Colyn Cloute represents the average country man who gives his opinions on the state of the church. There is no more scathing indictment of the sins of the clergy before the Reformation. He exposes their greed, their ignorance, the ostentation of the bishops and the common practice of simony, but takes care to explain that he writes in defence of, not against, the church.
The charge of coarseness regularly brought against Skelton is based chiefly on The Tunnynge of Elynoure Rummynge, a real istic description in the same metre of the drunken women who gathered at a well-known ale-house kept by Elynour Rummynge at Leatherhead, not far from the royal palace of Nonsuch. "Skel ton Laureate against the is a fierce song of triumph celebrating the victory of Flodden. "Jemmy is ded And closed in led, That was theyr owne Kynge," says the poem ; but there was an earlier version written before the news of James IV.'s death had reached London. This, which is the earliest singly printed ballad in the language, was entitled A Ballade of the Scottysshe Kynge, and was rescued in 1878 from the wooden covers of a copy of Huon de Bordeaux. "Howe the douty Duke of Albany, Tyke a cowarde knight" deals with the campaign of 1523; and contains a panegyric of Henry VIII. To this is at tached an envoi to Wolsey, but it must surely have been mis placed, for both the satires on the cardinal are of earlier date.
Skelton also wrote three plays, only one of which survives. Magnificence is one of the best examples of the morality play. It deals with the same topic as his satires, the evils of ambition ; its moral, "how suddenly worldly wealth loth decay," being a favourite one with him. Thomas Warton in his History of English Poetry described another piece Nigramansir, printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1504, and dealing with simony and the love of money in the church ; but no copy is known to exist, and some suspicion has been cast on Warton's statement.
Illustration of the hold Skelton had on the public imagination is supplied from the stage. A play (1600) called Scogan and Skelton, by Richard Hathway and William Rankins, is mentioned by Henslowe. In Anthony Munday's Downfall of Robert, earl of Huntingdon, Skelton acts the part of Friar Tuck, and Ben Jonson in his masque, The Fortunate Isles, introduced "Skogan and Skelton in like habits as they lived."
Very few of Skelton's productions are dated, and their titles are here necessarily abbreviated. Wynkyn de Worde printed the Bowge of Court twice. Divers Balettys and dyties solacious devysed by Master Skelton Laureat, and Skelton Laureate agaynste a comely Coystroune . . . have no date or printer's name, but are evidently from the press of Richard Pynson, who also printed Replycacion against certain yong scolers, dedicated to Wolsey. The Garlande or Chapelet of Laurel was printed by Richard Faukes (1523) ; Magnificence, A goodly interlude, . . . probably by John Rastell about 1533, reprinted (1821) for the Roxburghe Club. Hereafter foloweth the Boke of Phyllyp Sparowe was printed by Richard Kele (155o?), Robert Toy, Antony Kitson (156o?), Abraham Veale (157o?), John Walley, John Wyght (156o?).
Hereafter foloweth certaine bokes compyled by mayster Skelton . .
including "Speke, Parrot," "Ware the Hawke," "Elynoure Rummynge" and others, was printed by Richard Lant (155o?), John King and Thomas March (1565?), and John Day (156o). Hereafter foloweth a litle boke called Colyn Cloute and Hereafter . . . why come ye nat to Courte? were printed by Richard Kele (155o?) and in numerous subsequent editions. Pithy, plesaunt and profitable workes of maister Skelton, Poete Laureate. Nowe collected and newly published was printed in 1568, and reprinted in 1736. A scarce reprint of Elinour Rummin by Samuel Rand appeared in See The Poetical Works of John Skelton; with Notes and some account of the author and his writings, by the Rev. Alexander Dyce (2 vols., 1843). A selection of his works was edited by W. H. Williams (London, 1902). See also Zur Charakteristik John Skelton by Dr. Arthur Koelbing (Stuttgart, 1904) ; F. Brie, "Skelton Studien" in Englische Studien, vol. 38 (Heilbronn, 1877, etc.) ; A. Rey, Skelton's Satirical Poems . . . (Berne, 1899) ; • A. Thiimmel, Studien iiber John Skelton (Leipzig-Reudnitz, 1905) ; G. Saintsbury, Hist. of Eng. Prosody (3 vols. 1906-10) ; and A. Kolbing in the Cambridge History of English Literature (vol. iii., 19°9).