SOURCE: Forster, E. M. “John Skelton.” In Two Cheers for Democracy, pp. 133-49. London: Edward Arnold, 1951.

In the following essay, originally delivered as a lecture at the Adelburgh Festival in 1950, Forster surveys Skelton's major works and concludes that although the poet was a typical conservative, educated parish priest of his age, he was on the whole a comic, someone who loved improper fun and had a talent for abuse.

John Skelton was an East Anglian; he was a poet, also a clergyman, and he was extremely strange. Partly strange because the age in which he flourished—that of the early Tudors—is remote from us, and difficult to interpret. But he was also a strange creature personally, and whatever you think of him when we've finished—and you will possibly think badly of him—you will agree that we have been in contact with someone unusual.

Let us...