“When Phebus entred was in Geminy,
“Shinyng above, in his fayre golden sphere,
“And horned Dyane, then but one degre
“In the crabbe had entred, fayre and cleare––."
Of the Example of Virtue[1], written by the same authour, and printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1530, this is the first stanza:
“In September, in fallynge of the lefe,
“Whan Phebus made his inclynacyon,
“And all the whete gadred was in the shefe,
“By radyaunt hete and operacyon,
“When the vyrgyn had full dominacyon,
“And Dyane entred was one degre
“Into the sygne of Gemyne–”
The first piece of Skelton, most of whose poems were written between 1509 and 1529, begins thus:
“Arrectynge my sight toward the zodiake
“The signes xii for to beholde a farre,
“When Mars retrogaunt reversed his backe,
“Lorde of the yere in his orbicular–.”
The reader has now before him specimens of ancient poetry, during a period of near two hundred years; that is, for a century before the pretended Thomas Rowley is said to have written, and for near a century afterwards. They are for the most part taken from the commencement of
- ↑ This very rare poem escaped the researches of the learned and ingenious Mr. Warton, who doubted whether it had ever been printed. See his Hist. of Eng. Poetry, vol.II p. 211.
