rel="nofollow" href="#ulink_69499312-87ed-57bd-8294-38db0ded7980">[454] most goodly floure,
This blossome of fresshe colour,
So Jupiter me socoure,
She floryssheth new and new
In beaute and vertew:
Hac claritate gemina
O gloriosa fœmina!
Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine!
With this psalme, Domine, probasti me,
Shall sayle ouer the see, 1240
With Tibi, Domine, commendamus,
On pylgrimage[455] to saynt Jamys,
For shrympes, and for pranys,
And for stalkynge[456] cranys;
And where my pen hath offendyd,
I pray you it may be amendyd
By discrete consyderacyon
Of your wyse reformacyon;
I haue not offended, I trust,
If it be sadly dyscust. 1250
It were no gentle gyse
This treatyse to despyse
Because I haue wrytten and sayd
Honour of this fayre mayd;
Wherefore shulde I be blamed,
That I Jane haue[457] named,
And famously proclamed?
She is worthy to be enrolde
With letters of golde.
Car elle vault. 1260
Per me laurigerum Britonum Skeltonida vatem[458]
Laudibus eximiis merito hæc redimita puella est:
Formosam cecini,[459] qua non formosior ulla est;
Formosam potius quam commendaret Homerus.
Sic juvat interdum rigidos recreare labores,
Nec minus hoc titulo tersa Minerva mea est.
Rien que playsere.
Thus endeth the boke of Philip Sparow, and here foloweth an adicyon made by maister Skelton.
The gyse now a dayes
Of some ianglynge iayes
Is to discommende 1270
That they cannot amend,
Though they wold spend
All the wyttes they haue.
What ayle them to depraue
Phillip Sparowes graue?
His Dirige, her Commendacyon
Can be no derogacyon,
But myrth and consolacyon
Made by protestacyon,
No man to myscontent 1280
With Phillyppes enterement.
Alas, that goodly mayd,
Why shuld she be afrayde?
Why shuld she take shame
That her goodly name,
Honorably reported,
Sholde be set and sorted,
To be matriculate
With ladyes of estate?
I coniure thé, Phillip Sparow, 1290
By Hercules that hell dyd harow,
And with a venemous arow
Slew of the Epidaures
One of the Centaures,
Or Onocentaures,
Or Hipocentaures;[460]
By whose myght and mayne
An hart was slayne
With hornes twayne
Of glytteryng gold; 1300
And the appels of gold
Of Hesperides withhold,
And with a dragon kept
That neuer more slept,
By marcyall strength
He wan at length;
And slew Gerion
With thre bodyes in one;
With myghty corage
Adauntid[461] the rage 1310
Of a lyon sauage;
Of Dyomedes stable
He brought out a rable
Of coursers and rounses
With leapes and bounses;
And with mighty luggyng,
Wrestlyng and tuggyng,
He plucked the bull
By the horned skull,
And offred to Cornucopia; 1320
And so forth per cetera:
Also by Ecates bower
In Plutos[462] gastly tower;
By
