Introduction and Background to
A COUPLET ON WOLSEY’S DISSOLUTION

The couplet is extant in Edward Halle’s Union of Two Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre and York (1548) sig. TTt 2v (Scattergood 513). Scattergood uses the title: A Couplet on Wolsey’s Dissolution of the Convocation at St Paul’s, which is editorially added. The poem refers to an event that took place in 1523, and Scattergood supposes that the poem is contemporary (Scattergood 513).