The Poetical Works of John Skelton, Volume 2 (of 2)

Name: The Poetical Works of John Skelton, Volume 2 (of 2)
Author: Skelton, John

Skelton, John

English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700

For drede of the red hat                                             380
  Take peper in the nose;
  For than thyne heed of gose,
  Of by the harde arse.
  But there is some trauarse
  Bytwene some and some,
  That makys our syre to glum;
  It is some what wronge,
  That his berde is so longe;
  He morneth in blacke clothynge.
  I pray God saue the kynge!                                           390
  Where euer he go or ryde,
  I pray God be his gyde!
  Thus wyll I conclude my style,
  And fall to rest a whyle,
  And so to rest a whyle, &c.
    Ones[175] yet agayne
  Of you I wolde frayne,
  Why come ye nat[176] to court?—
  To whyche court?
  To the kynges courte,                                                400
  Or to Hampton Court?—
  Nay, to the kynges court:
  The kynges courte
  Shulde haue the excellence;
  But Hampton Court
  Hath the preemynence,
  And Yorkes Place,
  With my lordes grace,
  To whose magnifycence
  Is all the conflewence,                                              410
  Sutys and supplycacyons,
  Embassades of all nacyons.
  Strawe for lawe canon,[177]
  Or for the lawe common,
  Or for lawe cyuyll!
  It shall be as he wyll:
  Stop at law tancrete,
  An obstract or a concrete;
  Be it soure, be it swete,
  His wysdome is so dyscrete,                                          420
  That in a fume or an hete,
  Wardeyn of the Flete,
  Set hym fast by the fete!
  And of his royall powre
  Whan him lyst to lowre,
  Than, haue him to the Towre,
  _Saunz aulter_ remedy,
  Haue hym forthe by and by
  To the Marshalsy,
  Or to the Kynges Benche!                                             430
  He dyggeth so in the trenche
  Of the court royall,
  That he ruleth them all.
  So he dothe vndermynde,
  And suche sleyghtes dothe fynde,
  That the kynges mynde
  By hym is subuerted,
  And so streatly coarted
  In credensynge his tales,
  That all is but nutshales                                            440
  That any other sayth;
  He hath in him suche fayth.
    Now, yet all this myght be
  Suffred and taken in gre,
  If that that he wrought
  To any good ende were brought;
  But all he bringeth to nought,
  By[178] God, that me dere bought!
  He bereth the kyng[179] on hand,
  That he must pyll his lande,                                         450
  To make his cofers ryche;
  But he laythe all in the dyche,
  And vseth suche abusyoun,
  That in the conclusyoun
  All commeth to confusyon.
  Perceyue the cause why,
  To tell the trouth playnly,
  He is so ambicyous,
  So shamles, and[180] so vicyous,
  And so supersticyous,                                                460
  And so moche obliuyous
  From whens that he came,
  That he falleth into[181] a _cæciam_,[182]
  Whiche, truly to expresse,
  Is a forgetfulnesse,
  Or wylfull blyndnesse,
  Wherwith the Sodomites
  Lost theyr inward syghtes,
  The Gommoryans also
  Were brought to deedly wo,                                           470
  As Scrypture recordis:

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Poetical Works of John Skelton, Volume 2 (of 2)

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