), and attributes to Skelton, a well-known indelicate jeu d’esprit.—Pimlyco, or Runne Red-Cap. Tis a mad world at Hogsdon, 1609, 4to. Besides a notice of Skelton, this poem contains two long quotations from his Elynour Rummyng.—Cornv-copiæ. Pasquils Night-Cap: Or Antidot for the Head-ache (by Samuel Rowlands), 1612, 4[lxxxvii]to, at sig. O 2 and sig. Q 3. The second notice of Skelton in this poem is as follows;

but I recollect nothing in his works to which the allusion can be applied.—An Halfe-pennyworth of Wit, in a Penny-worth of Paper. Or, The Hermites Tale. The third Impression. 1613, 4to. At p. 16 of this poem is a tale said to be “in Skeltons rime”—to which, however, it bears no resemblance.—The Shepheards Pipe (by Browne and Withers), 1614, 12mo, in Eglogue i., at sig. C 7.—Hypercritica; or A Rule of Judgment for writing, or reading our History’s, &c. By Edmund Bolton, Author of Nero Cæsar (published by Dr. Anthony Hall together with Nicolai Triveti Annalium Continuatio, &c.), 1722, 8vo, at p. 235. At what period Bolton wrote this treatise is uncertain: he probably completed it about 1618; see Haslewood’s Preface to Anc. Crit. Essays, &c. ii. xvi.—Poems: By Michael Drayton Esqvire, n. d. folio, at p. 283.—The Golden Fleece Diuided into three Parts, &c., by Orpheus Junior [Sir William Vaughan], 1626, 4to, at pp. 83, 88, 93, of the Third Part. In this piece “Scogin and Skelton” figure as “the chiefe Aduocates for the Dogrel Rimers by the procurement of Zoilus, Momus, and others of the Popish Sect.”—The Fortunate Isles, and their Union. Celebrated in a Masque designed for the Court, on the Twelfth-night, 1626, by Ben Jonson. In this masque are introduced “Skogan and Skelton, in like habits as they lived:” see Jonson’s Works, viii. ed. Gifford: see also his Tale of a Tub (licensed 1633), Works, vi. 231.—Wit and Fancy In a Maze. Or the Incomparable Champion of Love and Beautie. A Mock-Romance, &c. Written originally in the British Tongue, and made English by a person of much Honor. Si foret in terris rideret Democritus.[148] 1656, 12mo. In this romance (p. 101) we are told that “[In[lxxxviii] Elysium] the Brittish Bards (forsooth) were also ingaged in quarrel for Superiority; and who think you threw the Apple of Discord amongst them, but Ben Johnson, who had openly vaunted himself the first and best of English Poets ... Skelton, Gower, and the Monk of Bury were at Daggers-drawing for Chawcer:” and a marginal note on “Skelton” informs us that he was “Henry 4. his Poet Lawreat, who wrote disguises for the young Princes”!

[xc]

APPENDIX II.
LIST OF EDITIONS, &c.

[xci]

Here begynneth a lytell treatyse named the bowge of courte.

Colophon,

Thus endeth the Bowge of courte. Enprynted at Westmynster By me Wynkyn the Worde. 4to, n. d.

On the title-page is a woodcut of a fox and a bear.

Here begynneth a lytell treatyse named the bowge of courte.

Colophon,

Thus endeth the Bowge of courte Enprynted at London By Wynken de Worde in flete strete, at the sygne of the sonne. 4to, n. d.

On the title-page is a woodcut of three men and a woman.

Here folowythe dyuers Balettys and dyties solacyous deuysyd by Master Skelton Laureat.

Colophon,

Cum priuilegio.

4to, n. d., and without printer’s name, but evidently from the press of Pynson. (Consisting of 4 leaves.)

On the title-page is a woodcut representing Skelton seated in his study, crowned with a laurel wreath, and over his head, “Arboris omne genus viridi concedite lauro” (see Memoir, p. xlvi. note).

It contains—

The ballad, “My darlyng dere, my daysy floure,” &c.

The verses, “The auncient acquaintance, madam, betwen vs twayne,” &c.

The verses, “Knolege, acquayntance, resort, fauour with grace,” &c.

The Latin verses, “Cuncta licet cecidisse putas,” &c., with an English translation, “Though ye suppose,” &c.

The verses, “Go, pytyous hart, rasyd with dedly wo,” &c.

[xcii]

Skelton Laureate agaynste a comely Coystrowne that curyowsly chawntyd And curryshly cowntred, And madly in hys Musykkys mokkyshly made, Agaynste the .ix. Musys of polytyke Poems & Poettys matryculat.

