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mendicants, he was feverely cenfured, and perhaps fufpended by Nykke his diocesan, a rigid bishop of Norwich, from exercifing the duties of the facerdotal function. Wood fays, he was also punished by the bishop for " having "been guilty of certain crimes, AS MOST POETs are.” But these perfecutions only ferved to quicken his ludicrous difpofition, and to exafperate the acrimony of his fatire. As his fermons could be no longer a vehicle for his abuse, he vented his ridicule in rhyming libels. At length, daring to attack the dignity of cardinal Wolfey, he was closely purfued by the officers of that powerful minister; and, taking shelter in the sanctuary of Westminster abbey, was kindly

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Gaguine. See p. 47. 162. The Popingay. A noble pamphelet of foveraintie. The Play of Magnificence, abovementioned. Maters of Myrth to maiftres Margery. The Peregrinacion of Mannes Lyfe, from the French, perhaps of Guillaume, prior of Chalis. [See fupr. p. 120.] But it fhould be obferved, that Pynfon printed Peregrinatio humani generis, 1508. 4to. The triumphes of the redde rofe, containing many stories long unremembered. Speculum principis, a manual written while he was creauncer, or tutor, to Henry the eighth, when a boy. The Tunnyng of Elinour Rummyng. See p. 123. Colin Clout. See p. 179. John Yve. Joforth Jacke. Verfes to maistres Anne. Epitaph of one Adam a knave. See p. 271. The balade of the muftarde tarte. The fate of Philip Sparrowe. See p. 215. The grounting of the fwyne. The mournyng of the mapely rote. A prayer to Moyfe's hornes. The paiants [pageaunts] played in joyous garde, that is, in king Arthur's caftle, fo called in the romance of MORTE ARTHUR. The feneftrall [window] of caftell Angel. The recule of Rofamundes bore. How dame Minerva first found the olive-tre. The myller and his joly mate, or wife. Marione clarion. Of the Bonhoms of Afbrige near Berkhamstead, where is the fange royall of Chrift's blode, that is, the real blood of Chrift. He profeffes to have received many favours from this monastery. The nacion of foles. The boke of three fooles VOL. II.

is printed in his works, p. 260. Apollo
that whirled up his chare. The mayden of
Kent. Of lovers teftaments. Of Follas
and Phillis. The boke of honorouse aftate:
Of royall demenaunce: How to fle fynne:
How to Speke awell. How to dye when se
will. A tranflation of Diodorus Siculus,
cute of frehe Latin, that is, of Poggius
Florentinus, containing fix books. MS.
C. C. C. Camb. viii. 5. Poggius's verfion
was first printed at Venice, 1476. Cax-
ton in his Preface to Virgil's ENEIDOS,
fays that Skelton "tranflated diverse other
"workes out of Latyn into Englyfh," be-
fide Tully's Epiftles, and Diodorus Sicu-
Jus. Bale mentions his Invectiva on Wil-
liam Lily the grammarian. I know nothing
more of this, than that it was answered by
Lily in Apologia ad Joh. Scheltonum. Pr.
"Siccine vipereo pergis me, &c." The
piece of Skelton moft frequently printed
was, I believe, his ELINOUR RUMMYNG,
or Rumpkin. The last of the old editions
is, in 1624. 4to. In the title page, is the
picture of our genial hoftefs, a deformed
old woman, holding a pot of ale, with
this infcription.

When Skelton wore the lawrel crown
My ale put all the alewives down.
See Davies's CRITICAL HISTORY OF
PAMPHLETS, p. 28. 86.

X X

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entertained and protected by abbot Iflip', to the day of his death. He died, and was buried in the neighbouring church of faint Margaret, in the year 1529.

Skelton was patronised by Henry Algernoon Percy, the fifth earl of Northumberland, who deferves particular notice here; as he loved literature at a time when many of the nobility of England could hardly read or write their names, and was the general patron of fuch genius as his age produced. He encouraged Skelton, almost the only profeffed poet of the reign of Henry the feventh, to write an elegy on the death of his father, which is yet extant. But ftill stronger proofs of his literary turn, efpecially of his fingular, *paffion for poetry, may be collected from a very fplendid manufcript, which formerly belonged to this very diftinguished peer, and is at present preserved in the British Mufeum *. It contains a large collection of English poems,. elegantly engroffed on vellum, and fuperbly illuminated, which had been thus fumptuously transcribed for his use. The pieces are chiefly thofe of Lydgate, after which follow the aforefaid Elegy of Skelton, and some smaller compofitions. Among the latter are a metrical history of the family of Percy, presented to him by one of his own chaplains ;. and a prolix series of poetical infcriptions, which he caused to be written on the walls and ceilings of the principal apartments of his caftles of Lekinfield and Wreffil'. His

iHis Latin epitaph or elegy on the Death of Henry the feventh, is addreffed to Iflip, A. D. 1512. p. 285.

