C31 



SKELTON, JOHN. 



SKOVORODA. 



532 



corrupt taste which they introduced, and the fatal decline of the lan- 

 guage under their influence ; but Skarga is, on the contrary, the great 

 example of excellence in prose in the period to which he belonged. 

 His work, entitled ' Zywoty Swietych ' (' Lives of the Saints '), is 

 regarded as a model of style ; it has run through more than twenty 

 editions, and is as popular a book in Poland as Foxe's 'Book of 

 Martyrs' used to be in England. The last edition of his 'Sermons,' 

 in 6 volumes 8vo, was issued by Bobrowicz at Leipzig in 1843. A 

 complete translation of them into Latin by Pieniazek was published 

 at Cracow in 1691. That Skarga was not very scrupulous as to accu- 

 racy in respect of facts is shown by a passage in one of these sermons 

 relating to England, in which he states that the Puritans (Puritanowie), 

 who he says out-numbered the Calvinists, did not hold the resurrection 

 of the dead or the immortality of the soul. A long list of works from 

 his pen is given by Niesiecki in the ' Herbarz Polski,' of which three 

 are in Latin and the rest in Polish. 



SKELTON, JOHN, an English poet of an ancient Cumberland 

 family, was born somewhere about 1460, but whether in Cumberland 

 or Norfolk is not certain, though the latter county seems the more 

 probable. Very few particulars of his life are known. The first mention 

 of him is in the preface to Caxton's translation of the ' JEneid,' printed 

 in 1490, where he is said to have been lately created poet-laureate in 

 the " Unyversite of Oxenforde." This honour was a degree in grammar 

 conferred by universities, and not, as is now the case, an office in the 

 gift of the crown. (Warton, 'Hist. Eng. Poetry,' in the account of 

 Skelton ; and Malone, ' Life of Dryden,' i. 83.) Skelton was ordained 

 deacon in 1498, by the Bishop of London, and priest the following 

 year. ('Regis. Savage. Epis. London.,' quoted by Bishop Kennet in 

 Lis collections ; Lansdowne MSS.) He was afterwards admitted to an 

 ad eundem degree at Cambridge (where he appears to have been at one 

 time a student, as in his ' Alma parens,' he styles himself " quondam 

 Alumnus " of Cambridge), and allowed to wear the dress (' habitus ') 

 given him by the king. This we must suppose to have been some 

 badge of royal favour bestowed on him by Henry VII., to whose son 

 the Duke of York, afterwards Henry VIII., he was tutor, being 

 esteemed so great a classical scholar as to obtain from Erasmus the 

 praise of being " Britannicarum Literarum Decus et Lumen." ('Epistle 

 to Henry VIII.,' prefixed to his ' Epigrams,' 294, 4to, Basil., 1518.) In 

 1604 we find from his own statement in his poems that he was rector 

 of Diss in Norfolk and curate of Trompington in Cambridgeshire. 



In the reign of Henry VIII., if not during the lifetime of his prede- 

 cessor, he was appointed orator regius, as he styles himself in the title 

 to several of his poems, being, according to Warton, a graduated 

 .rhetorician employed in the service of the king, though whether with 

 any salary does not appear ; in one place he is called Reginfe Orator 

 (' Poems '), in a passage referring probably to the battle of Guinegate, 

 1513. 



Skelton became noted for his coarse but bold invective against Car- 

 dinal Wolsey and the clergy in general, but according to tradition, not 

 easily traceable to its source, his own conduct as a priest was far from 

 being creditable. He was esteemed, observes Wood (' Athena Oxon.'), 

 in his parish and the diocese more fit for the stage than the pew or 

 pulpit ; he is said to have been suspended by the Bishop of Norwich, 

 having been guilty of " certain crimes, as most poets are." (Wood, 

 'Ibid.') But there is really no authority whatever for these aspersions 

 on Skelton's private or priestly character. He is accused by Fuller of 

 having kept a concubine ; but it is affirmed that he was really married 

 (Delafield, ' Anecdotes of celebrated Jesters,' &c., manuscript Bodl., 

 quoted by Bliss, ' Ath. Oxon.'), though he was afraid to publicly own 

 his marriage ; a piece of cowardliness for which he is said to have 

 expressed remorse on his death-bed. There appears to be reason to 

 believe that Skelton had in fact some of the free notions respecting 

 the marriage of the clergy and some other subjects entertained by the 

 Reformers. The severe attack upon Wolsey in the poem, ' Why 

 come ye not to Court ?' drew upon him the resentment of that great 

 ecclesiastic, who ordered him to be arrested. Skelton took sanctuary 

 at Westminster, under the protection of Abbot Islip.to whom, in 1512, 

 he dedicated the ' Prseconium Henrici Septimi.' 



He died in this retreat, June 21, 1529, and was interred in the 

 churchyard, with the inscription, ''J. Skeltonius Vates Pierius hie 

 situs est. Animam egit 21 Junii, An. Dom. MDXXIX." 



Skelton was much thought of in his day. We have already quoted 

 the praise bestowed on him by Erasmus ; and " of the like opinion," says 

 Wood, " were many of his time. Yet the generality saw that his witty 

 discourses were biting, his laughter opprobrious and scornful, and his 

 jokes commonly sharp and reflecting." Among the nobility his patron 

 was Algernon Percy, fifth earl of Northumberland, and he has written 

 a long elegy on the death of that nobleman's father. 



