“Quid me, Scheltone, fronte sic aperta
Carpis, vipereo potens veneno?
Quid versus trutina meos iniqua
Libras? dicere vera num licebit?
Doctrinæ tibi dum parare famam
Et doctus fieri studes poeta,
Doctrinam nec habes, nec es poeta.”
It would seem that Skelton occasionally repented of the severity of his compositions, and longed to recall them; for in the Garlande of Laurell, after many of them have been enumerated, we meet with the following curious passage;
“Item Apollo that whirllid up his chare,
That made sum to snurre and snuf in the wynde;