[119] John Islip was elected abbot in 1500, and died in 1532: see Widmore’s _Hist. of West. Abbey_, 119, 123. “John Skelton ... is said by the late learned Bishop of Derry, Nicholson (_Hist. Lib._ chap. 2.) to have first collected the Epitaphs of our Kings, Princes, and Nobles, that lie buried at the Abbey Church of Westminster: but I apprehend this to be no otherwise true, than that, when he, to avoid the anger of Cardinal Wolsey, had taken sanctuary at Westminster, to recommend himself to Islip, the Abbot at that time, he made some copies of verses to the memories of King Henry the Seventh and his Queen, and his mother the Countess of Richmond, and perhaps some other persons buried in this church.” _Account of Writers_, &c., p. 5, appended to Widmore’s _Enquiry into the time of the found. of West. Abbey_.—Widmore is mistaken: neither in Marshe’s ed. of Skelton’s _Workes_, 1568, nor in the _Reges, Reginæ, Nobiles_, &c., 1603, is there any copy of verses by our author _on the Queen of Henry the Seventh_: see in vol. i. 178, 179, 195, the three pieces which I have given from those sources: two of them at least were composed before the poet had sought refuge at Westminster, for one (written at Islip’s request) is dated 1512, and another, 1516; the third has no date. [120] See p. xxix. [121] “De morte Cardinalis uaticinium edidit: & eius ueritatem euentus declarauit.” Bale, _Script. Illust. Brit._ p. 652. ed. 1559.—“The word _Vates_ being Poet or Prophet, minds me of this dying Skeltons prediction, foretelling the ruine of Cardinal Wolsey. Surely, one unskilled in prophecies, if well versed in Solomons Proverbs, might have prognosticated as much, that _Pride goeth before a fall_.” Fuller’s _Worthies_ (_Norfolk_), p. 257. ed. 1662.—Did not this anecdote originate in certain verses of _Cotyn Cloute_? See the fragment from _Lansdown MSS._, vol. i. 329, note. [122] “Vuestmonasterii tandem, captiuitatis suæ tempore, mortuus est: & in D. Margaritæ sacello sepultus, cum hac inscriptione alabastrica: Johannes Skeltonus, uates Pierius, hic situs est. Animam egit 21 die Junii, anno Dn̄i 1529, relictis liberis.” Bale, _Script. Illust. Brit._, p. 652. ed. 1559. See also Pits (_De Illust. Angl. Script._, p. 703. ed. 1619) and Fuller (_Worthies, Norfolk_, p. 257. ed. 1662), who give _Joannes Sceltonus vates Pierius hic situs est_ as the whole of Skelton’s epitaph. Weever, however (_Fun. Momum._, p. 497. ed. 1631), makes “_animam egit_, 21 _Junii_ 1529” a portion of it, and in a marginal note substitutes “ejicit” for “_egit_,” as if _correcting_ the Latinity!! So too Wood (_Ath. Oxon._ i. 52. ed. Bliss.), who places “ejicit” between brackets after “_egit_,” and states (what the other writers do not mention) that the inscription was put on the tomb “soon after” Skelton’s death. In the _Church-Wardens Accompts of St. Margaret’s, Westminster_ (Nichols’s _Illust. of Manners and Expences_, &c. 4to. p. 9), we find this entry;