Tullis Familiars the translacyoun.”
vol. i. 409.
[29] A work mentioned in the same poem;
“Diodorus Siculus of my translacyon
Out of fresshe Latine into owre Englysshe playne,
Recountyng commoditis of many a straunge nacyon;
Who redyth it ones wolde rede it agayne;
Sex volumis engrosid together it doth containe.”
vol. i. 420.
It is preserved in MS. at Cambridge: see Appendix II. to this Memoir.
[30] Sig. A ii.
[31] For more about poet laureat, both in the ancient and modern acceptation, see Selden’s Titles of Honor, p. 405. ed. 1631; the Abbé du Resnel’s Recherches sur les Poètes Couronnez—Hist. de l’Acad. des Inscript. (Mém. de Littérature), x. 507; Warton’s Hist. of E. P. ii. 129. ed. 4to; Malone’s Life of Dryden (Prose Works), p. 78; Devon’s Introd. to Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham, p. xxix., and his Introd. to Issues of the Exchequer, &c., p. xiii.—Churchyard in his verses prefixed to Marshe’s ed. of Skelton’s Workes, 1568, says,
“Nay, Skelton wore the lawrell wreath,
And past in schoels, ye knoe.”
see Appendix I. to this Memoir.
[32] Vol. i. 128.
[33] Hist. of E. P. ii. 130 (note), ed. 4to.—The second entry was printed in 1736 by the Abbé du Resnel (who received it from Carte the historian) in Recherches sur les Poètes Couronnez—Hist. de l’Acad. des Inscript. (Mém. de Littérature), x. 522. Both entries were given in 1767 by Farmer in the second edition of his Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare, p. 50.—The Rev. Joseph Romilly, registrar of the University of Cambridge, has obligingly ascertained for me their correctness.
[34] Vol. i. 124.
[35] Vol. i. 197.
[36] Prologe to Egloges, sig. A 1. ed. 1570.
[37] Hist. of E. P. ii. 132 (note), ed. 4to, where Warton gives the subscription of the former as the title of the latter poem: his mistake was occasioned by the reprint of Skelton’s Works, 1736. See the present edition, vol. i. 190, 191.
[38] Du Resnel expressly says that he was made acquainted with the Cambridge entry by “M. Carte, autrement M. Phillips.” Recherches sur les Poètes Couronnez—Hist. de l’Acad. des Inscript. (Mém. de Littérature), x. 522.—Carte assumed the name of Phillips when he took refuge in France.
[39] A gentleman resident at Louvaine obligingly examined for me the registers of that university, but could find in them no mention of Skelton.
[40] The original has “Cum:” but the initial letters of the lines were intended to form a distich; see the conclusion of the poem.
[41] Here again the original has “Cum.”
[42] From the 4to volume entitled Opusculum Roberti Whittintoni in florentissima Oxoniensi achademia Laureati. At the end, Expliciūt Roberti Whitintoni Oxonie Protouatis Epygrammata: una cū quibusdā Panegyricis. Impressa Lōdini per me wynandū de worde. Anno post virgineū partū. M. ccccc xix. decimo vero kalēdas Maii.
[43] Henry Bradshaw’s Lyfe of Saynt Werburghe, l. ii. c. 24. printed by Pynson 1521, 4to.
[44] See the two subscriptions already cited, p. xiv.; and vol. i. 132, 206, vol. ii. 25.—“Clarus & facundus in utroque scribendi genere, prosa atque metro, habebatur.” Bale, Script. Illust. Brit. &c. p. 651. ed. 1559. “Inter Rhetores regius orator factus.” Pits, De Illust. Angl. Script. p. 701. ed. 1619. “With regard to the Orator Regius,” says Warton, “I find one John Mallard in that office to Henry the eighth, and his epistolary secretary,” &c. Hist. of E. P. ii. 132 (note), ed. 4to.
[45] Register Hill 1489–1505, belonging to the Diocese of London.
[46] 1st Octr.: see Sandford’s Geneal. Hist. p. 475. ed. 1707.
[47] See the Garlande of Laurell, vol. i. 408.
[48] Henry was created Duke of York 31st Octr. an. 10. Hen. vii. [1494]; see Sandford’s Geneal. Hist. p. 480. ed. 1707. See also The Creation of Henry Duke of Yorke, &c. (from a Cottonian MS.) in Lord Somers’s Tracts, i. 24. ed. Scott.
[49] Biblioth. p. 676. ed. 1748.
[50] i.e. well.
[51] i.e. tutor: see Notes, vol. ii. 193.—When ladies attempt to write history, they sometimes say odd things: e.g. “It is affirmed that Skelton had been tutor to Henry [viii.] in some department of his education. How probable it is that the corruption imparted by this ribald and ill-living wretch laid the foundation for his royal pupil’s grossest crimes!” Lives of the Queens of England by Agnes Strickland, vol. iv. 104.
[52] Fourth Poem Against Garnesche, vol. i. 129.
[53] Garlande of Laurell, vol. i. 410.—After noticing that while Arthur was yet alive, Henry was destined by his father to be archbishop of Canterbury, “it has been remarked,” says Mrs. Thomson, “that the instructions bestowed upon Prince Henry by his preceptor, Skelton, were calculated to render him a scholar and a churchman, rather than an enlightened legislator.” Mem. of the Court of Henry the Eighth, i. 2. But the description of the Speculum Principis, quoted above, is somewhat at variance with such a conclusion. The same lady observes in another part of her work, “To Skelton, who
