Henricum octavum, resonans sua præmia laudis.
Cardineum dominum pariter venerando salutes,
Legatum a latere, et fiat memor ipse precare
Prebendæ, quam promisit mihi credere quondam,
Meque suum referas pignus sperare salutis
Inter spemque metum.
Twene hope and drede
My lyfe I lede,
But of my spede
Small sekernes;
Howe be it I rede
Both worde and dede
Should be agrede
In noblenes:
Or els, &c.”[110]
“To my Lorde Cardynals right noble grace, &c.
_Lenuoy._
Go, lytell quayre, apace,
In moost humble wyse,
Before his noble grace,
That caused you to deuise
This lytel enterprise;
And hym moost lowly pray,
In his mynde to comprise
Those wordes his grace dyd saye
Of an ammas gray.
_Ie foy enterment en sa bone grace_.”[111]
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 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 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,
Gentle Paule, laie doune thy sweard,[116]
For Peter of Westminster hath shauen thy beard.”[117]
From the vengeance of the Cardinal,[118] who had sent 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 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 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
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 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.
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 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_.[137]
[15] Sometimes written _Schelton_: and Blomefield says, “That his Name
was _Shelton_ or Skelton, appears from his Successor’s Institution, viz.
‘1529, 17 July, Thomas Clerk, instituted on the Death of John _Shelton_,
last Rector [Lib. Inst. No. 18].’” _Hist. of Norfolk_, i. 20. ed. 1739.
[16] “John Skelton was a younger branch of the Skeltons of Skelton
in this County [Cumberland]. I crave leave of the Reader, (hitherto
not having full instructions, and) preserving the undoubted Title of
this County unto him, to defer his character to Norfolk, where he was
Beneficed at Diss therein.” Fuller’s _Worthies_, p. 221 (_Cumberland_),
ed. 1662. “John Skelton is placed in this County [Norfolk] on a double
probability. First, because an ancient family of his name is eminently
known long fixed therein. Secondly, because he was beneficed at Dis,”
&c. _Id._ p. 257 (_Norfolk_).—“John Skelton ... was originally, if not
nearly, descended from the Skeltons of Cumberland.” Wood’s _Ath. Oxon._
i. 49. ed. Bliss. See also Tanner’s _Biblioth._ p. 675. ed. 1748.—“I
take it, that Skelton was not only Rector, but a Native of this Place
[Diss], being son of William Skelton, and Margaret his Wife, whose Will
was proved at Norwich, Nov. 7, 1512 [Regr. Johnson].” Blomefield’s _Hist.
of Norfolk_, i. 20. ed. 1739. Through the active kindness of Mr. Amyot,
I have received a copy of the Will of William Skelton (or Shelton), who,
though perhaps a relation, was surely not the father of the poet; for in
this full and explicit document the name of _John_ Skelton does not once
occur.—From an entry which will be afterwards cited, it would seem that
the Christian name of Skelton’s mother was Johanna.—In Skelton’s Latin
lines on the city of Norwich (see vol. i. 174) we find,
“Ah decus, ah _patriæ_ specie pulcherrima dudum!
Urbs Norvicensis,” &c.
Does “_patriæ_” mean his native county?
[17] “Having been educated in this university, as Joh. Baleus attests.”
Wood’s _Ath. Oxon._ i. 50. ed. Bliss. Wood’s reference in the note is
“In lib. _De Scriptoribus Anglicis_, MS. inter cod. MSS. Selden, in bib.
Bodl. p. 69 b.” The printed copy of Bale’s work contains no mention of
the place of Skelton’s education. Part of Bale’s information concerning
Skelton, as appears from the still extant MS. collections for his
_Script. Illust. Brit._, was received “Ex Guilhelmo Horman,” the author
of the _Vulgaria_.—See also Tanner’s _Biblioth._ p. 675. ed. 1748.—Warton
says that Skelton “studied in both our universities.” _Hist. of E. P._
ii. 336. ed. 4to.
