Skelton’s Bowge of Courte is a document that has met with some divergence in critical opinion, in large part because of its inherent ambiguity. Some believe, for example, Skelton’s anti-court satire to be the textual representative of a now-lost early Tudor courtly entertainment;2 others, a larger group, hold that the Bowge is a verse satire that draws on the medieval tradition of the dream-vision. The form of the Bowge and its use of conventions leads to such disparate opinions, but a degree of the confusion must also be attributed to the interpretation of its subject matter — an act urged by the poet himself who, in the final rhyme-royal stanza, suggests that his audience consider the meaning of the dream-vision by re-casting its fictional events in corresponding terms of the contemporary world...

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Siemens, R., (2021), "Poetic Statesmanship and the Politics of Patronage in the Early Tudor Court: Material Concerns of John Skelton’s Early Career as a Critical Context for the Interpretation of The Bowge of Courte", HSSCommons: (DOI: 10.25547/KGSY-0J46)

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Original publication information:

Originally published in Early Modern Literary Studies 15.1

Year: 2010

URL: https://extra.shu.ac.uk/emls/15-1/siemskel.html

Original citation:

Ray Siemens. "Poetic Statesmanship and the Politics of Patronage in the Early Tudor Court: Material Concerns of John Skelton’s Early Career as a Critical Context for the Interpretation of The Bowge of Courte". Early Modern Literary Studies 15.1 (2009-10) http://purl.oclc.org/emls/15-1/siemskel.html