John Skelton's Garland of Laurel and the production and reception of late medieval texts

This thesis focuses upon John Skelton’s poem The Garland o f Laurel. It considers the poem in its late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century context, providing an insight into its intellectual and economic conditions of production and reception. It relies upon an examination of its extant material forms as well as of its subject matter.

The thesis considers both the relevance of the poem’s subject matter to its period of production and identifies particular contexts for considering its genesis. It examines the manuscript and early printed text versions of the poem, their production, circulation and reception. It looks at the context provided by the popularity and circulation of the form of miscellany and considers Skelton’s deliberate use of the form as a model for The Garland o f Laurel.

Dream poetry and French dits amoreux are discussed as alternative influences on the composition of the poem. Attention is given to Skelton’s use and adaptation of these genres, particularly to the technique of lyric insertion. In addition, the thesis focuses upon what is known about Howard patronage and sets this in the context of other examples of late medieval female patronage. I provide a new interpretation of Skelton’s poem as a work which explores processes of patronage and the changing dynamics of the relationship between writers and patrons in the late fifteenth century.

Skelton’s self-representation is also considered in the context of his contemporaries, the early Humanists and French Rhetoriqueurs, whose attitudes and authorial activities provide interesting points of comparison. The final chapter examines the making of poetic identity in the context of English literary tradition and in the wider context of foreign relations in the early sixteenth century.