At all houres to be redy With hym to lyue and dye, And to spende[267] their hart blode, Their bodyes and their gode, With hym in all dystresse, Alway in redynesse 490 To assyst his noble grace; In spyght of thy cowardes face, Moost false attaynted traytour, And false forsworne faytour. Auaunte, cowarde recrayed! Thy pride shalbe alayd; With sir Fraunces of Fraunce We shall pype you a daunce, Shall tourne you to myschauns. I rede you, loke about; 500 For ye shalbe driuen out Of your lande in shorte space: We will so folowe in the chace, That ye shall haue no grace For to tourne your face; And thus, Sainct George to borowe, Ye shall haue shame and sorowe. _Lenuoy._ Go, lytell quayre, quickly; Shew them that shall you rede, How that ye are lykely 510 Ouer all the worlde[268] to sprede. The fals Scottes for dred, With the Duke of Albany, Beside the water of Twede They fledde full cowardly. Though your Englishe be rude, Barreyne of eloquence, Yet, breuely to conclude, Grounded is your sentence On trouthe, vnder defence 520 Of all trewe Englyshemen, This mater to credence That I wrate with my pen. SKELTON LAUREAT, OBSEQUIOUS ET LOYALL.[269] TO MY LORDE CARDYNALS RIGHT NOBLE GRACE, &c. _Lenuoy._ Go, lytell quayre, apace, In moost humble wyse, Before his noble grace, That caused you to deuise This lytel enterprise; And hym moost lowly pray, In his mynde to comprise Those wordes his grace dyd saye Of an ammas gray. _Ie foy enterment en sa bone grace._ [257] _Howe the douty Duke of Albany, &c._] From Marshe’s ed. of Skelton’s _Workes_, 1568. [258] _so_] Qy. “sore?” [259] _thousande_] Ed. “thausande.” [260] _thy dogge_] Qy. “thé, dogge?” but see notes. [261] _Nor no batayle, &c._] The Editor of 1736 chose to give this passage thus; “Nor _a_ batayle mayntayne _With our_ stronge captayne _For you_ ran,” &c. [262] _hors_] Ed. “fors.” [263] _pounde_] Ed. “pouned.” [264] _saue_] Ed. “_saua_.” [265] _faytes_] Qy. “factes?” [266] _frugalite_] Ed. “fragalite.” [267] _And to spende, &c._] This line and the next transposed in ed. [268] _worlde_] Ed. “worlds.” [269] _Skelton Laureat, obsequious et loyall_] Perhaps these words are a portion of the superscription to the _Lenuoy_ which follows. The _Lenuoy_ itself does not, I apprehend, belong to the poem on the Duke of Albany. See _Account of Skelton, &c._ NOTES TO VOLUME I. OF THE DEATH OF THE NOBLE PRINCE, KYNGE EDWARDE THE FORTH.