Colophon,

Cum priuilegio.

4to, n. d., and without printer’s name, but evidently from the press of Pynson. (Consisting of 4 leaves.)

On the title-page is a woodcut, the same as in the last mentioned tract, but with a different border.

It contains—

The verses mentioned in the title-page.

“Contra aliū Cātitātē & Organisantē Asinum, qui impugnabat Skeltonida pierium Sarcasmos.”

“Skelton Laureat uppon a deedmans hed yᵗ was sent to hym from an honorable Jētyllwoman for a token Deuysyd this gostly medytacyon in Englysh Couenable in sentence Comēdable, Lamētable, Lacrymable, Profytable for the soule.”

The verses, “Womanhod, wanton, ye want,” &c.

Honorificatissimo, Amplissimo, longeque reuerendissimo in Christo patri: Ac domino, domino Thomæ &c. Tituli sanctæ Ceciliæ, sacrosanctæ; Romanæ ecclesiæ presbytero Cardinali meritissimo, et Apostolicæ sedis legato. A latereque legato superillustri &c. Skeltonis laureatus Ora, reg. Humillimum, dicit obsequium cum omni debita reuerentia, tanto tamque magnifico digna principe sacerdotum, totiusque iustitiæ equabilissimo moderatore. Necnon presentis opusculi fautore excellentissimo &c. Ad cuius auspicatissimam contemplationem, sub memorabili prelo gloriose immortalitatis presens pagella felicitatur &c.

A replycacion agaynst certayne yong scolers, abiured of late &c.

Colophon,

Thus endeth the Replicacyon of Skel. L. &c. Imprinted by Richard Pynson, printer to the kynges most noble grace. 4to, n. d.

[xciii]

A ryght delectable tratyse vpon a goodly Garlande or Chapelet of Laurell by mayster Skelton Poete laureat studyously dyuysed at Sheryfhotton Castell. In yᵉ foreste of galtres, wher in ar cōprysyde many & dyuers solacyons & ryght pregnant allectyues of syngular pleasure, as more at large it doth apere in yᵉ proces folowynge.

Colophon,

Here endith a ryght delectable tratyse vpon a goodly garlonde or chapelet of laurell dyuysed by mayster Skelton Poete laureat.

Inpryntyd by me Rycharde faukes dwellydg [sic] in durā rent or els in Powlis chyrche yarde at the sygne of the A.B.C. The yere of our lorde god .M.CCCCC.XXIII. The .iii. day of Octobre, 4to.

On the title-page is a woodcut representing Skelton seated in his study, and on the reverse of the title-page a woodcut (copied from a French print—see Memoir, p. xlvii. note),—a whole-length figure of a man holding a branch in one hand and a flower in the other,—having at top the words “Skelton Poeta,” and at bottom the following verses;

On the reverse of A ii. are small woodcuts of “The quene of Fame” and “Dame Pallas.” After the colophon is the device of the printer, “Richard Fakes.”

Magnyfycence, A goodly interlude and a mery deuysed and made by mayster Skelton poet laureate late deceasyd.

Colophon,

Cum priuilegio.

folio, n. d., and without printer’s name.

In a note, vol. i. 225, I have (following Ritson and others) stated positively that this ed. was “printed by Rastell:” I ought to have said, that in all probability it was from Rastell’s press.

Here after foloweth the boke of Phyllyp Sparowe compyled by mayster Skelton Poete Laureate.

Colophon,

Prynted at London at the poultry by Rychard Kele[xciv].

12mo, n. d. On reverse of the last leaf is a woodcut representing Phyllyp Sparowe’s tomb.

An edition by Kele, 4to, n. d., is mentioned in Typogr. Antiq. iv. 305, ed. Dibdin: but qy.?

Here after foloweth a litle booke of Phillyp Sparow, compiled by Mayster Skeltō Poete Laureate.

Colophon,

Imprynted at London in paules churche yerde by Robert Toy.

12mo, n. d. On reverse of the last leaf is the same woodcut as in the ed. last described.

Here after foloweth a litle boke of Phillip sparow. Compyled by mayster Skelton Poete Laureate.

Colophon,

Imprinted at London in poules churchyard, at the sygne of the Sunne, by Antony Kitson.

Colophon in some copies,

Imprinted at London in poules churchyard at the sygne of the Lamb, by Abraham Weale [sic].

Colophon in some other copies,

Imprinted at London in Foster-lane by Ihon Walley.

