It greueth many an herte That ye should from them start: But what then? tushe, a farte! Sins other shifte is none, But she must neades be gone, Nowe let vs synge eche one, Boeth Jak and Gyll and Jone, _Requiem eternam_, Lest _penam sempiternam_ For _vitam supernam_, And _vmbram infernam_ For _veram lucernam_, She chaunce to enherite, According to hir merite. _Pro cuius memoria_ Ye maye wel be soria; Full smale maye be your _gloria_, When ye shal heare thys storia; Then wil ye crie and roria, We shal se[151] hir no moria: _Et dicam vobis quare_ She may no longer _stare_, Nor here with you _regnare_, But trudge _ad vltra mare_, And after _habitare_ _In regno Plutonico_ _Et euo acronyco,_ _Cum cetu Babilonico_ _Et cantu diabolico_, With pollers and piller[s], And al hir well willers, And ther to dwel euer: And thus wil I leaue hir.” * * * * * From _Phylogamus_, 12mo, without date or printer’s name—of which the title-page and five leaves are preserved in a volume of Ballads and Fragments in the British Museum. The late Mr. Douce has written below the title-page “Probably by Skelton;” but it is certainly not his. “Gyue place, ye poetes fine, Bow doune now & encline; For nowe yᵉ Muses nyne, So sacred and diuine, In Parnase holy hyll Haue wrought theyr worthy wyll. And by theyr goodly skyll Vppon that myghty mountayne In Hellycons fountayne, &c. ... O poete so impudent, Whyche neuer yet was studente, To thee the goddes prudente Minerua is illudente! Thou wrytest thynges dyffuse, Incongrue and confuse, Obfuscate and obtuse; No man the lyke doth use Among the Turckes or Jewes; Alwayes inuentyng newes That are incomparable, They be so fyrme and stable: Lyke as a shyppe is able, Wythout ancre and cable, Roother, maste, or sayle, Pully, rope, or nayle, In wynde, weather, or hayle, To guyde both top and tayle, And not the course to fayle; So thys our poet maye, Wythout a stopp or staye, In cunnynge wend the way, As wel by darke as day, And neuer go astray, Yf yt be as they saye. O poet rare and recent, Dedecorate and indecent, Insolent and insensate, Contendyng and condensate, Obtused and obturate, Obumbylate, obdurate, Sparyng no priest or curate, Cyuylyan or rurate, That be alredy marryed, And from theyr vow bene varyed, Wherto the Scrypture them caried! They myght as wel haue taryed; I sweare by the north doore rood, That stowte was whyle he stood, That they had bene as good To haue solde theyr best blew hood; For I am in suche a moode, That for my power and parte, Wyth al my wyt and arte, Wyth whole intent and harte, I wyl so at them darte,” &c. * * * * *