SOURCE: "John Skelton: The Structure of the Poem," in Philological Quarterly, Vol. XXXII, No. 1, January, 1953, pp. 29-42.

In the work of John Skelton appears the first important Renaissance break with the medieval tradition in poetry. His work covers almost every type of verse practiced in his day, including the morality play; but he proceeded from acceptance of the medieval tradition, through varying stages of revolt against that tradition, to a new form which he devised. This type was highly individualistic, however, in the sense that it did not have much "carryover value." Though he finally broke with the medieval method, Skelton's experiment did not, as did Wyatt's, discover the method which was used so effectively by the great Elizabethan and Jacobean poets.

Skelton's two elegies—"On the Death of the Noble Prince, King Edward the Fourth," and "Upon the Dolorous Death and Much Lamentable Chance of the Most Honourable Earl of Northumberland"—and his three prayers—"To the Father of Heaven," "To the Second Person," and "To the Holy Ghost"—are clearly in the fifteenth-century literary manner, the manner of Lydgate. They belong to what Nelson calls "the tradition which conceived of literature to be a means of propagating virtue"¹ The theme of the first elegy is that of the Fall-of-Princes:

The theme is old and is not at all re-vitalized in this poem. It has the same lack of imagery as in Lydgate and Hawes. Though the second elegy has a different theme, an argument against the commons who killed Northumberland and a recital of the earl's virtues, it may be characterized in the same fashion. Only a touch of the later Skelton is present, as in the word play of

Yet shamefully they slew him: that shame may them befall!

and the confused image

The prayers have a characteristic medieval rhetoric of abstractions:

Skelton's first major attempt marks his first unmistakable move away from the medieval tradition. In the large, The Bouge of Court is a typical fifteenth-century allegory. It has the

same astrological introduction, the insistence upon the necessity of "covert Terms," and the usual assumption of modesty: the poet then falls asleep and his dream becomes the substance of the poem: he wakes up at a critical moment in the action and writes his "little book," for which he makes a conventional apology.³

In addition, the characters of the poem, with the exception of one, are personifications such as might be found in late medieval allegory. They include Drede (the dreamer himself), Dame Saucepere, Danger, Bon Aventure, Favell, Suspect, Disdain, Riot, Dissimuler, and Deceit.

But the poem is not completely abstract in its conception. It is first of all definitely localized:

At Harwich port slumb'ring as I lay
In mine hostes house, called Powers Key.

More important yet, the descriptions of the personified characters are a mixture of medieval abstraction and of touches of reality. For example, in this description of Disdain,

only the fourth and fifth lines seem to belong to medieval description; such expressions as "His face was belimmed as bees had him stung," "pale as ashes," and "comerous crab" set before us a distinct and physical person. This quality of the poem has its climax, moreover, in the description of Harvey Hafter, a real person with a real name among abstractions:

John M. Berdan speaks of this last line as a "triumph of suggestiveness."⁴ The characterization of Harvey Hafter does not stop here, however; it continues through the medium of his own speech to Drede, one stanza of which is:

It is evident from this poem, then, that at the time he wrote it Skelton was not yet prepared to break completely with the medieval tradition. He had not yet, we may suppose, invented a structure for the poem which would be compatible with the direct way in which he approached experience and to the realistic materials which he wished to place in his poem. His answer to the problem at this time was to borrow an old shell and fill it with new drink.

The same method is also evident in Skelton's morality play, Magnificence. He borrowed the structure of a literary type well-known in his day but used for ecclesiastical and moral purposes. His characters all have abstract names. There is the typical abstract argument:

But the play is filled with much specific material. Occasionally an image, instead of abstract terms, is used to describe the characters, as in this comment upon the taking of the assumed name, Sure Surveyance, by the character Counterfeit Countenance:

Surveyance! where ye survey
Thrift has lost her coffer-key!

or this comment upon Cloaked Collusion:

By Cock's heart, he looketh high!
He hawketh, methink, for a butterfly.

