¶ Here after followeth the book of philip sparrow compiled by master Skelton Poet Laureate. Placebo who is there who ¶ Di le xi. Dame Margery. ¶ Fa re my my Wherefore and why why For the soul of Philip sparrow That was late slain at carowe Among the Nones black For that sweet soul's sake And for all sparrows souls Set in our bede rolls Pater noster qui With an ave mari And with the corner of a Crede The more shallbe your meed. When I remember again How mi Philip was slain Never half the pain was between you twain Pyramus and Thesbe As than befell to me I wept and I wailed The tears down hailed But nothing it availed To call philip again Whom Gyb our cat hath slain Gyb I say our cat worrowed her on that Which I loved best It can not be expressed My sorrowful heaviness But all with out redress For within that stound Half slumbering in a sound I fell down to the ground ¶ Unneth I kest mine eyes Toward the cloudy skies But when I did behold My sparrow dead and cold No creatuer but that would Have rued upon me To behold and see What heaviness did me pang where with my hands I wrange That my senaws cracked As though I had been racked So pained and so strained That no life well nigh remained ¶ I sighed and I sobbed For that I was rob Of my sparrows life O maiden/ widow/ and wife Of what estate ye be Of high or low degree Great sorrow than ye might see And learn to weep at me Such pains did me frete That mine heart did beat My visage pale and dead wan/ and blue as lead The pangs of hateful death Well nigh had stopped my breath ¶ Heu heu me That I am woe for the Ad dnm cum tribularer clamavi Of god nothing else crave I BUt phyllypes sovine to keep From the marees deep Of Acherontes well That is a flood of hell And from the great Pluto The prince of endless woe And from foul Allecto With visage black and blo And from Medusa that mare That like a fiend doth stare And from Megaera's edders For ruffling of philip's feathers And from her fiery sparklynges For burning of his wings And from the smokes sour Of Proserpinas bower And from the dens dark Where Cerberus doth bark whom Theseus did afraye Whom Hecules did outraye As famous poets say For that hell bound That lieth in rheynes bound with ghastly heads three To jupiter pray we That philip preserved may be A men say ye with me ¶ Do mi nus. Helpeno we sweet jesus Levaui oculos meos in montes would god I had zenophontes. OR Socrates the wise To show me their devise Moderately to take This sorrow that I make For Philip sparrows sake So fervently I shake I feel my body quake So urgently I am brought In to careful thought ¶ Like Andromach Hector's wife was weary of her life when she had lost her joy Noble Hector of Troy In like manner also Increaseth my deadly woe For my sparrow is go It was so pretty a fool It would set on a stole And learned after my school For to keep his cut with philip keep your cut ¶ It had a velvet cap And would sit upon my lap And seek after small worms And sometime white bred crumbs And many times and oft Between my breasts soft It would lie and rest It was proper and priest ¶ Sometime he would gasp when he saw a wasp A fly/ or a gnat He would fly at that And prytely he would pant when he saw an ant Lord how he would pry After the butterfly Lord how he would hop After the gressop And when I said/ phyp/ phyp Than he would leap and skip And take me by the lip Alas it will me slow That Philip is gone me fro ¶ Si in i qui ta tes Alas I was evil at ease ¶ De pro fun dis clamaui when I saw my sparrow die Now after my doom Dame Sulspicia at Rome whose name registered was For ever in tables of bras Because that she did pass In poesy to indite And eloquenly to write Though she would pretend My sparrow to commend I trow she could not amend Reporting the virtues all Of my sparrow royal ¶ For it would come and go And fly so to and fro And on me it would leap when I was a sleep And his feather shake Where with he would make Me often for to wake And for to take him in Upon my naked skin God wots we thought no sin what thought he crept so low It was no hurt I trow He did nothing perdie But sit upon my knee philip though he were vyse In him it was no vyse philip had leave to go To pike my little too Philip might be bold And do what he would Philip would seek and take All the flies black That he could there espy With his wanton eye ¶ O poe ra La sol fa fa Confitebor tibi dne in toto cordemeo Alas I would ride and go A Thousand mile of ground If any such might be found It were worth an hundredth pound Of King Croesus' gold Or of Artalus the old The rich prince of Pargame Who so list the story to see ¶ Cadmus that his sister sought And he should be bought For gold