Noble Henry the eight, Thy loving souereine lorde, Of kingis line moost streight, His titille dothe recorde: In whome dothe wele acorde Alexis yonge of age, Adrastus wise and sage. [Sidenote: Sedibus ætheriis, &c.] Astrea, Justice hight, That from the starry sky Shall now com and do right, This hunderd yere scantly A man kowd not aspy That Right dwelt vs among, And that was the more wrong: [Sidenote: Arcebit vulpes, &c.] Right shall the foxis chare,[6] The wolvis, the beris also, That wrowght have moche care, And browght Englond in wo: They shall wirry no mo,[7] Nor wrote[8] the Rosary[9] By extort trechery: [Sidenote: Ne tanti regis, &c.] Of this our noble king The law they shall not breke; They shall com to rekening; No man for them wil speke: The pepil durst not creke Theire grevis to complaine, They browght them in soche paine: [Sidenote: Ecce Platonis secla, &c.] Therfor no more they shall The commouns ouerbace, That wont wer ouer all Both lorde and knight to face;[10] For now the yeris of grace And welthe ar com agayne, That maketh England faine.[11] [Sidenote: Rediit jam pulcher Adonis, &c.] Adonis of freshe colour, Of yowthe the godely flour, Our prince of high honour, Our paves,[12] our succour, Our king, our emperour, Our Priamus of Troy, Our welth, our worldly joy; [Sidenote: Anglorum radians, &c.] Vpon vs he doth reigne, That makith our hartis glad, As king moost soueraine That ever Englond had; Demure, sober, and sad,[13] And Martis lusty knight; God save him in his right! Amen. _Bien men souient._[14] _Per me laurigerum Britonum Skeltonida vatem._ [4] _A lawde and prayse made for our souereigne lord the kyng_] Such (in a different handwriting from that of the poem) is the endorsement of the MS., which consists of two leaves, bound up in the volume marked _B._ 2. 8 (pp. 67-69), among the Records of the Treasury of the Receipt of the Exchequer, now at the Rolls House.—Qy. is this poem the piece which, in the catalogue of his own writings, Skelton calls “The Boke of the Rosiar,” _Garlande of Laurell_, v. 1178, vol. i. 408? [5] _stede_] i. e. place. [6] _chare_] i. e. chase, drive away (see _Prompt. Parv._ i. 70. Camden Soc. ed.). [7] _mo_] i. e. more. [8] _wrote_] i. e. root. [9] _Rosary_] i. e. Rose-bush. [10] _face_] See Notes, vol. ii. 216. [11] _faine_] i. e. glad. [12] _paves_] i. e. shield (properly, a large shield covering the body). [13] _sad_] i. e. grave—discreet. [14] _Bien men souient_] These words are followed in the MS. by a sort of flourished device, which might perhaps be read—“_Deo (21ͦ) gratias_.” CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. PAGE SOME ACCOUNT OF SKELTON AND HIS WRITINGS v