PHILIP SPARROW
[From the ed. by Kele, n.d., collated with that by Kitson, n.d.
(which in some copies is said to be printed by Weale,) and with
Marshe's ed. of Skelton's Works, 1568.]
HEREAFTER FOLLOWETH THE BOOK OF
PHILIP SPARROW
COMPILED BY MASTER SKELTON, POET LAUREATE
<1>
Placebo
Who is there, who?
Dilexi,<2>
Dame Margery;
Fa, re, my, my,
Wherefore and why, why?
For the soul of Philip Sparrow<3>
That was late slain at Carrow,<4>
Among the Nuns Black,<5>
For that sweet soul's sake, 10
And for all sparrows' souls
Set in our bead-rolls,
Pater noster qui,
With an Ave Mari,
And with the corner of a Creed,
The more shall be your meed.
When I remember again
How my Philip was slain,
Never half the pain
Was between you twain,
Pyramus and Thisbe, 20
As then befell to me:
I wept and I wailed,
The tears down hailed;<6>
But nothing it availed
To call Philip again,
Whom Gib our cat,<7> hath slain.
Gib, I say, our cat
Worried her on that
Which I loved best: 30
It cannot be express
My sorrowful heaviness,
But all without redress;
For within that stound,
Half slumbering, in a swound
I fell down to the ground.
Unneth I cast mine eyes
Toward the cloudy skies:
But when I did behold
My sparrow dead and cold, 40
No creature but that wold
Have rued upon me,
To behold and see
What heaviness did me pang:
Wherewith my hands I wrang,
That my sinews cracked,
As though I had been racked,
So pained and so strained
That no life well-nigh remained.
I sighed and I sobbed, 50
For that I was robbed
Of my sparrow's life.
O maiden, widow, and wife,
Of what estate ye be,
Of high or low degree,
Great sorrow then ye might see
And learn to weep at me!
Such pains did me fret
That mine heart did beat,
My visage pale and dead, 60
Wan, and blue as lead;
The pangs of hateful death
Well-nigh had stopped my breath.
Heu, heu, me,
That I am woe for thee!
Dominum, cum tribularer, clamavi.<8>
Of God nothing else crave I
But Philip's soul to keep
From the marees deep
Of Acherontes'<9> well, 70
That is a flood of hell;
And from the great Pluto,
The prince of endless woe;
And from foul Alecto,
With visage black and blo;
And from Medusa, that mare,
That like a fiend doth stare;
And from Megaera's adders
For ruffling of Philip's feathers,
And from her fiery sparklings 80
For burning of his wings;
And from the smokes sour
Of Proserpina's bower;
And from the dens dark
Where Cerberus doth bark,
Whom Theseus did affray,
Whom Hercules did outray,<10>
As famous poets say;
From that hell-hound
That lieth in chains bound, 90
With ghastly heads three;
To Jupiter pray we
That Philip preserved may be!
Amen, say ye with me!
Dominus,
Help now, sweet Jesus!
Levavi oculos meos in montes.<11>
Would God I had Zenophontes,<12>
Or Socrates the wise,
To show me their device 100
Moderately to take
This sorrow that I make
For Philip Sparrow's sake!
So fervently I shake,
I feel my body quake;
So urgently I am brought
Into careful thought.
Like Andromach, Hector's wife,
Was weary of her life,
When she had lost her joy, 110
Noble Hector of Troy;
In like manner also
Increaseth my deadly woe,
For my sparrow is go.
It was so pretty a fool,
It would sit on a stool,
And learned after my school
For to keep his cut,
With Philip, keep your cut!<13>
It had a velvet cap, 120
And would sit upon my lap,
And seek after small worms,
And sometime white bread-crumbs;
And many times and oft
Between my breasts soft<14>
It would lie and rest;
It was proper and prest.
Sometime he would gasp
When he saw a wasp;
A fly or a gnat, 130
He would fly at that;
And prettily he would pant
When he saw an ant.
Lord, how he would pry
After the butterfly!
Lord, how he would hop
After the gressop!
And when I said, Phip, Phip!
Then he would leap and skip,
And take me, by the lip. 140
Alas, it will me slo
That Philip is gone me fro!
Sin iniquitates<15>
Alas, I was evil at ease!
De profundis clamavi,<16>
When I saw my sparrow die!
Now, after my dome,
Dame Sulpicia<17> at Rome,
Whose name registered was
For ever in tables of brass, 150
Because that she did pass
In poesy to indite
And eloquently to write,
Though she would pretend
My sparrow to commend,
I trow she could not amend
Reporting the virtues all
Of my sparrow royal.
For it would come and go,
And fly so to and fro; 160
And on me it would leap
When I was asleep,
And his feathers shake,
Wherewith he would make
Me often for to wake,
And for to take him in
Upon my naked skin;
God wot, we thought no sin:
What though he crept so low?
It was no hurt, I trow 170
He did nothing, pardie,
But sit upon my knee:
Philip, though he were nice,
In him it was no vice;
Philip had leave to go
To peck my little toe;
Philip might be bold
And do what he wold;
Philip would seek and take
All the fleas black 180
That he could there espy
With his wanton eye.
Opera.
La, sol, fa, fa,
Confitebor tibi, Domine, in toto corde meo!<18>
Alas, I would ride and go<19>
A thousand mile of ground!
If any such might be found
It were worth an hundred pound
Of King Croesus' gold, 190
Or of Attalus the old,
The rich prince of Pergame,<20>
Whoso list the story to see.
Cadmus, that his sister sought,
An he should be bought
For gold and fee,
He should over the sea,
To weet if he could bring
Any of the offspring,
Or any of the blood. 200
But whoso understood
Of Medea's art,
I would I had a part
Of her crafty magic!
My sparrow then should be quick
With a charm or twain,
And play with me again.
But all this is in vain
Thus for to complain.
I took my sampler once 210
Of purpose, for the nonce,
To sew with stitches of silk
My sparrow white as milk,<21>
That by representation
Of his image and fashion
To me it might impart
Some pleasure and comfort
For my solace and sport:
But when I was sewing his beak,
Methought my sparrow did speak, 220
And opened his pretty bill,
Saying, Maid, ye are in will
Again me for to kill,
Ye prick me in the head!
With that my needle waxed red,
Methought, of Philip's blood;
Mine hair right upstood,
I was in such a fray,
My speech was taken away.
I cast down that there was, 230
And said, Alas, alas,
How cometh this to pass?
My fingers, dead and cold,
Could not my sampler hold:
My needle and thread
I threw away for dread.
The best now that I may
Is for his soul to pray:
A porta inferi,<22>
Good Lord, have mercy 240
Upon my sparrow's soul,
Written in my bead-roll!
Audivi vocem,<23>
Japhet, Ham, and Shem,
Magnificat,<24>
Show me the right path
To the hills of Armony,<25>
Wherefore the birds yet cry<26>
Of your father's boat,
That was sometime afloat, 250
And now they lie and rot;
Let some poets write
Deucalion's flood it hight.
But as verily as ye be
The natural sonnes three
Of Noah the patriarch,
That made that great ark,
Wherein he had apes and owls,
Beasts, birds, and fowls,
That if ye can find 260
Any of my sparrow's kind
God send the soul good rest!
I would have yet a nest
As pretty and as prest
As my sparrow was.
But my sparrow did pass
All sparrows of the wood
That were since Noah's flood,
Was never none so good.
King Philip of Macedony 270
Had no such Philip as I,
No, no, sir, hardly.
That vengeance I ask and cry,
By way of exclamation,
On all the whole nation
Of cats wild and tame;
God send them sorrow and shame!
That cat specially
That slew so cruelly
My little pretty sparrow 280
That I brought up at Carrow.
O cat of carlish kind,
The fiend was in thy mind
When thou my bird untwined!<27>
I would thou hadst been blind!
The leopards savage,
The lions in their rage
Might catch thee in their paws,
And gnaw thee in their jaws!
The serpents of Libany<28> 290
Might sting thee venomously!
The dragons with their tongues
Might poison thy liver and lungs!
The manticores<29> of the mountains
Might feed them on thy brains!
Melanchates,<30> that hound
That plucked Actaeon to the ground,
Gave him his mortal wound,
Changed to a deer,
The story doth appear, 300
Was changed to an hart:
So thou, foul cat that thou art,
The selfsame hound
Might thee confound,
That his own lord bote,<31>
Might bite asunder thy throat!
Of Ind the greedy gripes
Might tear out all thy tripes!
Of Arcady the bears
Might pluck away thine ears! 310
The wild wolf Lycaon<32>
Bite asunder thy backbone!
Of Etna the burning hill,
That day and night burneth still,
Set in thy tail a blaze,
That all the world may gaze
And wonder upon thee,
From Ocean the great sea
Unto the Isles of Orcady,
From Tilbury Ferry 320
To the plain of Salisbury!
So traitorously my bird to kill
That never ought thee evil will!
Was never bird in cage
More gentle of courage
In doing his homage
Unto his sovereign.
Alas, I say again,
Death hath departed us twain!
The false cat hath thee slain: 330
Farewell, Philip, adieu!
Our Lord, thy soul rescue!
Farewell, without restore,
Farewell, for evermore!
An it were a Jew,
It would make one rue,
To see my sorrow new.
These villainous false cats
Were made for mice and rats,
And not for birds small. 340
Alas, my face waxeth pale,
Telling this piteous tale,
How my bird so fair,
That was wont to repair,
And go in at my spare,
And creep in at my gore
Of my gown before,<33>
Flickering with his wings!
Alas, my heart it stings,
Remembering pretty things! 350
Alas, mine heart it slayeth
My Philip's doleful death!
When I remember it,
How prettily it would sit,
Many times and oft,
Upon my finger aloft!
I played with him tittle-tattle,
And fed him with my spittle,
With his bill between my lips;
It was my pretty Phips! 360
Many a pretty kiss
Had I of his sweet muss;
And now the cause is thus,
That he is slain me fro,
To my great pain and woe.
Of fortune this the chance
Standeth on variance:
Oft time after pleasance,
Trouble and grievance;
No man can be sure 370
Alway to have pleasure:
As well perceive ye may
How my disport and play
From me was taken away
By Gib, our cat savage,
That in a furious rage
Caught Philip by the head
And slew him there stark dead!
Kyrie, eleison,
Christe, eleison, 380
Kyrie, eleison!<34>
For Philip Sparrow's soul,
Set in our bead-roll,
Let us now whisper
A Pater noster.
Lauda anima mea, Dominum!<35>
To weep with me look that ye come,
All manner of birds in your kind;<36>
See none be left behind.
To mourning look that ye fall 390
With dolorous songs funeral,
Some to sing, and some to say,
Some to weep, and some to pray,
Every birde in his lay.
The goldfinch, the wagtail;
The jangling<37> jay to rail,
The flecked pie to chatter
Of this dolorous matter;
And robin redbreast,
He shall be the priest 400
The requiem mass to sing,
Softly warbling,
With help of the reed sparrow,
And the chattering swallow,
This hearse for to hallow;
The lark with his long toe;
The spink, and the martinet also;
The shoveller with his broad beak;
The dotterel<38>, that foolish peak,
And also the mad coot, 410
With bald face to toot;
The fieldfare and the snite;
The crow and the kite;
The raven, called Rolfe,
His plain-song to sol-fa;
The partridge, the quail;
The plover with us to wail;
The woodhack, that singeth chur
Hoarsely, as he had the mur;
The lusty chanting nightingale; 420
The popinjay to tell her tale,
That tooteh oft in a glass,
Shall read the Gospel at mass;
The mavis with her whistle
Shall read there the Epistle.
