1. The poem forms part of Skelton’s Garlande or Chapelet of Laurell.

2. Margaret Hussey, née Blount, was the wife of John Hussey. Skelton puns on her name, Margaret, which also means ‘daisy’, the ‘mydsomer flowre’.

3. that towers aloft.

4. Hypsipyle.

5. Cassandra.

1. storing liquor in barrels.

2. boozy, intoxicated.

3. snub-nosed.

4. strut like a neatly attired woman.

5. coat with sleeves.

6. cloak.

7. affected, simpering manner.

8. clothes.

9. decked.

10. gown, skirt, outer-petticoat.

11. large lump.

12. twisted, contorted.

13. trinket.

14. pretty trifle.

15. skull.

16. Elinour Rumming was a real person – she kept an ale-house in Sothray (Surrey), at Leatherhead, traditionally associated with ‘The Running Horse’. She is mentioned in the Court Rolls of Leatherhead for 1525.

17. dwelling.

18. place.

19. beery old woman.

20. akin.

21. heady, strong.

22. labourers.

23. destitute.

24. with dress unfastened.

25. muddy.

26. A pity that Vaughan Williams, perhaps prudishly, omitted the following lines:

Wyth theyr naked pappes,
That flyppes and flappes,
That wygges and it wagges
Lyke tawny saffron bagges;

27. irregularly marked.

28. occasion.

29. to malt and to mould.

30. an array of rascals.

31. dregs.

32. a tub for hog-wash – a reference to heavy drinking.

33. Galicia.

34. Portuguese.

35. certainly, indeed.

36. riotous gathering.

37. cold in the head.

38. a long narrow strip of cloth.

39. a fermented drink made from malted barley.

40. throat.

41. jabbering.

42. fence made of stakes driven into the ground.

43. gimlet.

44. a story or romance in verse.

1. The poem occurs in Speke, Parott (1521), an extraordinary piece which, among other things, criticizes the new learning, Wolsey’s power politics and the modish extravagance in manners and dress. Skelton here adapts an amorous song that was widely known at the end of the fifteenth century.