▲3 Skelton often wrote in rhyme royal, 7-line stanzas (rhyming a-b-a-b-b-c-c), used Chaucer and others. But in Philip Sparrow, “Elinour Rumming,” and other poems Skelton employed his own idiosyncratic “Skeltonic verse”—short, irregular metrical lines with unpredictable rhyming. Often Skeltonic verse consists of rhyming couplets, but Skelton will repeat a rhyme three or more times to produce a kind of jagged, frenetic effect. More than one commentator has compared Skeltonic verse to a modern-day rap.

▲4 “The Tunning of Elinour Rumming” is about a real-life woman who owns a squalid ale-house. In a playfully misogynistic mood, Skelton describes Elinour’s bad hygiene and unpleasant appearance, her unsanitary brewing techniques, and the irresponsible behavior of the neighborhood women who come by for their mid-morning draught of ale. To pay for their ale, these women will sell anything, including the family’s farming tools or their husband’s shirt. Skeltonic verse helps give the poem its wild energy and is effective in suggesting the chaotic world of Elinour and her customers:

▲5 Less satisfactory to modern readers is Skelton's Medieval commitment to what appears to us as unnecessary elaboration. Believing in rhetorical “amplificatio,” Skelton gives us long lists of famous authors, mythological figures, birds, or anything else. He will happily say the same thing multiple times. (For a trimmed-down reading of the poem that bypasses much of this repetition, stick to the passages with the yellow highlighting.)

▲6 Philip Sparrow, his most widely read poem, is in large part a stream-of-consciousness monologue written in Skeltonic verse in which a young woman (the real-life Jane Scrope) is in church attending mass but is thinking about the recent death of her pet sparrow, “slain” by Gib, the cat. C.S. Lewis famously called it the first great poem of childhood, and in many ways Jane is child-like. Indeed, there is something delicate and magical in Skelton’s representation of Jane Scrope in the first part of the poem. But Skelton slyly shows us Jane’s emerging sexuality. Philip, we might say, was her first boyfriend. In a later part of the poem, Skelton praises her beauty and virtue—but also openly lusts after her. Jane Scrope was not pleased by this attention.

▲7 Piecing together the historical record and making reasonable inferences from his writings, we can see Skelton as a complex, extreme individual making his way with difficulty through a turbulent era. Always convinced of his genius as a writer, he was infinitely ambitious, always ready to flatter the powerful, and often angry and aggrieved because he felt slighted. He was deeply religious, moralistic, and ready to attack with sharp-edged satires, but he could also be fun-loving, tolerant, and mischievous. He was a willing to take risks and violate the rules.

▲1 Skelton was most likely raised in northern England, probably in Yorkshire. Many of the dates pertaining to his life and literary works are not definite but rather close approximations. He exhibits a deep knowledge and love of music, and he may have been educated in a monastic choir school. He earned a degree at Cambridge and then at Oxford. He was elected poet laureate at Oxford, which meant that he earned a graduate degree in rhetoric. He cherished this honor and made reference to it throughout his life. Not long afterward, Cambridge University granted him an honorary laureate degree (the only such degree ever granted by Cambridge). His deep Catholic faith was very traditional, and he hated heretical thinking and especially Lutheranism. Not only did he castigate heretics in his poetry, he served as a witness in at least one heresy trial.

▲2 During his early 20’s, he distinguished himself as a translator of works of Latin into English. In 1488, at the age of 28, he joined the court of Henry VII as a court poet. Soon afterwards, Skelton joined the priesthood. Becoming a priest did not require Skelton to give up court life. In fact, it can be regarded as a smart “career move,” something he may have done to please the very religious Lady Margaret, Countess of Richmond, King Henry’s mother. As a court poet Skelton wrote court entertainments and “occasional” poems about events important to the court and kingdom. One of Skelton’s important court poems is the rhyme royal allegory The Bouge of Court, a satire, in rhyme royal, on the evils of court life (“bouge” means “rewards” and is meant ironically). Skelton shrewdly portrays the behavior of a range of debauched and treacherous court figures encountered by Dread (modesty), who is new to court life. Speaking here is Favor:

▲3 In what was probably his most important role at court, Skelton served as tutor to young Prince Henry, who would become Henry VIII. Skelton was very proud of this assignment and left us a verse saying so. Skelton also wrote a Latin work for young Henry, Speculum Principis, on the education of a prince and the conduct that is required of princes.