and fee He should over the see To weet/ if he could bring Any of the offspring Or any of the blood But who so understood Of Medea's art I would I had a part Of her crafty magic My sparrow than should be quick With a charm or twain And play with me again But all this is in vain Thus for to complain ¶ I took my sampler once Of purpose for the nonce To sow with stitches of silk My sparrow white as milk That by representation Of his Image and fashion To me it might import Some pleasure and comfort For my solas and sport But when i was sowing his beak Me thought 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 With that my needle waxed read Me thought of Phyllyps' blood Mine hear right upstood And was in such a fray My speech was taken away I kest down that there was And said/ Alas alas How cometh this to pass My fingers dead and cold Coude not my sampler hold My needle and thread I threw away for dread The best now that I may Is for his soul to pray ¶ A porta inferi Good lord have mercy ¶ Upon my sparrows soul written in my bede roll ☞ Audi vocem japhet came and Sem ¶ Ma gni fi cat Show me the right path TO the hills of armony wherefore the beards yet cry Of your father's ●ote That was sometime a float And no wethey lie and rote Let some ports write Deucalyous stood it high But as verily/ as ye be The natural sons three Of north patriarch That ●●●de that great ark wherein he had apes and owls beasts/ birds/ and fowls That if ye can find Any of my sparrows kind God send the soul good rest I would have yet a nest Is pretty and as pieced As my sparrow was But my sparrow did pass An sparrows of the wode That were sins noah's flood was ne●● none so good King philip of Macedony Had no such philip as I No no sir hardly ¶ That vengeance I ask & cry By way of exclamation On all the hole nation Of cats wild and tame God send them sorrow and shame That cat specially That slew so cruelly My little pretty sparrow That I brought up at Carowe ¶ O cat of carly she kind The find was in thy mind when thou my bird untwind I would thou hadst been blind The leopards savage The lions in their rage Might catch the in their paws And gnaw the in their jaws These serpens of Lybany Might sting the venymously The dragons with their tongues Might poysonthy liver & longs The mantycors of the mountains Might feed them on thy brains ¶ Melanchates that hound That plucked Actaeon to the ground Gave him his mortal wound Changed to a dear The story doth appear Was changed to an heart So thou foul cat/ that thou art The self same hound Might the confound That his own Lord boat Might bite asoudre thy throat ¶ Of Jude the greedy gripes Might tear out all thy tripes Of Arcady the bears Might pluck away thine ears The wild wolf Lyraon Bite a sondrethy back bone Of Ethua the brenning hill That day and night brenneth still Set in thy tail a blaze That all the world may gaze And wonder upon the From occian the greatses Unto the Isles of Orchady From Till berry ferry To the plain of Salysbery So traitorously my bird to kill That never ought the evil will was never bird in cage More gentle of courage In doing his homage Unto his sovereign Alas I say again Death hath departed us twain The false cat hath the slain Far well philip adieu Our Lord thy soul rescue Far well without restore Far well for ever more And it where a jew It would make one rue To see my sorrow new These villainous false rats were made for mice and rats And not for birds small Alas my face waxeth pale telling this pyteyus tale How my bird so fair That was wont to repair And go in at mispair And creep in at my gore Of my gown before Flyckering with his wings Alas my heart it stingeth Remembering pretty things Alas mine heart it slayeth My Philip's doleful death when I remember it How prettily it would sit Many times and oft Upon my finger aloft I played with him tyttell tattyll And fed him with my spattyl with his bill between my lips It was my pretty Phyppes Many a pretty kiss Had I of this sweet musse And now the cause is thus That he is slain me fro To my great pain and woe Of fortune/ this the chance Standeth on variance Oft time after pleasance Trouble and grievance No man can be sure All way to have pleasure As well perceive ye may How my disport and play From me was taken a way By Gyb our cat savage That in a furious rage Caught philip by the head And slew him there stark dead ¶ Kyryeleyson Xp̄e leyson Kyrye leson. FOr Phypp sparrows soul Set in our bede roll Let us now whisper A Pater noster ¶ Lauda anima mea dominum To weep with me look the ye come All manner of birds in your kind See none be left behind To morning look that ye fall with dolorous songs funeral Some to sing/ and sow to say Some to weep and some to pray Every bird in his lay The goldfynche/ the wagtail Tthe jangling jay to rail The flecked pie to chatter Of this dolorous matter And Robin redbreast He shall be the priest The Requiem mass to sing Softly warbeling with help of the red sparrow And the chattering swallow This hearse for to hallow The lark with his long to The spynke and the martynet also The shovelar with his broad bek The dotterel that foolish pek And also the mad coote with a bald face to toot The field fare and the snipe The crow and the kite The raven called rolfe His plain song to self The partridge/ the quail The plover with us to wail The woodhacke that singeth chur Horsly as he had the mur The lusty chanting nightingale The Popyngay to tell her tale That toteth oft in a glass Shall read the Gospel at mass The mavys with her whistle Shall read there the epistle But with a large and a long To keep just plain song Our chanters shallbe the Cuckove The Culuer/ the Stockedowue with puwyt the Lap wing The versycles shall sing The Better with his bump The Crane with his trump The swan of Menander The Goose and the Gander The Duck and Drake Shall watch at this wake The Peacock so proud Because his voice is iowde Tnd hath a glorious tail He shall sing the grail The owl that is so foul Must help us to howl The heron so gaunce And the cormoraunce with the Fesaunte And the gagling gaunt And the churlysshe chowgh The rout and the kowgh The barnacle/ the buzzard with the wind mallarde Tthe dyvendap to sleep The wather hen to weep The pussyn/ and the tele Money they shall deal To poor folk at large That shall be their charge The semewe, and the tytmose The woodcock with the long nose The threstyl with her warbling The starling with her brabbling The rock/ with the ospraye That putteth fishes to a fray And the denty curlewe with the turtle most true At this placebo we may not well for go The countering of the coe The stork also That maketh his nest In chymneyes to rest with in those walls No broken galls May there abide Of cokoldry side Or else phylosphy Maketh a great lie The Estryge that will eat An horshowe so great In the stead of meat Such fervent heat His stomach so great He can not well fly Nor sing tunably Yet at abraid He hath well assayed To self above Ela Ea lorell fa fa Ne quando Male cantando The best that we can To make him our Bellman And let him ring the bells He can do nothing else Chaunteclere our coke Must tell what is of the clock By the astrology That he hath naturally conceived and caught And was never taught By Albumazer The Astronomer Nor by Ptholomy Prince of Astronomy Nor yet by Haly And yet he croweth daily And nyghly the tides That no man abides with partlot his hen whom now and then He plucketh by the heed when he doth her tread The bird of Araby That potencyally May never die And yet there is none But one alone A Phenex it is This hearse that must bliss with armatycke gums That cost great sums The way of Thurifycation To make a fumigation Sweet of reflary And redolent of air This corpse for to sense with great reverence As Patryarke or Pope In a black cope whiles he senseth He shall sing the verse Libe/ ra me In de la sol re Softly bemole For my sparrows soul Plinni showeth all In his story natural what he doth find Of this phoenix kind Of whose incineration There riseth a new creation Of the same fashion without alteration Saving that old age Is turned into courage Of fresh youth again This matter true and plain Plain matter in deed who so list to read But for the Eagle doth fly highest in the sky He shall be thy see dean The quere to demean As provost principal To teach them their ordynall Also the noble falcon with the gerfalcon The tarsell gentle They shall morn soft and still In their amiss of grey The sacre with them shall say Dirige for Philip's soul The goshawk shall have a role The choristers to control The lanners/ and the marlyons Shall stad in their morning gounes The hobby and the muskette The sensers and the cross shall fet The kestrel in all this work Shall be holy wather clerk And now the dark cloudy night Chaseth a way Phoebus bright Taking his course to ward the west god send my sparoes sole good rest ¶ Requem eternam dona eye dne. Fa fa fa my re ¶ A por ta in fe re Fa fa fa my my ¶ Credo vydere bona domini. I pray god philip to heaven may fly ¶ Domine exaudi oraciones meam To heaven he shall from heaven he came ¶ Do mi nus vo vis cum Of all good prayers god sand him Oremus. Deus cui ꝓprium est miserere & ꝑcere sum On philip's soul have pity. For she was a pretty cock And came of a gentle stock And wrapped in a maidenes smock And cherished full daintily Thyll