Part 3

“Another thing yet is greatly more damnable: Of rascolde poetes yet is a shamfull rable, Which voyde of wisedome presumeth to indite, Though they haue scantly the cunning of a snite;[95] And to what vices that princes moste intende, Those dare these fooles solemnize and commende. Then is he decked as _Poete laureate_, When stinking Thais made him her graduate: When Muses rested, she did her season note, And she with Bacchus her camous[96] did promote. Such rascolde drames, promoted by Thais, Bacchus, Licoris, or yet by Testalis, Or by suche other newe forged Muses nine, Thinke in their mindes for to haue wit diuine; They laude their verses, they boast, they vaunt and iet, Though all their cunning be scantly worth a pet: If they haue smelled the artes triuiall, They count them Poetes hye and heroicall. Such is their foly, so foolishly they dote, Thinking that none can their playne errour note: Yet be they foolishe, auoyde of honestie, Nothing seasoned with spice of grauitie, Auoyde of pleasure, auoyde of eloquence, With many wordes, and fruitlesse of sentence; Unapt to learne, disdayning to be taught, Their priuate pleasure in snare hath them so caught; And worst yet of all, they count them excellent, Though they be fruitlesse, rashe and improuident. To such ambages who doth their minde incline, They count all other as priuate[97] of doctrine, And that the faultes which be in them alone, Also be common in other men eche one.”[98]

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

“a frere of Fraunce men call _sir Gagwyne_, That frownyd on me full angerly and pale;”[99]

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,

“_The Recule ageinst Gaguyne_ of the Frenshe nacyoun.”[100]

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.

“Urgeor impulsus tibi, Lilli, retundere:”

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

_“Lilii Hendecasyllabi in Scheltonum ejus carmina calumniantem._[103]

“Quid me, Scheltone, fronte sic aperta Carpis, vipereo potens veneno? Quid versus trutina meos iniqua Libras? dicere vera num licebit? Doctrinæ tibi dum parare famam Et doctus fieri studes poeta, Doctrinam nec habes, nec es poeta.”

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;

“Item _Apollo that whirllid up his chare_, That made sum to snurre and snuf in the wynde; It made them to skip, to stampe, and to stare, Whiche, if they be happy, haue cause to beware In ryming and raylyng with hym for to mell, For drede that he lerne them there A, B, C, to spell.

With that I stode vp, halfe sodenly afrayd; Suppleyng to Fame, I besought her grace, _And that it wolde please her, full tenderly I prayd_, _Owt of her bokis Apollo to rase_. Nay, sir, she sayd, what so in this place Of our noble courte is ones spoken owte, It must nedes after rin all the worlde aboute.

_God wote, theis wordes made me full sad_; And when that I sawe it wolde no better be, But that my peticyon wolde not be had, What shulde I do but take it in gre? For, by Juppiter and his high mageste, _I did what I cowde to scrape out the scrollis_, _Apollo to rase out of her ragman rollis_.”[104]

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 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;

“Of the Bonehoms of Ashrige besyde Barkamstede, _That goodly place to Skelton moost kynde_, Where the sank royall is, Crystes blode so rede, Whervpon he metrefyde after his mynde; A pleasaunter place than Ashrige is, harde were to fynde,” &c.[108]

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:

“Honorificatissimo, amplissimo, longeque reverendissimo 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 reverentia, tanto tamque magnifico digna principe sacerdotum, totiusque justitiæ æquabilissimo moderatore, necnon præsentis opusculi fautore excellentissimo, &c., ad cujus auspicatissimam contemplationem, sub memorabili prelo gloriosæ immortalitatis, præsens pagella felicitatur, &c.”[109]

“Ad serenissimam Majestatem Regiam, pariter cum Domino Cardinali, Legato a latere honorificatissimo, &c.

_Lautre Enuoy._

Perge, liber, celebrem pronus regem venerare 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.