Skelton’s apologetical and autobiographical Garlande of Laurell…

Skelton’s apologetical and autobiographical Garlande of Laurell appears in 1523 after he concludes some sort of peace with a major butt of his satire, the powerful Cardinal Wolsey.

Skelton gives a long list of his works, only a few of which are extant.

The garland in question had been worked for him in silks, gold and pearls by the ladies of the Countess of Surrey at Sheriff Hutton Castle, where he was the guest of the duke of Norfolk.

The composition includes complimentary verses to the various ladies concerned, and a good deal of information about himself, but it is as a satirist that Skelton merits attention.

The Bowge of Court is directed against the vices and dangers of court life.

He had already in his Boke of the Thre Foles drawn on Alexander Barclay's version of the Narrenschijf of Sebastian Brant, and this more elaborate and imaginative poem belongs to the same class.

Skelton, falling into a dream at Harwich, sees a stately ship in the harbor called the Bowge of Court, the owner of which is the "Dame Saunce Pere".

Her merchandise is Favour; the helmsman Fortune; and the poet, who figures as Drede (modesty), finds on board F'avell (the flatterer), Suspect, Harvy Hafter (the clever thief), Dysdayne, Ryotte, Dyssymuler and Subtylte, who all explain themselves in turn, until at last Drede, who finds they are secretly his enemies, is about to save his life by jumping overboard, when he wakes with a start.

Both of these poems are written in the seven-lined Rhyme Royal, a Continental verse-form first used in English by Chaucer, but it is in an irregular meter of his own—known as "Skeltonics"—that his most characteristic work is accomplished.