There is a specific reference to King Louis XII. As Henderson comments, although Skelton's purpose "is distinctly moral, … he is chiefly concerned with showing that the wages of imprudent spending, through certain unnamed evil advisers, will be, for a certain unnamed rich prince, adversity and poverty. The case at issue is not so much universal as particular—although, of course, it can be interpreted universally—and the play contains much indirect satire of Wolsey's influence on the young Henry VIII."⁵

A further step from the medieval method is apparent in the first of Skelton's major satires, Speak, Parrot. At first thought it would seem that the poem is similar to the medieval type of the bestiary, since a bird is the main character. But in this poem the parrot is not at all approached as were the beasts in the Physiologi, with an attempt to find some allegorical significance to the animal's habits or physical character. Rather, here the parrot is realized as the brightly-colored bird who is captured in distant places and brought off in a cage to be a plaything for idle women:

Also, this parrot can speak Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, Chaldean, Greek, Spanish, French, Dutch, English, and Portugese; and like the parrot Skelton garbles his smatterings of words and phrases from these languages. It is this near-confusion of language which has attracted the most attention from scholars, though the purpose of the indirection of statement is frankly admitted:

Underneath the confusion of language two principal attacks are readily apparent, one against the study of Greek, and the other, more violent, against Wolsey.

What is more interesting for our purposes here is the method involved. It certainly is not medieval, for no indirect preparation, no dream setting or allegorical structure, is provided. The poem starts with the description of the parrot, quoted above, continues the description for a number of stanzas, and then proceeds to the statements by the parrot. The parrot provides, then, the single structural element of the poem: about the facts that the parrot lives in places of court intrigue and that he can speak are gathered the satirical matters of the poem. And the principle by which the satirical matters are gathered is simply one of accumulation: the parrot speaks of matters which the author wishes to satirize, and at the time he wishes to satirize them. This is attested not only by the fact that there are two principal objects of satire, as noted above, but also by the fact that the poem has several envoys, each of them dated and "constituting a series of fortnightly reports on the current activities of Cardinal Wolsey."⁶ And the parrot remains the only connecting link among these accretions, whether in terms of time or of matter.

The complete break with the medieval manner is apparent in Colin Clout. "Here the dream-structure is abandoned in favor of a single dramatic ego; personification and allegory change to direct statement; and the rime-royal is abandoned in favor of the Skeltonical verse."⁷ There is no attempt at narrative to link together the various satirical matters of the poem. The structural element, bringing together into one poem such various matters, is provided by the figure of Colin Clout:

As the parrot is used in Speak, Parrot, so here also the structural element, the "single dramatic ego" of Colin Clout, is used to link not only various materials—which include attacks upon church corruption, the confusion of temporal and spiritual powers of the Church, the lack of learning and the laziness of many priests, and Wolsey's attempt at advancement—but also parts composed at different times.⁸ This is apparent also in the third major satire, Why Come Ye not to Court? In that poem, only a little more than a quarter of the way through the complete work, appear the lines:

Thus will I conclude my style,
And fall to rest a while,
And so to rest a while.

Thus the poem must have ended at this point once, to be taken up again as new instances of corruption came to Skelton's attention.

The structural relationship among these matters within the poem can be only slight. This is particularly true of Why Come Ye not to Court? which does not have a parrot or a Colin Clout to provide some semblance of unity. Combining such various matters at various times in the same poem, Skelton returned often to the same attack, securing intensification and a well-rounded picture by repetition and by the addition of many new examples. As Berdan comments of Why Come Ye not to Court?, "The natural result is that the poem is powerful only in detail. As a whole it has the incoherence of anger."⁹

This use of repetition, or parallelism, as it might be called, appears not only in the large units of these poems but also in smaller units. It is a striking characteristic of those poems by Skelton which are out of the medieval tradition; and the same structure, as Nelson notes,¹⁰ is just as strikingly absent from the poems composed in rime-royal. An example is this from Colin Clout:

Farewell benignitie,
Farewell simplicitie,
Farewell humilitie,
Farewell good charitie!

Another is from The Tunning of Elinor Rumming:

In these poems, then, Skelton has arrived at a method which is definitely not medieval. The writing is direct, not indirect; there is no allegorical covering, but instead an attempt to provide structure through the dramatic figure of a bird or a man who repeats what he hears. Above all, Skelton has thrown over the psychological and philosophical principles which underlie the medieval method. He does not approach experiences with preconceptions; experience is not intellectualized into categorical compartments. Instead he seems to be trying "to get the facts." His own program for church and civil reform is only slightly emphasized compared with his insistence upon the evils which exist. He is gathering data for a program, for a philosophy of action. The poems exhibit a sort of inductive thinking.

