The Poetical Works of John Skelton, Volume 1 (of 2)

Transcriber’s Note: Volume II is available as PG ebook #59998.

[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]

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.

[1] “Mr. A. Chalmers,” says Haslewood, “has since given place [sic] to Skelton’s name among the English poets [vol. ii. p. 227]: and having had an opportunity to compare the original edition [that of Marshe, 1568] with Mr. Chalmers’s volume, I can pronounce the text verbally accurate, although taken from the reprint of 1736.” Brit. Bibliogr. iv. 389. As Haslewood was generally a careful collator, I am greatly surprised at the above assertion: the truth is, that the reprint of 1736 (every word of which I have compared with Marshe’s edition—itself replete with errors) is in not a few places grossly inaccurate.—The said reprint is without the editor’s name; but I have seen a copy of it in which Gifford had written with a pencil, “Edited by J. Bowle, the stupidest of all two-legged animals.”

[2] Q. Rev. xi. 485. The critique in question was written by Mr. Southey,—who, let me add, took a kind interest in the progress of the present edition.

[3] Joanni Isacio Pontano—Epist. p. 490. ed. 1627.

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]

Candida, punica, &c.

The Rose both White and Rede

In one Rose now dothe grow;

Thus thorow every stede[5]

Thereof the fame dothe blow:

Grace the sede did sow:

England, now gaddir flowris,

Exclude now all dolowrs.

Nobilis Henricus, &c.

Noble Henry the eight,

Thy loving souereine lorde,

Of kingis line moost streight,

His titille dothe recorde:

In whome dothe wele acorde

Alexis yonge of age,

Adrastus wise and sage.

Sedibus ætheriis, &c.

Astrea, Justice hight,

That from the starry sky

Shall now com and do right,

This hunderd yere scantly

A man kowd not aspy

That Right dwelt vs among,

And that was the more wrong:

Arcebit vulpes, &c.

Right shall the foxis chare,[6]

The wolvis, the beris also,

That wrowght have moche care,

And browght Englond in wo:

They shall wirry no mo,[7]

Nor wrote[8] the Rosary[9]

By extort trechery:

Ne tanti regis, &c.

Of this our noble king

The law they shall not breke;

They shall com to rekening;

No man for them wil speke:

The pepil durst not creke

Theire grevis to complaine,

They browght them in soche paine:

Ecce Platonis secla, &c.

Therfor no more they shall

The commouns ouerbace,

That wont wer ouer all

Both lorde and knight to face;[10]

For now the yeris of grace

And welthe ar com agayne,

That maketh England faine.[11]

Rediit jam pulcher Adonis, &c.

Adonis of freshe colour,

Of yowthe the godely flour,

Our prince of high honour,

Our paves,[12] our succour,

Our king, our emperour,

Our Priamus of Troy,

Our welth, our worldly joy;

Anglorum radians, &c.

Vpon vs he doth reigne,

That makith our hartis glad,

As king moost soueraine

That ever Englond had;

Demure, sober, and sad,[13]

And Martis lusty knight;

God save him in his right!

Amen.

Bien men souient.[14]

Per me laurigerum Britonum Skeltonida vatem.

[4] A lawde and prayse made for our souereigne lord the kyng] Such (in a different handwriting from that of the poem) is the endorsement of the MS., which consists of two leaves, bound up in the volume marked B. 2. 8 (pp. 67-69), among the Records of the Treasury of the Receipt of the Exchequer, now at the Rolls House.—Qy. is this poem the piece which, in the catalogue of his own writings, Skelton calls “The Boke of the Rosiar,” Garlande of Laurell, v. 1178, vol. i. 408?

[5] stede] i. e. place.

[6] chare] i. e. chase, drive away (see Prompt. Parv. i. 70. Camden Soc. ed.).

[7] mo] i. e. more.

[8] wrote] i. e. root.

[9] Rosary] i. e. Rose-bush.

[10] face] See Notes, vol. ii. 216.

[11] faine] i. e. glad.

[12] paves] i. e. shield (properly, a large shield covering the body).

[13] sad] i. e. grave—discreet.

[14] Bien men souient] These words are followed in the MS. by a sort of flourished device, which might perhaps be read—“Deo (21ͦ) gratias.”

