fi ctive Garland of Laurel records a real occasion: the
laureation of Skelton as celebrated by the ladies of Eliz-
abeth Tylney Howard’s embroidery circle at Sheriff
Hutton Castle, Yorkshire.
Though a fi rm identifi cation of Isabell Pennel has
not been made, the scholar M. J. Tucker has found an
Isabel Paynell who married Thomas Dereham, who
was born about 1472. Their son, Francis Dereham,
would later become Catherine Howard’s lover, exe-
cuted by HENRY VIII for his illicit sexual behavior with
Catherine.
See also GARLAND OF LAUREL (OVERVIEW).
Martha W. Driver
Garland of Laurel: “To Mistress Jane Blenner-
hasset” JOHN SKELTON (ca. 1495) This poem is
one of the central verses in JOHN SKELTON’s Garland of
Laurel, composed about 1495, celebrating the ladies of
the embroidery circle of Elizabeth Tylney Howard,
countess of Surrey. In his DREAM VISION, the poet
encounters a group of ladies in the countess’s chamber
who are engaged in making him a laurel crown, or
chaplet. The identifi cation of Jane Hasset (as she is
called in the sole extant manuscript) or Blenner-Haiset
(as she is named in the printed editions) is uncertain.
The scholar M. J. Tucker suggests that Jane was prob-
ably the wife of Ralph Blennerhasset and grandmother
of Thomas Blennerhasset, Howard’s executor. She died
in 1501 at the age of 97, so at the time of Skelton’s
original composition, which may have been drawn
from an actual occasion (the poet was laureated three
times—by Oxford in 1488, Louvain in 1492, and
Cambridge in 1493), Jane Hasset would have been
quite elderly.
There are three STANZAs praising Jane, written in
SKELTONICS, the verse form invented by the poet.
Though the poet claims to be tiring (“my pen wax
faynte,” l. 956), he says he will praise this lady’s
“goodely name” (l. 960). The poet then says he will
intently apply himself “to stellify” (l. 964) Jane so that
she will deserve entrance into the Court of Fame. This
comic coinage, which means “to place among the
Olympian gods,” also occurs in GEOFFREY CHAUCER’s
The HOUSE OF FAME. In thanks for her setting “Smale
fl owris” into his poet’s “chapelet,” Skelton compares
Jane to “fayre Laodomy,” or Laodamia, a classical
example of wifely fi delity. According to legend, she fol-
lowed her husband, Protesilaus, to Hades out of love.
Chaucer also cites Laodamia in love in The LEGEND OF
GOOD WOMEN. The comparison with Laodamia here
seems to imply that Jane is a widow.
The lyrics celebrating Jane seem to be overheard as
they are declaimed by Skelton in the noble chamber of
the countess of Surrey. The reader feels privileged to
observe the courtly scene, yet remains puzzled by sev-
eral references that have now become obscure.
In the larger context of Garland of Laurel, it is Skel-
ton himself who wishes entrance into Fame’s court,
and the allusion to the small fl owers that Jane has
added to the poet’s laureate garland may be literally to
her embroidery, to fl owers of rhetoric, or even more
generally to the role of women as inspiration for courtly
verse.
See also GARLAND OF LAUREL (OVERVIEW).
Martha W. DriverGarland of Laurel: “To Mistress Margarete
Hussey” JOHN SKELTON (ca. 1495) The most
anthologized of all the lyrics in JOHN SKELTON’s Garland
of Laurel, the poem to Mistress Margarete Hussey, cel-
ebrates the joyful character of a young woman. In the
opening lines of the poem, which also serve as a
REFRAIN, she is described as “Merry Margaret” and com-
pared fi rst with the “mydsomer fl oure,” or daisy, which
is also a pun on her name. In French, Margarete means
daisy, a common summer fl ower. The next line of the
refrain compares her with aristocratic birds of prey, the
falcon and hawk (“Jantylle as fawkon or hauke of the
towre,” ll. 1006, 1018, 1031). The word Jantylle, or
gentle in modern English, is employed in its older
sense; in MIDDLE ENGLISH, gentil means both “nobly
born” and “virtuous,” terms that might be applied
equally to the noble bird of prey, trained to hunt and
serve the falconer, and to a strong, virtuous, yet gently
bred woman. A “hauke of the towre,” or high-fl ying
hawk, was especially prized. Falconry was an aristo-
cratic art in the medieval and early modern periods,
practiced by both women and men as a sport requiring
focus and skill.GARLAND OF LAUREL: “TO MISTRESS MARGARETE HUSSEY” 201