But with a large and a long
To keep just plain-song,
Our chanters shall be the cuckoo,<39>
The culver, the stockdoo.
With peewit the lapwing,<40> 430
The Versicles shall sing.
The bittern with his bump,<41>
The crane with his trump,
The swan of Menander,<42>
The goose and the gander,
The duck and the drake,
Shall watch at this wake;<43>
The peacock so proud,
Because his voice is loud,
And hath a glorious tail, 440
He shall sing the grail;
The owl, that is so foul,<44>
Must help us to howl;
The heron so gaunt,
And the cormorant,
With the pheasant,
And the gaggling gant,<45>
And the churlish chough;
The knot and the ruff;
The barnacle,<46> the buzzard, 450
With the wild mallard;
The divendop to sleep;
The water-hen to weep;
The puffin and the teal
Money they shall deal<47>
To poor folk at large,
That shall be their charge;
The seamew and the titmouse;
The woodcock with the long nose;
The throstle with her warbling; 460
The starling with her brabbling;<48>
The rook, with the osprey
That putteth fishes to a fray;<49>
And the dainty curlew,
With the turtle most true.
At this Placebo
We may not well forgo
The countering of the co:
The stork also,
That maketh his nest 470
In chimneys to rest;
Within those walls
No broken galls
May there abide
Of cuckoldry side,<50>
Or else philosophy
Maketh a great lie.
The ostrich, that will eat
An horseshoe so great,<51>
In the stead of meat, 480
Such fervent heat
His stomach doth fret;
He cannot well fly,
Nor sing tunably,
Yet at a braid<52>
He hath well assayed
To sol-fa above E-la.<53>
Ga, lorell, fa, fa;
Ne quando 490
Male cantando,<54>
The best that we can,
To make him our bell-man,
And let him ring the bells;
He can do nothing else.<55>
Chanticleer, our cock,
Must tell what is of the clock
By the astrology
That he hath naturally<56>
Conceived and caught,
And was never taught 500
By Albumasar<57>
The astronomer,
Nor by Ptolomy
Prince of astronomy,
Nor yet by Haly;<58>
And yet he croweth daily
And nightly the tides
That no man abides,
With Partlot his hen,<59>
Whom now and then 510
He plucketh by the head
When he doth her tread.
The bird of Araby,
That potentially
May never die,
And yet there is none
But one alone;
A phoenix it is
This hearse that must bless
With aromatic gums 520
That cost great sums,
The way of thurification
To make a fumigation,
Sweet of reflair,
And redolent of air,
This corse for to cense
With great reverence,
As patriarch or pope
In a black cope.
Whiles he censeth the hearse, 530
He shall sing the verse,
Libera me,<60>
In de, la, sol, re,
Softly B molle<61>
For my sparrow's soul.
Pliny showeth all
In his Story Natural<62>
What he doth find
Of the phoenix kind;
Of whose incineration 540
There riseth a new creation
Of the same fashion
Without alteration,
Saving that old age
Is turned into courage
Of fresh youth again;
This matter true and plain,
Plain matter indeed,
Who so list to read.
But for the eagle doth fly 550
Highest in the sky,
He shall be the sedean,<63>
The choir to demean,
As provost principal,
To teach them their Ordinal;
Also the noble falcon,<64>
With the gyrfalcon,<65>
The tiercel gentle,<66>
They shall mourn soft and still
In their amice<67> of gray; 560
The saker<68> with them shall say
Dirige for Philip's soul;
The goshawk shall have a role
The choristers to control;
The lanners and the merlins<69>
Shall stand in their mourning-gowns;
The hobby<70> and the musket<71>
The censers and the cross shall fet;
The kestrel<72> in all this work
Shall be holy water clerk.<73> 570
And now the dark cloudy night
Chaseth away Phoebus bright,
Taking his course toward the west,
God send my sparrow's soul good rest!
Requiem aeternum dona eis, Domine!<74>
Fa, fa, fa, mi, re, re,
A por ta in fe ri,
Fa, fa, fa, mi, mi.
Credo videre bona Domini,<75>
I pray God, Philip to heaven may fly! 580
Domine, exaudi orationem meam!<76>
To heaven he shall, from heaven he came!
Do mi nus vo bis cum!
Of all good prayers God send him some!
Oremus,
Deus, cui proprium est misereri et parcere,<77>
On Philip's soul have pity!
For he was a pretty cock,
And came of a gentle stock,
And wrapt in a maiden's smock,<78> 590
And cherished full daintily,
Till cruel fate made him to die:
Alas, for doleful destiny!
But whereto should I
Longer mourn or cry?
To Jupiter I call,
Of heaven imperial,
That Philip may fly
Above the starry sky,
To tread the pretty wren, 600
That is our Lady's hen:<79>
Amen, amen, amen!
Yet one thing is behind,
That now cometh to mind;
An epitaph I would have
For Philip's grave:
But for I am a maid,
Timorous, half afraid,
That never yet assayed
Of Helicon's well, 610
Where the Muses dwell;
Though I can read and spell,
Recount, report, and tell
Of the Tales of Canterbury,
Some sad stories, some merry;
As Palamon and Arcet,
Duke Theseus, and Partelet;
And of the Wife of Bath,
That worketh much scath
When her tale is told 620
Among housewives bold,
How she controlled
Her husbands as she wold,
And them to despise
In the homeliest wise,
Bring other wives in thought
Their husbands to set at nought.
And though that read have I
Of Gawain<80> and Sir Guy,<81>
And tell can a great piece 630
Of the Golden Fleece,
How Jason it won,<82>
Like a valiant man;
Of Arthur's Round Table,
With his knights commendable,
And Dame Gaynour, his queen,
Was somewhat wanton, I ween;
How Sir Lancelot de Lake
Many a spear brake
For his lady's sake; 640
Of Tristram, and King Mark,
And all the whole work
Of Belle Isolde his wife,
For whom was much strife;<83>
Some say she was light,
And made her husband knight
Of the common hall,
That cuckolds men call;
And of Sir Lybius,<84>
Named Dysconius; 650
Of Quater Fylz Amund,
And how they were summoned
To Rome, to Charlemagne,
Upon a great pain,
And how they rode each one
On Bayard Mountalbon;
Men see him now and then
In the forest of Arden:<85>
What though I can frame
The stories by name 660
Of Judas Maccabeus,<86>
And of Caesar Julius;<87>
And of the love between
Paris and Vienne;<88>
And of the duke Hannibal,<89>
That made the Romans all
Fordread and to quake:
How Scipion did wake
The city of Carthage,
Which by his unmerciful rage 670
He beat down to the ground.
And though I can expound
Of Hector of Troy,
That was all their joy,<90>
Whom Achilles slew,
Wherefore all Troy did rue;
And of the love so hot
That made Troilus to dote
Upon fair Cresseid,<91>
And what they wrote and said, 680
And of their wanton wills
Pandar bore the bills
From one to the other;
His master's love to further,
Sometime a precious thing,
An ouch,<65> or else a ring;
From her to him again
Sometime a pretty chain,
Or a bracelet of her hair,
Prayed Troilus for to wear 690
That token for her sake;
How heartily he did it take,
And much thereof did make;
And all that was in vain,
For she did but feign;
The story telleth plain,
He could not obtain,
Though his father were a king,
Yet there was a thing
That made the male to wring;<93> 700
She made him to sing
The song of lover's lay;
Musing night and day,
Mourning all alone,
Comfort had he none,
For she was quite gone;
Thus in conclusion,
She brought him in abusion;
In earnest and in game
She was much to blame; 710
Disparaged is her fame,
And blemished is her name,
In manner half with shame;
Troilus also hath lost
On her much love and cost,
And now must kiss the post;<94>
Pandar, that went between,
Hath won nothing, I ween,
But light for summer green;
Yet for a special laud 720
He is named Troilus' bawd;
Of that name he is sure
Whiles the world shall dure:
Though I remember the fable
Of Penelope most stable,
To her husband most true,
Yet long-time she ne knew
Whether he were live or dead;
Her wit stood her in stead,
That she was true and just 730
For any bodily lust
To Ulysses her make,
And never would him forsake:
Of Marcus Marcellus
A process I could tell us;
And of Antiochus,<95>
And of Josephus
De Antiquitatibus;<96>
And of Mardocheus,
And of great Ahasuerus,<97> 740
And of Vesca<98> his queen,
Whom he forsook with teen,
And of Esther his other wife,
With whom he led a pleasant life;
Of King Alexander;<99>
And of King Evander;<100>
And of Porsena the great,
That made the Romans to sweat.:
Though I have enrolled
A thousand new and old 750
Of these historious tales,
To fill budgets and males
With books that I have read,
Yet I am nothing sped,
And can but little skill
Of Ovid or Virgil,
Or of Plutarch,
Or Francis Petrarch,
Alcaeus or Sappho,
Or such others poets mo, 760
As Linus and Homerus,
Euphorion and Theocritus,
Anacreon and Anion,
Sophocles and Philemon,
Pindarus and Simonides,
Philistion and Pherecydes;
These poets of ancientry,
They are too diffuse for me:<101>
For, as I tofore have said,
I am but a young maid, 770
And cannot in effect
My style as yet direct
With English words elect:
Our natural tongue is rude,
And hard to be ennewed<102>
With polished terms lusty;
Our language is so rusty,
So cankered, and so full
Of frowards, and so dull,
That if I would apply 780
To write ornately,
I wot not where to find
Terms to serve my mind.
Gower's English is old,
And of no value told;
His matter is worth gold,
And worthy to be enrolled.
In Chaucer I am sped,
His Tales I have read:
His matter is delectable, 790
Solacious, and commendable;
His English well allowed,
So as it is enprowed,
For as it is employed,
There is no English void,
At those days much commended;
And now men would have amended
His English, whereat they bark,
And mar all they work.
Chaucer, that famous clerk, 800
His terms were not dark,
But pleasant, easy, and plain;
No word he wrote in vain.
Also John Lydgate
Writeth after an higher rate;<103>
It is diffuse to find
The sentence of his mind,
Yet writeth he in his kind,
No man that can amend<104>
Those matters that he hath penned; 810
Yet some men find a fault,
And say he writeth too haute.
Wherefore hold me excused
If I have not well perused
Mine English half abused;
Though it be refused,
In worth<105> I shall it take,
And fewer words make.
But, for my sparrow's sake,
Yet as a woman may, 820
My wit I shall assay
An epitaph to write
In Latin plain and light,
Whereof the elegy
Followeth by and by:
Flos volucrum formose, vale!
Philippe, sub isto
Marmore iam recubas,
Qui mihi carus eras.
Semper erunt nitido 830
Radiantia sidera coelo;
Impressusque meo
Pectore semper eris.<106>
Per me laurigerum
Britonum Skeltonida vatem
Haec cecinisse licet
Ficta sub imagine texta.
