John Skelton

John Skelton (1460 – 1529)

1. prominent early Tudor poet and satirist
2. Erasmus called Skelton, “the one light and glory of British letters”
3. Works
   1. of Mannes Lyfe the Peregrynacioun
      1. Written for his patron: Countess of Richmond, Henry VII’s mother
   2. of the Death of the Noble Prince Kynge Edwarde the Forth
      1. an Elegy
   3. Bowge of Courte – 1499
      1. He served as the tutor to Henry VIII for five years, this satire is written on that experience.
      2. Political and historical allegory
      3. Written in seven line stanzas
      4. Drede, the narrator of the poem, encounters seven different people while on his journey on the boat. It is a dream allegory satirising court life.
   4. Colin Clout (1521)
      1. Directed against the power of Cardinal Wolsey.
   5. Phyllyp Sparrow (1505)
      1. The lament of a Norwich school girl for her pet bird killed by a cat
   6. Ballade of the Scottysshe Kynge 1513
      1. A clebration of the victory at Flodden.
   7. Magnificence 1516
      1. Allegory
      2. Story: generous prince Magnificence is first destroyed by his own ill advised generosity then restored by goodhope, perseverance and related virtues.
      3. Skelton’s repetition of short two beat lines with accents became knowm as the skeltonic meter.