[18] _A Replycacion_, &c. vol. i. 207.
[19] “Wood reckons him of Ox. on the author. of Bale in a MS. in the
Bodleian Libr., but with much better reason he may be called ours; for
I find one Scheklton M.A. in the year 1484, at which time allowing
him to be 24 years of age, he must be at his death A.D. 1529, 68 or
69 years old, which ’tis probable he might be. v. Bale 653.” Cole’s
_Collections_,—_Add. MSS._ (Brit. Mus.) 5880, p. 199.
[20] I suspect that, during Skelton’s lifetime, two of his most
celebrated pieces, _Colyn Cloute_ (see v. 1239, vol. i. 359), and _Why
come ye nat to Courte_, were not committed to the press, but wandered
about in manuscript among hundreds of eager readers. A portion of _Speke,
Parrot_, and the Poems _Against Garnesche_, are now for the first time
printed.
[21] Vol. i. 408 sqq. No poetical antiquary can read the titles of some
of the lighter pieces mentioned in that catalogue,—such as _The Balade
of the Mustarde Tarte_, _The Murnyng of the mapely rote_ (see Notes,
vol. ii. 330), &c.—without regretting their loss. “Many of the songs or
popular ballads of this time,” observes Sir John Hawkins, “appear to have
been written by Skelton.” _Hist. of Music_, iii. 39.
I take the present opportunity of giving from a MS. in my possession
a much fuller copy than has hitherto appeared of the celebrated song
which opens the second act of _Gammer Gurtons Nedle_, and which Warton
calls “the first _chanson à boire_ or _drinking-ballad_, of any merit,
in our language.” _Hist. of E. P._ iii. 206. ed. 4to. The comedy was
first printed in 1575: the manuscript copy of the song, as follows, is
certainly of an earlier date:
“backe & syde goo bare goo bare
bothe hande & fote goo colde
but belly god sende the good ale inowghe
whether hyt be newe or olde.
but yf that I
maye have trwly
goode ale my belly full
I shall looke lyke one
by swete sainte Johnn
were shoron agaynste the woole
thowthe I goo bare
take yow no care
I am nothynge colde
I stuffe my skynne
so full within
of joly goode ale & olde.
I cannot eate
but lytyll meate
my stomacke ys not goode
but sure I thyncke
that I cowde dryncke
with hym that werythe an hoode
dryncke ys my lyfe
althowgthe my wyfe
some tyme do chyde & scolde
yete spare I not
to plye the potte
of joly goode ale & olde.
backe & syde, &c.
I love noo roste
but a browne toste
or a crabbe in the fyer
a lytyll breade
shall do me steade
mooche breade I neuer desyer
Nor froste nor snowe
Nor wynde I trow
Canne hurte me yf hyt wolde
I am so wrapped
within & lapped
with joly goode ale & olde.
backe & syde, &c.
I care ryte nowghte
I take no thowte
for clothes to kepe me warme
have I goode dryncke
I surely thyncke
nothynge canne do me harme
for trwly than
I feare noman
be he neuer so bolde
when I am armed
& throwly warmed
with joly good ale & olde.
backe & syde, &c.
but nowe & than
I curse & banne
they make ther ale so small
god geve them care
& evill to faare
they strye the malte & all
sooche pevisshe pewe
I tell yowe trwe
not for a c[r]ovne of golde
ther commethe one syppe
within my lyppe
whether hyt be newe or olde.
backe & syde, &c.
good ale & stronge
makethe me amonge
full joconde & full lyte
that ofte I slepe
& take no kepe
frome mornynge vntyll nyte
then starte I vppe
& fle to the cuppe
the ryte waye on I holde
my thurste to staunche
I fyll my paynche
with joly goode ale & olde.
backe & syde, &c.
and kytte my wyfe
that as her lyfe
lovethe well good ale to seke
full ofte drynkythe she
that ye maye se
the tears ronne downe her cheke
then dothe she troule
to me the bolle
as a goode malte worme sholde
& saye swete harte
I have take my parte
of joly goode ale & olde.
backe & syde, &c.