Cujus eras volucris,
Praestanti corpore virgo:
Candida Nais erat, 840
Formosior ista Joanna est;
Docta Corinna fuit,
Sed magis ista sapit.
Bien m'en souvient.<107>
THE COMMENDATIONS
Beati immaculati in via,
O gloriosa femina!<108>
Now mine whole imagination
And studious meditation
Is to take this commendation
In this consideration; 850
And under patient toleration
Of that most goodly maid
That Placebo hath said,
And for her sparrow prayed
In lamentable wise,
Now will I enterprise,
Thorough the grace divine
Of the Muses nine,
Her beauty to commend,
If Arethusa will send<109> 860
Me influence to indite,
And with my pen to write;
If Apollo will promise,
Melodiously it to devise,
His tunable harp strings
With harmony that sings
Of princes and of kings
And of all pleasant things,
Of lust and of delight,
Through his godly might; 870
To whom be the laud ascribed
That my pen hath imbibed
With the aureate drops,
As verily my hope is,
Of Tagus, that golden flood,
That passeth all earthly good;
And as that flood doth pass
All floods that ever was
With his golden sands,
Whoso that understands 880
Cosmography, and the streames
And the floods in strange reams,
Right so she doth exceed
All other of whom we read,
Whose fame by me shall spread
Into Persia and Mede,
From Britons' Albion
To the Tower of Babylon.
I trust it is no shame,
And no man will me blame, 890
Though I register her name
In the court of Fame;
For this most goodly flower,
This blossom of fresh colour,
So Jupiter me succour,
She flourisheth new and new<110>
In beauty and virtue;
Hac claritate gemina,
O gloriosa femina,<111>
Retribue servo tuo, vivifica me! 900
Labia mea laudabunt te.<112>
But enforced am I
Openly to ascry,
And to make an outcry
Against odious Envy,<113>
That evermore will lie,
And say cursedly;
With his leather eye,
And cheeks dry;
With visage wan, 910
As swart as tan;
His bones creak,
Lean as a rake;<80>
His gums rusty
Are full unlusty;
His heart withal
Bitter as gall;
His liver, his lung
With anger is wrung;
His serpent's tongue
That many one hath stung; 920
He frowneth ever;
He laugheth never,
Even nor morrow,
But other men's sorrow
Causeth him to grin
And rejoice therein;
No sleep can him catch,
But ever doth watch,
He is so beat 930
With malice, and fret
With anger and ire,
His foul desire
Will suffer no sleep
In his head to creep;
His foul semblant
All displeasant;
When others are glad,
Then is he sad;
Frantic and mad; 940
His tongue never still
For to say ill,
Writhing and wringing,
Biting and stinging;
And thus this elf
Consumeth himself,
Himself doth slo
With pain and woe.
This false Envy
Sayeth that I 950
Use great folly
For to indite,
And for to write,
And spend my time
In prose and rhyme,
For to express
The nobleness
Of my mistress,
That causeth me
Studious to be 960
To make a relation,
Of her commendation.
And there again
Envy doth complain,
And hath disdain;
But yet certain
I will be plain,
And my style dress
To this process.
Now Phoebus me ken 970
To sharp my pen,
And lead my fist
As him best list,
That I may say
Honour alway
Of womankind!
Truth doth me bind
And loyalty
Ever to be
Their true bedell, 980
To write and tell
How women excel
In nobleness;
As my mistress,
Of whom I think
With pen and ink
For to compile
Some goodly style;
For this most goodly flower,
This blossom of fresh colour, 990
So Jupiter me succour,
She flourisheth new and new
In beauty and virtue:
Hac claritate gemina,
O gloriosa femina,<111>
Legem pone mihi, domina, viam justificationum tuarum!
Quemadmodum desiderat cervus ad fontes aquarum.<115>
How shall I report
All the goodly sort
Of her features clear, 1000
That hath none earthly peer?
Her favour of her face
Ennewed all with grace,
Comfort, pleasure, and solace.
Mine heart doth so embrace,
And so hath ravished me
Her to behold and see,
That in words plain
I cannot me refrain
To look on her again: 1010
Alas, what should I feign?
It were a pleasant pain
With her aye to remain.
Her eyen grey and steep
Causeth mine heart to leap;
With her brows bent<116>
She may well represent
Fair Lucres, as I ween,
Or else fair Polexene,<117>
Or else Calliope,
Or else Penelope;
For this most goodly flower,
This blossom of fresh colour,
So Jupiter me succour,
She flourisheth new and new
In beauty and virtue:
Hac claritate gemina,
O gloriosa femina,<111>
Memor esto verbi tui servo tuo!
Servus tuus sum ego.<118> 1020
The Indy sapphire blue
Her veins doth ennew;
The orient pearl so clear,
The whiteness of her lere;
Her lusty ruby rudds
Resemble the rose buds;
Her lips soft and merry
Enbloomed like the cherry,
It were an heavenly bliss
Her sugared mouth to kiss. 1040
Her beauty to augment,
Dame Nature hath her lent
A wart upon her cheek,
Whoso list to seek
In her visage a scar,
That seemeth from afar
Like to the radiant star,
All with favour fret,<119>
So properly it is set:
She is the violet, 1050
The daisy delectable,
The columbine commendable,
The jelofer amiable;<120>
For this most goodly flower,
This blossom of fresh colour,
So Jupiter me succour,
She flourisheth new and new
Hac claritate gemina,
O gloriosa femina,<111> 1060
Bonitatem fecisti cum servo tuo, domina,
Et ex praecordiis sonant praeconia!<121>
And when I perceived
Her wart and conceived,
It cannot be denied
But it was well conveyed,
And set so womanly,
And nothing wantonly,
But right conveniently,
And full congruently, 1070
As Nature could devise,
In most goodly wise;
Whoso list behold,
It maketh lovers bold
To her to sue for grace,
Her favour to purchase;
The scar<122> upon her chin,
Enhatched<123> on her fair skin,
Whiter than the swan,
It would make any man 1080
To forget deadly sin<124>
Her favour to win;
For this most goodly flower,
This blossom of fresh colour,
So Jupiter me succour,
She flourisheth new and new
In beauty and virtue:
Hac claritate gemina,
O gloriosa femina,<111>
Defecit in salutatione tua anima mea; 1090
Quid petis filio, mater dulcissima? babae!<125>
Soft, and make no din,
For now I will begin
To have in remembrance
Her goodly dalliance,
And her goodly pastance:
So sad and so demure,
Behaving her so sure,
With words of pleasure
She would make to the lure<126> 1100
And any man convert
To give her his whole heart.
She made me sore amazed
Upon her when I gazed,
Methought mine heart was crazed,
My eyen were so dazed;
For this most goodly flower,
This blossom of fresh colour,
So Jupiter me succour,
She flourisheth new and new 1110
In beauty and virtue:
Hac claritate gemina,
O gloriosa femina,<111>
Quomodo dilexi legem tuam, domina!
Recedant vetera, nova sint omnia.<127>
And to amend her tale,
When she list to avail,<128>
And with her fingers small,
And hands soft as silk,
Whiter than the milk, 1120
That are so quickly veined,<129>
Wherewith my hand she strained,
Lord, how I was pained!
Unneth I me refrained,
How she me had reclaimed,<130>
And me to her retained,
Embracing therewithall
Her goodly middle small
With sides long and strait:
To tell you what conceit 1130
I had then in a trice,
The matter were too nice,
And yet there was no vice,
Nor yet no villany,
But only fantasy;
For this most goodly flower,
This blossom of fresh colour,
She flourisheth new and new
In beauty and virtue: 1140
Hac claritate gemina,
O gloriosa femina,<111>
Iniquos odio habui!
Non calumnientur me superbi.<131>
But whereto should I note
How often did I toot
Upon her pretty foot?
It rased mine heart-root
To see her tread the ground
With heels short and round. 1150
She is plainly express
Egeria, the goddess,
And like to her image,
Emportured with courage,
A lover's pilgrimage;<132>
There is no beast savage,
Ne no tiger so wood,
But she would change his mood,
Such relucent grace
Is formed in her face; 1160
For this most goodly flower,
This blossom of fresh colour,
So Jupiter me succour,
She flourisheth new and new
In beauty and virtue:
Hac claritate gemina,
O gloriosa femina,<111>
Mirabilia testimonia tua!
Sicut novellae plantationes in juventute sua.<133>
So goodly as she dresses, 1170
So properly she presses
The bright golden tresses
Of her hair so fine,
Like Phoebus' beams shine.
Whereto should I disclose
The gartering of her hose?<134>
It is for to suppose
How that she can wear
Gorgeously her gear;
Her fresh habiliments 1180
With other implements
To serve for all intents,
Like Dame Flora, queen
Of lusty summer green;
For this most goodly flower,
This blossom of fresh colour,
So Jupiter me succour,
She flourisheth new and new
In beauty and virtue:
Hac claritate gemina, 1190
O gloriosa femina,<111>
Clamavi in toto corde, exaudi me!
Misericordia tua magna est super me.<135>
Her kirtle<136> so goodly laced,
And under that is braced
Such pleasures that I may
Neither write nor say;
Yet though I write with ink,
No man can let me think,
For thought hath liberty, 1200
Thought is frank and free;
To think a merry thought
It cost me little nor naught.
Would God mine homely style
Were polished with the file
Of Cicero's eloquence,
To praise her excellence!
For this most goodly flower,
This blossom of fresh colour,
So Jupiter me succour, 1210
She flourisheth new and new
In beauty and virtue:
Hac claritate gemina,
O gloriosa femina,<111>
Principes persecuti sunt me gratis!
Omnibus consideratis,
Paradisus voluptatis
Haec virgo est dulcissima.<137>
My pen it is unable,
My hand it is unstable, 1220
My reason rude and dull
To praise her at the full;
Goodly Mistress Jane,
Sober, demure Diane;
Jane this mistress hight,
The lode-star of delight,
Dame Venus of all pleasure,
The well of worldly treasure;
She doth exceed and pass
In prudence Dame Pallas; 1230
For this most goodly flower,
This blossom of fresh colour,
So Jupiter me succour,
She flourisheth new and new
In beauty and virtue:
Hac claritate gemina,
O gloriosa femina!<111>
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine!<74>
With this psalm, Domine, probasti me,<138>
Shall sail over the sea, 1240
With Tibi, Domine, commendamus,<139>
On pilgrimage to Saint James,
For shrimps, and for prawns,
And for stalking cranes;
And where my pen hath offended,
I pray you it may be amended
By discreet consideration
Of your wise reformation;
I have not offended, I trust,
If it be sadly discussed. 1250
It were no gentle guise
This treatise to despise
Because I have written and said
Honour of this fair maid;
Wherefore should I be blamed,
That I Jane have named,
And famously proclaimed?
She is worthy to be enrolled
With letters of gold.
Car elle vaut.<140> 1260
Per me laurigerum Britonum Skeltonida vatem.<141>
Laudibus eximiis merito haec redimita puella est:
Formosam cecini, qua non formosior nulla est;
Formosam potius quam commendaret Homerus.
Sic juvat interdum rigidos recreare labores,
Nec minus hoc titulo tersa .Minerva mea est.