▲4 In 1502 Henry’s older brother, Prince Arthur, died, and Prince Henry became heir apparent. Skelton was replaced as Henry’s tutor. Apparently, Skelton had fallen far out of favor, because he was given no further role in court. He may have struggled for a year or two to remain at court, but in 1504 he accepted an appointment as parish priest in the town of Diss, near Norfolk, probably through the influence of Lady Margaret.

▲1 Skelton felt isolated and disregarded during his five years at Diss, but these were creative years for him. The most important poems of his time at Diss are Philip Sparrow and “Ware the Hawk,” an indignant (and rap-like) denunciation of a neighbor priest who let his hunting falcon and hunting dogs run wild in Skelton’s church:

Skelton says he won’t reveal the culprit’s name, but it appears that Skelton snuck in the man’s name: “Smith.”

▲2 Years after Skelton’s death there appeared two collections of anecdotes regarding Skelton. The surviving collection, Merie Tales of Skelton, tells of Skelton’s very colorful behavior at Diss. While these anecdotes cannot be considered reliable, the author does show some familiarity with the specifics of Skelton’s life. In the Merie Tales, Skelton is a prankster, a wise guy, and someone willing to defy conventional morality. In one story, Skelton’s congregants complain to the local bishop that their priest is living with a woman. The next Sunday Skelton holds his new-born son naked above the pulpit for his congregation to see, and declares, “Is not my son as well-formed and handsome as any of yours?” While the requirement of celibacy was not as strict in the sixteenth century as it later became, this was definitely very questionable behavior.

▲1 When, in 1509, Henry VII died and Skelton’s former pupil ascended the throne as Henry VIII, Skelton struggled to regain a position in court. He wrote laudatory verses for the new king, gave him a revised version of Speculum Principis, and wrote verses bluntly reminding Henry that he owed something to his former tutor. Three years later Skelton was recalled to court with the title “Orator Regius.” He rented rooms within the precincts of Westminster Abbey, where he lived until this death. He retained his revenue from the church at Diss and hired another priest to perform his duties there. As Orator Regius, Skelton again wrote occasional poems for court and kingdom, including elegies for Henry VII and Lady Margaret, a poem celebrating Henry’s military triumph over the French, and one insulting the Scots after their defeat by Henry. He also wrote, as court entertainment, the allegorical play, Magnificence, which attacked corruption at court.

▲2 Thomas Wolsey was a churchman, the son of a butcher, who gradually gained enormous power in Henry’s court and in Papal politics. He rose step-by-step to the rank of Cardinal and then to the office of Lord Chancellor of England. King Henry was often detached from the day-to-day task of ruling his nation, and so many decisions were left to his vindictive subordinate. Wolsey was much feared.

▲4 The older historical narrative is that Skelton attacked Wolsey because he hated Wolsey’s abuse of power and that he most likely reconciled with Wolsey because he had choice but to come to terms with his powerful enemy. A more recent and well-documented theory (Walker) is that Skelton, ever ambitious, wrote his anti-Wolsey satires primarily to curry favor with Wolsey’s enemies and that in 1523 Wolsey was able to buy Skelton’s poetical praise.

▲5 Skelton died peacefully in 1529. Also in 1529 Wolsey lost the support of King Henry due to his failure to negotiate the annulment of Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Wolsey was publically disgraced and was accused of treason—a typical way in which Henry dealt with people who had displeased him. But before the charges of treason could be prosecuted against Wolsey, he died of natural causes in November 1530.

▲1 Skelton had almost no influence on the remarkable literary achievements of Renaissance England that were beginning around the time of his death. The Elizabethan love sonnets, Spenser’s epic poem, The Faerie Queene, the plays of Shakespeare, and much more derive in large part from Continental and Classical literature. In addition, after England turned Protestant, there was less sympathy in Renaissance England with the work of a staunch Catholic clergyman with a reputation for antics and ribaldry. Serious poets did not use Skeltonic verse.

