KELTON LAUREATE ORATORIS REGIS

TERTIO

Against venemous tongues enpoysoned with

sclaunder and false detractions &c.

Quid detur tibi aut quid apponatur tibi ad linguam

dolosam? Psalm. c. xlii. tongue

Deus destruet te, in finem evellet te, et emigrabit te

de tabernaculo tuo, et radicem tuam de terra
viventium. Psal. lxvii.
gossip
Al maters wel pondred and wel to be regarded,
knew; challenged
How shuld a fals lying tung then be rewarded?
abundant
Such tunges shuld be torne out by the harde
rootes,
Hoyning like hogges that groynis and wrotes. know

Dilexisti omnia verba precipitationis lingua entrust me to a noble cuckold

dolosa. Ubi s. &c.

For, as I have rede in volumes olde,

A fals lying tunge is harde to withholde;
alphabet; thrive
A sclaunderous tunge, a tunge of a skolde,
Worketh more mischiefe than can be tolde;
That, if I wist not to be controlde, armorial device
Yet somwhat to say I dare well be bolde,
How some delite for to lye, thycke and threfolde.
school; high of academic standard
fault
Ad sannam hominem redigit comice et graphice.

For ye said, that he said, that I said, wote ye

what? prodigals
mad impostors; bereft of one’s wits
I made, he said, a windmill of an olde mat.
rascals; ignorant
If there be none other mater but that,
Than ye may commaunde me to gentil cok wat.

Hic notat purpuraria arte intextas literas wicked; choose; revile

Romanas in amictibus post ambulonum ante et lower; piece of canvas used to catch more wind
tricks; bad prosperity
retro.

For before on your brest, and behind on your

back,
I do not care much
In Romaine letters I never founde lack untied; running astray
In your crosse rowe nor Christ crosse you spede, embroidered; fastened; bound
Your Pater noster, your Ave, nor your Crede. ignorantly
that it may be acknowledged as one’s own
Whosoever that tale unto you tolde, inconstancy
He saith untruly, to say that I would mad folly

Controlle the cognisaunce of noble men constrain

 Either by language or with my pen. endure

Pedagogium meum de sublimiori Minerva constat

esse: ergo &c.

My scole is more solem and somwhat more haute

Than to be founde in any such faute.
Pharaoh
Pedagogium meum male sanos maledicos sibilis
complosisque manibus explodit &c.

My scoles are not for unthriftes untaught,

For frantick faitours half mad and half straught;
But my learning is of another degree
To taunt theim like liddrons, lewde as thei bee.

Laxent ergo antemnam elationis sue inflatam

vento vanitatis. li. ille, &c.
control
For though some be lidder, and list for to rayle,
Yet to lie upon me they cannot prevayle.
Then let them vale a bonet of their proud sayle,
And of their taunting toies rest with il hayle.
idle talkers

Nobilitati ignobilis cedat vilitas, &c.

shells
glancing stealthily
There is no noble man wil judge in me eyes
tellings of lies
Any such foly to rest or to be. wrote
I care muche the lesse whatever they say,
For tunges untayde be renning astray.
But yet I may say safely, so many wel lettred
Embraudred, enlasid together, and fettred,
And so little learning, so lewdly alowed,
What fault find ye herein but may be avowed?
was called
But ye are so full of vertibilite, tattling; repay
And of frenetyke folabilite,
And of melancoly mutabilite,
That ye would coarte and enforce me
Nothing to write, but hay the gy of thre,
And I to suffre you lewdly to ly
Of me with your language full of vilany!

Sicut novacula acuta fecisti dolum. Ubi s.

Malicious tunges, though they have no bones,

Are sharper then swordes, sturdier then stones.

Lege Philostratum de vita Tyanei Apollonii.

Sharper then raysors, that shave and cut throtes,

 More stinging then scorpions that stang
Pharaotis.

Venenum aspidum sub labiis eorum. Ps.

More venemous and much more virulent

Then any poysoned tode, or any serpent.

Quid peregrinis egemus exemplis? Ad domestica

recurramus , &c. li. ille.

Such tunges unhappy hath made great division

In realmes, in cities, by suche fals abusion;
Of fals fickil tunges suche cloked collusion
Hath brought nobil princes to extreme
confusion.

Quicquid loquantur ut effeminantur ita effantur.

&c.

Somtime women were put in great blame,

Men said they could not their tunges atame;
But men take upon theim nowe all the shame,
With skolding and sklaundering make their
tungs lame.

Novarum rerum cupidissimi, captatores, delatores,

adulatores, invigilatores, deliratores, &c. id genus.
li. ille.

For men be now tratlers and tellers of tales;

What tidings at Totnam, what newis in Wales,
What shippis are sailing to Scalis Malis?
And all is not worth a couple of nut shalis.
But lering and lurking here and there like spies,
The devil tere their tunges and pike out their ies!
Then ren they with lesinges, and blow them
about,
With, ‘He wrate suche a bil withouten dout’,
With, ‘I can tel you what such a man said,
And you knew all ye would be ill apayd’.

De more vulpino, gannientes ad aurem, fictas

fabellas fabricant. li. ille.

In auspicatum, male ominatum, infortunatum se

fateatur habuisse horoscopum, quicunque
maledixerit vati Pierio Skeltonidi Laureato. &c.

But if that I knewe what his name hight,

For clatering of me I would him sone quight;
For his false lying, of that I spake never,
I could make him shortly repent him forever:
Although he made it never so tough,
He might be sure to have shame ynough.

Cerberus horrendo baratri latrando sub antro

Te rodatque voret lingua dolosa precor.

A fals double tunge is more fiers and fell

Then Cerberus the cur couching in the kenel of
hel;
Wherof hereafter, I thinke for to write,
Of fals double tunges in the dispite.

Recipit se scripturum opus sanctum, laudabile,

acceptabile, memorabileque, et nimis
honorificandum.

Disperdat Dominus universa labia dolosa et

linguam magniloquam!