cruel fate made him to die Alas for doleful destey But where to should I Longer morn or cry To jupiter I call Of heaven imperial That philip may fly A 'bove the starry sky To tread the pretty wren That is our ladies hen Amen/ amen/ amen. ¶ yet one thing is behind That now cometh to mind An epitaph I would have For Philip's grave But for/ I am a maid Timorous/ half afraid That never yet a said Of Elyconies well where the muses dwell Though I can read and spell Recount/ report/ and tell Of the tales of Caunterbury Some sad stories/ some merry As Palamon/ and Arcet Duke Theseus/ and partelet And of the wife of Bath They worketh much seath when her tale is told Among huswyes bold How she controlled Her husbands as she would And them to despise In the homylyest wise Bring other wives in thought Their husbands to set at nought And though that read have I Of Gawen and sir Guy And tell can a great piece Of the golden fleece How jason it won Like a valiant man Of Arturs round table with his knights commendable And dame Gaynour his queen was somewhat wanton I ween How sir Launcelote de lake Many a spear broke For his ladies sake Of Trystram and king Mark And all the hole work Of bele I sold his wife For whom was much strife Some say she was light And made her husband knight Of the common hall That cockoldes men call And of sir Lybius Named Dysconius Of quater fylz Edmund And how they were sommonde To Rome to Charlemagne Upon a great pain And how they road each one On baiard Mountalbon Men see him now and than In the forest of Arden what thought I can frame The stories by name Of judas Machabeus And of Cesar julious And of the love between Paris and vyene And of the duke Hannyball What made the Romans all For dread and to quake How Scipion did wake The city of Cartage which by his merciful rage He beat down to the ground And though I can expound Of Hector of Troy That was all their joy whom Achilles slew wherefore all Troy did rue And of the love so hot That made Troilus to dote Upon fair Cressyde And what they wrote and said And of their wanton wills Pandaer bore the bills From one to the other His masters love to further Sometime a presyous thing An ouche or else a ring From her to him again Sometime a pretty chain Or a bracelet of her here Prayed Troilus for to were That token for her sake How heartily he did it take And moche thereof did make And all that was in vain For she did but feign The story telleth plain He could not obtain Though his father were a king yet there was a thing That made tha male to wring She made him to sing The song of lovers lay Musing night and day Mourning all alone Comfort had he none For she was quite gone Thus in conclusion She brought him in abusion In earnest and in game She was much to blame Disparaged is her fame And blemished is her name In manner half with shame Troilus also hath lost On her much love and cost And now must kiss the post Pandara that went between Hath won nothing I ween But light for summer green Yet for a special laud He is named Troilus bawd Of that name he is sure Whiles the world shall dure Though I remember the fable Of Penelope most stable To her husband most true Yet long time she ne knew Whether he were on live or dead Her wit stood her in stead That she was true and just For any bodily lust To Ulixes her make And never would him forsake Of Marcus Marcellus A process I could tell us And of Anteocus And of josephus De antiquitatibus And of Mardocheus And of great Assuerus And of Uesca his queen whom he forsook with teen And of Hester his other wife With whom he led a pleasant life Of king Alexander And of king evander And of Porcena the great That made the romans to smart Though I have enrolled A thousand new and old Of these historious tales To fill bougets and males with books that I have red Yet I am nothing sped And can but little skill Of ovid or Uirgyll Or of Plutharke Or Francis Petrarke Alcheus or Sappho Or such other poets more As Linus and Hometus Enphorion and Theocritus Auacreon and Arion Sophocles and Philemon Pyndarus and Dymonides Philistion and Ph●rocides These poets of ancient They are to diffuse for me For as I tofore have said I am but a young maid And can not in effect My style as yet direct with english words clear Our natural tongue is rude And hard to be enneude with pullysshed terms lusty Our language is so rusty So cankered and so full Of frowardes and so dull That if I would apply To write ornatly I wots not where to find Terms to serve my mind gower's english is old And of no value told His matter is worth gold And worthy to be enrolled In Chauser I am sped His tales I have red His matter is delectable Solacious and commendable