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The Dating of Skelton's Later Poems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

H. L. R. Edwards  and
William Nelson
H. L. R. Edwards
Affiliation:
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
William Nelson
Affiliation:
Columbia University
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Type
Comments and Criticism
Information
PMLA , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , June 1938 , pp. 601 - 622
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1938

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References

page 601 note 1 William Nelson, “Skelton's Speak, Parrot” and “Skelton's Quarrel with Wolsey,” PMLA, li (1936), 59–82, 377–398.

page 601 note 2 MS. C.C.C. 432. Skelton's dedicatory matter is partly reproduced in A. Dyce, Poetical Works of John Skelton (London 1843), i, 147, and F. Brie, “Skelton-Studien,” E. St., xxxvii (1907), 84.

page 601 note 3 The equivalent of “P.T.O.”

page 601 note 4 See Dyce, loc. cit., for the remainder. Beside the verse beginning Sepe on fol. 3V is the marginal gloss: “patet infra a candido ad nigrum.”

page 601 note 5 Dyce, i, xv.

page 601 note 6 In 1486 André was granted an annuity of ten marks (Rymer, Foedera, xii, 317). The letters patent describe him as poeta laurealus, which has been the source of much confusion. Without going fully into this involved question, I will note that (i) “poet laureate” was loosely applied to all literary men (e.g. in Skelton's Garland, 1. 324): (ii) in Skelton's day it was used by a number of his contemporaries (e.g. Whittington, Kay, Lily, André): (iii) it was an honorary distinction rather than a degree in Grammar or Rhetoric.

page 601 note 7 See J. Gairdner, Memorials of … Henry VII, Rolls Series (London, 1858), p. xii.

page 601 note 8 These poems are subscribed only “by the kynges most noble commaundment” (Dyce, i, 117, &c).

page 601 note 9 It also confirms the chronologic importance attached by Skelton to such honours.

page 601 note 10 The Cambridge grace of 1504–05 concedes to Skelton “quod possit uti kabitu sibi concesso a principe” (Dyce, i, xiii).

page 601 note 11 Dyce, i, 197.

page 601 note 12 Ibid., p. 180.

page 601 note 13 F. M. Salter, in his paper on the Speculum Principis (Speculum, ix, 25–37), arrived independently at the same conclusion.

page 601 note 14 See respectively Dyce, i, xv; Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry (London, 1824), ii, 132; Letters and Papers of … Henry VIII, xvi, 380 (134b, 149b).

page 601 note 15 A. F. Pollard, Wolsey (London, 1929), p. S3, n.

page 601 note 16 L. & P., iii (ii), 2080.

page 601 note 17 PMLA, li, 384. Nelson, loc. cit.

page 601 note 18 Line 420: also (there) remarked by Nelson, loc. cit.

page 601 note 19 Cf. Colin Clout, 11. 398–400.

page 601 note 20 F. A. Gasquet, Henry VIII and the English Monasteries (London, 1888), i, 63.

page 601 note 21 Dyce, ii, 65. The Pamphilus was frequently attributed to Ovid, and thus the links are: Corinna's parrot—Ovid—Pamphilus—Galathea—Polyphemus. A similarity of name was enough for identification: cf. the introduction of Virgil's Galathea (1. 257, gloss).

page 601 note 22 Sic MS. Eds., followed by Dyce, spoil the rhythm with an extra “kus.”

page 601 note 23 Sic MS. Skelton certainly used some such variant: see below.

page 601 note 24 Brie's suggestion (Archiv, (1919), 226–228) that the work cited in the Garland: “Item, Automedon of Loues Meditacyoun” (1. 1181) was a translation by Skelton of the Greek anthologist Automedon, is wide of the mark. The reference is to Ovid, Ars Amat., i, 5–8: obviously a translation of the Ars is in question.

page 601 note 25 For the corrupt side-note to 1. 242: “In ista ca(n)te/lena o r estil/la plena ab/ject(is) fra(n)gibulis/ & ep(er)it” I propose: “In ista cantilena ora Stella plena [sc. sunt] abiectis frangibulis …[?] &c etera.” Stella stands for the sun, Phoebus, as, e.g., in Ovid, Fasti, vi, 718, and the phrase parallels that in 11. 234–235 just above:

Psittacus, ecce, cano, nec sunt mea carmina Phoebo
Digna scio, tamen est plena camena deo.

page 601 note 26 “Non omnes capiunt verbum istud, sed quibus datum est desuper” (p. 272, gloss)— a typical confusion of Matth. xix, 11, with Joan, xix, 11.

