[17] “Having been educated in this university, as Joh. Baleus attests.” Wood’s Ath. Oxon. i. 50. ed. Bliss. Wood’s reference in the note is “In lib. De Scriptoribus Anglicis, MS. inter cod. MSS. Selden, in bib. Bodl. p. 69 b.” The printed copy of Bale’s work contains no mention of the place of Skelton’s education. Part of Bale’s information concerning Skelton, as appears from the still extant MS. collections for his Script. Illust. Brit., was received “Ex Guilhelmo Horman,” the author of the Vulgaria.—See also Tanner’s Biblioth. p. 675. ed. 1748.—Warton says that Skelton “studied in both our universities.” Hist. of E. P. ii. 336. ed. 4to.

[18] A Replycacion, &c. vol. i. 207.

[19] “Wood reckons him of Ox. on the author. of Bale in a MS. in the Bodleian Libr., but with much better reason he may be called ours; for I find one Scheklton M.A. in the year 1484, at which time allowing him to be 24 years of age, he must be at his death A.D. 1529, 68 or 69 years old, which ’tis probable he might be. v. Bale 653.” Cole’s Collections,—Add. MSS. (Brit. Mus.) 5880, p. 199.

[20] I suspect that, during Skelton’s lifetime, two of his most celebrated pieces, Colyn Cloute (see v. 1239, vol. i. 359), and Why come ye nat to Courte, were not committed to the press, but wandered about in manuscript among hundreds of eager readers. A portion of Speke, Parrot, and the Poems Against Garnesche, are now for the first time printed.

[21] Vol. i. 408 sqq. No poetical antiquary can read the titles of some of the lighter pieces mentioned in that catalogue,—such as The Balade of the Mustarde Tarte, The Murnyng of the mapely rote (see Notes, vol. ii. 330), &c.—without regretting their loss. “Many of the songs or popular ballads of this time,” observes Sir John Hawkins, “appear to have been written by Skelton.” Hist. of Music, iii. 39.

I take the present opportunity of giving from a MS. in my possession a much fuller copy than has hitherto appeared of the celebrated song which opens the second act of Gammer Gurtons Nedle, and which Warton calls “the first chanson à boire or drinking-ballad, of any merit, in our language.” Hist. of E. P. iii. 206. ed. 4to. The comedy was first printed in 1575: the manuscript copy of the song, as follows, is certainly of an earlier date:

“backe & syde goo bare goo bare bothe hande & fote goo colde but belly god sende the good ale inowghe whether hyt be newe or olde.

but yf that I maye have trwly goode ale my belly full I shall looke lyke one by swete sainte Johnn were shoron agaynste the woole thowthe I goo bare take yow no care I am nothynge colde I stuffe my skynne so full within of joly goode ale & olde.

I cannot eate but lytyll meate my stomacke ys not goode but sure I thyncke that I cowde dryncke with hym that werythe an hoode dryncke ys my lyfe althowgthe my wyfe some tyme do chyde & scolde yete spare I not to plye the potte of joly goode ale & olde. backe & syde, &c.

I love noo roste but a browne toste or a crabbe in the fyer a lytyll breade shall do me steade mooche breade I neuer desyer Nor froste nor snowe Nor wynde I trow Canne hurte me yf hyt wolde I am so wrapped within & lapped with joly goode ale & olde. backe & syde, &c.

I care ryte nowghte I take no thowte for clothes to kepe me warme have I goode dryncke I surely thyncke nothynge canne do me harme for trwly than I feare noman be he neuer so bolde when I am armed & throwly warmed with joly good ale & olde. backe & syde, &c.

but nowe & than I curse & banne they make ther ale so small god geve them care & evill to faare they strye the malte & all sooche pevisshe pewe I tell yowe trwe not for a c[r]ovne of golde ther commethe one syppe within my lyppe whether hyt be newe or olde. backe & syde, &c.

good ale & stronge makethe me amonge full joconde & full lyte that ofte I slepe & take no kepe frome mornynge vntyll nyte then starte I vppe & fle to the cuppe the ryte waye on I holde my thurste to staunche I fyll my paynche with joly goode ale & olde. backe & syde, &c.

and kytte my wyfe that as her lyfe lovethe well good ale to seke full ofte drynkythe she that ye maye se the tears ronne downe her cheke then dothe she troule to me the bolle as a goode malte worme sholde & saye swete harte I have take my parte of joly goode ale & olde. backe & syde, &c.

They that do dryncke tyll they nodde & wyncke even as good fellowes shulde do they shall notte mysse to have the blysse that good ale hathe browghte them to & all poore soules that skowre blacke bolles & them hathe lustely trowlde god save the lyves Of them & ther wyves wether they be yonge or olde. backe & syde,” &c.

[22] Vol. i. 1.

[23] Vol. i. 6: see Notes, vol. ii. 89.

[24] He was only eleven years old at his father’s death. See more concerning the fifth earl in Percy’s Preface to The Northumberland Household Book, 1770, in Warton’s Hist. of E. P. ii. 338. ed. 4to, and in Collins’s Peerage, ii. 304. ed. Brydges.—Warton says that the Earl “encouraged Skelton to write this Elegy,” an assertion grounded, I suppose, on the Latin lines prefixed to it.

[25] A splendid MS. volume, consisting of poems (chiefly by Lydgate), finely written on vellum, and richly illuminated, which formerly belonged to the fifth earl, is still preserved in the British Museum, MS. Reg. 18. D ii.: at fol. 165 is Skelton’s Elegy on the earl’s father.

[26] For a notice of Skelton’s laureation at Oxford, the Rev. Dr. Bliss obligingly searched the archives of that university, but without success: “no records,” he informs me, “remain between 1463 and 1498 that will give a correct list of degrees.”

[27] This work (a thin folio), translated by Caxton from the French, is a prose romance founded on the Æneid. It consists of 65 chapters, the first entitled “How the ryght puyssant kynge pryamus edyfyed the grete Cyte of Troye,” the last, “How Ascanyus helde the royalme of Ytalye after the dethe of Eneas hys fader.” Gawin Douglas, in the Preface to his translation of Virgil’s poem, makes a long and elaborate attack on Caxton’s performance;

“Wylliame Caxtoun had no compatioun Of Virgill in that buk he preȳt in prois, Clepand it Virgill in Eneados, Quhilk that he sayis of Frensche he did translate; It has na thing ado therwith, God wate, Nor na mare like than the Deuil and sanct Austin,” &c.

Sig. B iii. ed. 1553.

[28] A work probably never printed, and now lost: it is mentioned by Skelton in the Garlande of Laurell;

“Of 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.