12mo, n. d.

An edition Imprinted at London in paules churche yerde by John Wyght, with a woodcut of “Phyllyp Sparowes tomb” on the last page, is mentioned in Typogr. Antiq. iv. 379. ed. Dibdin.

Here after foloweth certaine bokes cōpyled by mayster Skeltō, Poet Laureat, whose names here after shall appere.

• Speake Parot.
• The death of the noble Prynce Kynge Edwarde the fourth.
• A treatyse of the Scottes.
• Ware the Hawke.
• The Tunnynge of Elynoure Rummyng.

Colophon,

Thus endeth these lytle workes compyled by maister Skelton Poet Laureat.[xcv]

Imprynted at London, in Crede Lane, by John Kynge and Thomas Marche.

12mo, n. d.

Heare after foloweth certain bokes Compiled by Master Skelton, Poet Laureat, whose names here after doth appere.

(Enumeration of pieces as above.)

Imprynted at London by Ihon Day.

Colophon,

Thus endeth these litle works compiled by maister Skelton Poet Laureat.

12mo, n. d.

Here after foloweth certayne bokes, cōpyled by mayster Skelton, Poet Laureat, whose names here after shall appere.

(Enumeration of pieces as above.)

Printed at London by Richard Lant, for Henry Tab, dwelling in Pauls churchyard, at the sygne of Judith.

Colophon,

Thus endethe these lytell workes compyled by mayster Skelton Poet Laureat. And prynted by Richard Lant, for Henry Tab, dwellyng in Poules churche yard at the sygne of Judith.

12mo, n. d. On the fly-leaf of the copy which I used, but perhaps not belonging to it, was pasted a woodcut representing the author, with the words “Skelton Poet” (copied from Pynson’s ed. of Dyuers Balettys, &c., and the same as that on the reverse of the last leaf of Kele’s ed. of Why come ye nat to Courte).

An edition printed for W. Bonham, 1547, 12mo, is mentioned by Warton, Hist. of E.P. ii. 336 (note), ed. 4to.

The various editions of these “certaine bokes” contain, besides the pieces specified on the title-page, the following poems—

• “All noble men, of this take hede,” &c. [prefixed to the eds. of Why come ye nat to Courte.]
• “Howe euery thing must haue a tyme.”
• “Prayer to the Father of Heauen.”
• “To the seconde Person.”
• “To the Holy Ghost.”

[xcvi]

Here after foloweth a litel boke called Colyn Cloute compyled by mayster Skelton poete Laureate.

Quis cōsurgat mecū adversus malignantes, aut quis stabit mecū adversus operantes iniquitatem. Nemo domine.

Colophon,

Imprinted at London by me Rycharde Kele dwellyng in the powltry at the long shop vnder saynt Myldredes chyrche.

12mo, n. d.

An edition by Kele, 4to, n. d., is mentioned in Typogr. Antiq. iv. 305. ed. Dibdin: but qy.?

Here after foloweth a litle booke called Colyn Clout compiled by master Skelton Poete Laureate.

Quis cōsurgat, &c. (as above.)

Colophon,

Inprinted at London in Paules Churche yarde at the Sygne of the Rose by Iohn Wyghte.

12mo, n. d.

Here after foloweth a litle boke called Colyn Clout compiled by master Skelton Poete Laureate.

Quis consurgat, &c. (as above.)

Colophon,

Imprynted at London in Paules Churche yarde at the Sygne of the Sunne by Anthony Kytson.

Colophon in some copies,

Imprynted at London in Paules Churche yarde at the Sygne of the Lambe by Abraham Veale.

12mo, n. d.

An edition Imprynted at London by —— [Thomas Godfray]. Cum priuilegio regali, is mentioned in Typogr. Antiq. iii. 71. ed. Dibdin.

Here after foloweth a lytell boke, whiche hath to name, Why come ye nat to courte, compyled by mayster Skelton poete Laureate.

Colophon,

Imprinted at london by me Richard kele dwellīg in the powltry at the longe shop vnder saynt myldredes chyrch.

12mo, n. d. On the reverse of the title-page is a woodcut representing two figures, one of them perhaps meant for Wolsey,[xcvii] the other headed “Skelton;” and on the reverse of the last leaf is a woodcut (copied from Pynson’s ed. of Dyuers Balettys, &c.) with the words “Skylton poyet.”

An edition by Kele, 4to, n. d., is mentioned in Typogr. Antiq. iv. 305. ed. Dibdin: but qy.?

