“And such a wondrous troupe the Hornpipe treads, One cannot passe another for their heads, That shortly we shall haue (_as Skelton iests_) A greater sort of horned men than beasts:”
but I recollect nothing in his works to which the allusion can be applied.—_An Halfe-pennyworth of Wit, in a Penny-worth of Paper. Or, The Hermites Tale. The third Impression._ 1613, 4to. At p. 16 of this poem is a tale said to be “in Skeltons rime”—to which, however, it bears no resemblance.—_The Shepheards Pipe_ (by Browne and Withers), 1614, 12mo, in Eglogue i., at sig. C 7.—_Hypercritica; or A Rule of Judgment for writing, or reading our History’s_, &c. _By Edmund Bolton, Author of Nero Cæsar_ (published by Dr. Anthony Hall together with _Nicolai Triveti Annalium Continuatio_, &c.), 1722, 8vo, at p. 235. At what period Bolton wrote this treatise is uncertain: he probably completed it about 1618; see Haslewood’s Preface to _Anc. Crit. Essays_, &c. ii. xvi.—_Poems: By Michael Drayton Esqvire_, n. d. folio, at p. 283.—_The Golden Fleece Diuided into three Parts_, &c., _by Orpheus Junior_ [Sir William Vaughan], 1626, 4to, at pp. 83, 88, 93, of the Third Part. In this piece “Scogin and _Skelton_” figure as “the chiefe Aduocates for the Dogrel Rimers by the procurement of Zoilus, Momus, and others of the Popish Sect.”—_The Fortunate Isles, and their Union. Celebrated in a Masque designed for the Court, on the Twelfth-night_, 1626, by Ben Jonson. In this masque are introduced “Skogan and _Skelton_, in like habits as they lived:” see Jonson’s _Works_, viii. ed. Gifford: see also his _Tale of a Tub_ (licensed 1633), _Works_, vi. 231.—_Wit and Fancy In a Maze. Or the Incomparable Champion of Love and Beautie. A Mock-Romance_, &c. _Written originally in the British Tongue, and made English by a person of much Honor. Si foret in terris rideret Democritus._[148] 1656, 12mo. In this romance (p. 101) we are told that “[In Elysium] the Brittish Bards (forsooth) were also ingaged in quarrel for Superiority; and who think you threw the Apple of Discord amongst them, but Ben Johnson, who had openly vaunted himself the first and best of English Poets ... _Skelton_, Gower, and the Monk of Bury were at Daggers-drawing for Chawcer:” and a marginal note on “Skelton” informs us that he was “Henry 4. his Poet Lawreat, who wrote disguises for the young Princes”!