They that do dryncke
tyll they nodde & wyncke
even as good fellowes shulde do
they shall notte mysse
to have the blysse
that good ale hathe browghte them to
& all poore soules
that skowre blacke bolles
& them hathe lustely trowlde
god save the lyves
Of them & ther wyves
wether they be yonge or olde.
backe & syde,” &c.
[22] Vol. i. 1.
[23] Vol. i. 6: see Notes, vol. ii. 89.
[24] He was only eleven years old at his father’s death. See more
concerning the fifth earl in Percy’s Preface to _The Northumberland
Household Book_, 1770, in Warton’s _Hist. of E. P._ ii. 338. ed. 4to,
and in Collins’s _Peerage_, ii. 304. ed. Brydges.—Warton says that the
Earl “encouraged Skelton to write this Elegy,” an assertion grounded, I
suppose, on the Latin lines prefixed to it.
[25] A splendid MS. volume, consisting of poems (chiefly by Lydgate),
finely written on vellum, and richly illuminated, which formerly belonged
to the fifth earl, is still preserved in the British Museum, _MS. Reg.
18. D ii._: at fol. 165 is Skelton’s Elegy on the earl’s father.
[26] For a notice of Skelton’s laureation at Oxford, the Rev. Dr. Bliss
obligingly searched the archives of that university, but without success:
“no records,” he informs me, “remain between 1463 and 1498 that will give
a correct list of degrees.”
[27] This work (a thin folio), translated by Caxton from the French, is
a prose romance founded on the _Æneid_. It consists of 65 chapters, the
first entitled “How the ryght puyssant kynge pryamus edyfyed the grete
Cyte of Troye,” the last, “How Ascanyus helde the royalme of Ytalye
after the dethe of Eneas hys fader.” Gawin Douglas, in the Preface to
his translation of Virgil’s poem, makes a long and elaborate attack on
Caxton’s performance;
“Wylliame Caxtoun had no compatioun
Of Virgill in that buk he preȳt in prois,
Clepand it Virgill in Eneados,
Quhilk that he sayis of Frensche he did translate;
It has na thing ado therwith, God wate,
Nor _na mare like than the Deuil and sanct Austin_,” &c.
Sig. B iii. ed. 1553.
[28] A work probably never printed, and now lost: it is mentioned by
Skelton in the _Garlande of Laurell_;
“Of _Tullis Familiars_ the translacyoun.”
vol. i. 409.
[29] A work mentioned in the same poem;
“_Diodorus Siculus_ of my translacyon
Out of fresshe Latine into owre Englysshe playne,
Recountyng commoditis of many a straunge nacyon;
Who redyth it ones wolde rede it agayne;
Sex volumis engrosid together it doth containe.”
vol. i. 420.
It is preserved in MS. at Cambridge: see Appendix II. to this Memoir.
[30] Sig. A ii.
[31] For more about poet laureat, both in the ancient and modern
acceptation, see Selden’s _Titles of Honor_, p. 405. ed. 1631; the Abbé
du Resnel’s _Recherches sur les Poètes Couronnez_,—_Hist. de l’Acad. des
Inscript. (Mém. de Littérature)_, x. 507; Warton’s _Hist. of E. P._ ii.
129. ed. 4to; Malone’s _Life of Dryden (Prose Works)_, p. 78; Devon’s
Introd. to _Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham_, p. xxix., and his
Introd. to _Issues of the Exchequer_, &c., p. xiii.—Churchyard in his
verses prefixed to Marshe’s ed. of Skelton’s _Workes,_ 1568, says,
“Nay, Skelton wore the lawrell wreath,
And past in schoels, ye knoe.”
see Appendix I. to this Memoir.
[32] Vol. i. 128.