Here after foloweth a little booke, whiche hath to name Whi come ye not to courte, compiled by mayster Skeltō Poete Laureate.

Colophon,

Imprynted at London in Paules churche yarde at the Sygne of the Rose by John Wyght.

12mo, n. d. On the reverse of the title-page is a woodcut, which I am unable to describe, because in the copy used by me it was much damaged as well as pasted over.

Here after foloweth a litle boke whyche hathe to name, whye come ye not to Courte. Compyled by mayster Skelton Poete Laureate.

Colophon,

Imprynted at London in Poules church yard at the syne of the sunne by Anthony Kytson.

Colophon in some copies,

Imprynted at London in Poules church yard at the syne of the Lamb by Abraham Veale.

Colophon in some other copies,

Imprynted at London in Foster lane by John Wallye.

12mo, n. d.

An edition, Imprynted at London, in Paules church yarde at the Sygne of the Bell by Robert Toy, is mentioned in Typogr. Antiq. iii. 576. ed. Dibdin.

Pithy pleasaunt and profitable workes of maister Skelton, Poete Laureate. Nowe collected and newly published. Anno 1568. Imprinted at London in Fletestreate, neare vnto saint Dunstones churche by Thomas Marshe. 12mo.

On the reverse of the title-page are the Latin lines, “Salve, plus decies,” &c. (see vol. i. 177); next, Churchyard’s verses, “If slouth and tract of time,” &c. (see Appendix I. p. lxxvi.); and then the contents of the volume are thus enumerated;

[xcviii]

“Workes of Skelton newly collected by I.S. as foloweth.

• 1. The crowne of lawrel.
• 2. The bouge of court.
• 3. The duke of Albany.
• 4. Speake parrot.
• 5. Edward the fourth.
• 6. Against the Scottes. [Chorus de Dys contra Scottes, &c. Chorus de dis, &c. super triumphali victoria contra gallos, &c.]
• 7. Ware the hauke. [Libertas veneranda, &c. All noble men of this take hede, &c.]
• 8. Howe euery thinge must haue a time.
• 9. A prayer to the father of heauen.
• 10. To yᵉ second person.
• 11. To the holy ghost.
• 12. The tunning of Elinour Rumming.
• 13. The relucēt mirror.
• 14. Why come ye not to court.
• 15. Colyn Clout.
• 16. Philip sparowe.
• 17. Of a comly Coystrowne. [Contra alium Cantitātem & Organisantem Asinum, &c.]
• 18. Upō a deadmās heed.
• 19. To maistris Anne.
• 20. Of thre fooles.
• 21. En parlement a Paris.
• 22. Epitaphes of two knaues of dise. [Diligo rustincum, &c.]
• 23. Lamentation for Norwiche.
• 24. Against yᵉ Scottes [i. e. against Dundas].
• 25. Praise of yᵉ palmtre. [Diligo rusticum, &c.]
• 26. Bedel quōdā Belial.
• 27. The dolorus death of the Lord Percie Erle of Northumberlande. [Ad magistrum Rukshaw.]
• 28. Epitaphium Margarete countisse de Derbi.
• 29. Epita. Hen. septi.
• 30. Eulogium pro suorum temporum.
• 31. A parable by William Cornishe in yᵉ Fleete.
• 32. Against venemous tongues.
• 33. Of Calliope.

How the very dull poem (31) by William Cornishe came to be inserted in this collection, I know not: but I may just observe that it is found (with a better text) in MS. Reg. 18. D ii. where it immediately precedes Skelton’s verses on the Death of the Earl of Northumberland.

“Now synge we, as we were wont,” &c.—in an imperfect volume (or fragments of volumes) of black-letter Christmas Carolles,—Bibliograph. Miscell. (edited by the Rev. Dr. Bliss), 1813, 4to, p. 48.

[xcix]

The Maner of the World now a dayes—Imprinted at London in Flete Strete at the signe of the Rose Garland by W. Copland, n. d.—known to me only from Old Ballads, 1840, edited by Mr. J.P. Collier for the Percy Society.

I now greatly doubt if this copy of verses be by Skelton: see Notes, vol. ii. 199.

Concerning the comparatively modern edition of Elynour Rummynge, 1624, 4to (celebrated for the imaginary portrait of Elynour), see Notes, vol. ii. 152 sqq.

Wood mentions as by Skelton (Ath. Oxon. i. 52. ed. Bliss)—

Poetical Fancies and Satyrs, Lond. 1512, oct.