page 601 note 27 viii, 338. Syche is also given as anima in 1. 293; but a marginal gloss “uita mea et anima mea” is recorded of one copy. The astonishing variants of zoecaisychen fully justify our retaining the MS form in Speak, Parrot, which is supported (with slight variations) byeds.

page 601 note 28 For the lead plate as an anaphrodisiac see Pliny, N.H., xxxiv, 18(50): “In medicina per se plumbi usus cicatrices reprimere adalligatisque lumborum et renium parti lamnis frigidiore natura inhibere inpetus veneris,” &c. (But Pliny goes on to record that Calvus used this same remedy to preserve his health during study—and Calvus, according to Cicero and Quintilian, had he lived would have been Rome's greatest orator!) Spuria vitulamina (Sap. 4.2–3) was a familiar term of abuse; Gaguin adopted it in his oration to Henry VII, to describe the Spanish usurper of Naples; see Bacon, Essays … with other writings (London: Newnes, 1902), p. 517.

page 601 note 29 Æneid, i, 367 (qu. Dyce, ad loc).

page 601 note 30 Skelton's wolf puns (marts lupus, etc.) are not as feeble as they might appear, for Wolsey's name was occasionally latinized as Woluesaeus.

page 601 note 31 Although the MS reads “Tefas” (as was first pointed out to me by Professor Baxter), T and C were frequently confused.

page 601 note 32 In the Speculum principis (f. 22r) Titus ranks among the pientissimi principes: cf. Lydgate's Ballade to Henry VI (Minor Poems II, ed. MacCracken, E.E.T.S. [London, 1936], p. 627):

Wronges forgeting as noble Cypyon,
Clement with Tytus …(70–71)

page 601 note 33 State Papers … Henry VIII, i, 73.

page 601 note 34 L. & P., iii (ii), 1675, 1709.

page 601 note 35 Cf., e.g., Caxton's History of Jason, ed. J. Munro, E.E.T.S. (London, 1913), passim.

page 601 note 36 The toison was a stock figure in contemporary verse, French and English: cf., e.g., Lemaire de Beiges, Seconde epislre de l'amant verd (Œuvres, ed. J. Stecher (Louvain, 1882–91), iii, 21, 34)—a source of Skelton's poem; Lydgate, Isopes Fabules (Minor Poems II), 11. 316–317, 624–625. For its connection with Gideon see Caxton, op. cit., prologue, p. 2.

page 601 note 37 Cf. Jerem. xlvi, 9.

page 601 note 38 Wolsey, p. 145, n. 3.

page 601 note 39 Ibid., p. 132.

page 601 note 40 Skelton-Sludien, p. 86.

page 601 note 41 That this should be the reading instead of “myry mose” (despite all eds.) is proved by the frequent occurrence of the phrase in Skelton's translation of Diodorus, MS. C.C.C. 357, fols. 11r, 24v, 9r (“wosy myre”), &c.

page 601 note 42 The Master of Game, ed. W. A. & F. Baillie-Grohman (London, 1909), pp. 253 ff.—I owe this reference to the kindess of the late Professor Brett, Cardiff.

page 601 note 43 L. & P., iii (ii), 2412.

page 601 note 44 Strype, Eccles. Memorials (London 1822), i (ii), 58.

page 601 note 45 L. & P. (2nd ed.), i (ii), 3226(2). Marmaduke was son of Brian Tunstall of Thurland, Lancs. At the coronation of Anne Boleyn in 1533 he was created knight of the Bath (ibid., vi, 601(4)).

page 601 note 46 See respectively Mary Bateson, Grace Book B … of the University of Cambridge (Part I), Luard Memorial Series, (Cambridge 1903), pp. 92, 148–149; Dyce, i, xlvi. n. 2

page 611 note 1 Letters and Papers, 2d ed. (1920), i, 232.

page 611 note 2 E.E.T.S., no. 187, O.S., p. 34.

page 611 note 3 Letters and Papers, iii, no. 2661. Sampson had not heard of Wolsey's illness on November 2. (Ibid., no. 2650) On November 23, the Venetian ambassador, Suriano, was sorry that Wolsey was not well. (Ibid., no. 2684.)

page 611 note 4 Desideri Erasmi Roterodami Opera Omnia (Lug. Bat., mdccvi), viii, cols. 561–562.

page 611 note 5 The Master of Game, ed. Wm. A. and F. Baillie-Grohman (London, 1909), pp. 23–24.

page 611 note 6 s. v. range, ii, 5.

page 611 note 7 Hall's Chronicle (London, 1809), p. 55.