[33] _Hist. of E. P._ ii. 130 (note), ed. 4to.—The second entry was
printed in 1736 by the Abbé du Resnel (who received it from Carte the
historian) in _Recherches sur les Poètes Couronnez_,—_Hist. de l’Acad.
des Inscript. (Mém. de Littérature)_, x. 522. Both entries were given in
1767 by Farmer in the second edition of his _Essay on the Learning of
Shakespeare_, p. 50.—The Rev. Joseph Romilly, registrar of the University
of Cambridge, has obligingly ascertained for me their correctness.
[34] Vol. i. 124.
[35] Vol. i. 197.
[36] _Prologe_ to _Egloges_, sig. A 1. ed. 1570.
[37] _Hist. of E. P._ ii. 132 (note), ed. 4to, where Warton gives the
subscription of the former as the title of the latter poem: his mistake
was occasioned by the reprint of Skelton’s _Works_, 1736. See the present
edition, vol. i. 190, 191.
[38] Du Resnel expressly says that he was made acquainted with the
Cambridge entry by “M. Carte, autrement M. Phillips.” _Recherches
sur les Poètes Couronnez_,—_Hist. de l’Acad. des Inscript. (Mém. de
Littérature)_, x. 522.—Carte assumed the name of Phillips when he took
refuge in France.
[39] A gentleman resident at Louvaine obligingly examined for me the
registers of that university, but could find in them no mention of
Skelton.
[40] The original has “Cum:” but the initial letters of the lines were
intended to form a distich; see the conclusion of the poem.
[41] Here again the original has “Cum.”
[42] From the 4to volume entitled _Opusculum Roberti Whittintoni in
florentissima Oxoniensi achademia Laureati_. At the end, _Expliciūt
Roberti Whitintoni Oxonie Protouatis Epygrammata: una cū quibusdā
Panegyricis. Impressa Lōdini per me wynandū de worde. Anno post virgineū
partū._ M. ccccc xix. _decimo vero kalēdas Maii_.
[43] Henry Bradshaw’s _Lyfe of Saynt Werburghe_, l. ii. c. 24. printed by
Pynson 1521, 4to.
[44] See the two subscriptions already cited, p. xiv.; and vol. i. 132,
206, vol. ii. 25.—“Clarus & facundus in utroque scribendi genere, prosa
atque metro, habebatur.” Bale, _Script. Illust. Brit._ &c. p. 651. ed.
1559. “Inter Rhetores regius orator factus.” Pits, _De Illust. Angl.
Script_. p. 701. ed. 1619. “With regard to the _Orator Regius_,” says
Warton, “I find one John Mallard in that office to Henry the eighth, and
his epistolary secretary,” &c. _Hist. of E. P._ ii. 132 (note), ed. 4to.
[45] Register _Hill_ 1489-1505, belonging to the Diocese of London.
[46] 1st Octr.: see Sandford’s _Geneal. Hist._ p. 475. ed. 1707.
[47] See the _Garlande of Laurell_, vol. i. 408.
[48] Henry was created Duke of York 31st Octr. an. 10. Hen. vii. [1494];
see Sandford’s _Geneal. Hist._ p. 480. ed. 1707. See also _The Creation
of Henry Duke of Yorke_, &c. (from a Cottonian MS.) in Lord Somers’s
_Tracts_, i. 24. ed. Scott.
[49] _Biblioth_. p. 676. ed. 1748.
[50] i. e. well.
[51] i. e. tutor: see Notes, vol. ii. 193.—When ladies attempt to
write history, they sometimes say odd things: e. g. “It is affirmed
that Skelton had been tutor to Henry [viii.] in some department of his
education. _How probable it is_ that the corruption imparted by this
ribald and ill-living wretch laid the foundation for his royal pupil’s
grossest crimes!” _Lives of the Queens of England by Agnes Strickland_,
vol. iv. 104.
[52] Fourth Poem _Against Garnesche_, vol. i. 129.