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.

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.

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,

“Alma parens O Cantabrigensis,

...

...tibi quondam carus alumnus eram;”

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 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, 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 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 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.

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 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;

“A kyng to me myn habyte gaue:

At Oxforth, the vniversyte,

Auaunsid I was to that degre;

By hole consent of theyr senate,

I was made poete lawreate.”[32]

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,

“Your sworde ye swere, I wene,

So tranchaunt and so kene,

Xall kyt both wyght and grene:

Your foly ys to grett

The kynges colours to threte;”[34]

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:

“Calliope,

As ye may se,

Regent is she

Of poetes al,

Whiche gaue to me

The high degre

Laureat to be

Of fame royall;

Whose name enrolde

With silke and golde

I dare be bolde

Thus for to were,”[35] &c.

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

“But of their writing though I ensue the rate,

No name I chalenge of Poete laureate:

That name vnto them is mete and doth agree

Which writeth matters with curiositee.

Mine habite blacke accordeth not with grene,

Blacke betokeneth death as it is dayly sene;

The grene is pleasour, freshe lust and iolite;

These two in nature hath great diuersitie.

Then who would ascribe, except he were a foole,

The pleasaunt laurer vnto the mourning cowle?”[36]

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 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.

“IN CLARISSIMI SCHELTONIS LOUANIENSIS POETÆ LAUDES EPIGRAMMA.

Quum terra omnifero lætissima risit amictu,

Plena novo fœtu quælibet arbor erat;

Vertice purpurei vultus incepit honores

Extensis valvis pandere pulchra rosa;

Et segetum tenero sub cortice grana tumescunt,

Flavescens curvat pendula spica caput.

Vix Cancri tropicos æstus lustravit anhelans

Pythius, et Nemeæ vertit ad ora feræ,

Vesper solis equos oriens dum clausit Olympo,

Agmina stellarum surgere cuncta jubet:

Hic primo aspiceres ut Cynthia vecta sereno

Extulerat surgens cornua clara polo;

Inde Hydram cernas, stravit quam clava trinodis

Alcidæ, nitidis emicuisse comis;

Tum[40] Procyon subiit, præpes Lepus, hinc Jovis ales,

Arctos, et Engonasus, sidus et Eridani;

Ignivomis retinet radiis quæ stellifer orbis

(Quid multis remorer?) sidera cuncta micant.

Nutat Atlanteum convexum pondus, ocellis

Dum lustro hæc ægris, vergit et oceano.

Tum furtim alma quies repens mihi membra soporat,

Curaque Lethæo flumine mersa jacet:

O mihi quam placidis Icelos tulit aurea somnis

Somnia, musiphilis non caritura fide!

Nuncia percelebris Polyhymnia blanda salutans

Me Clarii ut visam numina sacra citat.

Ut sequar hanc lætus, mihi visus amœna vireta

Et nemorum umbrosos præteriisse sinus:

Scilicet hæc montes monstraverat inter eundum

Et fontes Musæ quos coluere sacros;

Castalios latices, Aganippidos atque Medusei

Vidimus alipedis flumina rupta pede;

Antra hinc Libethri monstrat Pimpleidos undas,

Post vada Cephisi, Phocidos atque lacus;

Nubifer assurgit mons Pierus atque Cithæron,

Gryneumque nemus dehinc Heliconque sacer;

Inde et Parnasi bifidi secreta subimus,

Tota ubi Mnemosynes sancta propago manet.

Turba pudica novem dulce hic cecinere sororum;

Delius in medio plectra chelynque sonat:

Aurifluis laudat modulis monumenta suorum

Vatum, quos dignos censet honore poli:

De quo certarunt Salamin, Cumæ, vel Athenæ,

Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, primus Homerus erat;

Laudat et Orpheum, domuit qui voce leones,

Eurydicen Stygiis qui rapuitque rogis;

Antiquum meminit Musæum Eumolpide natum,

Te nec Aristophanes Euripidesque tacet;

Vel canit illustrem genuit quem Teia tellus,

Quemque fovit dulci Coa camena sinu;