▲2 Indeed, the stories about his Skelton’s personal life along with the rough-edged nature of some of his poems made him a frequent object of derision from the age of Elizabeth until the 19th century. Augustan England, which most of all valued regularity and decorum in literature, was totally out of sympathy with Skelton’s literary art. Pope called him “beastly Skelton.”

▲3 In 1843, Alexander Dyce’s monumental scholarly edition of Skelton’s poetry led to greater awareness of Skelton. Also, Skelton gained the appreciation of the poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Gradually, his reputation improved. Today Skelton is recognized as a highly original poetic genius, and he is studied in English departments and read by segments of the general public. There are good print and electronic editions, and his major works can be readily found on the Internet (see Appendix 2).

▲1 Philip Sparrow is a delightful poem and Skelton’s best-loved work. The poem, however, is complex and has been read in very different ways. Below, in the broadest strokes, I describe how the poem has been interpreted.

▲2 Some readings of Philip Sparrow are theological. They rely heavily on how the poem parallels the mass Jane is attending and the liturgy that appears in the poem. In such readings, Philip can be seen as a symbol of salvation (Kinney; Poetry Foundation). Focusing on Skelton’s orthodox Catholic beliefs, McGuiness sees in the poem an attack the liturgic reforms sought by Renaissance Humanists and overly sentimental worship centering around Mary the Blessed Virgin. ▲3 Other readings are psychological in that they focus on Jane’s grief and mourning and especially the stages of Jane’s healing as seen in the poem (McGuiness p. 218 ; Brownlow). ▲4 Other readings focus more on the significance of the literary and rhetorical conventions Skelton was working with and within. For example, Skelton’s long digressions and over-the-top praise had meanings in Tudor England that we don’t necessarily understand and respond to today (Heiserman; Fish) Although many critics ignore or downplay the obvious sexual content of the poem (Lewis; Kinney; Carpenter), Jane’s sexuality and/or Skelton’s erotic interest in Jane (real or feigned) are properly acknowledged by Pollet, Fish, Schibanoff, and others. For feminist interpreters of the poem, for whom eroticism is necessarily an issue, the preeminent concern is that Jane must be recognized a construction of the male poet (Schibanoff; Daileader). ▲5 My reading is psychological but rests heavily on the poem’s considerable sexual content, focusing on Jane’s emerging sexuality. My reading does not deny important elements of many compatible readings. But I am describing what I suggest may be the primary responses of mainstream readers in Tudor England and contemporary mainstream readers with some knowledge of the cultural and literary context of the poem.

▲1 John Skelton, formerly Court poet but now a parish priest in the small town of Diss, sets his poem in the Benedictine convent of Carrow in nearby Norwich. A young woman, the real-life Jane Scrope, is a boarding student at the convent and is in church attending mass. But her mind is on her pet sparrow, Philip, recently killed by the convent’s cat, Gib.▲2 What we have here is a very early instance of “stream of consciousnes” narration. Skelton gives us something like the working of Jane’s mind. Her thoughts are extravagant and, to us, comical, as when she curses all cats and compares her plight to Pyramus and Thisbe, lovers who were tragically separated by violent death. But her anger and grief are nonetheless real. The poem includes passages from the service—in particular the the vespers of the Office of the Dead for the dead—that are being chanted and also the echoes of these passages and other bits of liturgy in Jane’s mind. As Jane listens to and mentally responds to the service, we are privy to further expressions of Jane’s grief and her fond memories of Philip.

▲4 This is an intriguing portrait of a young woman who is on the edge of womanhood or who has perhaps crossed over, but has not realized it yet.

▲5 After Jane’s imaginative cursing of Gib and all cats, she repeats Medieval platitudes about the uncertainty of life on earth and, with ongoing echoes of the service taking place around her, this the most celebrated part of Philip Sparrow comes to a close.

▲3 The roster of birds (though long) is vivid and often funny. The ostrich is singled out as a terrible singer, and so he will ring the church bells, “He can do nothing else.” Skelton had a deep familiarity with music, and it’s easy to envision him at the pulpit in Diss grimacing at the bad singing of some of his parisioners.

