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SKELTON LAUREATE ORATORIS REGIS TERTIO
Against venemous tongues enpoysoned with sclaunder and false detractions &c.
Quid detur tibi aut quid apponatur tibi ad linguam dolosam? Psalm. c. xlii.
Deus destruet te, in finem evellet te, et emigrabit te de tabernaculo tuo, et radicem tuam de terra viventium. Psal. lxvii.
Al maters wel pondred and wel to be regarded,
How shuld a fals lying tung then be rewarded?
Such tunges shuld be torne out by the harde rootes,
Hoyning like hogges that groynis and wrotes.
Dilexisti omnia verba precipitationis lingua dolosa. Ubi s. &c.
For, as I have rede in volumes olde,
A fals lying tunge is harde to withholde;
A sclaunderous tunge, a tunge of a skolde,
Worketh more mischiefe than can be tolde;
That, if I wist not to be controlde,
Yet somwhat to say I dare well be bolde,
How some delite for to lye, thycke and threfolde.
Ad sannam hominem redigit comice et graphice.
For ye said, that he said, that I said, wote ye what?
I made, he said, a windmill of an olde mat.
If there be none other mater but that,
Than ye may commaunde me to gentil cok wat.
Hic notat purpuraria arte intextas literas Romanas in amictibus post ambulonum ante et retro.
For before on your brest, and behind on your back,
In Romaine letters I never founde lack
In your crosse rowe nor Christ crosse you spede,
Your Pater noster, your Ave, nor your Crede.
Whosoever that tale unto you tolde,
He saith untruly, to say that I would
Controlle the cognisaunce of noble men
Either by language or with my pen.
Pedagogium meum de sublimiori Minerva constat esse: ergo &c.
My scole is more solem and somwhat more haute
Than to be founde in any such faute.
Pedagogium meum male sanos maledicos sibilis complosisque manibus explodit &c.
My scoles are not for unthriftes untaught,
For frantick faitours half mad and half straught;
But my learning is of another degree
To taunt theim like liddrons, lewde as thei bee.
Laxent ergo antemnam elationis sue inflatam vento vanitatis. li. ille, &c.
For though some be lidder, and list for to rayle,
Yet to lie upon me they cannot prevayle.
Then let them vale a bonet of their proud sayle,
And of their taunting toies rest with il hayle.
Nobilitati ignobilis cedat vilitas, &c.
There is no noble man wil judge in me
Any such foly to rest or to be.
I care muche the lesse whatever they say,
For tunges untayde be renning astray.
But yet I may say safely, so many wel lettred
Embraudred, enlasid together, and fettred,
And so little learning, so lewdly alowed,
What fault find ye herein but may be avowed?
But ye are so full of vertibilite,
And of frenetyke folabilite,
And of melancoly mutabilite,
That ye would coarte and enforce me
Nothing to write, but hay the gy of thre,
And I to suffre you lewdly to ly
Of me with your language full of vilany!
Sicut novacula acuta fecisti dolum. Ubi s.
Malicious tunges, though they have no bones,
Are sharper then swordes, sturdier then stones.
Lege Philostratum de vita Tyanei Apollonii.
Sharper then raysors, that shave and cut throtes,
More stinging then scorpions that stang Pharaotis.
Venenum aspidum sub labiis eorum. Ps.
More venemous and much more virulent
Then any poysoned tode, or any serpent.
Quid peregrinis egemus exemplis? Ad domestica recurramus , &c. li. ille.
Such tunges unhappy hath made great division
In realmes, in cities, by suche fals abusion;
Of fals fickil tunges suche cloked collusion
Hath brought nobil princes to extreme confusion.
Quicquid loquantur ut effeminantur ita effantur. &c.
Somtime women were put in great blame,
Men said they could not their tunges atame;
But men take upon theim nowe all the shame,
With skolding and sklaundering make their tungs lame.
Novarum rerum cupidissimi, captatores, delatores, adulatores, invigilatores, deliratores, &c. id genus. li. ille.
For men be now tratlers and tellers of tales;
What tidings at Totnam, what newis in Wales,
What shippis are sailing to Scalis Malis?
And all is not worth a couple of nut shalis.
But lering and lurking here and there like spies,
The devil tere their tunges and pike out their ies!
Then ren they with lesinges, and blow them about,
With, ‘He wrate suche a bil withouten dout’,
With, ‘I can tel you what such a man said,
And you knew all ye would be ill apayd’.
De more vulpino, gannientes ad aurem, fictas fabellas fabricant. li. ille.
In auspicatum, male ominatum, infortunatum se fateatur habuisse horoscopum, quicunque maledixerit vati Pierio Skeltonidi Laureato. &c.
But if that I knewe what his name hight,
For clatering of me I would him sone quight;
For his false lying, of that I spake never,
I could make him shortly repent him forever:
Although he made it never so tough,
He might be sure to have shame ynough.
Cerberus horrendo baratri latrando sub antro
Te rodatque voret lingua dolosa precor.
A fals double tunge is more fiers and fell
Then Cerberus the cur couching in the kenel of hel;
Wherof hereafter, I thinke for to write,
Of fals double tunges in the dispite.
Recipit se scripturum opus sanctum, laudabile, acceptabile, memorabileque, et nimis honorificandum.
Disperdat Dominus universa labia dolosa et linguam magniloquam!
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