Estates satire continued into the 15th century with
ALEXANDER BARCLAY’s popular Ship of Fools (1509), a
translation of a German original, and anticlerical satire
likewise long remained popular. The anonymous Land of
Cockaygne (1330) depicts the immoral fantasies of a com-
mon monk. Both WILLIAM LANGLAND’s PIERS PLOWMAN
and Chaucer’s “The PARDONER’S TALE” attack simony (the
selling of ecclesiastical appointments or offi ces). Satires
about fl attery and corruption in royal courts accompa-
nied the expansion of royal power in the 15th and 16th
centuries. These include the works of THOMAS HOCCLEVE;
the Scottish poet WILLIAM DUNBAR; and JOHN SKELTON,
whose satires caused him to be periodically exiled from
HENRY VIII’s court. During the Elizabethan period,
THOMAS NASHE satirized literary and political rivals
through pseudonymous pamphlets. In the late 17th and
early 18th century, usually considered the golden age of
English satire, satirists rejected the infl uence of these ear-
lier English satires in favor of Roman models. Neverthe-
less, the creative and diverse body of English satire
written before 1600 has proven a lasting, if often unac-
knowledged, infl uence on English literature.
FURTHER READING
Mann, Jill. Chaucer and the Medieval Estates Satire: The Liter-
ature of Social Classes and the General Prologue to the Can-
terbury Tales. London: Cambridge University Press, 1973.
Yunck, John A. The Lineage of Lady Meed: The Development of
Medieval Venality Satire. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of
Notre Dame Press, 1963.
Jonathan M. Newman
SCOP An Anglo-Saxon poet and storyteller, the
scop could be a traveler or part of a lord’s personal reti-
nue. If he was a permanent attendant, the scop was
usually treated with honor and respect and accorded a
place of honor at the lord’s side in the mead hall.
ANGLO-SAXON POETRY itself illustrates the cultural sig-
nifi cance of the scops. In the poem “WIDSITH,” a travel-
ing scop is called the “guardian of fame” and heaped
with honor. The lyric “DEOR” similarly illustrates the
glory that a scop can fi nd, but also laments its loss:
I will say that of myself, that I was once a scop
of the Heodeningas, dear to my lord; Deor wasmy name. For many years I had an excellent
following. (ll. 6–7)The poet goes on to grieve over the loss of his position
and coveted privilege to another man who was “skilled
in song.”
Scops were masters of oral-formulaic poetry and
expert storytellers who memorized EPIC tales and skill-
fully wove new episodes into traditional stories. Some-
times the stories were historical, but more often they
were entertaining and (seemingly) carefully crafted to
suit the particular audience. In reality, the scops were
familiar with a number of formulas that they could
adapt to suit their needs. Scops were particularly impor-
tant during feasts, where they entertained the crowd,
promoted the king, glorifi ed the warriors, and led the
drinking games.
The etymology of the word scop is unclear. Although
it seems to be related to the verb sceppan/scyppan (to
shape, to create), the Oxford English Dictionary fi nds
that connection “unlikely.” More likely connections
might be found in the Old High German word scoph
(poetry), and the Old Norse term skop (mocking, scoff-
ing). Whatever the case, the word scop itself became a
part of many compounds, including sceop-craeft
(poetry, the poet’s art), sceop-gereord (the language of
poetry), and scop-leofl (a poetic composition).
There were many other cultural fi gures similar to
the Anglo-Saxon scop, such as the Old Icelandic skald,
the welsh bard, the early Irish ollave, the Scottish
makar, and the French trouvere, although Middle Eng-
lish society had no equivalent.
FURTHER READING
Cassidy, Frederic G. “How Free Was the Anglo-Saxon
Scop?” In Franciplegius, edited by J. B. Bessinger and
Robert P. Creed, 75–85. New York: New York University
Press, 1965.
French, W. H. “Widsith and the Scop.” PMLA 60, no. 3
(1945): 623–630.
Hollowell, Ida Masters. “Scop and Wodbora in OE Poetry.”
JEGP 77 (1978): 317–329.SCOTTISH CHAUCERIANS The term Scot-
tish Chaucerians—given to ROBERT HENRYSON, WILLIAM
DUNBAR, GAVIN DOUGLAS, JAMES I of Scotland, and352 SCOP