John Skelton

John Skelton the Rector of Dis
said Mass in magus’ vestments.
Thomas More was just as remiss,
for each took as his Testament

Pico della Mirandola.
Tudor England’s loud nest of birds
hatched from Savonarola,
not the cuckoo Richard III.

So Satire, and Thrice-Great Hermes,
broke the Yeoman’s Canon’s silence,
and made alchemists of attorneys,
made Wit, statesmen’s obedience.

Sulphur and Satire and Salt mix,
flood Thames to an empire of Styx.

Woodford Halse -30 June 2025

John Skelton ( c. 1463 - 1529) was a priest, scholar of Renaissance Learning, satirist, and tutor to Henry VIII. A tradition associates him with Peterhouse. He was allegedly the first Poet Laureate. His reputation revived in the 20th century, thanks to Robert Graves, W.H. Auden and C.S. Lewis.

21st century readers should read Dan Sperrin’s The State of Ridicule - A History of Satire in English Literature ( Princeton 2025) pp 107-117 on Skelton.

Sir Thomas More ( 1479 - 1535) the Lord Chancellor ( 1529 - 1532) and author of the satire Utopia, demonstrates the ambiguities of Late Catholic England, for he embraced Greek learning and Ciceronian Latin, but also the hermetic lore of Pico della Mirandola in his youth, and was also much drawn to Girolamo Savonarola OP ( 1452 - 98).

The Poor Laws usually associated with Protestantism and incipient Capitalism were a product of Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas More, Juan Luis de Vives ( 1493 - 1540) the tutor to the future Queen Mary I, and not just Thomas Cromwell. I refer to the Vagabonds Acts between 1495 - 1547 and the Poor Acts of 1551 and 1555, and Elizabeth I’s Poor Laws of 1562-1601.

Pico della Mirandola ( 1463 -94) the initiator of Christian hermeticism from collaboration with Jewish scholars fell foul of Pope Innocent VIII, and of Piero de Medici the Younger.

I refer to the Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.

When is somebody going to make me Professor of Poetry somewhere ? I would be a great credit to the institution that took me.