21. HENRY PEACHAM ON SKELTON'S UNMERITED REPUTATION

1622


‘The Compleat Gentleman’ by Henry Peacham (1576?–1643?) was published in 1622 (STC 19502). It is a treatise on manners and gentlemanly conduct and includes a chapter ‘Of poetrie’ from which (p. 95) the following extract comes.


Then followed Harding, and after him Skelton, a Poet Laureate, for what desert I could neuer heare. If you Skelton desire to see his vaine and learning, an Epitaph vpon King Henry the seauenth at Westminster will discover it.