A25 JOHN SKELTON (LAUREATE) [1927]

First edition:

[rectangular heavy rule box enclosing all:] | [rectangular light rule box enclosing all:] | [rectangular broad decorative rule box enclosing all:] | [rectangular light rule box enclosing all:] | THE AUGUSTAN BOOKS OF | ENGLISH POETRY | SECOND SERIES NUMBER TWELVE | [rule] | JOHN SKELTON | (LAUREATE) | 1460(?)–1529 | [rule] | LONDON: ERNEST BENN, LTD. | BOUVERIE HOUSE, FLEET STREET

Collation: 16 leaves, unsigned, stapled twice at centre.

p.[i] title-page; p.[ii] publisher’s advertisement; p.iii NOTE; p.[iv] blank; p.v CONTENTS; p.[vi] blank; [errata slip tipped between [vi] and 7]; pp.7–31 text; p.[32] publisher’s advertisements.

22.1 × 14.0 cm. BuIk 0.2cm. White wove paper; all edges trimmed. Pp.[i]–[ii] and 31 – [32] serve as covers.

Price: 6d. Number of copies unknown. Published October 1927.

Contents: Note – Jane Scroop’s Lament for Philip Sparrow – Skelton’s Address to Philip Sparrow – From ‘On the Death of King Edward the Fourth’ – To Mistress Isabel Pennell – From ‘The Manner of the World Nowadays’ – Prayer to the Father of Heaven – From ‘Speak, Parot’ – Lullay, Lullay, Like a Child – From ‘The Tunning of Elinour Rumming’ – To His Wife – Woefully Arrayed

Notes: The first issue lacks the errata slip and contains these three misprints: p. 14, 1. 3--[blank slug imprinted in front of line; p.22, n. 10--[broken “c” in “can”; p.28–broken “f” in the title. The second issue contains the errata slip and corrects the first two misprints.

Graves wrote the note (p.iii) and selected and modernised the poems.