Tanner mentions (Biblioth. p. 676)—

Miseries of England under Henry vii. Lond.... 4to. [Qy. is it the same piece as Vox Populi, Vox Dei?]

Warton mentions (Hist. of E.P. ii. 336, note, ed. 4to)—

A collection of Skelton’s pieces printed for A. Scolocker, 1582, 12mo.

Bliss mentions (add. to Wood’s Ath. Oxon. i. 53)—

A collection of Skelton’s pieces printed in 12mo by A. Scholoker, n. d., and

Another by John Wight in 8vo, 1588.

Of Skelton’s drama, The Nigramansir, the following account is given by Warton:—

“I cannot quit Skelton, of whom I yet fear too much has been already said, without restoring to the public notice a play, or Morality, written by him, not recited in any catalogue of his works, or annals of English typography; and, I believe, at present totally unknown to the antiquarians in this sort of literature. It is, The Nigramansir, a moral Enterlude and a pithie written by Maister Skelton laureate and plaid before the king and other estatys at Woodstoke on Palme Sunday. It was printed by Wynkin de Worde in a thin quarto, in the year 1504.[149] It must have[c] been presented before king Henry the seventh, at the royal manor or palace, at Woodstock in Oxfordshire, now destroyed. The characters are a Necromancer or conjuror, the devil, a notary public, Simonie, and Philargyria or Avarice. It is partly a satire on some abuses in the church; yet not without a due regard to decency, and an apparent respect for the dignity of the audience. The story, or plot, is the tryal of Simony and Avarice: the devil is the judge, and the notary public acts as an assessor or scribe. The prisoners, as we may suppose, are found guilty, and ordered into hell immediately. There is no sort of propriety in calling this play the Necromancer: for the only business and use of this character, is to open the subject in a long prologue, to evoke the devil, and summon the court. The devil kicks the necromancer, for waking him so soon in the morning: a proof that this drama was performed in the morning, perhaps in the chapel of the palace. A variety of measures, with shreds of Latin and French, is used: but the devil speaks in the octave stanza. One of the stage-directions is, Enter Balsebub with a Berde. To make him both frightful and ridiculous, the devil was most commonly introduced on the stage wearing a visard with an immense beard. Philargyria quotes Seneca and saint Austin: and Simony offers the devil a bribe. The devil rejects her offer with much indignation: and swears by the foule Eumenides, and the hoary beard of Charon, that she shall be well fried and roasted in the unfathomable sulphur of Cocytus, together with Mahomet, Pontius Pilate, the traitor Judas, and king Herod. The last scene is closed with a view of hell, and a dance between the devil and the necromancer. The dance ended, the devil trips up the necromancer’s heels, and disappears in fire and smoke.” Hist. of E.P. ii. 360. ed. 4to.

In the Garlande of Laurell (vol. i. 408, sqq.) Skelton enumerates many of his compositions which are no longer extant.

[ci]

PIECES ATTRIBUTED TO SKELTON.

Verses presented to King Henry the Seventh at the feast of St. George celebrated at Windsor in the third year of his reign—first printed by Ashmole (see vol. ii. 387 of the present work).

The Epitaffe of the moste noble and valyaunt Jaspar late Duke of Beddeforde, printed by Pynson, 4to, n. d. (see vol. ii. 388.)

Elegy on King Henry the Seventh—an imperfect broadside (see vol. ii. 399).

Merie Tales Newly Imprinted & made by Master Skelton Poet Laureat. Imprinted at London in Fleetstreat beneath the Conduit at the signe of S. John Euangelist, by Thomas Colwell, 12mo, n. d. (see the preceding Appendix.) Warton, Hist. of E.P. ii. 336 (note), gives the date 1575 to these Tales,—on what authority I know not.

Other pieces might be mentioned.

MSS.

Of the death of the noble prince, Kynge Edwarde the forth. In a vol. belonging to Miss Richardson Currer, which has furnished a stanza hitherto unprinted (vol. i. 1).

Vpon the doulourus dethe and muche lamentable chaunce of the most honorable Erle of Northumberlande. MS. Reg. 18 D ii. fol. 165 (vol. i. 6).

Manerly Margery Mylk and Ale. Fairfax MS.,—Add. MSS. (Brit. Mus.) 5465, fol. 109 (vol. i. 28).

Poems against Garnesche. MS. Harl. 367, fol. 101. Now for the first time printed (vol. i. 116).

