the Garland are also entirely original and performative;
the reader seems to be one of the audience as the poet
addresses the ladies in the countess’s chamber. Many
critics have pointed out that Skelton’s poetry is con-
cerned mainly with Skelton, including Alexander Dyce,
Skelton’s earliest editor, who remarked that “Garland
consists of sixteen hundred lines written in honor of
Skelton himself.” A great comic poet, Skelton stands at
the transition between the Middle Ages and the early
modern period. There is no poet quite like him, and in
his Garland of Laurel, the greatest of all Skelton’s
poems, we literally witness the poet celebrate and
simultaneously mock his own accomplishments.
FURTHER READING
Boffey, Julia. “ ‘Withdrawe Your Hande’: The Lyrics of ‘The
Garland of Laurel’ from Manuscript to Print.” Trivium 31
(1999): 73–85.
Brownlow, F. S. The Book of the Laurel: John Skelton. Newark:
University of Delaware Press, 1990.
Gingerich, Owen, and Melvin J. Tucker. “The Astronomical
Dating of Skelton’s Garland of Laurel.” Huntington Library
Quarterly 32 (1969): 207–220.
Scattergood, John, ed. John Skelton: The Complete English
Poems. Harmondsworth. Middlesex, U.K.: Penguin, 1983.
Tucker, M. J. “The Ladies in Skelton’s ‘Garland of Laurel.’ ”
Renaissance Quarterly 22, no. 4 (1969): 333–345.
Martha W. Driver
Garland of Laurel: “To Margery Wentworthe”
JOHN SKELTON (ca. 1495) This poem, composed of
fi ve QUATRAINs rhyming abab, describes a young woman
in the sewing circle of Elizabeth Tylney Howard,
countess of Surrey. Margery Wentworthe (d. 1550) has
been identifi ed as Howard’s niece and the daughter of
Anne Say, the countess’s half sister, and Henry Went-
worthe of Nettlestead, Suffolk. Margery would later
marry Sir John Seymour of Wolf Hall and bear him 10
children, one of whom was Jane Seymour, third wife of
HENRY VIII and mother of Edward VI.
The performative element is particularly marked in
these verses, with a repetition of three of the fi ve STANZAs,
suggesting a sung REFRAIN. In this refrain, the poet refers
to the lady’s “mantel of maydenhode”—presumably
emblematic of her person—that has been embroidered
with “mageran jantel” (l. 907). As various commentators
note, this is not only a pun on the name Margery but also
refers to the best kind of marjoram. The Tacuinum sanita-
tis, a medieval hardbook on wellness, describes sweet
marjoram as valuable medicinally for the stomach and
brain and as a purifi er of the blood, which may suggest
some further signifi cance of this metaphor—or perhaps
Skelton is simply invoking the herb’s sweet aromatic
qualities. Some scholars have noticed that the basic prop-
erties of marjoram—prettiness and usefulness—parallel
Margery Wentworthe’s virtues. She is further compared
to the primrose and columbine, colorful perennial fl ow-
ers that may adorn a garden or grow wild, but are always
enduringly beautiful.
See also GARLAND OF LAUREL (OVERVIEW); SKELTON,
JOHN.
Martha W. DriverGarland of Laurel: “To Mistress Isabell Pen-
nel” JOHN SKELTON (ca. 1495) Among the liveliest
of the lyrics dedicated to aristocratic ladies in JOHN
SKELTON’s Garland of Laurel, this poem celebrates its
subject in a number of rapid-fi re rhymes. In the open-
ing lines, Skelton rhymes the words lady, dady, and
baby (“By Seynte Mary my lady / Youre mammy and
your dady / Browght forthe a goodely baby,” ll. 974–
976), thereby encapsulating the poet’s inability to put
his affection into verse. “Innocent” rhymes abound in
this little poem, which seems as if spoken to a young
girl. She is compared in a gentle yet teasing tone to
spring fl owers, fruits, and Venus as the morning star.
Among the comic coinages are “rosabell” (to rhyme
with “Isabell” and “camamel”) from the Latin rosa bella,
or beautiful rose, perhaps drawn from Italian love song
tradition. There is also apparently a reference to Isa-
bell’s singing, which to hear, says the poet hyperboli-
cally, is “A lif for God hym selfe” (l. 996). Isabell is
compared with the nightingale, a symbol of both
earthly and spiritual love, who sings with other harmo-
nious birds.
The poem ends somewhat unceremoniously, but
certainly comically, with “Dug dug / Jug jug / Goode
yere and goode luk / Wyth chuk chuk, chuk chuk” (ll.
1000–1003). The reference to the “good year,” or luck
in the new year, may be an indication that Skelton’s200 GARLAND OF LAUREL: “TO MARGERY WENTWORTHE”