At euery solempne feest; _Quia difficile est_ _Satiram non scribere_. Now, mayster doctor, howe say ye, What soeuer your name be? What though ye be namelesse, Ye shall nat[240] escape blamelesse, Nor yet shall scape shamlesse: Mayster doctor in your degre, 1220 Yourselfe madly ye ouerse; Blame Iuuinall, and blame nat[241] me: Maister doctor Diricum, _Omne animi vitium_, &c. As Iuuinall dothe recorde, A small defaute in a great lorde, A lytell cryme in a great astate, Is moche more inordinate, And more horyble to beholde, Than any other a thousand folde. 1230 Ye put to blame ye wot nere whom; Ye may weare a cockes come; Your fonde hed in your furred hood,[242] Holde ye your tong, ye can no goode: And at more conuenyent tyme I may fortune for to ryme Somwhat of your madnesse; For small is your sadnesse To put any man in lack, And say yll behynde his back: 1240 And my wordes marke truly, That ye can nat[243] byde thereby, For _smegma non est cinnamomum_, But _de absentibus nil nisi bonum_. Complayne, or do what ye wyll, Of your complaynt it shall nat[244] skyl: This is the tenor of my byl, A daucock ye be, and so shalbe styll. _Sequitur Epitoma_ _De morbilloso Thoma,_ _Necnon obscœno_ _De Polyphemo, &c._ _Porro perbelle dissimulatum_ _Illum Pandulphum,[245] tantum legatum,_ _Tum formidatum nuper prælatum,_ _Ceu Naman Syrum nunc elongatum,[246]_ _In solitudine jam commoratum,_ _Neapolitano morbo gravatum,_ _Malagmate, cataplasmate stratum,[247]_ _Pharmacopolæ[248] ferro foratum,_ _Nihilo magis alleviatum,_ _Nihilo melius aut medicatum,_ 10 _Relictis famulis ad famulatum,_ _Quo[249] tollatur infamia,_ _Sed major patet insania;_ _A modo ergo ganea_ _Abhorreat ille ganeus,_ _Dominus male creticus,_ _Aptius dictus tetricus,_ _Fanaticus, phreneticus,_ _Graphicus sicut metricus_ _Autumat._ 20 _Hoc genus dictaminis_ _Non eget examinis_ _In centiloquio_ _Nec centimetro_ _Honorati_ _Grammatici_ _Mauri._ [115] _Here after foloweth a lytell boke, &c._] From the ed. by Kele, n. d., collated with that by Wyght, n. d., with that by Kytson, n. d., and with Marshe’s ed. of Skelton’s _Workes_, 1568. [116] _nat_] Other eds. “not.” [117] _The relucent mirror, &c.... by Skelton_] So Marshe’s ed. Not in other eds. [118] _All noble men, &c._] These twenty-eight introductory lines, which are found in all the eds. of this poem, are also printed as a distinct piece, in the various editions of _Certaine bokes compyled by Mayster Skelton, &c._, n. d., and in Marshe’s ed. of Skelton’s _Workes_, 1568. [119] _in_] _Certayne bokes, &c._, and the distinct piece in Marshe’s ed., “of.”