Rien que plaisir.<142>
Thus endeth the Book of Philip Sparrow, and here followeth an
addition made by Master Skelton.
<143>
The guise nowadays
Of some jangling jays
Is to discommend 1270
That they cannot amend,
Though they would spend
All the wits they have.
What ails them to deprave<144>
Philip Sparrow's grave?
His Dirige, her Commendation
Can be no derogation,
But mirth and consolation
Made by protestation,
No man to miscontent 1280
With Philip's interment.
Alas, that goodly maid,
Why should she be afraid?
Why should she take shame
That her goodly name,
Honourably reported,
Should be set and sorted,
To be matriculate
With ladies of estate?
I conjure thee, Philip Sparrow, 1290
By Hercules that hell did harrow,<145>
And with a venomous arrow
Slew of the Epidaures<146>
One of the Centaures,
Or Onocentaures,<147>
Or Hippocentaures;<148>
By whose might and main
An hart was slain
With horns twain
Of glittering gold; 1300
And the apples of gold
Of Hesperides withhold,
And with a dragon kept
That nevermore slept,
By martial strength
He won at length;
And slew Geryon
With three bodies in one;
With mighty courage
Adaunted the rage 1310
Of a lion savage;
Of Diomedes' stable
He brought out a rabble
Of coursers and rounces
With leaps and bounces;
And with mighty lugging,
Wrestling and tugging,
He plucked the bull
By the horned skull,
And offered to Cornucopia;<149> 1320
And so forth per cetera.
Also by Hecate's bower,
In Pluto's ghastly tower;
By the ugly Eumenides,
That never have rest nor ease;
By the venomous serpent,
That in hell is never brent,<150>
In Lerna the Greek's fen,
That was engendered then;
By Chimera's flames,
And all the deadly names
Of infernal posty,
Where souls fry and roasty;
By the Stygian flood,
And the streams wood
Of Cocytus' bottomless well;
By the ferryman of hell,
Charon with his beard hoar,
That roweth with a rude oar
And with his frownsed foretop 1340
Guideth his boat with a prop:
I conjure Philip, and call
In the same of King Saul;
Primo Regum<151> express,
He bade the Pythoness<152>
To witchcraft her to dress,
And by her abusions
And damnable illusions
Of marvellous conclusions,
And by her superstitions, 1350
And wonderful conditions,<153>
She raised up in that stead
Samuel that was dead;
But whether it were so,
He were idem in numero,<154>
The self-same Samuel,
Howbeit to Saul he did tell
The Philistines should him ascry,<155>
And the next day he should die,
I will myself discharge 1360
To lettered men at large:
But, Philip, I conjure thee
Now by these names three,
Diana in the woods green,
Luna that so bright doth shine,
Proserpina in hell,
That thou shortly tell,
And show now unto me
What the cause may be
Of this perplexity! 1370
Inferias, Philippe, tuas Scroupe pulchra Joanna
Instanter petiit: cur nostri carminis illam
Nunc pudet? est sero; minor est infamia vero.<156>
Then such as have disdained
And of this work complained,
I pray God they be pained
No worse than is contained
In verses two or three
That follow as ye may see.
Luride, cur, livor, volucris pia funera damnas? 1380
Talia te rapiant rapiunt quae fata volucrem!
Est tamen invidia mors tibi continua.<157>
NOTES TO PHILIP SPARROW
1. PHILIP SPARROW must have been written before the end of 1508; for it is mentioned with contempt in the concluding lines of Barclay's Ship of Fools, which was finished in that year: see Some Account of Skelton and his Writings.
The Luctus in morte Passeris of Catullus no doubt suggested the present production to Skelton, who, when he calls on "all manner of birds" (v. 387) to join in lamenting Philip Sparrow, seems also to have had an eye to Ovid's elegy In mortem Psittaci, Amor. ii. 6. Another piece of the kind is extant among the compositions of antiquity,—the Psittacus Atedii Melioris of Statius, Silv. ii. 4. In the Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Socraticae Joco-seriae, &c., of Dornavius, i. 460 sqq. may be found various Latin poems on the deaths, &c. of sparrows by writers posterior to the time of Skelton. See too Herrick's lines Upon the death of his Sparrow, an Elegy, Hesperides, 1648. p. 117; and the verses entitled Phyllis on the death of her Sparrow, attributed to Drummond, Works, 1711. p. 50. "Old Skelton's 'Philip Sparrow,' an exquisite and original poem." Coleridge's Remains, ii. 163. Page 61.
2. Placebo,
. . . .
Dilexi] "I will please . . . . I am well pleased". These, and many other Latin phrases in the poem, are taken from the Service for the Dead. See Glen Gunnhouse's Hypertext Book of Hours at http://www.medievalist.net/hourstxt/deadves.htm. Skelton is not the only writer that has taken liberties with the Catholic liturgy. In Chaucer's Court of Love, parts of it are sung by various birds; Domine, labia by the nightingale, Venite by the eagle, &c., Works, fol. 333. ed. 1602: in a short poem by Lydgate "diverse fowls" are introduced singing different hymns. MS. Harl. 2251. fol. 37: and see too a poem (attributed, without any authority, to Skelton) called Harmony of Birds, n. d., reprinted (inaccurately) in Typog. Antiq. iv. 380. ed. Dibdin; and Sir D. Lyndsay's Complaint of the Papingo, Works, i. 325. ed. Chalmers. In Reynard the Fox, we are told that at the burial of "coppe, chantecleer's daughter,"—"Then began they placebo domino, with the verses that belongen," &c. Sig. a 8. ed. 1481. Compare also the mock Requiem printed (somewhat incorrectly) from MS. Cott. Vesp. B. 16. in Ritson's Ancient Songs, i. 118. ed. 1829; Dunbar's Dirige to the King at Stirling, Poems, i. 86. ed. Laing; and the following lines of a rare tract entitled A Commemoration or Dirige of Bonner, &c., by Lemeke Auale, 1569,—
"Placebo. Bo. Bo. Bo. Bo. Bo.
Heu me, beware the bug, out quod Bonner alas,
De profundis clamavi, how is this matter come to pass.
Laevavi oculos meos from a dark deep place," &c.
sig. A viii.
(Placebo Domine –I will please the Lord"
Heu me–"Woe is me"
De profundis clamavi–"I have cried out from the depths"
Laevavi oculos meos–"I have raised my eyes")
Other pieces of the kind might be pointed out.
3. Philip Sparrow] Philip, or Phip, was a familiar name given to a sparrow from its note being supposed to resemble that sound.
4. Carrow] A nunnery in the suburbs of Norwich. "Here [at Norwich]," says Tanner, "was an ancient hospital or nunnery dedicated to St. Mary and St. John; to which K. Stephen having given lands and meadows without the south gate, Seyna and Leftelina two of the sisters, A. D. 1146, began the foundation of a new monastery called Kairo, Carow, or Carhou, which was dedicated to the blessed Virgin Mary, and consisted of a prioress and nine Benedictine nuns." Not. Mon. p. 347. ed. 1744. In 1273, Pope Gregory the Tenth inhibited the Prioress and convent from receiving more nuns than their income would maintain, upon their representation that the English nobility, whom they could not resist, had obliged them to take in so many sisters that they were unable to support them. At the Dissolution, the number of nuns was twelve. The site of the nunnery, within the walls, contained about ten acres. It was granted, with its chief revenues, in the 30th Henry viii. to Sir John Shelton, knight, who fitted up the parlour and hall, which were noble rooms, when he came to reside there, not long after the Dissolution. It continued in the Shelton family for several generations.
This nunnery was during many ages a place of education for the young ladies of the chief families in the diocese of Norwich, who boarded with and were taught by the nuns. The fair Jane or Johanna Scroupe of the present poem was, perhaps, a boarder at Carow.
See more concerning Carow in Dugdale's Monast. (new ed.) iv. 68 sqq., and Blomefield's Hist. of Nor folk, ii. 862 sqq. ed. fol.
5. Nuns Black] i.e. Black Nuns,—Benedictines.
6. The tears down hailed] So Hawes;
"That evermore the salt tears down hailed."
The Pastime of pleasure, sig. Q viii. ed. 1555.
7. Gib our cat] Gib, a contraction of Gilbert, was a name formerly given to a male cat:
Gib our Cat,
That awaiteth Mice and Rats to killen."
Romaunt of the Rose,—Chaucer's Works, fol. 136. ed. 1602.
8. Dominum, cum tribularer, clamavi] "When I was in tribulation I cried to our Lord" G. Gunhouse.
9. Acherontes' well] i.e. Acheron's well. So,—after the fashion of our early poets,—Skelton writes Zenophontes for Xenophon, Eneidos for Eneis, Achilliedos for Achilleis, &c.
10. outray] i.e. vanquish, overcome: and so in the following passages.
"Whom Hercules most strong and courageous,
Sometime outrayed, and slew him with his hand."
Lydgate's Fall of Princes, B. i. leaf xxvii. ed. Wayland.
"All be that Croesus fought long in his defence,
He finally by Cyrus was outrayed,
And deprived by knightly violence,
Take in the field," &c.
Ibid. B. ii. leaf lviii.
"But it may fall, a dwarf in his right,
To outray a giant for all his great might."
Ibid. B. iii. leaf lxvii.
11. Levavi oculos meos in montes] "I have lifted up mine eyes unto the mountains" G. Gunhouse.
12. Zenophontes] i.e. Xenophon: see note 9 above.
13. For to keep his cut,
With, Philip, keep your cut!] Compare Sir Philip Sidney in a sonnet;
"Good brother Philip, I have borne you long,
I was content you should in favour creep,
While craftily you seem'd your cut to keep,
As though that fair soft hand did you great wrong."
Astrophel and Stella, p. 548. ed. 1613.
Brome in The Northern Lass, 1632;
"A bonny bonny Bird I had
A bird that was my Marrow:
A bird whose pastime made me glad,
And Philip 'twas my Sparrow.
A pretty Playfere: Chirp it would,
And hop, and fly to fist,
Keep cut, as 'twere a Usurers Gold,
And bill me when I list."
Act iii. sc. 2. sig. G 2.
and in The New Academy; "But look how she turns and keeps cut like my Sparrow. She will be my back Sweet-heart still I see, and love me behind." Act iv. sc. 1. p. 72. (Five New Plays, 1659).
14. Between my breasts soft
It would lie and rest] So Catullus, in the beginning of his verses Ad Passerem Lesbiae, (a distinct poem from that mentioned above);
"Passer, delicae meae puellae,
Quicum ludere, quem in sinu tenere," &c.
(Sparrow, my girl's delight,
With which she plays, which she holds to her bosom")
15. Sin in i qui ta tes.] "Without evil"
16. De pro fun dis cla ma vi] "I cried out from the depths"
17. Sulpicia] Lived in the age of Domitian. Her satire De corrupto statu reipub. temporibus Domitiani, praesertim cum edicto Philosophos urbe exegisset, ("Of the corrupt condition of the state in the time of Domitian, especially as shown by the decree expelling philosophers from the City") may be found in Wernsdorf's ed. of Poetae Latini Minores, iii. 83.
