John Skelton lived in the stormy times of Henry VIII, and he is called sometimes our first poet-laureate.

But Martha Skelton would do everything, and it would be so much cheaper.

In an old book I find columns of notes about works projected at this time, nearly all to consist of essays on deeply uninteresting subjects; the lightest was to be a volume on the older satirists, beginning with Skelton and Tom Nash - the half of that manuscript still lies in a dusty chest - the only story was about Mary Queen of Scots, who was also the subject of many unwritten papers.