The _Luctus in morte Passeris_ of Catullus no doubt suggested the present production to Skelton, who, when he calls on “all maner of byrdes” (v. 387) to join in lamenting Philip Sparow, seems also to have had an eye to Ovid’s elegy _In mortem Psittaci, Amor_. ii. 6. Another piece of the kind is extant among the compositions of antiquity,—the _Psittacus Atedii Melioris_ of Statius, _Silv_. ii. 4. In the _Amphitheatrum Sapientiæ Socraticæ Joco-seriæ_, &c., of Dornavius, i. 460 sqq. may be found various Latin poems on the deaths, &c. of sparrows by writers posterior to the time of Skelton. See too Herrick’s lines _Upon the death of his Sparrow, an Elegie, Hesperides_, 1648. p. 117; and the verses entitled _Phyllis on the death of her Sparrow_, attributed to Drummond, _Works_, 1711. p. 50. “Old Skelton’s ‘Philip Sparrow,’ an exquisite and original poem.” Coleridge’s _Remains_, ii. 163. Page 51. v. 1. _Pla ce bo, &c._] Skelton is not the only writer that has taken liberties with the Romish service-book. In Chaucer’s _Court of Loue_, parts of it are sung by various birds; _Domine, labia_ by the nightingale, _Venite_ by the eagle, &c., _Workes_, fol. 333. ed. 1602: in a short poem by Lydgate “dyuerse foules” are introduced singing different hymns. _MS. Harl._ 2251. fol. 37: and see too a poem (attributed, without any authority, to Skelton) called _Armony of Byrdes_, n. d., reprinted (inaccurately) in _Typog. Antiq._ iv. 380. ed. Dibdin; and Sir D. Lyndsay’s _Complaynt of the Papingo, Works_, i. 325. ed. Chalmers. In _Reynard the Fox_ we are told that at the burial of “coppe, chanteklers doughter,”—“Tho begonne they _placebo domino_, with the verses that to longen,” &c. Sig. a 8. ed. 1481. Compare also the mock _Requiem_ printed (somewhat incorrectly) from _MS. Cott. Vesp._ B. 16. in Ritson’s _Antient Songs_, i. 118. ed. 1829; Dunbar’s _Dirige to the King at Stirling, Poems_, i. 86. ed. Laing; and the following lines of a rare tract entitled _A Commemoration or Dirige of Boner_, &c., by Lemeke Auale, 1569,— “_Placebo_. Bo. Bo. Bo. Bo. Bo. _Heu me_, beware the bugge, out quod Boner alas, _De profundis clamaui_, how is this matter come to passe. _Lævaui oculos meos_ from a darke depe place,” &c. sig. A viii. Other pieces of the kind might be pointed out. v. 6. _Wherfore and why, why?_] So in the _Enterlude of Kyng Daryus_, 1565; “Thys is the cause _wherfore and why_.” sig. G ii. v. 7. _Philip Sparowe_] _Philip_, or _Phip_, was a familiar name given to a sparrow from its note being supposed to resemble that sound.