appear as an independent poem, entitled "The profecy of Skelton,
1529," and the passage prophesying

A fatall fall of one
That shuld syt on a trone,
And rule all thynges alone. . .

can refer only to Wolsey. Another witness that in this poem Skel-
ton is attacking Wolsey appears in William Bullein. ¹ In 1564,
if not earlier, ² he wrote a Dialogue against the Feuer Pestilence,
in which he thus mentions Skelton:

Skelton satte in the corner of a Piller with a Frostie bitten face, frownyng, and is
scante yet cleane cooled of the hotte burnyng Cholour kindeled againste the can-
kered Cardinall Wolsey; wrytyng many sharpe Distichons with bloudie penne
againste hym, and sente them by the infernal riuers Styx, Flegiton, and Acheron by
the Feriman of helle, called Charon, to the saied Cardinall.

How the Cardinall came of nought,
And his Prelacie solde and bought;
And where suche Prelates bee
Sprong of lowe degree,
And spirituall dignitee,
Farewell benignitee,
Farewell simplicitee,
Farewell good charitee!

Thus paruum literatus
Came from Rome gatus,
Doctour dowpatus,
Scante a Bachelaratus:

And thus Skelton did ende
With Wolsey his friende.

The obvious inference from such scattered references is that not
only was Colin Clout read with reference to the Cardinal, but also
that it circulated in fragments.

This inference, made from external evidence, is corroborated
by the internal evidence of the poem itself. Allusions are made to
historic events that happened after the composition of the Gar-
land. One illustration, that shows also the detailed nature of the
attack, will suffice.

-195-