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[153] O quam, &c.] A line which ought to have rhymed with this one is wanting.

[154] Homicidis] Old ed. “Homicidus.”

From

A Skeltonicall Salutation,

Or condigne gratulation,

And iust vexation

Of the Spanish Nation,

That in a bravado,

Spent many a Crusado,

In setting forth an Armado

England to invado.

Imprinted at London for Toby Cooke. 1589, 4to.

“O king of Spaine,

Is it not a paine

To thy heart and braine

And euery vaine,

To see thy traine

For to sustaine,

Withouten gaine,

The worlds disdaine,

Which doth dispise

As toies and lies,

With shoutes and cries,

Thy enterprise,

As fitter for pies

And butter-flies,

Then men so wise?

O waspish king,

Wheres now thy sting,

Thy dart or sling,

Or strong bow-string,

That should vs wring,

And vnderbring,

Who euery way

Thee vexe and pay,

And beare the sway

By night and day,

To thy dismay,

In battle aray,

And every fray?

O pufte with pride,

What foolish guide

Made thee provide

To over-ride

This land so wide

From side to side,

And then, vntride,

Away to slide,

And not to abide,

But all in a ring

Away to fling?

O conquering,

O vanquishing,

With fast flying,

And no replying,

For feare of frying!

…

But who but Philippus,

That seeketh to nip vs,

To rob vs, and strip vs,

And then for to whip vs,

Would ever haue ment,

Or had intent,

Or hither sent

Such ships of charge,

So strong and so large,

Nay, the worst barge,

Trusting to treason,

And not to reason,

Which at that season

To him was geson,

As doth appeare

Both plaine and cleare

To far and neere,

To his confusion,

By this conclusion,

Which thus is framed,

And must be named

Argumentum a minore,

Cum horrore et timore?

If one Drake o,

One poore snake o,

Make vs shake o,

Tremble and quake o,

Were it not, trow yee,

A madnes for me

To vndertake

A warre to make

With such a lande,

That is so mande,

Wherein there be

Of certaintie

As hungrie as he

Many a thousand more,

That long full sore

For Indian golde,

Which makes men bolde?” &c.

See also—Jacke of the Northe, &c. printed (most incorrectly) from C.C.C. MS. in Hartshorne’s Anc. Met. Tales, p. 288.—A recantation of famous Pasquin of Rome. An. 1570. Imprinted at London by John Daye, 8vo, which (known to me only from Brit. Bibliog. ii. 289) contains Skeltonical passages.—The Riddles of Heraclitus and Democritus. Printed at London by Ann Hatfield for John Norton, 1598, 4to, which (known to me only from Restituta, i. 175) has Skeltonical rhymes on the back of the title-page.—The Wisdome of Doctor Dodypoll. As it hath bene sundrie times Acted by the Children of Powles, 1600, 4to, which has some Skeltonical lines at sig. C 4.—The Downfall of Robert Earle of Huntington, &c. (by Anthony Munday), 1601, 4to, and The Death of Robert, Earle of Hvntington, &c. (by Anthony Munday and Henry Chettle), 1601, 4to, (two plays already noticed, p. lxxxvi.), in which are various Skeltonical passages.—Hobson’s Horse-load of Letters, or a President for Epistles. The First Part, 1617, 4to, which concludes with three epistles in verse, the last entitled “A merry-mad Letter in Skeltons rime,” &c.—Poems: By Michael Drayton Esqvire, &c., n. d., folio, which contains at p. 301 a copy of verses entitled “A Skeltoniad.”—The Fortunate Isles, &c. 1626, a masque by Ben Jonson (already noticed, p. lxxxvii.), in which are imitations of Skelton’s style.—All The Workes of John Taylor The Water-poet, &c. 1630, folio, which contains, at p. 245, “A Skeltonicall salutation to those that know how to reade, and not marre the sense with hacking or mis-construction” (printed as prose).—Hesperides: or, The Works Both Humane & Divine of Robert Herrick Esq., 1648, 8vo, among which, at pp. 10, 97, 268, are verses in Skelton’s favourite metre.—The Works of Mr. John Cleveland, Containing his Poems, Orations, Epistles, Collected into One Volume, 1687, 8vo, in which may be found, at p. 306, a piece of disgusting grossness (suggested by Skelton’s Elynour Rummynge), entitled “The Old Gill.”

A poem called Philargyrie of greate Britayne, 1551, printed (and no doubt written) by Robert Crowly, has been frequently mentioned as a “Skeltonic” composition, but improperly, as the following lines will shew;

“Geue eare awhyle,

And marke my style,

You that hath wyt in store;

For wyth wordes bare

I wyll declare

Thyngs done long tyme before.

Sometyme certayne

Into Britayne,

A lande full of plentie,

A gyaunte greate

Came to seke meate,

Whose name was Philargyrie,” &c.

“See also,” says Warton (Hist. of E. P. ii. 358, note, ed. 4to), “a doggrel piece of this kind, in imitation of Skelton, introduced into Browne’s Sheperd’s Pipe,”—a mistake; for the poem of Hoccleve (inserted in Eglogue i.), to which Warton evidently alludes, is neither doggrel nor in Skelton’s manner.