18. Confitebor tibi, Domine, in toto corde meo] "I will confess to thee O Lord in my whole heart:" G. Gunhouse.
19. ride and go] A sort of pleonastic expression which repeatedly occurs in our early writers. [It means ride and walk.]
20. Pargame] i.e. Pergamus.
21. My Sparrow white as milk] Compare Sir P. Sidney;
"They saw a maid who thitherward did run,
To catch her sparrow which from her did swerve,
As she a black-silk Cap on him begun
To sett, for foil of his milk-white to serve."
Arcadia, lib. i. p. 85. ed. 1613.
22. A porta inferi] "Fom the gate of hell"
23. Au di vi vo cem] "I have heard the voice"
24. Ma gni fi cat] "He exalts"
25. Armony] i.e. Armenia.—So in Processus Noah;
"What ground may this be?
Noah. The hills of Armony."
Townley Myst. p. 32.
26. Wherefore the birds yet cry
Of your father's boat] The reading of Kele's ed.,"boards,", is perhaps the true one;—compare Piers Plowman;
"And [God] came to Noah anon, and bade him not let
Swith go shape a ship of shides and of boards."
Pass. Non. sig. M ii. ed. 1561
and qy. did Skelton write,—
"Whereon the boards yet lie?"
27. untwined] i.e. tore to pieces, destroyed: so again in our author's Garland of Laurel;
"This goodly flower with storms was untwined."
v. 1445.
28. Libany] i.e. Libya.
29. manticores] "Another manner of beasts there is in India that ben called manticora, and hath visage of a man, and three huge great teeth in his throat, he hath eyes like a goat and body of a lion, tail of a scorpion and voice of a serpent in such wise that by his sweet song he draweth to him the people and devoureth them and is more deliverer to go than is a fowl to flee." Caxton's Mirror of the world, 1480. sig. e vii. See also R. Holme's Ac. of Armory, 1688. B. ii. p. 212.—This fabulous account is derived from Pliny.
30. Melanchaetes, that hound] See the story of Actaeon in Ovid's Metam.;
"Prima Melanchaetes in tergo vulnera fecit."
iii. 232.
("First, Melanchaetes wounds his back.")
31. That his own lord bote,
Might bite asunder thy throat!]—bote, i.e. bit. So in Sir Tryamoure;
"He took the steward by the throat,
And asunder he it bote."
Early Pop. Poetry (by Utterson), i. 28.
32. The wild wolf Lycaon] See Ovid's Metam. i. 163 sqq. for an account of Lycaon, king of Arcadia, being transformed into a wolf. I ought to add, that he figures in a work well known to the readers of Skelton's time—The Recueil of the Histories of Troy.
33. And go in at my spare,
And creep in at my gore
Of my gown before] "Spare of a gown, fente de la robe." Palsgrave, p. 273. "That part of women's clothes, sik as of their gown or petticoat, quhilk under the belt and before is open, commonly is called the spare." Skene, quoted by Jamieson, Et. Dict. of Scot. Lang. in v. Spare. Gore, a triangular piece of cloth inserted at the bottom of a shirt or shift, to give breadth to the lower part of it.
34. Kyrie, eleison,
Christe, eleison,
Kyrie, eleison!] "Lord, have mercy,
Christ, have mercy
Lord, have mercy!"
35. Lauda anima mea, Dominum] "May my soul praise you, O Lord"
36. To weep with me look that ye come,
All manner of birds in your kind, &c.] Compare Ovid (see note 1 above);
"Psittacus, Eois imitatrix ales ab Indis,
Occidit: exequias ite frequenter, aves.
Ite, piae volucres, et plangite pectora pennis,
Et rigido teneras ungue notate genas.
Horrida pro moestis lanietur pluma capillis,
Pro longa resonent carmina vestra tuba."
Amor. lib. ii. El. vi. 5. 1.
("Our parrot, winged mimic of the human voice, sent from farthest Ind, is dead. Come ye in flocks, ye birds, unto his obsequies. Come, ye pious denizens of the air; beat your bosoms with your wings and with your rigid claws, score furrows on your dainty heads. Even as mourners rend their hair, rend ye your ruffled plumes. Since the far-sounding clarion is silent, sing ye a doleful song" J. Lewis May)
37. jangling] i.e. babbling, chattering—an epithet generally applied to the jay by our old poets.
38. The dotterel, that foolish peak] The dotterel is said to allow itself to be caught, while it imitates the gestures of the fowler: peak, seems here to be used by Skelton in the sense of—contemptible fellow; so in his Colyn Cloute;
Of such Pater-noster peaks
All the world speaks."
v. 264.
And see Todd's Johnson's Dict., and Richardson's Dict. in v. Peak.
39. To keep just plain-song,
Our chanters shall be the cuckoo] So Shakespeare mentions "the plain-song cuckoo gray." Mids. Night's Dream, act iii. sc. 1.
40. peewit the lapwing] In some parts of England, the lapwing is called peewit from its peculiar cry.
41. The bittern with his bump] "The Bitter, or Bittern, Bumpeth, when he puts his Bill in the reeds." R. Holme's Ac. of Armory, 1688. B. ii. p. 310.
42. Menander] Means here Maeander: but I have not altered the text; because our early poets took great liberties with classical names; because all the eds. of Skelton's Speak, Parrot, have
"Alexander, a gander of Menander's pool."
v. 178.
and because the following passage occurs in a poem by some imitator of Skelton;
"Wots not where to wander,
Whether to Meander,
Or unto Menander."
The Image of Hypocrisy, Part Third.
43. wake] i.e. watching of the dead body during the night.
44. The owl, that is so foul]—foul, i.e. ugly. The Houlate, (in the poem so called, by Holland), says,
"Thus all the fowls, for my filth, has me at feud."
Pinkerton's Scot. Poems, iii. 149.
45. the gaggling gant]—gaggling is cackling: Our author in his Elynour Rumming has
"In came another dant,
With a goose and a gant."
v. 515.
where gant is plainly used for gander. In the present passage, however, gant must have a different signification ("The goose and the gander" being mentioned v. 435), and means, I apprehend,—wild goose. [Rather gannet, solan goose, as explained by Way, Promptor. Parvul. vol. i. p. 186.]
46. The barnacle] i.e. The goose-barnacle, concerning the production of which the most absurd fables were told and credited: some asserted that it was originally the shell-fish called barnacle, others that it grew on trees, &c.
47. Money they shall deal, &c.] According to the ancient custom at funerals.
48. brabbling] i.e. clamour, noise—properly, quarrel, squabble.
49. the osprey
That putteth fishes to a fray]—fray, i.e. fright. It was said that when the osprey, which feeds on fish, hovered over the water, they became fascinated and turned up their bellies.
50. The stork also,
That maketh his nest
In chimneys to rest;
Within those walls
No broken galls
May there abide
Of cuckoldry side] The stork breeds in chimney-tops, and was fabled to forsake the place, if the man or wife of the house committed adultery. The following lines of Lydgate will illustrate the rest of the passage:
"a certain knight,
Gyges called, thing shameful to be told,
To speak plain English, made him [i.e. Candaules] cuckold.
Alas! I was not advised well before,
Unconningly to speak such language:
I should have said how that he had an horn,
Or sought some term with a fair visage,
To excuse my rudeness of this great outrage:
And in some land Cornodo men do them call,
And some affirm that such folk have no gall."
Fall of Princes, B. ii. leaf lvi. ed Wayland.
51. The ostrich, that will eat
An horseshoe so great].—In Struthiocamelus, a portion of that strange book Philomnythie, &c., by Tho. Scot., 1616, a merchant seeing an ostrich, in the desert, eating iron, asks
"What nourishment can from those metals grow?
The Ostrich answers; Sir, I do not eat
This iron, as you think I do, for meat.
I only keep it, lay it up in store,
To help my needy friends, the friendless poor.
I often meet (as far and near I go)
Many a foundered horse that wants a shoe,
Serving a Master that is moneyless
Such I relieve and help in their distress"
Sig. E 7.
52. at a braid] Has occurred before in our author's Bowge of Court, where it means – in an instant; but here it seems to have a somewhat different meaning, and to signify—at an effort, at a push. "At a braid, Faisant mon effort, ton effort, son effort, &c." Palsgrave, p. 831. This expression is used here in connection with singing: [?] and in one of the Christmas Carols, printed for the Percy Society, p. 51, we find,
"Wherefore sing we all at a braid, Noel."
53. E-la] i.e. the highest note in the scale of music.
54. Ne quando
Male cantando,] "Nor when, singing badly"
55. The best that we can,
To make him our bell-man,
And let him ring the bells;
He can do nothing else] "Sit campanista, qui non vult esse sophista, Let him be a bell-ringer, that will be no good Singer." Withals's Dict. p. 178. ed. 1634.
56. Chanticleer, our cock,
. . . .
By the astrology
That he hath naturally,&c.] So Chaucer;
"But when the cock, common Astrologer,
Gan on his breast to beat," &c.
Troilus and Cressida, B. iii. fol. 164.—Works, ed. 1602.
See also Lydgate's Wars of Troy, B. i. sig. D v. ed. 1555; and his copy of verses (entitled in the Catalogue Advices for people to keep a guard over their tongues), MS. Harl. 2255. fol. 132.
57. Albumasar] A famous Arabian, of the ninth century.
58. Haly] Another famous Arabian: "claruit circa A. C. 1100." Fabr. Bibl. Gr. Xiii. 17.
59. Partlot his hen] So in Chaucer's Nun's Priests Tale; Lydgate's copy of verses (entitled in the Catalogue Advices for people to keep a guard over their tongues), MS. Harl. 2255. fol. 132; and G. Douglas's Prol. to the xii Book of his Eneados, p. 401. l. 54. ed. Ruddiman, who conjectures that the name was applied to a hen in reference to the ruff (the partlet), or ring of feathers about her neck.
60. Libera me] "Set me free."
61. B molle] i.e. B flat. So in the last stanza of a poem by W. Cornishe, printed in Marshe's ed. of Skelton's Works, 1568;
"I keep by round and he by square
The one is B molle and the other B quare."
(B quare is B sharp)
62. Pliny showeth all
In his Story Natural] See Historia Naturalis, lib. x. sect. 2.
63. the sedean] Does it mean subdean, or subdeacon? [Sedekine, sub-deacon. Halliwell, Dict.]
64. the noble falcon] "There are seven kinds of Falcons, and among them all for her nobleness and hardy courage, and withal the frankness of her mettle, I may, and do mean to place the Falcon gentle in chief." Turbervile's Book of Falconry, &c. p. 25. ed. 1611.
65. the gyrfalcon] "Is a gallant Hawk to behold, more huge then any other kind of Falcon, &c." ibid. p. 42.
66. The tiercel gentle] Is properly the male of the goshawk; but Skelton probably did not use the term in its exact meaning, for in the fifth line after this he mentions "the goshawk." It is commonly said (see Steevens's note, on Romeo and Juliet, act ii. sc. 2.) to be called tiercel because it is a tierce or third less than the female. But, according to Turbervile, " he is termed a Tiercelet, for that there are most commonly disclosed three birds in one self eyrie, two Hawks and one Tiercel." Book of Falconry, &c. p. 59. ed. 1611.