His english well allowed So as it is enprowed For as it is employed There is no english void At those days much commended And now men would have amended His english where at they bark And mar all they work Chaucer that famus clerk His terms were not dark But pleasant/ easy/ and plain Ne word he wrote in vain Also Iohn Lydgate writeth after an higher rate It is dyffuse to find The sentence of his mind Yet writeth he in his kind No man that can amend Those matters that he hath pend Yet some men find a fault And say he writeth to haute wherefore hold me excused If I have not well perused Mine english half abused Though it be refused In worth I shall it take And fewer words make But for my sparrows sake Yet as a woman may My wit I shall assay In epitaph to write In latin plain and light where of the Elegy Followeth by and by ¶ Flos volucrum formose vale Philippe. sub isto Marmore iam recubas Qui mihi carus eras Semper erunt nitido Radiantia sydera celo Impressusque meo Pectore semper eris Per me Laurigerum Britanum Skeltonida vaten Hec cecinisse licet Ficta sub imagine texta Cuius eris volucris Prestanti corpore virgo Candida Nais erat Formosior ista joanna est Docta corinna fuit Sed magis ista sapit Bien men sovient, ¶ The commendations BEati in ma cum lu ti in via O gloriosa femi na ¶ Now mine hole imagination And studious meditation Is to take this commendation In this consideration And under patient toleration Of that most goodly maid That placebo hath said And for her sparrow prayed In lamentable wise Now will I enterprise Thorough the grace divine Of the muses nine Her beauty to commend If Arethusa will send Me influence to indite And with my pen to write If Apollo will promise melodiously it to devise His tunable harp stryngges with armony that sings Of Princes and of kings And of all pleasant things Of lust and of delight Thorough ' his godly might To whom be the laud asceybed That my pen hath enbybed with the aureat drops As verily my hope is Of Thagus that golden flood That passeth all earthly good And as that flood doth pass All floods that ever was with his golden sands who so that understands Cosmography: and the streams And the floods in strange rheims Right so she doth exceed All other of whom we read whose fame by me shall spread In to Perce and Mede From brytons Albion Both tower of Babylon I trust it is no shame And no man will me blame Though I register her name In the court of fame For this most goodly flower This blossom of fresh colour So jupiter me succour she flourisheth new and new In beauty and virtue Hac claritate gemina O gloriosa femina ¶ Retribue servo tuo vivifica me La vi a mea laudabunt te BUt enforced am I Openly to askry And to make a out cri Against odious enui that ever more will lie And say cursedly with his ledderey And cheeks dry with visage wan As wart as tan His bones crack Lean as a rake His gums rusty Are tull unlusty His heart with all Bitter as gall His liver/ his long with anger is wrong His serpent's tongue That many one hath stung He frowneth ever He laugheth never Even nor morrow But other men's sorrow Causeth him to grin And rejoice therein No s●●pe can him catch But ever doth watch He is so beat with malyte and frete with anger and ire His foul desire will suffer no sleep In his head to creep His feule semblant Ill displseaunt when other are glad Than is he sad frantic and mad His tongue never still For to say ill ' writhing and wring Biting and stinging And thus this elf Consumeth himself Himself doth slow with pain and woe This false envy Saith that I Use greeatfolly For to indite And for to write And spend my time In prose and rhyme For to express The nobleness Of my masters That causeth me Studious to be Bornwell make a relation Of her commendation And there again Envy doth complain And hath disdain But yet certain I will me plain And my style dress To this prosses Now Phoebus me ken To sharp my pen And lead my fist As him best list That I may say Honour always Of woman kind Troth doth me bind And loyalty Ever to be Their true bedell To write and tell How women excel In nobleness As my masters Of whom I think with pen and ynk For to compile Sow godly style For this most goodly flower This blossom of fresh colour So jupiter me succour She flourissheth new and new In beauty and virtue Hac claritate gemina O gloriosa femina ¶ Legem pone michi domine in viam iustificacionum tuarum Quenadmodum desiderat ceruns ad fontes aquarum. ¶ HOw shall I report All the goodly sort Of her features clear That hath none earthly pere Her favour of her face Ennewed all with grace comfort/ pleasure and solace Mine heart doth so embrace And so hath ravished me Her to behold and