In terms of verse structure, we may, for the sake of convenience, term his method "accumulative." He gathers data not once but time after time to cover the same point again and again. "Over and over again he repeats the same things, devoid of all logical form and construction—although these pieces may be said to have certain concentric¹¹ movement of their own—round and round the same point he goes, always coming back to where he started from."¹² And this accumulative method is apparent not only in terms of materials but also in terms of the structure of the verse from line to line, as has been pointed out.

The same method of accumulation is characteristic of Skelton's best non-satirical work. It is especially evident in The Tunning of Elinor Rumming, an extreme example of a direct, non-intellectualized approach to sordid elements of experience. The poem is composed of scenes and portraits—almost photographic in their fidelity to fact—of women found at a tavern. And the scenes and portraits are left at the level of description: at the end the poet has merely written enough:

For my fingers itch,
I have written too mich
Of this mad mumming
Of Elinor Rumming!
Thus endeth the geste
Of this worthy feast.

At the same time, repetition and accumulation form the dominant verse-structure throughout the poem. One example has already been quoted. Of the same sort, but here used in conversation, is:

He calleth me his whiting,
His mulling and his miting,
His nobbes and his coney,
His sweeting and his honey,
With "Bass, my pretty bonny,
Thou are worth goods and money!"

Broad, indefinite metaphors and similes are often used in the portraits. They cannot be put together, as images, to make a clear picture, for the analogies are drawn from so many realms of experience. They function, then, as momentary impressions of detail, the complete portrait being achieved through the accumulation of many such images. The following, to give an example, are less than a fourth of the lines devoted to the portrait of Elinor Rumming:

Philip Sparrow is something of a special case, because for the first of its two parts Skelton has again gone to a convention to secure a structure for his poem. In this case, the convention, as Ian Gordon has pointed out, is the Services for the Dead of the Roman Church.¹³ Gordon lists all the forms of the Services for the Dead and com-ments:

Skelton uses all these forms except that of Matins, and Philip Sparow is remarkable in the way it uses first the Vespers in the Office for the Dead, then without indication or warning becomes the medieval Mass of the Birds … ; again without warning shifts into the Absolution over the Tomb; and then with a few lines on the coming on of night returns to the close of Vespers in the Office. After a section on the composition of a Latin epitaph … we find ourselves at the Commendatio—commendations, not of the soul of Philip Sparow, but, with an obvious play on the double meaning of the word, on the beauty of the girl who was supposed to have recited part one.¹⁴

Within this structure Skelton's method of accumulation of detail and perception is apparent, particularly in the second part, where he proceeds from one aspect of Joanna's beauty to another. The following is his comment upon her wart (perhaps a mole) upon her cheek:

Within the first part, also, the same verse-structure is used. A Latin phrase from the Services for the Dead introduces each new movement, and within each appear such passag-es as:

And:

But it is to be noted that in addition to his accumulative method Skelton in this poem makes use of his convention in a way not characteristic of his other poems in which a convention is found. Here the Services for the Dead are not merely framework, as is the dream-framework of The Bouge of Court. The Services are integrated into the poem and act as an undercurrent of commentary on Joanna's sorrow and lamentation. Commenting on this usage, Gordon says, "The formulae of the various Services are introduced, but they are unchanged and perhaps not always even ridiculed. Instead they give a mock-serious background to the lament for Philip that is at any time liable to lose its mockery."¹⁵ It is this management of tone between humor and pathos, between burlesque and sentimentality, which is one of the important achievements of Philip Sparrow, and the use of the convention as a functional device in managing the tone represents a further step in Skelton's handling of structural elements in his poetry.

