target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="#ulink_b0942496-7558-5afc-b034-4bbb8de6df0e">[92] “Contra Skeltonum, Lib. i.” Script. Illust. Brit. p. 723. ed. 1559.
[93] fol. 259. ed. 1570.
[94] vol. i. 411.
[95] i.e. snipe.
[96] See Notes, vol. ii. 159. If this line alludes to Skelton, it preserves a trait of his personal appearance.
[97] i.e. deprived, devoid.
[98] sig. c. v. ed. 1570.
[99] Vol. i. 376.
[100] Vol. i. 409.
[101] In a volume of various pieces by Gaguin, dated 1498, is a treatise on metre, which shews no mean acquaintance with the subject.
[102] “Inuectiuam In Guil. Lilium, Lib. i.” Script. Illust. Brit., &c. p. 652. ed. 1559. The reader must not suppose from the description, “Lib. i.,” that the invective in question extended to a volume: it was, I presume, no more than a copy of verses. Wood mentions that this piece was “written in verse and very carping.” Ath. Ox. i. 52. ed. Bliss: but most probably he was acquainted with it only through Bale. He also informs us (i. 34) that Lily wrote a tract entitled
| “Apologia ad | { Joh. Skeltonum. |
| { Rob. Whittington.” |
for a copy of which I have sought in vain.
[103] See Weever’s Fun. Monum. p. 498. ed. 1631; Stowe’s Collections, MS. Harl. 540. fol. 57; and Fuller’s Worthies (Norfolk), p. 257. ed. 1662. “And this,” says Fuller, “I will do for W. Lilly, (though often beaten for his sake,) endeavour to translate his answer:
“With face so bold, and teeth so sharp,
Of viper’s venome, why dost carp?
Why are my verses by thee weigh’d
In a false scale? may truth be said?
Whilst thou to get the more esteem
A learned Poet fain wouldst seem,
Skelton, thou art, let all men know it,
Neither learned, nor a Poet.”
[104] Vol. i. 419.
[105] See vol. i. 361.
[106] See Notes, vol. ii. 318.
[107] It was granted to him by the king for life.
[108] Vol. i. 419. Concerning this college, see Notes, vol. ii. 334.
[109] A Replycacion agaynst certayne yong scolers abiured of late, &c. vol. i. 206. In Typograph. Antiq. ii. 539. ed. Dibdin, where the Replycacion is described and quoted from Heber’s copy, we are told that it has “a Latin address to Thomas—— who [sic] he [Skelton] calls an excellent patron,” &c. That the editor should have read the address without discovering that the said Thomas was Cardinal Wolsey, is truly marvellous.
[110] Garlande of Laurell, vol. i. 424.
[111] See vol. ii. 83, where this Lenuoy (which will be more particularly noticed presently) is appended to the poem Howe the douty Duke of Albany, &c.
[112] Vol. i. 199.
[113] Animadversions vppon the annotacions and correctōns of some imperfectōns of impressōnes of Chaucers Workes, &c. p. 13—in Todd’s Illust. of Gower and Chaucer.
I may notice here, that among the Harleian MSS. (2252, fols. 156, 158) are two poems on the Cardinal, which in the Catalogue of that collection Wanley has described as “Skelton’s libels;” but they are evidently not by him.
[114] Wolsey had previously been named a Cardinal in 1515.—Fiddes (Life of Wolsey, p. 99. ed. 1726) says that he became Legate a latere in 1516: but see State Papers (1830), i. 9 (note). Lingard’s Hist. of Engl. vi. 57. ed. 8vo, &c.—Hoping to ascertain the exact date of the Replycacion, &c. (which contains the first of the passages now under consideration), I have consulted various books for some mention of the “young hereticks” against whom that piece was written; but without success.
[115] We cannot settle this point by a comparison of old editions, the poem against Albany and the two L’Envoys which follow it being extant only in the ed. of Marshe.—It may be doubted, too, if the L’Envoy which I have cited at p. xli, “Perge, liber,” &c. belongs to the Garlande of Laurell, to which it is affixed in Marshe’s edition as a second L’Envoy: in Faukes’s edition of that poem, which I conceive to be the first that was printed, it is not found: the Cott. MS. of the Garlande is unfortunately imperfect at the end.
[116] i.e. sword.
[117] Chron. (Hen. viii.) fol. cx. ed. 1548.
[118] “Ob literas quasdam in Cardinalem Vuolsium inuectiuas, ad Vuestmonasteriense tandem asylum confugere, pro uita seruanda, coactus fuit: ubi nihilominus sub abbate Islepo fauorem inuenit.” Bale, Script. Illust. Brit. p. 651. ed. 1559.—“Vbi licet Abbatis Islepi fauore protegeretur, tamen vitam ibi, quantumuis antea iucunde actam, tristi exitu conclusit.” Pits, De Illust. Angl. Script. p. 701. ed. 1619.—“But Cardinal Wolsey (impar congressus, betwixt a poor Poet and so potent a Prelate) being inveighed against by his pen, and charged with too much truth, so persecuted him, that he was forced to take Sanctuary at Westminster, where Abbot Islip used him with much respect,” &c. Fuller’s Worthies (Norfolk), p. 257. ed.