Skelton attempted several kinds of poetry, but the larger and better 

 part of it is of a humorous or satirical character; about all of which 

 there is a heartiness, and a sense of enjoyment that are as evidently 

 natural as they are pleasant. In his lightest and briefest snatches of 

 mirthful rhymes, as well as in his longer pieces, there is nothing of 

 formality apparent ; every part overflows with an artless freedom and 

 gaiety. His serious poetry, on the other hand, is elaborate, and 

 stately, and dull. Not so dull however as has been represented ; but 

 certainly not of a kind to be read for the pleasure it affords. He is 

 wanting in elevation of sentiment, and in pathos. Passages of a 



rugged grandeur often occur, but nowhere any which affect the feelings 

 or arouse the passions. His directly religious poems are few ; but they 

 are not wanting in a religious sobriety and even solemnity of tone. 

 His elegies are more forced and less impressive. The chief of his 

 poems are his drama or morality of ' Magnificence,' another called the 

 'Bouge of Court,' the 'Crowne of Lawrell,' 'Why come ye not to 

 Court?' a satire against Wolsey; the 'Boke of Colin Clout,' 'Ware the 

 Hawk,' ' The Tunning (or brewing) of Elinor Humming,' ' Phillip 

 Sparrow,' (" an exquisite and original poem," as Coleridge very truly 

 calls it), &c. In other poems Henry VIII.'s foreign enemies, par- 

 ticularly the Scotch, are the victims of most bitter attacks. According 

 to Caxton in the passage quoted above, Skelton translated the Epistles 

 of Cicero, Diodorus Siculus, and various Latin writers. The structure 

 of his verse is irregular and sometimes tuneless ; but there occur pas- 

 sages of rare beauty and harmony. Ilia Latin compositions are written 

 with considerable elegance. Skelton appears to have been one of the 

 earliest authors in this country who addressed themselves to the 

 nation at large, rather than to the nobility or to any particular class. 

 Hence perhaps the often grotesque combination in his works of 

 classical allusions and phraseology, and of doggrel for the unlettered 

 multitude. And hence, too he has claims on our regard other than as 

 a poet. The nature of his writings led him to treat of popular 

 manners, of which he has left us some lively pictures eketched with 

 the free hand of an original and a keen observer, and which are 

 especially valuable as belonging to a period midway between Chaucer 

 and Shakspere. A bold, popular satirist, he was thoroughly imbued 

 with the prejudices of his time ; and if he does not go beyond his 

 term, he clearly reflects it. Such a writer must not be overlooked by 

 one who would judge of that age ; but he also deserves regard for 

 the share which he had in imparting fixedness to our language, which 

 at the close of the 15th century was in an exceedingly unsettled 

 state. 



The Poetical Works of Skelton should be read in the admirable 

 edition of the Rev. Alexander Dyce (2 vols. 8vo, 1843), who for the 

 first time brought the whole of them together, and illustrated them 

 with a body of valuable notes, and also an outline of the life of 

 Skelton separating from it as far as practicable the calumnies with 

 which it had come to be overlaid. 



SKINNER, STEPHEN, M.D., a skilful physician and a very 

 learned philologist, was born in 1623 in London or the neighbourhood. 

 He studied in the University of Oxford, where he was a commoner of 

 Christ Church ; but the Civil War coming on, he left Oxford without 

 taking a degree, and travelled abroad, occasionally remaining some 

 time at the foreign universities. In 1646 he returned to Oxford, and 

 took the usual academical degrees ; after which he again went abroad, 

 living in France, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands ; frequenting 

 the courts of princes and the halls of the universities, being highly 

 esteemed both for his learning and his general deportment. He took 

 the degree of M.D. at Heidelberg, and afterwards at Oxford, in 1656. 

 He then settled at Lincoln, where he engaged in the practice of 

 medicine with great success ; but his career was short. In the begin- 

 ning of autumn in 1667, febrile complaints were very prevalent in 

 Lincolnshire, and he, among others, was fatally attacked. He died on 

 the 5th of September in that year, at the age of forty-four, to the 

 great regret of his friends, to whom the innocence of his life and the 

 cheerfulness of his disposition had endeared him. 



His early decease was a great loss also to the world, for he was 

 applying his vast stores of philological knowledge to the illustration 

 of his native language ; and had made no inconsiderable progress in a 

 work which was designed to serve as an etymological dictionary of the 

 language. This manuscript came after his death into the hands of 

 Thomas Henshaw, Esq., of Kensington, who had a disposition to the 

 same kind of studies, and who made additions to it. He also super- 

 intended the publication of it, which was effected in 1671, in a folio 

 volume, under the title of ' Etymologicon Linguae Anglicansu.' Dr. 

 Skinner's work has the great disadvantage of having been left 

 unfinished by the author, who, it may be presumed, would have 

 struck out, as well as added, as his knowledge advanced and the 

 general principles of philology became more distinctly perceived by 

 him, which would probably have been the case -had he proceeded in 

 his work. As it is, it is to be regarded rather as containing anecdotes 

 of the language than as a systematic body of English etymologies ; 

 but it contains numerous valuable suggestions, and many later English 

 etymologists have made use of his labours. The etymological part of 

 Dr. Johnson's Dictionary is mainly derived from Skinner and Junius. 



SKOVORODA (known in the Ukraine under the name of Gregory 

 Sawicz, or Gregory the son of Sava) was born about 1730, of poor 

 parents, in a village near Kiew, where his father was subdeacon or 

 parish clerk. He was admitted at the age of twelve years into the 

 ecclesiastical academy of Kiew, in the capacity of a servant, but was 

 soon allowed to attend the lectures there, in consideration of the talent 

 which he showed. After obtaining the reputation of being the best 

 classical scholar of the place, and in vain soliciting permission to go 

 abroad, he set out on foot, without the knowledge of his superiors, 

 for Pesth, where he commenced the study of the German language, 

 and in six months was able to profit by the lectures. His account of 

 these lectures however shows them to have been very inefficient, and 

 moreover the fame of Wolf was then at its height and attracting 



