The slidand joy, the gladness short; The sugared mouths with minds therefrae; The change of warld frae weal to woe; In hall, in bower, in burgh and plain ;- I know not how the Kirk is guidit, I wot it is for me providit ; But sae doom tiresome it is to bide it, Great Abbey's graith 5 I nill® to gather, Whilk to consider is ane pain. . . . Experience does me so inspire, The foremost hope yet that I have 1 Delayed. 2 Changeful snare. 3 Dishonest. 11 6 Ne will, do not wish. 8 Should be glad. 4 Customs all gone. 5 Substance. 11 As we say, "both root and branch." 12 A lessening. JOHN SKELTON. (1460-1529.) SKELTON was probably a scion of a Cumberland family of that name, and was born, it is believed, in Norfolk about the close of the reign of Henry VI. He was educated at Cambridge, and was crowned Poet-laureate (at that time a recognised academical distinction) by both the English universities and by the foreign university of Louvain. Henry VII. chose him to be the tutor of his second son, Prince Henry, afterwards Henry VIII.; and in the courts, successively, of both these kings Skelton enjoyed the highest patronage. Among his early friends was Cardinal Wolsey, for whom, for reasons not known, Skelton afterwards conceived an implacable hatred. Having entered the priesthood in 1498, he became rector of Diss, in the county of Norfolk. Here, among his parishioners, he appears to have acquired the character of a witty and eccentric preacher; and long after his death "merye tales" were circulated concerning him. In consequence of a secret marriage which he contracted, in defiance of church discipline, whilst he was a priest, he was at one time suspended from the ministry; but he continued during his life to be, at least in name, the rector of Diss. He was the author of some of our earliest Plays, only one of which, called Magnificence, is extant. Some Ballads also, occurring in the plays of later writers, are attributed to him. Many of Skelton's poems have perished, and of those which remain, the Bowge of Court, an allegorical satire written in the Chaucerian seven-lined stanza, and the Book of Philip Sparrow, a young girl's lament for her dead bird, are perhaps the only ones which exhibit imaginative power. The works that are at once the most interesting and the most characteristic of Skelton's genius were written in a peculiar rigmarole measure, called since his time Skeltonian. Among these may be noted:-The Tunning of Elinour Rumming, a description of an ale-wife whose roadside inn at Sothray, near Leatherhead, was a favourite resort in Skelton's time; Colin Clout, a satire on the clergy, the name of which was afterwards adopted by Spenser in his Pastorals; and Why come ye not to Court? This last was a direct and personal attack on Cardinal Wolsey, who was at that period the greatest power in England, and one of the leading statesmen in Europe. In these satires may be seen Skelton's extraordinary faculty of rhyming, his marvellous fluency of speech, and the uncouth but muscular character of his mind. His savage onslaughts so incensed Wolsey that the poet was at length forced to seek refuge in the sanctuary of Westminster with a friendly Abbot named Islip. Here he remained till his death in 1529. Skelton was esteemed among his contemporaries for his scholarly learning, as well as for his witty and daring satires. In the preface of one of Caxton's books, published in 1490, the old printer alludes admiringly to Skelton's translations of the Latin authors into English, “not in rude and olde language, but in polysshed and ornate termes craftely, as he that hath redde Vyrgyle, Ovyde, Tullye, and all the other noble poetes and oratours to me unknowen." Erasmus also, in a Latin ode dedicated to Prince Henry in 1500, called Skelton, at that time the Prince's tutor, "Unum Britannicarum literarum lumen et decus" (the one light and ornament of British literature). He and Dunbar had some points in common; both were priests, and satirists, with a rich vocabulary of scorn at their command. But Dunbar was the truer poet; and Skelton's rigmarole soon fell out of repute among the younger poets of Henry VIII.'s court, who immediately succeeded him. The poetry of Skelton was first collected and published, from stray manuscripts and from the older printed editions of single poems or smaller collections of them, in the year 1568, in 12m0, by the printer Thomas Marshe, with the title, Pithy, pleasant, and profitable workes of Maister Skelton, poete-laureate, with some laudatory verses prefixed to the volume by Churchyard. The more correct modern edition of Mr. Alexander Dyce (1843) contains, in excellent type, all that is known of Skelton and his writings. UPON A DEAD MAN'S HEAD1 WHICH WAS SENT TO HIM FROM AN HONOURABLE GENTLEWOMAN FOR A TOKEN. Your ugly token No man may him hide With sinews withered, With bones shivered, With his worm-eaten maw, And his ghastly jaw Gasping aside; Neither flesh nor feel. Then, by my counsel, Look that ye spell Well thy gospel; For, whereso we dwell, Death will us quell, And with us mell.3 For all our pampered paunches, There may no franchise, Nor worldly bliss, Redeem us from this: Our days be dated, To be checkmated With draughts of Death. . . . To whom then shall we sue But to sweet Jesu On us then for to rue? 4 1 Skull. 2 The fate of all to die. 8 Meddle. 4 Take pity. FROM THE BOWGE OF COURT.1 HARRY HAFTER, THE TOADY. As I stood musing in my mind, His throat was clear and lustily could feign; And ever he sang, "Sith I am nothing plain."4 Harry Hafter. Sir, God you save! Why lookè ye so sad? A wonder thingè that ye wax not mad! For, and I study should as ye do now, My wit would wasten, I make God avow! 5 But to the pointè shortly to proceed : Where hath your dwelling been ere ye came here? For, as I trow, I have seen you indeed Ere this, when that ye made me royal cheer. "Hold up the helm, look up, and let God steer !" I would be merry what wind that ever blow: "Heave, and ho, rombelow; row the boat, Norman, row!”7 Princess of youthè" can ye sing by rote? Or "Shall I sail with you? "78 o' fellowship assay? For on the book I cannot sing a note. Would to God it would please you some day A ballad-book before me for to lay, 1 Bowge is a corruption of bouche, Fr. "Bowge of Court" signified an allowance of food for the tables of the inferior officers and servants of the royal household. The expression is adopted by Skelton as the name of a ship, on which the incidents and dialogues of his poem are supposed to take place. The story is in the usual form of a dream-allegory. The poet, dreaming, sees the Bowge of Court cast anchor in Harwich Harbour. Merchants board her, and he goes with the crowd. The owner of the ship is "a lady of estate," whose merchandise is called Favour, and whose ship is steered by Fortune. The dreamer, with the merchants, takes sail in this ship, and the rest of the poem is devoted to descriptions of the crew (allegorical persons), among whom is Harry Hafter, the mean-hearted flatterer or toady. 2 Linden-tree. 6 Recite. 3 Dice-box. 4 Honest. 5 I assure you. 7 A very ancient song, the burden of which is quoted in many old ballads and 8 First lines of other songs. poems. |