(a) From ‘Imitations of Horace’ by Alexander Pope (1688–1744), originally published in 1737. The present text is that of the Twickenham Edition, edited by John Butt, 2nd ed. (London, 1953), pp. 196–7.
Authors, like Coins, grow dear as they grow old;
It is the rust we value, not the gold.
Chaucer's worst ribaldry is learn'd by rote,
And beastly Skelton Heads of Houses quote:
[Pope adds the following note on the phrase ‘beastly Skelton’:]
Poet Laureat to Hen. 8. a Volume of whose Verses has been
lately reprinted, consisting almost wholly of Ribaldry,
Obscenity, and Billingsgate Language.
(b) From Joseph Spence's ‘Observations, Anecdotes and Characters of Books and Men’, edited by J. M. Osborn (Oxford, 1966), I, p. 180, no. 414. Spence's work was first published in 1820. Spence himself (1699–1768) was a famous anecdotist. He records this comment by Pope.
Skelton's poems are all low and bad; there's nothing in them that's worth reading.