▲4 The digressions in the Bird Mass also continue to reveal Jane’s interest in sex. When Jane invokes Chanticleer, the rooster from Chaucer’s “Nun’s Priest Tale,” she envisions him making love to his spouse, Paretlot (lines 508 and following). The Bird Mass concludes with Philip enjoying sex in heaven (lines 598 and following ) with a wren, said to be the favorite bird of the Virgin Mary. In both cases, the verb “tread” is sexual.

▲5 Now is the time to return to the idea that the poem is only something like the working of Jane’s mind. Let’s imagine that in the year 1505 (or thereabouts) a space ship from a very advanced civilization was floating around Norwich and with remarkable mind-reading technology recorded the moment-to-moment thoughts of the historical Jane Scrope as she was sitting in church thinking about her sparrow. Such a transcript, if we had it, would be a fascinating document indeed.

But the poem is no such transcript. We know that a poet is imagining and representing the thoughts and feelings of Jane. Furthermore, it is unlikely that Skelton’s intention was to represent Jane’s thoughts with total fidelity. Do we, and did Skelton, really think that a young woman would generate in her mind this long roster of bird names (the longest such list in English literature) along with detailed information about many of the birds? Or, is this Skelton working long hours to compile such a list? Also, as noted, the complaints about bad singing (and other aspects of the Bird Mass) seem as much Skelton as Jane. Skelton, then, represents Jane’s thoughts, but he also lets the mask slip at times and steps in as the poet/narrator, and he sometimes gives us an uncertain blend of the two. Indeed much of the challenge and fun of the poem derives from our awareness of the interweaving of Jane and the poet-narrator.

▲1 In the third part of the poem Jane faces up to the task of writing a proper epitaph for Philip. Even though the tombstone and epitaph exist only in Jane’s imagination, the task of contemplating and composing the imagined epitaph is a stage in the grieving process and a start toward healing.

▲2 Jane says that she is intimidated by the task of writing the epitaph, but acknowledges that she does know a lot of popular literature, a fact that she very amply demonstrates. Later she reveals that that she is not up to reading the more serious and more difficult Classical authors—authors whom Skelton himself knew very well.

Significantly, her taste in popular literature is quite adult, and she fully grasps the sexual import of her stories. For example, here is part of her summary of Chaucer’s Troilus and Cressida:

My point is that Skelton continues to remind us about the adult sexuality within Jane.

▲3 Jane then considers whether the English language of her day—which was often regarded as “rude” and unpolished—is a suitable vehicle for serious writing. After an assessment of the late Medieval poets Gower, Chaucer, and Lydate, Jane decides that an epitaph in simple Latin is best, and she composes it. But Jane’s thoughts on the subject of literature and language (which were familiar ideas in Skelton’s era) seem to belong as much to Skelton the poet as to Jane, especially because we know that Skelton had a strong interest in language. From this perspective, we know that a mischievious adult sensibility lies behind Jane, but despite this, this sexual content nonetheless defines Jane for us.

▲4 After Jane composes the epitaph, Skelton steps in entirely (lines 834 and following) in his own voice to announce (in Latin) that he has immortalized Jane (“Joanna”), a virgin of outstanding beauty and knowledge. (In Book 2, line 1371, he identifies Jane by first and last name.) Jane’s part of the poem is now over; Skelton remains the speaker in the next part of the poem, the lengthy Commendations, and in the final part, the brief Book Two, a defense of the poem written years later.

Also, Skelton’s portrait of Jane would be fun and fully satisfying—if Skelton had downplayed the sexual content. That is, one can easily imagine a thoroughly satisfying portrait of an innocent young girl with a humorous touch provided by intimations of her approaching womanhood. But our Jane, it seems, too far along. This is no state of grace, but an awkward, not entirely wholesome situation that asks for change. Philip was a boyfriend, and it’s time for Jane to recognize that she is a woman.

It is an irony of literary history that Skelton’s highly conventionalized claim that his praise will make Jane famous turned out to be absolutely true.

In addition to praising Jane’s beauty, the poet insists—quite rightly— on her virtue. She is as chaste as Diana. She is as prudent as the goddess of wisdom (1230).