And just as in this poem there is a functional use of the framework, so also is there a functional modification of his characteristic accumulation. In one of her first laments, Joanna says:

Here the repetitive pattern for the verses is familiar. But it is not so straightforward as before; there is a balance of tone which we found extended throughout the poem by means of the undercurrent of commentary through the parody of the Services for the Dead. The first seven lines quoted seem all of one attitude, a genuine lamentation for the death of the sparrow. But the object of the lamentation is merely a pet bird; a single attitude of such pathos toward such an object would seem sentimental. So against the attitude is balanced one of mockery of the lamentation itself, expressed in this passage by the exaggeration of the metaphor hailed in the eighth line and by the near-humor involved in the name of the cat, in the implied situation, and in the exaggerated heroism of the words hath slain of the last line. Similar balancings of attitudes are found throughout Joanna's part of the poem. There is straightforward grief in some of the descriptions, as that of the bird crawling beneath the girl's night clothes:

And on me it would leap
When I was asleep
And his feathers shake,
Wherewith he would make
Me often for to wake,
And for to take him in
Upon my naked skin.
God wot, we thought no sin:
What though he crept so low?
It was no hurt, I trow,
He did nothing, perde,
But sit upon my knee!
Philip, though he were nice,
In him it was no vice!
Philip might be bold
And do what he wold:
Philip would seek and take
All the fleas black
That he could there espy
With his wanton eye.

Or, after a recollection that with a knowledge of magic she might be able to bring Philip alive again, Joanna thinks of the time she tried to stitch Philip's likeness in a sampler:

But when I was sewing his beak,
Methought my sparrow did speak,
And opened his pretty bill,
Saying, "Maid, ye are in will
Again me for to kill!
Ye prick me in the head! …
My needle and thread
I threw away for dread.

Finally, this accumulative method is the foundation of Skelton's best lyrics. Occasionally, there is a certain reverse process, a general statement followed by the realistic image; the organization is apparent in this quotation from Upon a Dead Man's Head:

Obviously even here the interest is not primarily upon the general statement but upon the actual effect of mortality.

At times appears the accumulation of detail towards a general statement, as in the last three stanzas of Knowledge, Acquaintance, Resort, Favour with Grace:

These two poems are also basically "occasional." The former is addressed to a woman who sent the poet a death's head "for a token," and the letter is addressed by the lover to the loved-one. In each case the realistic, accumulative method is at times confused, in the first poem by moralizings upon mortality, and in the second by the intrusion of a medieval personification of Absence. In Skelton's best lyrics, however, there is not this confusion. In a number of them, such as Lullay, Lullay, like a Child; The Ancient Acquaintance, Madam, between Us Twain; and Mannerly Margery Milk and Ale, the poem has a narrative basis. But the interest is not merely in the narrative. The first-named poem is a song, and the music for it has come down to us; it has the quality of statement and the repeated refrain common to the song tradition. In the others appears a greater attempt to get at the details of the narrative situation and of the characterization, with Skel ton's favorite method of providing detail:

At their best, then, Skelton's lyrics have dropped the generalization from a place of prime importance. In its place appears an interest in getting the details of characterization and of the experience. These details are expressed, not through a close analysis of the elements or through means of an extended metaphor, but through almost a riot of images which seem to have little connection or coordination but each of which expresses some facet of the experience; and by the accumulation of such facets a rounded, full communication of the experience is occasionally attained. Skelton's method produces at its best, in the lyric, such a poem as "To Mistress Margaret Hussey" from The Garland of Laurel:

Notes

¹ William Nelson, John Skelton. Laureate (New York, 1939), p. 142.

²The Complete Poems of John Skellon, Laureate, edited by Philip Henderson (London, 1931), pp. 2-3. All quotations from Skelton are from this edition.

³ibid. p. XXVIII.

⁴ John M. Berdan, Early Tudor Poetry. 1485-1547 (New York, 1931), p. 97.

⁵ Henderson, p. XXVII.

⁶ Nelson, p. 135.

⁷ Berdan, p. 179.

⁸Ibid., pp. 195-198, gives indications that Colin Clout was circulated in fragments and thus must have been composed piecemeal.

⁹Ibid., p. 193.

¹⁰ Nelson, p. 87.

¹¹ Ten Brink, as Arthur Koelbing points out ("Barclay and Skelton," The Cambridge History of English Literature [Cambridge, 1909], III, 84) called Skelton's method "concentric."

¹² Henderson, p. XXIX.

¹³ Ian A. Gordon, "Skelton's Philip Sparow' and the Roman Service-Book," Modern Language Review, XXIX (1934), 389-396.

¹⁴Ibid., p. 390.

¹⁵Ibid., p. 396.