[73] vol. i. 173.
[74] vol. i. 175.
[75] Ath. Oxon. i. 50. ed. Bliss.
[76] Reprinted in Appendix I. to this Memoir; where see also the extracts from A C mery Talys, &c.—The biographer of Skelton, in Eminent Lit. and Scient. Men of Great Britain, &c. (Lardner’s Cyclop.), asserts that “he composed his Merie Tales for the king and nobles”!!! i. 279.
[77] Lines prefixed to Marsh’s ed. of Skelton’s Workes, 1568: see Appendix I. to this Memoir.
[78] “Sithe ye haue me chalyngyd, M[aster] Garnesche,” &c.; see vol. i. 116.
[79] In the Notes on the poems Against Garnesche I have cited several parallel expressions from The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy. That curious production may be found in the valuable edition of Dunbar’s Poems (ii. 65) by Mr. D. Laing, who supposes it to have been written between 1492 and 1497 (ii. 420). It therefore preceded the “flyting” of Skelton and Garnesche. I may add, that the last portion of our author’s Speke, Parrot bears a considerable resemblance to a copy of verses attributed to Dunbar, and entitled A General Satyre (Poems, ii. 24); and that as the great Scottish poet visited England more than once, it is probable that he and Skelton were personally acquainted.
[80] At a later period there was a poetical “flyting” between Churchyard and a person named Camel, who had attacked a publication of the former called Davie Dicars Dreame; and some other writers took a part in the controversy: these rare pieces (known only by their titles to Ritson, Bibliog. Poet. p. 151, and to Chalmers, Life of Churchyard, p. 53) are very dull and pointless, but were evidently put forth in earnest.
[81] In the first poem Against Garnesche he is called “Master:” but see Notes, vol. ii. 177.
[82] Hall’s Chron. (vi. yere Hen. viii.), fol. xlviii. ed. 1548.