MSS. Reg. 18 D. 11.

See fupr. p.. 126. And MSS. C. C. C. Cant. 168. Three of the apartments in Wreffill Castle, now deftroyed, were adorned with POETICAL INSCRIPTIONS. These are called in the manufcript abovementioned," PROVERBES in the LODG"INGS in WRESSILL."

1. "The proverbes in the fydis of the "innere chamber at Wreffill." »This is a poem of twenty-four ftanzas, each containing feven lines: beginning thus,

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cultivation of the arts of external elegance appears, from the stately fepulchral monuments which he erected in the minfter, or collegiate church, of Beverly in Yorkshire, to the memory of his father and mother; which are executed in

"Punyfhe moderatly and difcretly correcte, "As well to mercy as to juftice havynge a respecte, &c.

3.

"The proverbis in the fyde of th' Utter "Chamber above of the hous in the gar"dying at Wrefyll." A poem of thirty ftanzas, chiefly of four lines, viz. "Remorde thyne ey inwardly, "Fyx not thy mynde on Fortune, that delythe dyverfly, &c.

The following apartments in Lekinfield had poetical infcriptions: as mentioned in the faid manufcript. "PROVERBS in the "LODGINGS at LEKINGFIELD."

1. "The proverbis of the garett over "the Bayne at Lekyngfelde." This is a dialogue in 32 ftanzas, of four lines, between" the Parte Senfatyve," and "the "Part Intellectyve;" containing a poetical comparison between fenfual and intellectual pleasures.

2. "The proverbis in the garet at the "new lodge in the parke of Lekingfelde." This is a poem of 32 ftanzas, of four lines, being a difcant on Harmony, as also on the manner of Singing, and playing on moft of the inftruments then ufed: i.e. the Harps, Claricordes, Lute, Virgynall, Clarifymballis, Clarion, Shawme, Orgayne, Recorder. The following ftanza relates to the SHAWME, and fhews it to have been used for the Bafs, as the RECORDER WAS for the Meane or Tenor.

"A SHAWME makithe a fweete founde for he tunithe BASSE,

"It mountithe not to hy, but kepithe rule and space.

"Yet yf it be blowne with a too vehement wynde,

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It makithe it to mifgoverne out of his kynde.

3. "The proverbis in the rooffe of the hyeft chawmbre in the gardinge at Lekingfelde." If we fuppofe this to be the

room mentioned by Leland, where the Ge-
nealogy was kept; the following jingling
reflections on the family motto (in thirty
diftichs) will not appear quite fo misplaced;
"Efperaunce en Dyeu,
"Trufte in hym he is most trewe.
"En Dieu efperance,

"In hym put thyne affiance.
"Efperaunce in the worlde? nay;
"The worlde varieth every day.
"Efperaunce in riches? nay, not fo,
"Riches flidithe and fone will go.
"Efperaunce in exaltacion of honoure?
"Nay, it widderithe. lyke a floure.
"Efperaunce in bloode and highe lynager
"At mofte nede, bot efy avauntage.

The concluding diftich is,
"Efperaunce en Dieu, in hym is all;
"Be thou contente and thou art aboye
Fortune's fall."

4. "The proverbis in the roufe of my "Lorde Percy closett at Lekyngfelde." A poetical dialogue, containing inftructions for youth, in 142 lines.

5." The proverbis in the roufe of my Lordis library at Lekyngefeldé." Twentythree ftanzas of four lines, from which take the following fpecimen :

"To every tale geve thou no credens.
"Prove the caufe, or thou give fentens.
"Agayn the right make no dyffens,
"So haft thou a clene confciens."

