That Skelton composed certain Latin verses against the celebrated grammarian William Lily, we are informed by Bale,[102] who has preserved the initial words, viz. “Urgeor impulsus tibi, Lilli, retundere:” and that Lily repaid our poet in kind, we have the following proof; _“Lilii Hendecasyllabi in Scheltonum ejus carmina calumniantem._[103] “Quid me, Scheltone, fronte sic aperta Carpis, vipereo potens veneno? Quid versus trutina meos iniqua Libras? dicere vera num licebit? Doctrinæ tibi dum parare famam Et doctus fieri studes poeta, Doctrinam nec habes, nec es poeta.” It would seem that Skelton occasionally repented of the severity of his compositions, and longed to recall them; for in the _Garlande of Laurell_, after many of them have been enumerated, we meet with the following curious passage; “Item _Apollo that whirllid up his chare_, That made sum to snurre and snuf in the wynde; It made them to skip, to stampe, and to stare, Whiche, if they be happy, haue cause to beware In ryming and raylyng with hym for to mell, For drede that he lerne them there A, B, C, to spell. With that I stode vp, halfe sodenly afrayd; Suppleyng to Fame, I besought her grace, _And that it wolde please her, full tenderly I prayd_, _Owt of her bokis Apollo to rase_. Nay, sir, she sayd, what so in this place Of our noble courte is ones spoken owte, It must nedes after rin all the worlde aboute. _God wote, theis wordes made me full sad_; And when that I sawe it wolde no better be, But that my peticyon wolde not be had, What shulde I do but take it in gre? For, by Juppiter and his high mageste, _I did what I cowde to scrape out the scrollis_, _Apollo to rase out of her ragman rollis_.”[104] The piece which commenced with the words “Apollo that whirllid vp his chare,” and which gave such high displeasure to some of Skelton’s contemporaries, has long ago perished,—in spite of Fame’s refusal to erase it from her books!