H. L. R. EDWARDS - Skelton. The Life and Times of an Early Tudor Poet

London England, Jonathan Cape, 1949. First Edition, Binding: Cloth, Very Good/Fair. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" Tall Octavo Hardback Hardback. First Edition. Skelton. The Life and Times of an Early Tudor Poet. Slight foxing to end inside covers. Wear and a couple of small tears to edge of D/J. Corners of D/J. worn. Marks to back D/J. Price clipped to D/J. Even livelier than he was learned, John Skelton, poet laureate, managed to touch life at more points than most men of his age. The scholar who tutored Henry VIII and met Erasmus, quarrelled with Wolsey, celebrated Flodden, kept a woman in his parsonage and withal found time to be the greatest English poet in a century and a half, surely calls out for detailed biography. Baes on original research begun in 1932, the present work traces Skelton' career from its beginning at Cambridge to its quiet end in the precincts of Westminster Abbey. Much of the material has not previously been published. The identity of Philip Sparrow's owner, Skelton's relations with the Lady Margasret and the impetuous Countess of Surrey, his first clash with Wolsey, the real meaning of Speak, Parrot, are here made clear for the first time. All the important pomes are discussed and dated, including the norious Elinor Rumming; but the book is primarily biographical and is written with the general, unspecializing reader in mind. For the student an appendix has been added, with references to the learliest lives and all the original records, including many new ones. 325 pp.