67. Amice]— properly the first of the six vestments common to the bishop and presbyters. "First do on the amice, then the alb, then the girdle, then the maniple, then the stole, then the chasuble." Hormanni Vulgaria, sig. E iiii. ed. 1530.
68. The saker] A hawk "much like the Falcon Gentle for largeness, and the Haggard for hardiness." Turbervile's Book of Falconry, &c. p. 45. ed. 1611.
69. The lanners and the merlins] "They are more blank (i.e. white) Hawks then any other, they have less beaks than the rest, and are less armed and pounced then other Falcons be." Turbervile's Book of Falconry, &c. p. 47. ed. 1611. — the merlins,—the smallest of the hawks used by falconers.
70. The hobby] "Of all birds of prey that belong to the Falconers use, I know none less than the Hobby, unless it be the Merlyn." Turbervile's Book of Falconry, &c. p. 53. ed. 1611.
71. the musket] i.e. the male sparrow-hawk. "You must note, that all these kind of hawks have their male birds and cocks of every sort and gender, as the Eagle his Erne and the Sparrow hawk his Musket." Turbervile's Book of Falconry, &c. p. 3. "The male sparrow hawk is called a musket." The Country Farm, p. 877. ed. 1600.
72. The kestrel] A sort of base-bred hawk.
73. holy water clerk] Aquaebajulus, an office usually mentioned with contempt.
74. Requiem aeternum dona eis, Domine] "Grant them eternal rest, O Lord"
75. Credo videre bona Domini] "I believe I shall see the good Lord"
76. Domine, exaudi orationem meam] "Lord, hear my prayer"
77. Oremus,
Deus, cui proprium est misereri et parcere] "Let us pray,
O God whose nature is to have mercy and to spare"
78. And wrapped in a maiden's smock] Spenser seems to have recollected this passage: he says, that when Cupid was stung by a bee, Venus
"took him straight full piteously lamenting,
And wrapt him in her smock."
See a little poem in his Works, viii. 185. ed. Todd.
79. the pretty wren,
That is our Lady's hen] So in a poem (attributed, on no authority, to Skelton) entitled Harmony of Birds, n. d., and reprinted entire in Typogr. Antiq. iv. 380. ed. Dibdin;
"Then said the wren,
I am called the hen
Of our lady most comely."
p. 382.
Wilbraham, in his Cheshire Gloss. p. 105, gives the following metrical adage as common in that county;
"The Robin and the Wren
Are God's cock and hen,
The Martin and the Swallow
Are God's mate and marrow."
In the Ballad of Kind Kittock, attributed to Dunbar, we are told that after death she "was our Lady's hen-wife," Poems, ii. 36. ed. Laing.—An Elysium, very different from that described in the somewhat profane passage of our text, is assigned by the delicate fancy of Ovid to the parrot of his mistress, in the poem to which (as I have before observed, Skelton seems to have had an eye;
"Colle sub Elysio nigra nemus illice frondens," &c.
Amor. 6. 49.
("There, in Elysium, on a hill-side's gentle slope there stands a forest of broad, shady oaks" J. Lewis May)
80. Of Gawain] Son of King Lot and nephew of King Arthur. Concerning him, see the Morte d'Arthur (of which some account is given in Note 83 below,—Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, in MS. Cott. Nero A. x. fol. 91,—Ywaine and Gawain, in Ritson's Met. Rom. vol. i.,—the fragment of The Marriage of Sir Gawaine, at the end of Percy's Rel. of A. E. P.,—The Adventures of Arthur at the Terne Wathelyn, in Laing's Early Pop. Poetry of Scot., (the same romance, from a different MS., under the title of Sir Gawain and Sir Galaron of Galloway, in Pinkerton's Scot. Poems, vol. iii.),—The Knightly Tale of Golagrus and Gawain, reprinted at Edinburgh in 1827 from the ed. of 1508, (the same romance, under the title of Gawain and Gologras, in Pinkerton's Scot. Poems, vol. iii.),—and the romance of Arthur and Merlin, from the Auchinleck MS., published by the Abbotsford Club, 1838.
I had written the above note before the appearance of a valuable volume put forth by the Bannatyne Club, entitled Syr Gawayne; A collection of Ancient Romance-Poems, by Scotish and English Authors, relating to that celebrated Knight of the Round Table, with an Introduction, &c., by Sir F. Madden, 1839.
81. Sir Guy] In The Rime of Sir Thopas, Chaucer mentions "Sir Guy" as one of the "romances of pris." For an account of, extracts from, and an analysis of, the English romance on the subject of this renowned hero of Warwick, see Ritson's Met. Rom. (Dissert.) i. xcii., Warton's Hist. of E. P. i. 169. ed. 4to., and Ellis's Spec. of Met. Rom. ii. I must also refer the reader to a volume, issued by the Abbotsford Club, entitled The Romances of Sir Guy of Warwick, and Rembrun his son. Now first edited from the Auchinleck MS. 1840.
82. the Golden Fleece,
How Jason it won] A book of the whole life of Jason was printed by Caxton in folio, n. d. (about 1475), being a translation by that venerable typographer from the French of Raoul le Fevre. A copy of it (now before me) in the King's Library, though apparently perfect, has no title of any sort. Specimens of this prose-romance, which is not without merit, may be found in Dibdin's Biblioth. Spenc. iv. 199.—The story of Jason is also told by Chaucer, Legend of Hipsiphile and Medea; by Gower, Conf. Am. Lib. v. ; and, at considerable length, by Lydgate. Wars of Troy, B. i.
83. Of Arthur's Round Table,
With his knights commendable,
And Dame Gaynour, his queen,
Was somewhat wanton, I ween;
How Sir Lancelot de Lake
Many a spear brake
For his lady's sake;
Of Tristram, and King Mark,
And all the whole work
Of Belle Isolde his wife
For whom was much strife;] Concerning the various romances on the subject of Arthur, Lancelot, Tristram, &c. see Sir F. Madden's Introduction to the volume already mentioned, Syr Gawayne, &c.—In this passage, however, Skelton seems to allude more particularly to a celebrated compilation from the French— the prose romance of The Birth, Life, and Acts of King Arthur, &c., commonly known by the name of Morte d'Arthur. At the conclusion of the first edition printed in folio by Caxton (and reprinted in 1817 with an Introd. and Notes by Southey) we are told "this book was ended the ix. year of the reign of king Edward the Fourth by sir Thomas Malory, knight" . . . "which book was reduced into English by Sir Thomas Malory knight as before is said and by me [Caxton] divided into xxi books chaptered and emprinted and finished in th'abbey Westminster the last day of July the year of our lord mcccmxxxv. "
In the Morte d'Arthur, the gallant and courteous Sir Lancelot du Lake, son of King Ban of Benwyck, figures as the devoted lover of Arthur's queen, Guinevere (Skelton's "Gaynour"), daughter of King Lodegreans of Camelard. On several occasions, Guinevere after being condemned to be burnt, is saved by the valour of her knight. But their criminal intercourse proves in the end the destruction of Arthur and of the fellowship of the Round Table. Guinevere becomes a nun, Lancelot a priest. The last meeting of the guilty pair,—the interment of Guinevere's body by her paramour,—and the death of Lancelot, are related with no ordinary pathos and simplicity. The same work treats fully of the loves of Sir Tristram, son of King Melyodas of Lyonesse, and La Belle Isoud (Skelton's "Belle Isolde"), daughter of King Angus of Ireland, and wife of King Mark of Cornwall, Tristram's uncle.—(Tristram's wife, Isoud La Blaunche Maynys, was daughter of King Howel of Bretagne).—The excuse for the intrigue between Tristram and his uncle's spouse is, that their mutual passion was the consequence of a love-potion, which they both drank without being aware of its nature.
"In our forefathers time," observes Ascham, some what severely, "when Papistry, as a standing pool, covered and overflowed all England, few books were read in our tongue, saving certain books of Chivalry, as they said for pastime and pleasure, which, as some say, were made in Monasteries, by idle Monks, or wanton Canons: as one for example Morte Arthur: the whole pleasure of which book standeth in two special points, in open manslaughter, and bold bawdry: in which book, those be counted the noblest knights, that do kill most men without any quarrel, and commit foulest adulteries by subtlest shifts: as Sir Lancelot, with the wife of king Arthur his master: Sir Tristram, with the wife of King Mark his uncle: Sir Lamorak, with the wife of king Lot, that was his own aunt. This is good stuff, for wise men to laugh at, or honest men to take pleasure at. Yet I know, when God's Bible was banished the Court, and Morte Arthure received into the Prince's chamber." The School Master, fol. 27. ed. 1571.
84. — of syr Lybius,
Named Dysconius] See the romance of Lybeaus Disconus (Le beau desconnu), in Ritson's Met. Rom. ii.; also Sir F. Madden's note in the volume entitled Syr Gawayne, &c. p. 346.
85. Of Quater Fylx Amund,
. . how they rode eche one
On Bayarde Mountalbon;
Men se hym now and then
In the forest of Arden] The English prose romance on the subject of these worthies came originally from the press of Caxton, an imperfect copy of his edition n. d. folio, being in Lord Spencer's library; see Dibdin's AEdes Althorp. ii. 298: and that it was also translated from the French by Caxton himself, there is every reason to believe; see Dibdin's Bibliog. Decam. 438. According to the colophon of Copland's ed., this romance was reprinted in 1504 by Wynkyn de Worde; see Typ. Antiq. ii. 116. ed. Dibdin. Copland's edition has the following title: The right pleasant and goodly History of the four sons of Aimon the which for the excellent indicting of it, and for the notable Prowess and great virtues that were in them: is no less pleasant to read, than worthy to be known of all estates both high and low, M.CCCCC.LIIII. folio.
The names of the brothers were "Reynawde, Alarde, Guycharde, and Rycharde, that were wonderful fair, witty, great, mighty, and valiaunt, specially Reynawde which was the greatest and the tallest man that was found at that time in all the world. For he had xvi. feet of length and more." fol. i. ed. Copl. The father of this hopeful family was Duke of Ardeyne.
Bayarde—(properly a bay horse, but used for a horse in general)—" was such a horse, that never was his like in all the world nor never shall be except Busifal the horse of the great King Alexander. For as for to have run. xxx. mile together he would never have sweated. The said Bayarde this horse was grown in the Isle of Boruscan; and Mawgys the son of the duke Benes of Aygremount had given to his cousin Reynawde, that after made the King Charlemagne full wroth and sorry." fol. v. Reynawde had a castle in Gascoigne called Mountawban; hence Skelton's expression, "Bayarde Mountalbon." A woodcut on the title-page represents the four brothers riding "each one" upon the poor animal. "I," says Reynawde, relating a certain adventure, "mounted upon Bayarde and my brethern I made to mount also th'one before and the two other behind me, and thus rode we all four upon my horse Bayarde." fol. lxxxii. Charlemagne, we are told, made peace with Reynawde on condition that he should go as a pilgrim, poorly clothed and begging his bread, to the holy land, and that he should deliver up Bayarde to him. When Charlemagne had got possession of the horse,—"Ha Bayarde, Bayarde," said he, "thou hast often angered me, but I am come to the point, god gramercy, for to avenge me;" and accordingly he caused Bayarde to be thrown from a bridge into the river Meuse, with a great millstone fastened to his neck. "Now ye ought to know that after that Bayarde was cast in the river of Meuse: he went unto the bottom as ye have heard, and might not come up for because of the great stone that was at his neck which was horrible heavy, and when Bayarde saw he might none otherwise escape: he smote so long and so hard with his feet upon the millstone: that he burst it, and came again above the water and began to swim, so that he passed it all over at the other side, and whan he was come to lande: He shaked himselfe for to make fall the water fro him and began to cry high, and made a marvellous noise, and after began to run so swiftly as the tempest had borne him away, and entered in to the great forest of Ardennes . . . and wit it for very certain that the folk of the countrey sayen, that he is yet alive within the wood of Ardennes. But wit it when he seeth man or woman: He runneth anon away, so that no body may come near him." fol. cxlv.
