probable,” says Granger, “that if that great and good man [Erasmus] had read and perfectly understood his [Skelton’s] ‘pithy, pleasaunt, and profitable works,’ as they were lately reprinted, he would have spoken of him in less honourable terms.” Biog. Hist. of Engl. i. 102. ed. 1775. The remark is sufficiently foolish: in Skelton’s works there are not a few passages which Erasmus, himself a writer of admirable wit, must have relished and admired; and it was not without reason that he and our poet have been classed together as satirists, in the following passage; “By what meanes could Skelton that laureat poet, or Erasmus that great and learned clarke, have vttered their mindes so well at large, as thorowe their clokes of mery conceytes in wryting of toyes and foolish theames: as Skelton did by Speake parrot, Ware the hauke, the Tunning of Elynour Rumming, Why come ye not to the Courte? Philip Sparrowe, and such like: yet what greater sense or better matter can be, than is in this ragged ryme contayned? Or who would haue hearde his fault so playnely tolde him, if not in such gibyng sorte? Also Erasmus, vnder his prayse of Folly, what matters hath he touched therein?” &c. The Golden Aphroditis, &c. by John Grange, 1577 (I quote from Censura Liter. vol. i. 382. ed. 1815).
[56] Then a student of Lincoln’s Inn.
[57] The country-seat of Lord Mountjoy.
[58] Probably Eltham.
[59] Catal. (Primus) Lucubrationum, p. 2. prefixed to the above-cited vol. of Erasmi Opera.—In Turner’s Hist. of the Reign of Henry the Eighth, it is erroneously stated that Erasmus “had the interview which he thus describes, at the residence of Lord Mounjoy,” i. 11. ed. 8vo.
[60] Vol. i. 410.
[61] Lines prefixed to Marsh’s ed. of Skelton’s Workes, 1568: see Appendix I. to this Memoir.
[62] p. 30—1592, 4to.
[63] According to the xivᵗʰ of the Merie Tales of Skelton (see Appendix I. to the present Memoir), he was “long confined in prison at Westminster by the command of the cardinal:” but the tract is of such a nature that we must hesitate about believing a single statement which it contains. Even supposing that at some period or other Skelton was really imprisoned by Wolsey, that imprisonment could hardly have taken place so early as 1502. As far as I can gather from his writings, Skelton first offended Wolsey by glancing at him in certain passages of Colyn Cloute, and in those passages the cardinal is alluded to as being in the fulness of pomp and power.
[64] By Writ of Privy Seal—Auditor’s Calendar of Files from 1485 to 1522, fol. 101 (b.), in the Public Record Office.
[65] Ritson (Bibliog. Poet. p. 102) says that Skelton was “chaplain to king Henry the eighth:” qy. on what authority?
[66] “He … was Rector and lived here [at Diss] in 1504 and in 1511, as I find by his being Witness to several Wills in this year. (Note) 1504, The Will of Mary Cowper of Disse, ‘Witnesses Master John Skelton, Laureat, Parson of Disse, &c.’ And among the Evidences of Mr. Thomas Coggeshall, I find the House in the Tenure of Master Skelton, Laureat … Mr. Le-Neve says, that his [Skelton’s] Institution does not appear in the Books, which is true, for often those that were collated by the Pope, had no Institution from the Bishop, many Instances of which in those Books occur; but it is certain from abundance of Records and Evidences that I have seen, that he was Rector several years.” Blomefield’s Hist. of Norfolk, i. 20. ed. 1739.—The parish-register of Diss affords no information concerning Skelton; for the earliest date which it contains is long posterior to his death.
[67] See A deuoute trentale for old John Clarke, who died in 1506, vol. i. 168; Lamentatio urbis Norvicen., written in 1507, p. 174; and Chorus de Dis, &c. in 1513, p. 190.
[68] I may notice here, that in an Assessment for a Subsidy, temp. Henry viii., we find, under “Sancte Helenes Parishe within Bisshoppisgate,”—
| “Mr. Skelton in goodes | xl. li.” |
Books of the Treasury of the Exchequer, B. 4. 15, fol. 7—Public Record Office. Qy. was this our author?
[69] “Cum quibusdam blateronibus fraterculis, præcipue Dominicanis, bellum gerebat continuum. Sub pseudopontifice Nordouicensi Ricardo Nixo, mulierem illam, quam sibi secreto ob Antichristi metum desponsauerat, sub concubinæ titulo custodiebat. In ultimo tamen uitæ articulo super ea re interrogatus, respondit, se nusquam illam in conscientia coram Deo nisi pro uxore legitima tenuisse … animam egit … relictis liberis.” Bale, Script. Illust. Brit. pp. 651, 2. ed. 1559.—“In Monachos præsertim Prædicatores S. Dominici sæpe stylum acuit, & terminos prætergressus modestiæ, contra eos scommatibus acerbius egit. Quo facto suum exasperauit Episcopum Richardum Nixum, qui habito de vita & moribus eius examine, deprehendit hominem votam Deo castitatem violasse, imo concubinam domi suæ diu tenuisse.” Pits, De Illust. Angl. Script. p. 701. ed. 1619.—“The Dominican Friars were the next he contested with, whose vitiousness lay pat enough for his hand; but such foul Lubbers fell heavy on all which found fault with them. These instigated Nix, Bishop of Norwich, to call him to account for keeping a Concubine, which cost him (as it seems) a suspension from his benefice. … We must not forget, how being charged by some on his death-bed for begetting many children on the aforesaid Concubine, he protested, that in his Conscience he kept her in the notion of a wife, though such his cowardliness that he would rather confess adultery (then accounted but a venial) than own marriage esteemed a capital crime in that age.” Fuller’s Worthies, p. 257 (Norfolk), ed. 1662.—Anthony Wood, with his usual want of charity towards the sons of genius, says that Skelton “having been guilty of certain crimes, (as most poets are,) at least not agreeable to his coat, fell under the heavy censure of Rich. Nykke bishop of Norwich his diocesan; especially for his scoffs and ill language against the monks and dominicans in his writings.” Ath. Oxon. i. 50. ed. Bliss, who adds in a note, “Mr. Thomas Delafield in his MS. Collection of Poets Laureate, &c. among Gough’s MSS. in the Bodleian, says it was in return for his being married, an equal crime in the ecclesiastics of those days, bishop Nykke suspended him from his church.”—Tanner gives as one of the reasons for Skelton’s taking sanctuary at Westminster towards the close of his life, “propter quod uxorem habuit.” Biblioth. p. 675. ed. 1748.—In the xiiiᵗʰ of the Merie Tales (see Appendix I. to the present Memoir) Skelton’s wife is mentioned.
[70] “Cui [Nixo] utcunque a nive nomen videatur inditum, adeo nihil erat nivei in pectore, luxuriosis cogitationibus plurimum æstuante, ut atro carbone libidines ejus notandæ videantur, si vera sunt quæ de illo a Nevillo perhibentur.” Godwin De Præsul. Angl. p. 440. ed. 1743.
[71] “In the Edition of his Workes in 8vo. Lond. 1736, which I have, at p. 272 he mentions