see That in words plain I can not me refrain To look on her again Alas what should I fain It were a pleasant pain with her aye to remain Her eyen grey and steep Causeth mine heart to leap with her brows bent She may well represent Fair Lucres as I ween Or else fair Polexene Or else Calliope Or else Penolope For this most goodly flower This blossom of fresh colour So jupiter me succour She flourisheth new and new In beauty and virtue Hac claritate gemina O gloriosa femina ¶ Memor esto verbi tui servo tuo servus tuus sum ego THe India Sapphire blew Her veins doth ennew The Orient pearl so clear The whiteness of her lere The lusty ruby ruddes Resemble the Rose buds Her lips soft and merry Emblomed like the cherry It were an heavenly bliss Her sugared mouth to kiss Her beauty to augment Dame nature hath her lent A wart upon her cheek who so list to seek In her visage a scar That seemeth from a far Like to the radiant star All with favour fret So properly it is set She is the violet The daisy delectable The calumbyn commendable The ielofet amiable This most goodly flower This blossom of fresh colour So jupiter me succour She flourisheth new and new In beauty and virtue Hac claritate gemina O gloriosa femina ¶ Bonitatem fecisti cum servo tuo d●ia Et ex precordus sonant precoma. ANd when I perceived Her wart and conceived It can not be denayed But it was well conveyed And set so womanly And nothing wanton But tight conveniently And full congruently As nature cold devise In most goodly wise who so list behold It maketh lovers bold To her to sew for grace Her favour to purchase The sker upon her chin Enhached on her fair skin whiter than the swan It would make any man To forget deadly sin Her favonr to win For this most godly flower This blossom of fresh colour So jupiter me succour She flouryssheth new and new In beauty and virtue Hac claritate gemina O gloriosa femina ¶ Defecit in salutare tuum anima mea Quid petis filio/ matter dulcissia ba ba SOft & make no din For now I will begin To have in remembrance Her goodly dalliance And her goodly pastance So sad and so demure Behaving her so sure with words of pleasure She would make to the lure And any man convert To give her his hole heart She made me sore amazed Upon her when I gazed Me thought mine heart was crazed My eyen were so dazed For this most goodly flower This blossom of fresh colour So jupiter me succour She flouryssheth new and new In beauty and virtue Hac claritate gemina O gloriosa femina ¶ Quomodo dilexi legem tuam dna. Recedant vetera nova sint oina. ANd to amend her tale when she list to avail And with her fingers small And hands soft as silk whiter than the milk That are so quickly vained where with my hand she strain Lord how I was pains Unneth I me refrained How she me had reclaimed And me to her retained embracing there with all Her godly middle small with sides long and strait To tell you what conceit I had than in a trice The matter were to nice And yet there was no vice Nor yet no villainy But only fantasy For this most godly flower The blossom of fresh colour So jupiter me succour She flourisheth new and new In beauty and virtue Hac claritate gemina O gloriosa femina ¶ Iniquos odio habui Non calumnientur me superbi. BUt where to should I note How often did I tote Upon her pretty foot It raised mine heart rote To see her tread the ground with heel's short and round She is plainly express Egeria the goddess And like to her image Emportured with courage A lovers pilgrimage There is no be'st savage Ne no tiger so wood But she would change his mood Such relucentgrace Is form in her face For this most goodly flower This blossom of fresh colour So jupiter me succour She flouryssheth new and new In beauty and virtue Hac claritate gemina O gloriosa femina ¶ Mirabilia testimoina tua Sicutnavelle plantatones in iuuentute sua SO goodly as she dresses So propeeyly she presses The bright golden tresses Of her here so fine Like Phoebus' beams shine where to should I disclose The gartering of her hose It is for to suppose How that she can were Gorgeously her gear Her fresh habylementes with other implements To serve for all intents Like dame Flora queen Of lusty summer green For this wost goodly flower This blossom of fresh colour So jupiter me soconre She flourisheth new and new In beauty and virtue Hac claritate gemina O gloriosa femina ¶ Clamavi in toto code exaudi me Mria tua magna est super me Her kirtle so goodly laced And under that is brased Such pleasures that I may Neither write nor say Yet though I write not with ink No man can let me think For thought hath liberty Thought is frank and free To think a merry thought It cost me little nor nought