goodly chaumber of astate”( 768 )–a metonym for the body of the patro-
ness, which is also, in a real sense given the probable chronology of its
composition, the matrix of the poem.
In the ladies’chamber of Sheriff Hutton, we observe, inflat contradiction
to that strand in the poem thatfigures poetry as self-making, a poetic
reputation woven under thefingers of ladies, in an economy of exchange.
Skelton, the Countess says, deserves his reputation because
“of all ladyes he hath the library,
Ther names recountyng in the court of Fame;
Of all gentylwomen he hath the scruteny,
In Fames court reportyng the same;
For yet of women he never sayd shame,
But if they were counterfettes that women them call,
That list of there lewdnesse with hym for to brall.” ( 780 – 86 )In this trade-off, we are once again back to the archaic scene of patronage of
The Legend of Good Women; poetic fame for women’s good names is the
order of the day. As phallic mother, who has something that Skelton wants,
the countess is clear that Skelton must also return thanks to the ladies“With
proper captacyons of benevolence”( 815 ); if they work for his“pleasure”
( 810 ), he must also pleasure them with“some goodly conseyt”( 814 ).
Critics have referred to the ensuing scene as“delightful,”“enchanting,”and
“charming,”suggesting a distinct readiness to fall in with the text’s narcissistic
reconstruction of its originary scene of patronage.^54 For the women show how
far they deserve the good names that Skelton will give them. They settle to an
intimate scene of spinning and weaving–a male fantasy of female interiority
and domesticity, a gathering of women in labor.“Withfingers smale, and
handis whyte as mylk”( 797 ) supple enough to assuage the lack of any slack
poet, they exchange cheerful gossip (“Reche me that skane of tewly sylk,” 798 ;
“Wynde me that botowme of such an hew,” 799 ). Skelton, however, gives
his exchange with the ladies a distinctly asymmetric twist; while the ladies weave
the text of his laurel crown and thus his reputation, he“sharpe[s his] pen”( 823 )
and with his“dredfull tremlyngfist”( 828 ) covertly undoes theirs.
Skelton’s lyrics have puzzled most commentators on the poem, and
attempts to explain away the manifest indecorousness of their Ovidian
subtexts have usually succeeded only in drawing attention to their own
strenuousness. Lady Anne Dacre is linked with Deianira, to whose jealousy
the downfall of Hercules was ascribed ( 901 );^55 Margaret Tilney with the fables
of the incestuous Canace ( 934 )^56 and Phaedra ( 940 );^57 Gertrude Statham is
“Lyke to Dame Pasiphe”( 1048 ), whose intercourse with a bull bred the
Minotaur.^58 Meanwhile, allusions to theHeroidesname Laodamia ( 972 ),
164 Court Poetry in Late Medieval England and Scotland