John Skelton

The English poet and humanist John Skelton (ca. 1460-1529) is chiefly remembered for his satires on the court and the clergy.

Little is known of John Skelton's youth except that he may have come from Yorkshire and that he attended Cambridge. His earliest works, which included a translation of Cicero's Familiar Letters and another of Deguileville's Pèlerinage de la vie humaine, do not survive. Skelton was declared poet laureate by Oxford in 1488, by Louvain shortly thereafter, and by Cambridge in 1493. These degrees, partly honorary, were also given in recognition of his achievement in grammar. Skelton's earliest poetry is occasional, including, for example, the poem The Dolorous Death and Most Lamentable Chance of the Most Honorable Earl of Northumberland (1489). About 1495 Skelton became tutor to Prince Henry (later Henry VIII), a position he held for about 7 years. He was ordained a priest in 1498.

Skelton's first satire, The Bowge of Court (1499), was a dream vision attacking the vices of courtiers. In 1501 Skelton wrote Speculum principis, an adaption of a Latin version of the Historical Library of Diodorus Siculus. The book emphasizes the necessity for virtue and learning among princes.

In 1504 Skelton became rector of Diss, Norfolk. There he wrote some satirical poems on local personages and his famous mock dirge, Philip Sparrow. A young nun Skelton knew had lost her pet bird to a voracious cat. Skelton's poem, the first part of which is structured around the Mass for the Dead, represents the nun's lament for her bird. The lament is followed by Skelton's praise of the nun. The tone is pleasant and jocular.

In 1512 Skelton gave up his benefice at Diss and settled at Westminster, where he remained for the rest of his life. He was designated court poet, and he wrote a number of political poems. He also probably wrote a number of plays, but only one of these, Magnificence (1516), survives. During this period Skelton also wrote several songs for the court of Henry VIII, such as Mannerly Margery Milk and Ale. One of his most important poems, The Tunnyng of Eleanor Rummyng, has as its protagonist an amusing variant of an evil old woman.

Between 1521 and 1523 Skelton wrote several satirical attacks on Cardinal Wolsey: Colin Clout; Speak, Parrot; and Why Come Ye Not to Court? To escape the cardinal's wrath he took refuge with the Countess of Surrey. There he sought to appease Wolsey and to justify himself in The Garland of Laurel (1523). His last important work was an attack on heresy, A Replication against Certain Young Scholars. His favorite verse forms, consisting of short rhymed clausulae of irregular length, are called Skeltonics. Skelton died at Westminster on June 21, 1529.

Further Reading

The Poetical Works of John Skelton was published by the Reverend Alexander Dyce (1843). A modernized version of the poems, The Complete Poems of John Skelton, was edited by Philip Henderson (1931; 2d rev. ed. 1948). A good introduction to Skelton is William Nelson, John Skelton, Laureate (1939). More recent studies are lan A. Gordon, John Skelton, Poet Laureate (1943), and H. L. R. Edwards, Skelton: The Life and Times of an Early Tudor Poet (1949).

Additional Sources

Lloyd, Leslie John, John Skelton: a sketch of his life and writings, Philadelphia: R. West, 1978. □

Skelton, John (?1460–1529), was created ‘poet-laureate’ by the universities of Oxford, Louvain, and Cambridge, an academical distinction. He became tutor to Prince Henry ( Henry VIII) and enjoyed court favour despite his outspokenness. He was admitted to holy orders in 1498 and became rector of Diss in Norfolk. His principal works include: The Bowge of Courte (c.1498, a satire on the court of Henry VII), A Garlande of Laurell (a self-laudatory allegorical poem, describing the crowning of the author among the great poets of the world); Phyllyp Sparowe (a lamentation put into the mouth of Jane Scroupe, a young lady whose sparrow has been killed by a cat); Collyn Clout (a complaint by a vagabond of the misdeeds of ecclesiastics), which influenced Spenser. Not only this last poem, but also his satires ‘Speke Parrot’ and Why come ye nat to Courte, contained attacks on Cardinal Wolsey. His most vigorous poem was The Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng. His play Magnyfycence is an example of the morality. Skelton's Ballade of the Scottysshe Kynge is a spirited celebration of the victory of Flodden.

The verse form known as ‘skeltonic verse’ is derived from his favourite metre, ‘a headlong voluble breathless doggrel, which rattling and clashing on through quick-recurring rhymes…has taken from the name of its author the title of Skeltonical verse’ ( J. C. Collins). As he himself said (Collyn Clout, 53–8):For though my ryme be ragged,
Tattered and jagged,
Rudely rayne-beaten,
Rusty and mothe-eaten,
Yf ye take well therwith,
It hath in it some pyth.

John Skelton 1460–1529, English poet and humanist. Tutor to Prince Henry (later Henry VIII), he later (c.1502) became rector of Diss, Norfolk. In 1512 he began to call himself royal orator, a position that may have been conferred by Henry VIII requiring that Skelton carry on some royal correspondence and write occasional official poems. He wrote a long allegorical poem, The Garland of Laurel (1523), but is remembered for his scathing and often obscene satires on the court, the clergy, and Cardinal Wolsey— The Bowge of Court (1499), Speak, Parrot (1521), Colin Clout (1522), and Why Come Ye Not to Court? (c.1522)—and the mock dirge "Philip Sparrow." Many of his works are written in verse forms he himself devised, called Skeltonics. They consist of short lines and insistent rhymes, sometimes repeated through several sets of couplets; they also employ alliteration.

Bibliography: See Skelton's works (ed. by Rev. Alexander Dyce, 2 vol., 1843); biography by A. S. Edwards (1981); studies by A. R. Heiserman (1961), S. E. Fish (1965), M. Pollet (tr. 1971), A. F. Kinney (1987), and G. Walker (1988).

Skelton, John (c.1460–1529), English poet and satirist, tutor to the future Henry VIII. He is believed to have written an interlude played before the Court at Woodstock, a comedy, and three morality plays; the only one to survive is Magnyfycence, acted probably between 1515 and 1523. First printed in 1530 by John Rastell, it was reprinted by the Early English Text Society in 1906. In this play Magnyfycence, a benevolent ruler, is corrupted by bad counsellors (Folly, Mischief, etc.), but restored by good ones (Good Hope, Perseverance, etc.).

Skelton, John (1460–1529) English poet. Skelton was tutor to the young Henry VIII, and took holy orders in 1498. He wrote satires on the court, the clergy, and Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. His work includes Speak, Parrot, Colin Clout, Why Came Ye Not to Court? and the long secular morality play Magnyficence (c.1516). Philip Sparrow (c.1505), an elegy for a court pet bird, is his most widely known poem.