Would god mine homely style Were published with the file Of Cicero's eloquence To praise her exeellence For this most goodly flower Thus blossom of fresh colour So jupiter me succour She flouryssheth new and new In beauty and virtue Hac claritate gemina O gloriosa femina ¶ Principes persecuti sunt me gratis Oimbꝰ consideratis. Daradisus vo juptatis. Hec virgo est dulcissima My pen it is unable My head it is unstable My reason rude and dull To praise her at the full Goodly master jane Sober/ demure diane jane this master height The load stare of delight Dame Venus of all pleasure The well of worldly treasure She doth exceed and pass In prudence doom Pallas This most goodly flower This blossom of fresh colour So jupiter me succour She flourisheth new and new In beauty and virtue Hac claritate gemina. O gloriosa femina. Bequien e●eruā dona eyes dne with this psalm/ Dne ꝓ basti me. Shall sail over the see with tibi domine commendamus On pilgrimage to faint jamys For shrimps/ and for prawns And for stalk cranes And where my pen hath offended I pray you it may be amended By discrete consideration Of your wise reformation I have not offended I trust If it be sadly dyscust It were no gentle guise This treatise to despise Because I have written & said Honour of this fair maid wherefore should I be blamed That I jane have named And famously proclaimed She is worthy to be enrolled with letters of gold ¶ Car elle vault ‛ PEr me Laurigerum Britonum Skeltonida latem Laubibus eximiis merito/ hec redimita puella est Formosam pocecini qua non formosior ulla est Formosam pocius/ quam commendaret Homerus Sic juuat interdum regidos recreare labores Nec minus hoc titulo tersa minerva. mea est. ¶ Rien que playsere. ¶ Thus endeth the book of Philip sparrow/ and her followeth an addition made by master Skelton THe guise now a days Of some jangling jays Is to discommend That they cannot amend Though they would spend All the wits they have What ail them to deprave Philip sparrows grave His dirige: her commendation Can be no derogation But mirth and consolation Made by protestation No man to miscontent with Phillyppes interment Alas that goodly maid why should she be afraid why should she take shame That her goodly name Honourably reported Should be set and sorted To be matriculate with ladies of estate I conjure the Philip sparrow By Hercules that hell did harow And with a venomous a-row Slew of the Epidanres One of the Centaurs Or onocentaures Or hipocentaurius By whose might and main An heart was stain with horns twain Of glittering gold And the apples of gold Of Hesperides withhold And with a dragon kept That never more slept By marryall strength He won at length And slew Geryon with three bodies in one with mighty courage Anaunted the rage Of a lion savage Of Diomedes' stable He brought out a rabble Of coursers and rounses with leaps and bounses And with mighty iugging wrestling and tugging He plucked the bull By the horned skull And offered to Cornucopia And so forth per cetera Also by Erateses bower In Plutus ghastly tower By the ugly Eumenides That never have rest nor ease By the venomous serpent That in hell is never brent In Lerna the Greeks fen That was engendered then By Chimera's flames And all the deadly names Of infernal posty where souls fry and rousty By the stygyall flood And the streams would Of Cocytus botumles well By the ferryman of hell Charon with his beerd hoar That roweth with a rude●or And with his fore top guideth his boat with a prope I conjure philip and call In the name of king Saul Primo regum express He had the Phitonesse To witch craft her to dress And by her abusions And damnable illusions Of marvelous conclusions And by her superstitions And wonderful condityons See raised up in that stead Samuel that was deed But whether it were so He were/ idem in numero The self same Samuel How be it to saul did he tell The Philistinis should him ascry And the next day he should die I will myself discharge To lettered men at large But philip I conjure the Now by these names three Diana in the woods green Luna that so bright doth shine Procerpina in hell That thou shortly tell And show now unto me what the cause may be Of this perplexite Infera Philippe Scroupe pulchr● johanns Instanter petut/ cur nostri carminis illam Nunc pudet/ est sero/ minor est infamia vero Than such as have disdained And of this work complained I pray god they be pained No worse than is contained In verses two or three That follow as you may see Luride cur livor volutris pia funera dān●● Talia te rapiant/ rapiunt que fata volucre●● est tamen invidia mors tibi contenua. ¶ printed at London at the poultry by Richard Kele. Philip sparrows tomb.