one which creates a demand in order tofill an absence. It cannot sustain,
therefore, a subject to whom it was always blind. Dunbar’s poetic language,
insofar as it partakes of the visual spectacle of the court, cannot see its
author, and retains alterity. In John Skelton’sThe Bowge of Courte, the
subject of ournext chapter, the problematic center of the court poet’s
authority will be the focus of further scrutiny.
42 Court Poetry in Late Medieval England and Scotland