SOURCE: Wyrick, Deborah Baker. “Withinne that develes temple: an examination of Skelton's The Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng.”The Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 10, No. 2 (Fall 1980): 239-54.

In the following essay, Wyrick finds that The Tunning of Elinour Rumming is not merely a comic, playful work but one that has complex layers of moral and religious meaning.

Critics are nearly unanimous in their assessment of Skelton's The Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng. It is “a picture, a verbal painting—and designedly nothing more”;¹ it offers an “extreme example of a direct, non-intellectualized approach to sordid elements of experience.”² “[C]ompletely unsubtle,”³ the poem can be termed “one of the most monstrous pieces of gross realism in the language.”⁴ An author with “no message, philosophical or moral,”⁵ merely “stimulates our laughter”⁶ by exploiting “a thoroughly native vein of broad comedy.”⁷ Nevertheless, one should be wary about banishing all moral purpose...