author wrote a chronicle, in verse, of all our Englifh Kings, from Brute to Edward IV. for which Dr. Fuller and Winftanly bestow great encomiums upon him: but he seems to be totally deftitute of poetry, both from the wretchedness of his lines, and the unhappiness of his fubject, a chronicle being of all others the drieft, and the leaft fufceptible of poetical ornament; but let the reader judge by the fpecimen fubjoined. He died about the year 1461, being then very aged. It may be obferved, that in thefe days, Kings and Princes were conftantly the patrons of poets.

On the magnificent houfhold of King Richard II. Truly I herd Robert Irelefe fay,

Clark of the Green Cloth, and that to the houfhold,
Came every day, forth moft part alway,

Ten thousand folk by his messes told;
That followed the house, aye as they wold,
And in the kitchen, three hundred feruitours,
And in eche office many occupiours,
And ladies faire, with their gentlewomen
Chamberers alfo, and launderers,

Three hundred of them were occupied then;
There was great pride among the officers,
And of all men far paffing their compeers,
Of rich arraye, and much more costous,
Then was before, or fith, and more precious.

JOHN SKELTON.

AS born of a creditable family in Cumber

entering into holy orders was made rector of Dyffo in Norfolk, in the reign of Henry VIII. That he

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was

was a learned man we have the teftimony of Erasmus, who in his letter to King Henry fileth him, Britannicarum Literarum Lumen & Decus. Though his file is rambling and loofe, yet he was not without invention, and his fatire is ftrongly pointed. He lived near fourfcore years after Chaucer, but feems to have made little improvement in verfification. He wrote fome bitter fatires against the clergy, and particularly, his keen reflections on Cardinal Wolfey drew on him fuch fevere profecutions, that he was obliged to fly for fanctuary to Westminster, under the protection of Iflip the Abbot, where he died in the year 1529.

It appears by his poem entitled, The Crown of Laurel, that his performances were numerous, and fuch as remain are chiefly thefe, Philip Sparrow. Speak Parrot. The Death of King Edward IV. A Treatife of the Scots. Ware the Hawk. The Tunning of Elianer Rumpkin. In these pieces there is a rich vein of wit and humour, tho' much debased by the ruft of the age he lived in. His fatires are remarkably broad, open and ill-bred; the verfe cramped by a very short measure, and encumbered with fuch a profufion of rhimes, as makes the poet appear almost as ridiculous as those he endeavours to expose. In his moft ferious pieces he is not guilty of this abfurdity; and confines himself to a regular stanza, according to the then reigning mode. His Bouge of Court is a poem of fome merit: it abounds with wit and imagination, and fhews him well verfed in human nature, and the infinuating manners of a court. The allegorical characters are finely defcribed, and well fuftained; the fabric of the whole is thought to be entirely his own, and not improbably may have furnished a hint to the inimitable Spenfer.

How or by whose interest he was made Laureat, or whether it was a title he affumed to himself, cannot be determined, neither is his principal patron any

where named; but if his poem of the Crown of Laurel before mentioned has any covert meaning, he had the happiness of having the Ladies for his friends, and the countess of Surry, the lady Elizabeth Howard, and many others united their fervices in his favour. When on his death bed he was charged with having children by a mitrefs he kept, he protefted that in his confcience he kept her in the notion of a wife: chufing rather to confefs adultery than own marriage; a crime, among the clergy of the Romish perfuafion, both in those days and in these, more fubjected to punishment than adultery or forni

cation.

The PROLOGUE to the BOUGE COURT.

In autempne, whan the funne in vyrgine,.
By radyante hete, enryped hath our corne,
When Luna, full of mutabylyte,

As Emperes the dyadem hath worne
Of our Pole artyke, fmylynge half in fcorne,
At our foly, and our unftedfastnesse,

The tyme when Mars to warre hym did dres,

I, callynge to mynde the great autoryte
Of poetes old, whiche full craftely,
Vnder as couerte termes as coulde be,
Can touche a trouthe, and cloke fubtylly
With fresh Vtterance; full fentcyously,

Dyverfe in ftyle: fome fpared not vyce to wryte,
Some of mortalitie nobly dyd endyte.

His other works are chiefly thefe :

Meditations on St. Ann.

on the Virgin of Kent.

Sonnets on Dame Anne,

Elyner Rummin, the famous alewife of Endland.

Often reprinted.

The Peregrinations of human Life.

Solitary Sonnets.

The Art of dying well.

Speaking eloquently.

Manners of the Court.

Invective against William Lyle the Gramma

rian.

Epitaphs on Kings, Princes, and Nobles.
Collin Clout.

Poetical Fancies and Satires.

Verses on the Death of Arthur Prince of Wales.

ALEXANDER BARCLAY.

W

AS an Author of fome eminence and merit, tho' there are few things preferved concerning him. He has been too much neglected by almost all the biographers of the poets. Mrs. Cooper * feems to have had a pretty high opinion of his abilities; it is certain that he very confiderably refined the language, and his verfes are much smoother than thofe of Harding, who wrote but a few years before him. He ftiles himfelf Prieft, and Chaplain in the College of St. Mary, Otory, in the county of Devon, and afterwards Monk of Ely. His principal work is a tranflation of a fatirical piece, written originally in High Dutch, and entitled the Ship of Fools: It expofes the characters, vices, and follies of all degrees of men, and tho' much inferior in its execution, to the Canterbury Tales, has yet confiderable merit, efpecially when it is confidered how barren and unpolite the age was in which he lived. In the prologue

*Author of the Mufe's Library.

he

he makes an apology for his youth, and it appears that the whole was finished Anno Dom. 1508, which was about the close of the reign of Henry VII.

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In elegancy of manners he has the advantage of all his predeceffors, as is particularly remarkable in his addrefs to Sir Giles Alington, his patron. The poet was now grown old, and the knight defiring him to abridge and improve Gower's Confeffio Amantis, he declines it in the politeft manner, on account of his age, profeffion, and infirmities; but tho' love is an improper fubject, fays he, I am ftill an admirer of the fex, and fhall iutroduce to the ⚫ honour of your acquaintance, four of the finest ladies that nature ever framed, Prudence, Temperance, Juftice, and Magnanimity;' the whole of the addrefs is exceeding courtly, and from this we fhall quote a few lines, which will both illuftrate his politeness and verfification.

Το you thefe accorde; thefe unto you are due, Of you late proceeding as of their head fountayne;

Your life as example in writing I enfue,

For, more then my writing within it can contayne; Your manners performeth and doth there attayne:

So touching these vertues, ye have in your living
More than this meter containeth in writing.
My dities indited may counfell many one,
But not you, your manners furmounteth my
doctrine,

Wherefore, I regard you, and your manners all

one,

After whofe living my proceffes I combine:
So other men inftructing, I must to you incline,
Conforming my procefs, as much as I am able
To your fad behaviour and manners commendable.

He was author of the following pieces.

Lives of feveral of the Saints.

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Saluft's