“Wofully araid,” &c. Fairfax MS.,—Add. MSS. 5465, fol. 76 and fol. 86 (Brit. Mus.): and MS. copy in a very old hand on the fly-leaves of Boetius de Discip. Schol. cum notabili commento, Daventrie, 1496, 4to (in the collection of the late Mr. Heber), which has supplied several stanzas hitherto unprinted (vol. i. 141).

“I, liber, et propera, regem tu pronus adora,” &c. MS. C.C.C.—No. ccccxxxii. of Nasmith’s Catal. p. 400 (vol. i. 147).

“Salve plus decies quam sunt momenta dierum,” &c. Add. MSS. (Brit. Mus.) 4787, fol. 224 (vol. i. 177).

[cii]

Colyn Cloute. MS. Harl. 2252, fol. 147 (vol. i. 311).—In MS. Lansdown 762, fol. 75, is a fragment of this poem, “The profecy of Skelton” (vol. i. 329).

Garlande of Laurell. MS. Cott. Vit. E X. fol. 200; very imperfect (vol. i. 361).

Speke, Parrot. MS. Harl. 2252, fol. 133, which has supplied much now for the first time printed (vol. ii. 1).

Diodorus Siculus translated into English [by Skelton poet-laureat]. MS. C.C.C.—No. ccclvii. of Nasmith’s Catal. p. 362.

For the following account of this MS. I am indebted to Mr. Thomas Wright:—

“MS. Corp. Chr. Camb. No. 357.

At the head of the first folio—‘Interpretatio Skeltoni poetæ Laureati,’ written in a different hand from the MS. (by Nasmith said to be by Archb. Parker himself) over something which has been erased, but which seems to have been ‘Prohemye of Poggius.’

At the end of this preface is written in the same hand as MS. ‘Thus endeth the prohemye of Poggius.’ fol. 2 verso.

At fol. 3 begins ‘The prohemy of Diodorus thauctour.’ This ends at fol. 7 thus,—

¶ ‘Now we wyll enforce to begynne our processe historyall. quod Skelton.

¶ Here endeth the prohemy of all the hole processe.’

The words ‘quod Skelton’ are written in rather a different hand, and with different ink, but apparently contemporary. I think it not impossible that they may have been added by the original hand at another time.

It is imperfect at the end: but on a leaf bound up with it is written in a much later hand (perhaps by Parker), ‘Hec charta de industria vacua relicta est, ut occasio daretur juveni in litteris exercitato aggrediendi translationem historiæ que hic diminuta est, ut sic humeri sui vires experiatur quid ferre valeant, quidve recusent, tum cognoscet quid hic translator prestiterit, fortassis non ita facile in hoc genere a multis superandus.’”

Tanner (Biblioth. p. 676. ed. 1748) mentions the following two pieces as extant in his day among the MSS. of Lincoln Cathedral Library (see Memoir, pp. xxi, xxiii.)—

[ciii]

Methodos Skeltonidis laureati, sc. Præcepta quædam moralia Henrico principi, postea Henr. viii, missa, Dat. apud Eltham A.D. MDI. Principium deest.

Carmen ad principem, quando insignitus erat ducis Ebor. titulo. Pr. “Si quid habes, mea Musa.”

MSS. OF PIECES ATTRIBUTED TO SKELTON.

Vox Populi, vox Dei. MS. 2567 Cambridge Public Library. MS. Harl. 367. fol. 130 (see vol. ii. 400).

The Image of Ipocrysy. MS. Lansdown 794 (see vol. ii. 413).

Other pieces might be mentioned.

[civ]

[cv]

APPENDIX III.
EXTRACTS FROM PIECES WHICH ARE WRITTEN IN, OR WHICH CONTAIN EXAMPLES OF, THE METRE CALLED SKELTONICAL.

[cvi]

[cvii]

EXAMPLES
OF
THE METRE CALLED SKELTONICAL.

The Genealogye of Heresye. Compyled by Ponce Pantolabus. Imprynted at London In Pater noster rowe. At the signe of our ladye pytye [some copies, our fadyr Pyte] By Johan Redman. Ad imprimendum solum, 1542: another edition was printed by Robert Wyer: vide Typograph. Antiq. iii. 59, 182. ed. Dibdin (the size of them not mentioned). The author was John Huntingdon.

These editions I have not seen: the whole of the tract, however, seems to be quoted in A mysterye of inyquyte contayned within the heretycall Genealogye of Ponce Pantolabus, is here both dysclosed & confuted By Johan Bale An. M.D.XLII. 12mo, Geneva, 1545, from which I subjoin the following passages:

From A pore helpe.

12mo, without date or printer’s name.