▲2 However, just as in the first two parts of the poem, sex enters the poem and still more explicitly than before. Instead of exposing Jane’s emerging sexuality, Skelton now exposes her very publically to his own mature sexuality, his lascivious thoughts and desires:

The poet tells us that Jane raises his “heart’s root”—that is, she gives him an erection (line 1148). It would make any man forget deadly sin, her favor to win. (lines 1080-82). He recounts the occasion of an innocent moment when he embraced “her goodly middle small”(1128). He fantasizes about the forbidden pleasures that lie beneath her undergarments. (1194-97).

▲3 To top it all off, in the passages of Latin liturgy that appears throughout this part of the poem, Skelton repeatedly replaces “Domine” (Lord) with “Domina” (mistress), giving us, for example, this cheerfully blasphemous variation on Psalm 118, line 65 (in the Vulgate): “You have dealt well with your servant, Lady.”

In the Middle Ages there was a tradition of Goliardic poetry. The Goliards were disaffected, often itinerant theology students—Medieval bohemians—who celebrated sex and drink and engaged in the kind of cheerful blasphemy we see in Philip Sparrow. Skelton, however, was no Goliard, but an important scholar and poet and a priest in his mid-40s. Also, he is turning his sexual attentions on a person he has just taken pains to portray as young and innocent—although more ready for adult sexual attention than she knows.

▲4 Throughout the Commendations, the poet is clearly braced for a negative reaction to his poem (which is indeed what happened). But in pre-emptively defending himself, Skelton largely ducks the transgressive nature of the poem.

He complains at length about Odious Envy, who declares that it’s folly for the poet to waste his time praising Jane. Skelton tells us he’s always been a great friend of Womankind and declared that women excel in nobleness (970-82)—but this is not quite the point in the case of Jane Scrope.

Skelton’s most direct, most cogent defense is his libertine stance. His desire for Jane is “no vice” and “no villany,” but ““only fantasy.” (lines 1133-35). And, “Thought hath liberty, Thought is frank and free, To think a merry thought, It cost me little or nought” (1200-1203). This libertine argument, however, seems perfunctory, half-hearted. Indeed, the poet trivializes it by declaring that a “merry thought” costs “little or nought.”

Part Four ends, with a plea that his readers amend (in the sense of forgive) any offense he may have given. This is a conventional element in Medieval poetry, but Skelton makes the plea more than a conventional gesture by returning again to his defensive posture:

Again the poem (including the Latin that follows the preceding lines) ends evasively by not coming to terms with the obvious reasons the poem has caused offense. Why, Skelton asks, should anyone object to the praise I’ve given Jane? (This evasiveness has been noted by Kaplan (p. 76).

This gap between the clearly transgressive nature of the poem and the poet’s evasiveness continues in an addition to the poem that Skelton wrote in response to the negative response he anticipated.

▲1 Skelton wrote the fifth and final part of Philip Sparrow, which is referred to both as “Skelton’s Addition” and “Book 2,” sometime after the distribution of Philip Sparrow in manuscript form. Very likely, the addition was most directly a response to an attack on the poem by Alexander Barclay in his moralistic poem Ship of Fools, published in 1509:

Although Barclay was likely on bad terms with Skelton for political and professional reasons, Philip Sparrow could indeed be condemned as an immoral poem.

Skelton responds to his critics by mocking the “jangling days” who condemn his poem out of envy, and he repeats just a bit of his libertine argument:

▲2 Skelton also takes this opportunity to acknowledge, with some bitterness, Jane’s displeasure with the poem:

▲3 But while acknowledging the negative response, Skelton again avoids any direct defense of the transgressive nature of the poem: Why, he asks, should Jane be ashamed of a work that groups her with other high ranking ladies? No reference is made to the obvious answers: His representation of Jane’s sexuality, his public lusting after Jane, and perhaps the blasphemous modification of the liturgy, where “Domine” (Lord) becomes “Domina” (Mistress).

▲4 Then, invoking the name of the Hercules, whose feats he recounts at length, Skelton entreats the ghost of Philip himself:

Here Skelton is simply playing dumb.