6. "The counsell of Ariftotell, whiche
"he gave to Alexander kinge of Mace-
"dony; in the fyde of the garet of the
"gardynge in Lekynfelde."
This con-
fifts of nine ftanzas, of eight lines: Take
the laft ftanza but one:

"Punifhe moderatly, and difcretly correct, "As well to mercy, as to justice havynge a respect; X x 2

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the richest style of the florid Gothic architecture, and remain to this day, the confpicuous and ftriking evidences of his taste and magnificence. In the year 1520, he founded an annual ftipend of ten marcs for three years, for a preceptor, or profeffor, to teach grammar and philosophy in the monastery of Alnewick, contiguous to another of his magnificent caftles". A further inftance of his attention to letters and ftudious employments, occurs in his HouSHOLD-BOOK, dated 1512, yet remaining; in which the LIBRARIES of this earl and of his lady are specified": and in the fame curious monument of antient manners it is ordered, that one of his chaplains should be a MAKER OF INTERLUDES o. With fo much boldnefs did this liberal nobleman abandon the example of his brother peers, whofe principal occupations were hawking and tilting; and who despised learning, as an ignoble and petty accomplishment, fit only for the purposes of laborious and indigent ecclefiaftics. Nor was he totally given up to the pursuits of leisure and peace: he was, in the

"So fhall ye have meryte for the punysh

ment,

"And cause the offender to be fory and pénitent.

"If ye be movede with anger or haftynes, "Pause in youre mynde and your yre repress: "Defer vengeance unto your anger afswagede be;

So fhyll ye mynyfter justice, and do dewe equyte.'

This castle is alfo demolished. One of the ornaments of the apartments of the old caftles in France, was to write the walls all over with amorous SONNETS.

From the Receiver's accompts of the earl's eftates in Com. Northumb. A. xv. Henr. viii. A. D. 1527. "SOLUCIONES "DENARIORUM per WARRANTUM DO"MINI. Et in denariis per dominum "receptorem doctori Makerell Abbati mo"nafterii de Alnewyk folutis, de exitibus.

hujus anni, pro folucione vadii unius "PEDAGOGI, five Magiftri, existentis

"infra Abbathiam predictam, et docentis

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ac legentis GRAMMATICAM et PHI"LOSOPHIAM canonicis et fratribus mo"nafterii predicti, ad x marcas per annum "pro termino iij annorum, virtute unius "warranti, cujus data eft apud Wreffill

xxmo die Septembris anno xij Regis pre"dicti, figno manuali ipfius Comitis fignati, et penes ipfum Abbatem rema"nentis, ultra vj lib. xiijs. ivd. fibi al

locatas anno xiij Henr. viiji, et vj lib. "xiijs. iiijd. fimiliter fibi allocatas in anno "xiiij ejufdem Regis ut per ii acquietan

cias inde confectas, et penes Auditorem "remanentes.". From EVIDENCES of the PERCY FAMILY, at Sion-house. C. iii. Num. 5. 6. Communicated by doctor

Percy,

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year 1497, one of the leaders who commanded at the battle of Blackheath against lord Audley and his partisans; and was often engaged, from his early years, in other public fervices of truft and honour. But Skelton hardly deserved fuch a patronage".

It is in vain to apologise for the coarfenefs, obfcenity, and fcurrility of Skelton, by saying that his poetry is tinctured with the manners of his age. Skelton would have been a writer without decorum at any period. The manners of Chaucer's age were undoubtedly more rough and unpolished than thofe of the reign of Henry the feventh. Yet Chaucer, a poet abounding in humour, and often employed in defcribing the vices and follies of the world, writes with a degree of delicacy, when compared with Skelton. That Skelton's manner is grofs and illiberal, was the opinion of his cotemporaries; at least of those critics who lived but a few years afterwards, and while his poems yet continued in vogue. Puttenham, the author of the ARTE OF ENGLISH POESIE, published in the year 1589, fpeaking of the fpecies of fhort metre used in the minstrel-romances, for the convenience of being fung to the harp at feasts, and in CAROLS and ROUNDS, "and fuch other light or lafcivious poems which are com"monly more commodiously uttered by those buffoons or "Vices in playes than by any other perfon," and in which the fudden return of the rhyme fatigues the ear, immediately fubjoins: "Such were the rimes of Skelton, being indeed "but a rude rayling rimer, and all his doings ridiculous; he "ufed both fhort diftaunces and fhort measures, pleafing "only the popular care." And Meres, in his PALLADIS

Lib. ii. ch. ix. p. 69.

P I am informed by a manufcript note in one of Mr. Oldys's books, that Skelton also wrote a poem called TITUS AND GESIPPUS. This I believe to be a mistake: for I fuppofe he attributes to Skelton, William Walter's poem on this fubject, mentioned above, p. 238.

At the fame time I take occafion to correct a mistake of my own, concerning that piece; which I have inadvertently called, a tranflation from a Latin romance "concerning the fiege of Jerufalem." ibid. Titus and Gefippus were famous for their friendship; and their hiftory forms an interefting novel in Boccacio, the substance

of

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