page 611 note 8 I should like to correct a confusing misprint that appears in the Speak, Parrot paper, PMLA, Li, 81. The word “ueū” in the third line of the quotation from Boccaccio should read “euū,” that is, aeuum.

page 614 note 1 Magnyfycence, E.E.T.S. (London, 1908), p. xviii, n. 2.

page 614 note 2 C. P. R. Henry VII (1494–1509), p. 136. Blomefield's History of Norfolk (ed. 1805), i, 17, gives the date on the diocesan register as August 16. The living was normally in the gift of the Fitz-Walter family, but John, lord Fitz-Walter had been attainted in 1493 (Blomefield, p. 16), and it was not until Nov. 3, 1505 that Robert Ratcliffe was restored as 13th baron Fitz-Walter; see Doyle, Official Baronage of England (London, 1886), in, 480. Thus in 1504 it was still a royal benefice.

page 614 note 3 See, in order, C. P. R. Henry VII (1485–94), p. 24 (twice), also W. Campbell, Materials for Hist…. Henry VII, Rolls Ser., i, 25, 99; ibid., p. 255, also Campbell, ii, 359; ibid., p. 303; entries of last note; J. Gairdner, Letters and Papers … Richard III-Henry VII, Rolls Ser., ii, 89; C. P. R. Henry VII (1494–1509), p. 266; Addit. MS. B. M., 7099, f. 84r; L. & P. Henry VIII (2nd. ed.), i (i), 14; ibid. (1st ed.), i, 37; ibid., ii (ii), 3725.

page 614 note 4 J. de Morawski, ed. Pamphile et Galatée par Jehan Bras-de-Fer … édition critique, précédée de recherches sur le Pamphilus latin (Paris, 1917).

page 614 note 5 L. & P. Henry VIII, iii (ii), 1502–03 (24–25 August); p. 774 (29 September); 1735, 1762.

page 614 note 6 To confirm my reading of this passage in Speak, Parrot, Counterfeit Countenance has some lines in Magnificence which establish the connection in Skelton's mind between “chaffer far fet” and loose behaviour:

What: wolde ye wyues counterfet
The courtly gyse of the newe iet?
An olde barne wolde be vnderset;
It is moche worthe that is ferre fet.
What: wanton, wanton, nowe well ymet: &c.
(E.E.T.S. ed., 11. 452–456)

page 614 note 7 More than that, it seems to have been a recent innovation when Speak Parrot was written. The text (2 Reg., xi, 21) reads hierobaal in the Frobenius Bible of 1506–08, and this reading has been restored in more modern editions of the Vulgate (hence being omitted from Dutripon). But the Venice Bible of 1519 replaces it by ieroboseth, which is explained in the concordance as “iudicans ignominiam vel diiudicans confusionem.” Actually (see Vigoureux, Diet, de la Bible, s.v. “Jerobaal”) it appears to mean “striver against the thing of shame”; but Skelton must have taken the 1519 interpretation, probably in the adverse sense, “a good judge of the shameful.”

page 614 note 8 PMLA, li, 69. The version in L. & P. Henry VIII: Addenda, i (i), 290, is placed between June and August, 1520: earlier, and not (as Mr. Nelson says) later, than Speak Parrot. There is a shorter form of the prophecy in MS. Trin. Coll. Camb. 0 2.53, f. 41r, from which I quote.

page 614 note 9 Mr. Nelson's Tycus seems to me quite alien to Skelton's method of allegory, and, having no e or i after the t, Tytus is only its equivalent in writing, not in pronunciation.

page 614 note 10 The Master of Game, p. 226.

page 620 note 1 Act Book of the Consistory Court of Norwich, December 3, 1509, January 14, 1510, and February 4, 1510.

page 620 note 2 Institution Book XIV, fols. 60 k (r.), 60 k (v.), 601 (v.), and 60 o (r.).

page 620 note 3 Beget is so titled in the wills of Margaret Bache, widow of Diss (May 6, 1515, Norfolk Archdeaconry Register, 1515–1520, 1523, fol. 220) and of Roger ffoleser the elder, also of Diss (ibid., fols. 209–210, November, 1517).

page 620 note 4 Brakes is described as “my curate” in the will of Richard Lynd of Dis, February 5, 1522 (Norwich Consistory Register, 1522–1523 (Harman), fol. 7–8.

page 620 note 5 Institution Book XVII, fol. 9 v.

page 620 note 6 Westminster Abbey Muniments no. 33325, fol. 17 b. The entry is noticed by Canon H. F. Westlake, Westminster Abbey (London, 1923), ii, 426.

page 620 note 7 Westminster Abbey Muniments, Register Book ii, fol. 146, r.-v. The lease is noticed by Westlake, ibid.