▲1  is difficult to decide what to make of the evasiveness in the Commendations and Addition, and so it is difficult to understand how Skelton expected his Tudor audience to understand the poem and how we should experience and understand it today.

▲2 My suggestion is that the poem is more than a charming portrayal of a young woman and a depiction of Jane’s gradual healing after the loss of her pet. Rather it is about her need for greater self-awareness, her need to acknowledge her womanhood.

▲3 The first parts of the poem show Jane who she has become. It is a picture of innocence and sexual awareness resting uneasily together: “We thought no sin. What though he crept so low?” Indeed, there is a kind of evasiveness, a refusal to come to terms with reality, in Jane’s monolog.

The Commendation completes the picture. The poet’s expressions of desire in the Commendations may or may not be real, but they make very clear the powerful effect she could have on the men around her—something that she could never learn from her relationship with Philip.

Together, the two parts of the poem are instructive, salutary. This middle-age priest and family friend is, without doubt having fun, enjoying his merry thoughts. But his insistance on his innocence and his pained disappointment in Jane’s reaction to the poem go beyond libertine sentiment.

▲4 Skelton’s evasiveness may be his insistence that Jane make connections for herself in an act of self-awareness and personal growth that will also show her the deeper purpose of the Commendations and, indeed, the whole poem.

Furthermore, because Skelton is a professional poet and is not writing a private message to Jane, he is asking us, his audience, to make these same connections and find the his serious, salutary purpose in what looks superficially like a representation of an innocent young girl by a misbehaving priest.

There is perhaps a hint of this idea in a Latin passage, translated below, that directly follows the lines in which Skelton declares his perplexity:

For Jane the poem is embarrassment and shame. But what should count more is that the poet has conveyed the truth.

It is worth noting that Jane's father had died when she was young, and just prior to her residence at Carrow, her new stepfather, Sir John Wyndham, had been executed for his political activities. A withdrawal into child-like behavior is a plausible response to this much personal tragedy (Edwards, 104). A final biographical note: In 1508, just a few years after the composition of the poem, Jane Scrope married a local landowner. They had five children before his death in 1514. Jane did not remarry.

• Uses modern spelling.
• Provides two brief, engaging introductory essays (one about Skelton and one about the poem).
• Provides short notes (often definitions of unfamiliar words) alongside lines of the poem, detailed notes at the bottom of each section, and line numbers in the left margin. Both the short notes and the bottom notes assume a general reader, not someone with literary training.

  

• Lets you display the poem in different ways: If you are using a PC and you set your browser to a normal width, you see the poem and the notes. However, if you want to hide the notes for a totally uncluttered view of the text, narrow your browser until the notes disappear.
• Uses a light yellow background to indicate highly recommended parts of the poem. But you can turn this off in the Viewing Options.
• Supports a variety of mobile devices: With wide-format tablet, you see the notes but with a tighter layout. (To improve your view, try turning your tablet to landscape orientation.)

  

• With a smartphone, the default view hides the notes completely. However, using the Smart Phone viewing option, you can force the notes to display on a small device. The drawback is that the longest of the short notes will overlap lines of the poem. (To improve your view, try turning your smart phone to landscape orientation.)
• Assists visually impaired readers with a High Contrast viewing option.
• Provides a special Scholar’s View viewing option that shows, in a red font, notes intended for scholars, in particular notes querying unresolved editorial issues, such as puzzling phrases and allusions. Scholars are invited to contribute answers by emailing the editor, David K. Farkas (farkas AT uw.edu). Up until now there have been scholarly editions and general-reader editions of literary works. Now it is possible to serve both audiences in one edition and to conveniently crowdsource editorial work.

No edition of any literary work provides the range of useful features that you get in this no-cost QuikScan Views edition of John Skelton’s Philip Sparrow. Many readers, we hope, will decide to read more of Skelton's poetry and will advance to a scholarly edition of Philip Sparrow. See the appendix for some options for further reading and study.

• 1 Woe, woe is me. Psalm 119: 5.
  