86. Of Judas Machabeus] "Gaultier de Belleperche Arbalestrier, ou Gaultier Arbalestrier de Belleperche, commenca le Romans de Judas Machabee, poursuivit jusques à sa mort . . . . Pierre du Riez le continua jusques à la fin." ("Gaultier &c. started the Romance of Judas Maccabeus, and worked on it until his death, Pierre du Riez continued it to the end.") Fauchet's Reveil de l'origine de la langue et poesie Française, &c., p. 197.
87. of Caesar Julius] In the prologue to an ancient MS. poem, The book of Stories called Cursor Mundi, translated from the French, mention is made of the romance "Of Julius Caesar the emperor." Warton's Hist. of E. P., i. 123, note, ed. 4to.
88. of the love between
Paris and Vienne] This prose romance was printed by Caxton in folio: Here beginneth t'history of the noble right valiant and worthy knight Paris, and of the fair Vienne the dauphin's daughter of Viennois, the which suffered many adversities because of their true love ere they could enjoy the effect therof of each other. Colophon: Thus endeth t'history of the noble, &c. &c., translated out of French into English by William Caxton at Westminster finshed the last day of August the year of our Lord MCCCCLXXXV, and enprinted the xix day of December the same year, and the first year of the reign of king Harry the seventh.
Gawin Douglas tells us in his Palace of Honour, that, among the attendants on Venus,
"Of France I saw there Paris and Vienne."
p. 16. Bann. ed.
89. duke Hannibal]—duke, i.e. leader, lord.— So Lydgate;
"Which brother was unto duke Hannibal."
Fall of Princes, B. ii. leaf xlv. ed. Wayland;
and in a copy of verses entitled Thank God of all, he applies the word to our Saviour;
"The dearworth duke that deem us shall."
MS. Cott. Calig. A ii. fol. 66.
90. Of Hector of Troy,
That was all their joy] See the Wars of Troy by Lydgate, a paraphrastical translation of Guido de Colonna's Historia Trojana: it was first printed in 1513. See too the Recueil of the Histories of Troy. Compare Hawes;
"Of the worthy Hector that was all their joye."
The Pastime of pleasure, sig. P iii. ed. 1555.
91. of the love so hot
That made Troilus to dote
Upon fair Cressid, &c.] See Chaucer's Troilus and Creseide.
92. ouche] i.e. a buckle, clasp, brooch; or any other ornament. —Concerning ouche, a word whose etymology and primary signification are uncertain, see Tyrwhitt's Gloss. to Chaucer's Cant. Tales, v. Nouches, and Richardson's Dict. in v. Ouch.—Here, perhaps, it means a brooch: for in the third book of Chaucer's Troilus and Creseide, Cressid proposes that Pandarus should bear a "blue ring" from her to Troilus; and (ibid.) afterwards the lovers
"interchanged their rings,
Of which I can not tellen no scripture,
But well I wot, a broche of gold and azure,
In which a Ruby set was like an heart,
Cresseid him gave, and stuck it on his shirt."
Chaucer's Works, fol. 164. ed. 1602.
After Cressid becomes acquainted with Diomede, she gives him a brooch, which she had received from Troilus on the day of her departure from Troy. Ibid. fols. 179, 181.
93. That made the male to to wring] So Skelton elsewhere;
"That ye can not espy
Howe the male doth wry."
Colyn Cloute, v. 687.
"The countering at Calais
Wrung us on the males."
Why come ye not to Court, v. 74.
and so Lydgate;
"Now all so mote I thrive and thé, said he then,
I can not see for all wits and espies,
And craft and cunning, but that the male so wries
That no cunning may prevail and appear
Against a woman's wit and her answer."
The prohemy of a marriage, &c. MS. Harl. 372. fol. 50.
94. kiss the post] i.e. to be baffled, fail of one's object. So Barclay;
"Yet from beginning absent if thou be,
Either shalt thou lose thy meat and kiss the post," &c.
Egloge ii. sig. B iiii. ed. 1570.
The expression is found in much later writers: see, for instance, Heywood's Woman Killed with Kindness, sig. E 2. ed. 1617.
95. of Antiochus] Whom Chaucer calls "the cursed king Antiochus." The Man of Law's Prol. v. 4502. ed. Tyr. His story may be found in Gower's Confessio Amantis, lib. viii. fol. clxxv. sqq. ed. 1554.
96. De Antiquitatibus] "Of the Antiquities " i.e The Antiquites of the Jews by Flavius Josephus.
97. of Mardocheus,
And of great Ahasuerus, &c.] "Even scripture-history was turned into romance. The story of Esther and Ahasueras, or of Anion or Hanlon, and Mardocheus or Mordecai, was formed into a fabulous poem." Warton, note on Hist. of E. P. ii. 178. (where some lines of the romance are quoted from a MS.) ed. 4to.
98. Vesca] i.e. Vashti.
99. Of king Alexander] See Weber's Introduction, p. xx. sqq., and the romance of King Alexander in his Met. Rom. i.; also The Book of the most noble and vailiant Conqueror Alexander the Great, reprinted by the Bannatyne Club, 1831.
100. of king Evander] As the lady declares (v. 756) that she was slightly acquainted with Virgil, we may suppose that her knowledge of this personage was derived from The Recueil of the Histories of Troy, and Caxton's Book of Eneydos.
101. too diffuse for me] i.e. too difficult for me to understand. "Diffuse, hard to be understand." Palsgrave, p. 310.
"But oft yet by it [logic] a thing plain, bright and pure,
Is made diffuse, unknown, hard and obscure."
Barclay's Ship of Fooles, fol. 53. ed. 1570.
102. ennewed] "I Ennewe, I set the last and freshest colour upon a thing, as painters do when their work shall remain to declare their cunning, Je renouvelle. Your image is in manner done; so soon as I have ennewed it I will send it you home," &c. Palsgrave, p. 536.
"Alike ennewed with quickness of colour,
Both of the rose and the lily flower."
Lydgate's Wars of Troy, B. ii. sig. I ii. ed. 1555.
103. John Lydgate
Writeth after an higher rate] Lydgate, however, disclaims all elevation of style: see his Fall of Princes, Prol. sig. A iii. ed. Wayland; his Wars of Troy, B. ii. sigs. F ii, K ii, B. v. sigs. E e i. ii. iii. ed. 1555.
104. No man that can amend, &c.] So Hawes, speaking of the works of Chaucer, Gower, and Lydgate;
"Whose famous draughts no man can amende."
The Pastime of pleasure, sig. G iiii. ed. 1555.
105. In worth] i.e. kindly.
106. Flos volucrum formose, vale!
. . . .
Pectore semper eris] "Farewell, beautiful flower of birds! Philip, you lie beneath this marble, you who were dear to me. Your image will be graven on my heart, as long as the stars shine in the sky"
107. Per me laurigerum
. . . .
Bien m'en souvient] "This poem is allowed to be sung by me, Skelton, the Poet Laureate of Britain. Johanna, the virgin who owned the bird, is most excellent, more beautiful in her person, purer than the Naiad; Corinna was taught it, but the learned themselves know it. I well remember it." ???
108. Beati immaculati in via,
O gloriosa femina] "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, O most renowned lady"
109. If Arethusa will send
Me influence to indite] Skelton recollected that Virgil had invoked this nymph as a Muse;
"Extremum hunc, Arethusa, mihi concede laborem."
Ecl. x. 1.
("My last task this – vouchsafe me it, Arethusa!" H.R.Fairclough)
110. She flourisheth new and new
In beauty and virtue] So Lydgate:
"And ever increasing in virtue new and new."
The Temple of Glas., sig. b vii. n. d. 4to.
111. Hac claritate gemina,
O gloriosa femina] "O most renowned and doubly bright lady"
112. Retribue servo tuo, vivifica me!
Labia mea laudabunt te]
"Reward your servant, so that I may live!
My lips praise you"
113. odious Envy, &c.] Here Skelton has an eye to Ovid's picture of Envy:
"Pallor in ore sedet; macies in corpore toto:
Nusquam recta acies: livent rubigine dentes:
Pectora felle virent: lingua est suffusa veneno.
Risus abest, nisi quem visi movere dolores.
Nec, fruitur somno, vigilacibus excita curis:
Sed videt ingratos, intabescitque videndo,
Successus hominum: carpitque et carpitur una:
Suppliciumque suum est."
Met. ii. 775
("Her sight is skewed, her teeth are livid with decay, her breast is green with bile, and her tongue is suffused with venom. She only smiles at the sight of suffering. She never sleeps, excited by watchful cares. She finds men's successes disagreeable, and pines away at the sight. She gnaws and being gnawed is also her own punishment." A. S. Kline)
See too the description of Envy in Piers Plowman, sig. F ii. ed. 1561.
114. Lean as a rake] From Chaucer.
"As lean was his horse as is a rake."
Prol. to Cant. Tales, v. 289. ed. Tyr.
115. Legem pone mihi, domina, viam justificationum tuarum!
Quemadmodum desiderat cervus ad fontes aquarum]
"Set before me for a law the way of thy justifications, O Lady!
As the hart panteth after the fountains of water."
116. With her browes bent] —bent, i.e. arched. Compare Hawes;
"Her forehead steep with fair brows ybent,
Her eyen gray."
The Pastime of pleasure. sig. S i. ed. 1555
I may just observe that these passages (and many others which might be cited) show how unnecessarily Ritson substituted "brent" for "bent" in The Squire of Low Degree; see his note, Met. Rom. iii. 351.
117. Polexene] i.e. Polyxena, the daughter of Priam,—celebrated by Lydgate in his Wars of Troy, and by others.
118. Memor esto verb tui servo tuo!
Servus tuus sum ego] "Be thou mindful of thy word to thy servant. I am thy servant."
119. with favour fret]— favour,i.e. beauty; so Skelton has "features favourable," in the second of his Divers Ballads and Ditties Solacious, v. 8; fret, I believe, does not here mean fraught (see Tyrwhitt's Gloss. to Chaucer's Cant. Tales), but is equivalent to—wrought, adorned,— in allusion to fret-work; so in our author's Garland of Laurel,—
"Fret all with orient pearls of Garnet."
v. 485.
120. The columbine commendable,
The jelofer amiable] jelofer is perhaps what we now call gillyflower; but it was formerly the name for the whole class of carnations, pinks, and sweet-williams. So Graunde Amoure terms La Bell Pucell;
"The gentil jelofer, the goodly columbine."
