Quidditas Volume 19 Article 6 1998 John Skelton's "Agenst Garnesche": Poetic Territorialism, at the Court of Henry VIII Victor I. Scherb University of Texas at Tyler Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/rmmra Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, History Commons, Philosophy Commons, and the Renaissance Studies Commons Recommended Citation Scherb, Victor I. (1998) "John Skelton's "Agenst Garnesche": Poetic Territorialism, at the Court of Henry VIII," Quidditas: Vol. 19 , Article 6. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/rmmra/vol19/iss1/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Quidditas by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact
[email protected],
[email protected]. Jonn ~.l\..C::.U.v.u.u ~ -t, - Poetic Territorialism at the Court of Henry VIII Victor I. Scherb University of Texas at Tyler ohn Skelton's 1514 flyting "Agenst Garnesche" has been subject to little critical scrutiny. This neglect can perhaps be 'Jattributed to the fact that Christopher Garnesche's contribution is missing, but it is also characteristic of the relative neglect accorded to the flyting as a genre, a neglect that has also colored the interpretation of many of Skelton's more abusive poems. 1 One critic, for example, has dismissed the poem as being "nothing but personal abuse of a particu larly virulent type ... adorned with a singular collection of epithets and incomprehensible allusions, which serve only to befog and irritate the reader." 2 One way others have defended Skelton from such charges 'See Priscilla Bawcutt, "The Art of Flyting," Scottish Literary journal ro (1983): 5-21; Douglas Gray, "Rough Music: Some Early Invectives and Flyt ings," 21-43, in English Satire and the Satiric Tradition, ed.