• 2 To the Lord in my distress, I cried out. Psalm 119: 1
• 3 Medusa is a female monster whose glance turns people to stone. Here she is called a mare, a sorceress.
• 4 Another of the Furies. Their hair consists of snakes, here adders.
• 5 Proserpina: wife of Pluto, Queen of the underworld, hell; Bower: a secluded, shady place where one might reside.
• 6 Cerberus is a fierce three-headed dog who, locked in chains, guards the gates of hell. The Greek hero Hercules, as a feat of enormous strength, brought Cerberus back from the underworld. Theseus, another Greek hero, assisted Hercules after Hercules rescued him.
• 7 Jupiter: Even in a very Christian poem, literary convention allowed these kinds of references to Greek and Roman deities. Also, Jane has clearly read a lot of books that are based on the Classics.

• 1 Lord. Psalm 120: 5
• 2 I lifted up mine eyes unto the hills. Psalm 120: 1 
  
• 3 Zenophontes: i.e. Xenophon. An Ancient Greek philosopher and follower of Socrates. Socrates was the great Ancient Greek philosopher who, when convicted of corrupting the minds of the youth of Athens and of impiety, willingly took poison.

▲2 Op pe ra¹
La, sol, fa, fa, Syllables representing notes on the musical scale.
Confitebor tibi, Domine, in toto corde meo.²
Alas, I would ride and go
A thousand miles of ground
If any such might be found
It were worth a hundred pounds
190Of King Croesus’ gold,
Or of Attalus the old, like Croesus, remembered for his wealth
The rich prince of Pergame
Who list the story to see.list: wishes
Cadmus, that his sister sought,³
And he should be brought
For gold and fee,
He should over the sea
To weet if he should bringweet: know
Any of the offspring,
200Or any of the blood.

• 1 Opera"(“works”) alludes to: O Lord, forsake not the works of thine own hands Psalm 137:8
  
• 2 I will confess to thee, Lord, with my whole heart. 137: 1
• 3 Cadmus strove with great determination on the ultimately impossible mission of retrieving his sister, Europa, who had been abducted by Zeus. The meaning of this difficult passage may be that Cadmus should be hired to find a relative or offspring of Philip.

• 1 I heard a voice (from heaven say unto me, Write, Blessed are the Dead). Revelation 14: 13.
  
• 2  [My soul] magnifies. The opening of the Song or Canticle of Mary (Luke 1:46-55).
• 3 Jane is raising and then dismissing the speculation, on the part of poets, that Deucalion's flood is the same as Noah's flood.
• 4 I wish Philip a nest as pretty and neat (“prest”) as he himself was.

• 1 Praise the Lord, O my soul! Psalm 145: 1
• 2 To sing a tune using the syllables sol and fa. From Braden. Further explanation please
• 3 A short verse usually chanted by a priest to which the congregation responds.

• 1 Chanticleer, like all roosters, knows when it is about to be dawn. Chanticleer as well as the hen Partlot, his wife, are from Chaucer's Nun's Priest Tale.

• 1 The Bird of Araby is the legendary phoenix, a long-lived bird that can regenerate or be reborn. Associated with the sun, a phoenix obtains new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor. The phoenix was subsequently adopted as a symbol in Early Christianity.
• 2 Pliny the Elder was a Roman author and naturalist. In his Naturalis Historia (Natural History), he recounts that when a phoenix grows old he builds a funeral pyre of sweet spices, from which he is reborn.

• 1 In Greek mythology two springs located on Mount Helicon were sacred to the Muses (deities of literature, science, and the arts). Jane is emphasizing that she is not well educated in literature and rhetoric. However, her readings have been extensive, and she is well acquainted with some works with “adult” subject matter. Would Dame Margery (line 4), the head nun, have approved?
• 2 Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, always very popular, is the greatest work of Medieval literature in England. Much of it is bawdy, and the “Wife of Bath's Tale” is certainly a bawdy one.
• 3 Jane now begins a long list of popular works, including many romantic narratives, that were available as very early English printed books. The lives of Judas Maccabeus and Julius Caesar would have been familiar to Jane because they are among the Nine Worthies."