From The Vpcheringe of the Messe: Inprinted at Lōdon by John Daye and Willyam Seres, 12mo, n. d.

From Phylogamus, 12mo, without date or printer’s name—of which the title-page and five leaves are preserved in a volume of Ballads and Fragments in the British Museum. The late Mr. Douce has written below the title-page “Probably by Skelton;” but it is certainly not his.

The Copye of a letter, sent by John Bradford to the right honorable lordes the Erles of Arundel, Darbie, Shrewsbury, & Penbroke, declarīg the nature of spaniardes, and discouering the most detestable treasons, whiche they haue pretended moste falselye againste oure moste noble kyngdome of Englande. Whereunto is added a tragical blast of the papisticall trōpet for mayntenaunce of the Popes kingdome in Englande. by. T.E. If ye beleue the trueth, ye saue your liues, &c. 12mo, and without date or printer’s name on the title-page: the copy now before me is imperfect at the end, where perhaps both are given. According to Herbert’s Ames’s Typ. Antiq. iii. 1582, this piece was printed in 1555.

In the two subjoined passages (perhaps in more) of this tract, the author adopts the Skeltonic metre, though the whole is printed as prose:—

“There be many other noble menne [among the Spaniards, besides the duke of Medena-zelie] vndoubtedly very wise and politik, which can throughe their wisdome binde themselues for a time from their nature, and applye their condicions to the maners of those menne with whom they would gladlye bee frended; whose mischeuouse maners a man shal neuer knowe, till he come vnder their subiection. But then shall ye perceiue perfectly their puffed pride, with many mischeffes beside, their prowling and poling, their bribinge and shauing, their most deceitfull dealing, their braging and bosting, their flatteringe and faininge, their[cxviii] abominable whorehuntynge, with most rufull ruling, | their doings vniust, | with insaciate lust, | their stout stubbernnes, | croked crabbednes, | and vnmeasurable madnes, | in enui, pride, and lecherie, | which, thei saie, God loueth hartelie, | vaineglorie and hipocrisie, | with al other vilanie | of what kinde soeuer it be; | supersticion, desolacion, extorcion, adulacion, dissimulacion, exaltacion, suppression, inuocacion, and all abominacion; with innumerable moe mischeues, whiche I coulde plainlie declare, that no nacion in the world can suffer. Their masking and mumbling | in the holi time of lent | maketh many wiues brente, | the king being present, | nighte after nighte, | as a prince of moste mighte, | which hath power in his hande | that no man dare withstande: | yet if that were the greatest euil, | we might suffer it wel, | for there is no man liuing | but would suffer the king | to haue wife, sister, doughter, maide and all, | bothe great & smal, | so many as he liste, | no man would him resist; | but the worst of all the companie | muste haue my wife priuelie, | when I am present bi; | this is more vilanie, | that one muste kepe the dore; | will not that greue you sore? | & dare not speake for your life, | when another hath youre wife,” | &c. Sig. B i.

“Ye wil say, the Spaniards kepe their olde rentaking: how can that be, when euery poore man must pay yerely for euery chimney in his house, and euery other place that is to make fire in, as ouen, fornes, and smithes forge, a Frenche crowne? wil Englishmen, or can thei, suffer to be poled and pilled moste miserably, in payeng continually suche poling pence and intollerable tollages for all maner graine and breade, befe, beare and mutton, goose, pigge and capone, henne, mallard and chicken, milk, butter and chese, egges, apples & peares, | wine white and reade, | with all other wines beside, | salt white and graye? | al thinges must pay; | small nuttes and wallnuttes, | cheries and chestnuttes, | plumbes, damassens, philbeardes, and al | both gret & smal, | whatsoeuer thei maye se, | to fede the pore commenalte; | salmon and hearing; | this is a shamefull thing; | tench, ele or conger; | this shall kepe vs vnder, | and make vs die for hunger; | flounders, floucke, plaice or carpe; | here is a miserable warke | that Englande must abide | to maintaine Spanishe pride,” &c. Sig. F ii.

[cxix]

From Doctour Doubble Ale,—12mo, without printer’s name or date.

From A Commemoration or Dirige of Bastarde Edmonde Boner, alias Sauage, vsurped Bisshoppe of London. Compiled by Lemeke Auale. Episcopatum eius accipiet alter. Anno Domini. 1569. Imprinted by P. O. 8vo (a tract, chiefly in verse and of various metres: see Notes, vol. ii. 121.)

From

Imprinted at London for Toby Cooke. 1589, 4to.