Hawes's Pastime of pleasure, sig. N i. ed. 1555.
121. Bonitatem fecisti cum servo tuo, domina,
Et ex praecordiis sonant praeconia]
"Thou hast done well with thy servant, O lady.
And declarations sound forth from the breast."
122. scar] i.e the wart.
123. Enhatched] i.e. Inlaid: our author has the word again in his Garland of Laurel;
"Enhatched with pearl and stones preciously."
v. 40.
124. To forget deadly sin] Compare the first of our author's Divers Ballads and Ditties Solacious, v. 11.
125. Defecit in salutatione tua anima mea;
Quid petis filio, mater dulcissima? babae!]
"My soul hath fainted after thy salvation.
What do you ask for your son, O sweetest mother? O wonderful!"
126. make to the lure] A metaphor from falconry: "Lure is that whereto Falconers call their young Hawks, by casting it up in the air, being made of feathers and leather, in such wise that in the motion it looks not unlike a fowl." Latham's Falconry (Explan. of Words of Art), 1658.
127. Quomodo dilexi legem tuam, domina!
Recedant vetera, nova sint omnia]
"How I am pleased with your law, O lady!
The old things have departed, everything is new."
128. And to amend her tale,
When she list to avail] — avail is generally—to let down, to lower: [condescended to show me some favor?] but I know not how to explain the present passage, which appears to be defective.
129. And hands soft as silk,
Whiter than the milk,
That are so quickly veined] — quickly veined i.e. lively veined. Compare Hawes;
"By her proper hand, soft as any silk."
The Pastime of pleasure, sig. II iiii. ed. 1555.
"Her fingers small, and thereto right long,
White as the milk, with blue veins among."
Ibid. sig. S
130. reclaimed] A metaphor from falconry. "Reclaiming is to tame, make gentle, or to bring a Hawk to familiarity with the man." Latham's Falconry (Explan. of Words of Art), 1658.
131. Iniquos odio habui!
Non calumnientur me superbi]
"I have hated the unjust!
Let not the proud calumniate me."
132. She is plainly express
Egeria, the goddess,
And like to her image,
Emportured with courage,
A lover's pilgrimage] I must leave the reader to form his own idea of the meaning of the last two lines, which are beyond my comprehension. [Perhaps—made to bear herself (or else, simply portrayed) with courage (feeling); a fit object for lovers to make pilgrimages to.]
133. Mirabilia testimonia tua!
Sicut novellae plantationes in juventute sua]
"Thy testimonies are wonderful!
As new plants in their youth."
134. So goodly as she dresses,
So properly she presses
The bright golden tresses
Of her hair so fine,
Like Phoebus' beams shine.
Whereto should I disclose
The gartering of her hose?] — Phoebus' beams shine, i.e. the shine of Phoebus' beams. Compare Hawes;
"Her shining hair so properly she dresses
Alofe her forehead with fair golden tresses
. . . . .
Her feet proper, she gartered well her hose."
The Pastime of pleasure, sig. S i. ed. 1555
135. Clamavi in toto corde, exaudi me!
Misericordia tua magna est super me]
"I cried with my whole heart, hear me.
Thy mercy is great towards me."
136. Kirtle] "Kirtle, a garment, corpset, surcot, cotelle." Palsgrave, p. 236. It has been variously explained (see notes on Henry IV. Part ii. act ii. sc. 4, Shakespeare by Malone and Boswell, xvii. 98, 99, Todd's Johnson's Dict., and Nares's Gloss.), petticoat,—safe-guard or riding-hood,—long cloak,—long mantle, reaching to the ground, with a head to it that entirely covered the face, and usually red,—apron,—jacket,—and loose gown!!! The following note by Gifford on Cynthia's Revels (Jonson's Works, ii. 260) gives the most satisfactory account of a kirtle: "Few words have occasioned such controversy among the commentators on our old plays as this; and all for want of knowing that it is used in a twofold sense, sometimes for the jacket merely, and sometimes for the train or upper petticoat attached to it. A full kirtle was always a jacket and petticoat, a half kirtle (a term which frequently occurs) was either the one or the other: but our ancestors, who wrote when this article of dress was everywhere in use, and when there was little danger of being misunderstood, most commonly contented themselves with the simple term (kirtle), leaving the sense to be gathered from the context."
137. Principes persecuti sunt me gratis!
Omnibus consideratis,
Paradisus voluptatis
Haec virgo est dulcissima]
"Princes have persecuted me without cause!
All things considered
A paradise of delights
Is this sweetest girl."
138. Domine, probasti me] "Lord, thou hast proved (i.e.tested) me"
139. Tibi, Domine, commendamus] "To you, Lord, we commend ourselves."
140. Car elle vaut] "Because she wishes it."
141. Per me laurigerum Britonum Skeltonida vatem] "By me, Skelton, poet laureate of Britain."
142. Laudibus eximiis merito haec redimita puella est:
Formosam cecini, qua non formosior nulla est;
Formosam potius quam commendaret Homerus.
Sic juvat interdum rigidos recreare labores,
Nec minus hoc titulo tersa .Minerva mea est.
Rien que plaisir]
"This girl deserves to be garlanded with praises.
I sing of the beauty than whom none is more beautiful.
The beauty greater than the one praised by Homer [i.e. Helen of Troy]
In this way she makes tedious labour delightful
Not least this little poem. She is my Goddess Minerva.
Nothing but pleasing."
143. an addition] Though found in all the eds. of Philip Sparrow which I have seen, it was not, I apprehend, originally published with the poem. It is inserted (and perhaps first appeared) in our author's Garland of Laurel, v. 1258, where he tells us that some persons "take grievance, and grudge with frowning countenance," at his poem on Philip Sparrow,—alluding probably more particularly to Barclay; see Account of Skelton and his Writings.
144. deprave] i.e. vilify, defame. "Thus was sir Arthur depraved and evil said of." Morte d'Arthur, B. xxi. c. i. vol. ii. 433. ed. Southey.
145. Hercules that hell did harrow] Hercules having carried away from it his friends Theseus and Pirithous, as well as the dog Cerberus. The harrowing of hell was an expression properly and constantly applied to our Lord's descent into hell, as related in the Gospel of Nicodemus. There were several early miracle-plays on this favourite subject; and Lydgate strangely enough says that Christ
"Took out of hell souls many a pair,
Maugre Cerberus and al his cruelty."
Testamentum,–MS. Harl. 2255. fol. 49.
I may add, that Warner, speaking of Hercules, uses the words "harrowed hell." Albion's England, p. 23. ed. 1612.
146. Slew of the Epidaures, &c.] Qy. is not the text corrupted here?
147. Onocentaures] Like a centaur, but half human and half ass, rather than horse. However, see AElian De Nat. Anim. lib. xvii. c. 9. ed. Gron., and Phile De Anim. Prop. c. 44. ed. Pauw. Both these writers describe the onocentaur as having the bosom of a woman. R. Holme says it "is a Monster, being the Head and Breasts of a Woman set upon the Shoulders of a Bull." Ac. of Armory, 1688. B. ii. p. 208.
148. Hippocentaures] i.e. centaurs, half human, half horses.
149. He plucked the bull
By the horned skull,
And offered to Cornucopia] The "bull" means Achelous, who, during his combat with Hercules, assumed that shape:
"Rigidum fera dextera cornu
Dum tenet, infregit; truncaque a fronte revellit.
Naïdes hoc, pomis et odoro flore repletum,
Sacrarunt; divesque meo bona Copia cornu est."
Ovid. Met. ix. 85.
("holding the tough horn in his cruel hand, he broke it and tore it away from my mutilated brow. The Naiades took it, filling it with fruit and scented flowers, and made it sacred: the Goddess of Abundance is rich now because of my horn of plenty." A. S. Kline.)
150.the venomous serpent,
That in hell is never brent] —brent, e. burned. A somewhat profane allusion to the scriptural expression "the worm dieth not; "— (worm and serpent were formerly synonymous).
151. Primo Regum] i.e. The First Book of Kings, or, as it is also called, The First Book of Samuel, chap. xxviii.
"Primo regum as ye may plainly read."
Lydgate's Fall of Princes, B. ii. leaf xxxix ed. Wayland.
152. He bade the Pythoness
. . . . .
But whether it were so,
He were idem in numero,
The self same Samuel, &c.] — Pythoness i.e.—the witch of Endor.
And speak as renably, and fair, and well,
As to the Pythoness did Samuel:
And yet will some men say it was not he," &c.
Chaucer's Friar's Tale, v. 7091. ed. Tyr.
"And secretly this Saul is forth gone
To a woman that should him rede and wiss,
. . . . .
In Israel called a pythoness.
. . . . .
To divines this matter I commit,
Whether it was the soul of Samuel," &c.
Lydgate's Fall of Prynces, B. ii. leaf xl. ed. Wayland.
See also Gower's Conf. Am. B. iv. fol. lxxiii. ed. 1554; Barbour's Bruce, B. iii. v. 982. ed. Jam.; G. Douglas's Preface to his Virgil's Aeneados, p. 6, l. 51. ed. Rudd.; and Sir D. Lyndsay's Monarchy, B. iv. Works, iii. 151. ed. Chalmers.
153. conditions] i.e. qualities. But in our author's Garland of Laurel, where this "addition" is given, the passage according to Fake's ed., and rightly, perhaps (compare the preceding lines), stands thus;
"And by her superstitions
Of wonderful conditions."
v. 1343.
154. idem in numero] "exactly the same."
155. ascry] i.e. to assail (with a shout). In Langtoft's Chronicle we find,
"Edward was hardy, the Londoners gan he ascry."
p. 217. ed. Hearne,—(who in Gloss. renders "ascrie "—cry to).
The original French has,
"Sir Eduard fiz le rays, les loundrays escrye."
MS. Cott. Jul. A v. fol. 122.
Roquefort gives "Escrier: Faire entendre son cri d'armes dans une bataille . . . marcher à l'ennemi, l'attaquer," ("Make one's cries heard in battle, charge the enemy, attack") &c. Gloss. de la Lang. Rom. (Sup.): [crier, attaquer, poursuivre avec des cris.("Attack, pursue with cries") Duconge. Suppl.]
156. Inferias, Philippe, tuas Scroupe pulchra Joanna
Instanter petiit: cur nostri carminis illam
Nunc pudet? est sero; minor est infamia vero
"Philip, your obsequies the fair Joanna Scrope ardently longed for: why is she now ashamed of our song? It is too late; shame is less than truth." (PH)
157. Luride, cur, livor, volucris pia funera damnas?
Talia te rapiant rapiunt quae fata volucrem!
Est tamen invidia mors tibi continua.]
"Why, Green Envy, do you condemn the sacred funeral rites of a sparrow? May the fate which overtook my bird seize upon thee. Yet malice is a perpetual death to thee" (PH).
Previous Next
YOU ARE READING
The Poems of John Skelton
PoetryJohn Skelton (1460?-1529) is a poet whose works have hovered on the edge of the canon, never being forgotten or lacking advocates, but never making it into the schools. Robert Graves thought him better than Milton. Howard Fish, now the Grand Old Man...