• 1 Jane provides a summary of Troilus and Criseyde, also an important poem by Chaucer. Pandar, Criseyde's uncle, serves as the lovers' go-between. Criseyde ultimately proves faithless to Troilus.

• 1 The story of Penelope is an important part of Homer's Odyssey, but Jane could have learned the story from many sources. Penelope is mentioned again in line 1021 of the poem.
• 2 Marcus Marcellus was a Roman general who died fighting Hannibal of Carthage. Antiochus the Great was a king of Syria who sheltered Hannibal late in his career. Joseph Flavius was a Roman historian, author of Jewish Antiquities.
• 3 Jane is referring to the Old Testament story of the Book of Esther. She then mentions Alexander the Great, King Evander, an ally of Aeneas in Virgil's Aeneid, and Porsena the Great, a legendary king who fought against Rome in early times.

• 1 Blessed are the immaculate in the way. Psalm 119: 5. This is followed by "O glorious woman!," which appears repeatedly in this part of the poem. The psalm is used in the service for the dead (Ordo Commendationis Animae). The deceased is commended to God.
• 2 Skelton is hoping that his pen will produce golden words, just as the Tagus river, in Portugal, was supposed to be a river with golden sand.
• 3 And as the Tagus surpasses all other rivers (as experts could tell us), so Jane exceeds all other women we read about. And, my verses shall spread her fame from England to the most remote places.
• 4 With this twin brightness, O glorious woman. The twin brightness is beauty and virtue.
• 5 Deal bountifully with thy servant that I may live. My lips shall praise thee. Psalms 118: 17 and 62: 4

• 1 This formula appears repeatedly in this part of the poem. The Latin lines translate: With this twin brightness, O glorious woman."
• 2 Lady, teach me your laws, and I will try to follow them. In several of quotations from the psalms, Skelton mischievously changes “Domine” (Lord) to “domina” (Lady, meaning Jane). Modern editors make this change here, even though an old manuscript uses “Domine”, probably by accident.

• 1 Once again, Skelton tells us that Jane excels in virtue. Lucrece was a Roman symbol of female virtue. She commits suicide after being raped. Polyxena, in Greek legend, was the youngest daughter of King Priam of Troy. She died heroically as a ritual sacrific at the hands of the Greeks after they conquered Troy. Calliope is one of the muses. Penelope, in Homer, is the virtuous wife of Odysseus who refuses to surrender to aggressive suitors while Odysseus is fighting at Troy.
• 2 You have dealt well with your servant, Lady. Psalm 118: 65. The psalm reads “Domine.”

• 1 I cried out with all my heart. Heed me. Psalm 118: 145
• 2 Your mercy toward me is great Psalm 85: 13

• 1 Give them eternal rest, O Lord.
• 2 O Lord, thou hast searched me (Psalm 138, i vulgate???
• 3 We commend ourselves to thee, O Lord. Final oration of the Commendations (Ordo Commendationis).
• 4 The shrine of St. James of Compostela, in Spain, a famous destination for pilgrams. His emblem is the cockle shell, which may explain the shrimp and prawns, but the passage is obscure. Skelton's general sense is that his poem will travel far.

• 1 Lines 1290–1321 are a series of references to the Labors of Hercules. Hercules' victorious combat in Hades is related in lines 84–91.
• 2 This is a series of allusions to Hades (the bower of Hecate, an infernal form of the moon goddess). The Eumenides are the Furies, who are associated with the underworld.
• 3 This is the Witch of Endor who summons the spirit of the prophet Samuel at the demand of King Saul in the First Book of Samuel. Skelton raises the issue of whether Samuel's appearance was just an illusion, and he leaves the issue for learned men to resolve.

• 1 Philip, the beautiful Jane Scrope eagerly asked for your funeral rites. Now why is she ashamed of our song? Shame counts less than truth.

• 1 Why lurid Envy do you condemn the pious funeral rites of a bird? May you suffer the same fate as the bird. Yet for you, Envy, death is continuous. This translation assumes that the Latin “lurida”" (pallor or pale yellow) is a reference to Envy, invoked in the second section of the Commendations. The translation would be different if lurida were translated simply as “ghostly figure.” Envy appears in Skelton's Latin as “invidia.”