Deinde cothurnatum celebrem dat laude Sophoclem,

Et quam Lesbides pavit amore Phaon;

Æschylus, Amphion, Thespis nec honore carebant,

Pindarus, Alcæus, quem tuleratque Paros;

Sunt alii plures genuit quos terra Pelasga,

Daphnæum cecinit quos meruisse decus:

Tersa Latinorum dehinc multa poemata texit,

Laude nec Argivis inferiora probat;

Insignem tollit ter vatem, cui dedit Andes

Cunas urbs, clarum Parthenopæa taphum;

Blanda Corinna, tui Ponto religatus amore,

Sulmoni natus Naso secundus erat;

Inde nitore fluens lyricus genere Appulus ille

Qui Latiis primus mordica metra tulit;

Statius Æacidem sequitur Thebaida pingens,

Emathio hinc scribens prælia gesta solo;

Cui Verona parens hinc mollis scriptor amorum,

Tu nec in obscuro, culte Tibulle, lates;

Haud reticendus erat cui patria Bilbilis, atque

Persius hinc mordax crimina spurca notans;

Eximius pollet vel Seneca luce tragœdus,

Comicus et Latii bellica præda ducis;

Laudat et hinc alios quos sæcula prisca fovebant;

Hos omnes longum jam meminisse foret.

Tum[41] Smintheus, paulo spirans, ait, ecce, sorores,

Quæ clausa oceano terra Britanna nitet!

Oxoniam claram Pataræa ut regna videtis,

Aut Tenedos, Delos, qua mea fama viret:

Nonne fluunt istic nitidæ ut Permessidos undæ,

Istic et Aoniæ sunt juga visa mihi?

Alma fovet vates nobis hæc terra ministros,

Inter quos Schelton jure canendus adest:

Numina nostra colit; canit hic vel carmina cedro

Digna, Palatinis et socianda sacris;

Grande decus nobis addunt sua scripta, linenda

Auratis, digna ut posteritate, notis;

Laudiflua excurrit serie sua culta poesis,

Certatim palmam lectaque verba petunt;

Ora lepore fluunt, sicuti dives fagus auro,

Aut pressa Hyblæis dulcia mella favis;

Rhetoricus sermo riguo fecundior horto,

Pulchrior est multo puniceisque rosis,

Unda limpidior, Parioque politior albo,

Splendidior vitro, candidiorque nive,

Mitior Alcinois pomis, fragrantior ipso

Thureque Pantheo, gratior et violis;

Vincit te, suavi Demosthene, vincit Ulyxim

Eloquio, atque senem quem tulit ipse Pylos;

Ad fera bella trahat verbis, nequiit quod Atrides

Aut Brisis, rigidum te licet, Æacides;

Tantum ejus verbis tribuit Suadela Venusque

Et Charites, animos quolibet ille ut agat,

Vel Lacedæmonios quo Tyrtæus pede claudo

Pieriis vincens martia tela modis,

Magnus Alexander quo belliger actus ab illa

Mæonii vatis grandisonante tuba;

Gratia tanta suis virtusque est diva camenis,

Ut revocet manes ex Acheronte citos;

Leniat hic plectro vel pectora sæva leonum,

Hic strepitu condat mœnia vasta lyræ;

Omnimodos animi possit depellere morbos,

Vel Niobes luctus Heliadumque truces;

Reprimat his rabidi Saulis sedetque furores,

Inter delphinas alter Arion erit;

Ire Cupidineos quovis hic cogat amores,

Atque diu assuetos hic abolere queat;

Auspice me tripodas sentit, me inflante calores

Concipit æthereos, mystica diva canit;

Stellarum cursus, naturam vasti et Olympi,

Aeris et vires hic aperire potest,

Vel quid cunctiparens gremio tellus fovet almo,

Gurgite quid teneat velivolumque mare;

Monstratur digito phœnice ut rarior uno,

Ecce virum de quo splendida fama volat!

Ergo decus nostrum quo fulget honorque, sorores,

Heroas laudes accumulate viro;

Laudes accumulent Satyri, juga densa Lycæi,

Pindi, vel Rhodopes, Mænala quique colunt;

Ingeminent plausus Dryades facilesque Napææ,