29. SAMUEL JOHNSON ON SKELTON

1755


From A History of the Language included in ‘A Dictionary of the English Language’ (1755), I, p. 9, by Samuel Johnson (1709–84), the poet, critic and lexicographer.


At the same time with Sir Thomas More lived Skelton, the poet laureate of Henry VIII. from whose works it seems proper to insert a few stanzas, though he cannot be said to have attained great elegance of language.

[Quotes lines 1–34 of the ‘Bouge of Court’.]