See also—Jacke of the Northe, &c. printed (most incorrectly) from C.C.C. MS. in Hartshorne’s Anc. Met. Tales, p. 288.—A recantation of famous Pasquin of Rome. An. 1570. Imprinted at London by John Daye, 8vo, which (known to me only from Brit. Bibliog. ii. 289) contains Skeltonical passages.—The Riddles of Heraclitus and Democritus. Printed at London by Ann Hatfield for John Norton, 1598, 4to, which (known to me only from Restituta, i. 175) has Skeltonical rhymes on the back of the title-page.—The Wisdome of Doctor Dodypoll. As it hath bene sundrie times Acted[cxxix] by the Children of Powles, 1600, 4to, which has some Skeltonical lines at sig. C 4.—The Downfall of Robert Earle of Huntington, &c. (by Anthony Munday), 1601, 4to, and The Death of Robert, Earle of Hvntington, &c. (by Anthony Munday and Henry Chettle), 1601, 4to, (two plays already noticed, p. lxxxvi.), in which are various Skeltonical passages.—Hobson’s Horse-load of Letters, or a President for Epistles. The First Part, 1617, 4to, which concludes with three epistles in verse, the last entitled “A merry-mad Letter in Skeltons rime,” &c.—Poems: By Michael Drayton Esqvire, &c., n. d., folio, which contains at p. 301 a copy of verses entitled “A Skeltoniad.”—The Fortunate Isles, &c. 1626, a masque by Ben Jonson (already noticed, p. lxxxvii.), in which are imitations of Skelton’s style.—All The Workes of John Taylor The Water-poet, &c. 1630, folio, which contains, at p. 245, “A Skeltonicall salutation to those that know how to reade, and not marre the sense with hacking or mis-construction” (printed as prose).—Hesperides: or, The Works Both Humane & Divine of Robert Herrick Esq., 1648, 8vo, among which, at pp. 10, 97, 268, are verses in Skelton’s favourite metre.—The Works of Mr. John Cleveland, Containing his Poems, Orations, Epistles, Collected into One Volume, 1687, 8vo, in which may be found, at p. 306, a piece of disgusting grossness (suggested by Skelton’s Elynour Rummynge), entitled “The Old Gill.”

A poem called Philargyrie of greate Britayne, 1551, printed (and no doubt written) by Robert Crowly, has been frequently mentioned as a “Skeltonic” composition, but improperly, as the following lines will shew;

“See also,” says Warton (Hist. of E. P. ii. 358, note, ed. [cxxx]4to), “a doggrel piece of this kind, in imitation of Skelton, introduced into Browne’s Sheperd’s Pipe,”—a mistake; for the poem of Hoccleve (inserted in Eglogue i.), to which Warton evidently alludes, is neither doggrel nor in Skelton’s manner.

[1]

POETICAL WORKS
OF
JOHN SKELTON.

OF THE DEATH[155]
OF THE NOBLE PRINCE, KYNGE EDWARDE THE FORTH,
PER SKELTONIDEM LAUREATUM.

[6]

POETA SKELTON[182] LAUREATUS LIBELLUM SUUM METRICE ALLOQUITUR.

SKELTON LAUREAT
VPON THE
DOULOUR[U]S DETHE AND MUCHE LAMENTABLE CHAUNCE OF THE MOST HONORABLE ERLE OF NORTHUMBERLANDE.

TETRASTICHON[211] SKELTON. LAUREATI AD MAGISTRUM RUKSHAW, SACRÆ THEOLOGIÆ EGREGIUM PROFESSOREM.

[15]

SKELTON LAUREATE[215]
AGAYNSTE
A comely coystrowne, that curyowsly chawntyd, and curryshly cowntred, and madly in hys musykkys mokkyshly made agaynste the ix Musys of polytyke poems and poettys matryculat.

CONTRA ALIUM CANTITANTEM ET ORGANISANTEM ASINUM, QUI IMPUGNABAT SKELTONIDA PIERIUM, SARCASMOS.

SKELTON LAUREAT,
Vppon a deedmans hed, that was sent to hym from an honorable jentyllwoman for a token, deuysyd this gostly medytacyon in Englysh, couenable in sentence, comendable, lamentable, lacrymable, profytable for the soule.

[22]

Here folowythe dyuers Balettys[225] and Dyties solacyous, deuysyd by Master Skelton, Laureat.

[25]

[28]

MANERLY MARGERY[230] MYLK AND ALE.

[30]

HERE BEGYNNETH A LYTELL TREATYSE,
NAMED
THE BOWGE OF COURTE.[232]