Scottish poet, Dundas, satire, reputation, macaronic, Muglington, fish tails, St. Augustine, invective, Skelton

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unity” and this drew him into fierce literary attacks upon those he perceived to threaten the reputation or dignity of his nation. ¹⁸⁷

In his ‘Vilitissimus Scotus Dundas Allegat Caudas Contra Angligenas’ he responds to a Latin anti-English satire in which the unidentified Scottish poet, Dundas, likens his southern neighbours to grotesque dogs: “Anglicus a tergo/ Caudam gerit;/ Est canis ergo” (“The Englishman carries a tail behind him; he is, therefore, a dog”, ll.1-3). ¹⁸⁸ Dundas draws from the legend of St. Augustine’s attempt to preach to the villagers of Muglington who vented their revilement of the missionary by pinning fish tails to his clothes. According to the anecdote Divine Retribution was exacted upon the Muglingtonions’ descendants who were subsequently born endowed with tails. In Dundas’s poem the English have tails simply because they are mangy curs.

Skelton rejoins with a macaronic poem defending his countrymen: “Skelton laureat/ After this rate/ Defendeth with his pen/ All Englysh men/ Agayn Dundas/ That Scottishe asse” (ll.29-34). Skelton’s liking for macaronics has been attributed frequently to his participation in a characteristically medieval literary tradition. ¹⁸⁹ In this instance, however, it may be that his style is meant to contribute purposely to his point. Skelton’s accusation that Dundas is “bilinguis” (“deceitful”, l.6) calls attention to the double meaning of the word and that in contrast, rather than being mendacious, Skelton’s answer is bilingual. By responding with a poem written in both Latin and English, Skelton flaunts his versatility

¹⁸⁷ Hadfield (1994b), p.34.
¹⁸⁸ The translation here is from Scattergood ed. (1983), p.430 (other translations from this poem are my own). The accusation that Englishmen have tails is a typical feature of Scottish anti-English invectives (see n.163).
¹⁸⁹ Elizabeth Archibald points out, for instance, that Skelton writes in “a well-established and already sophisticated medieval literary form”, but that he also put macaronics to “new and idiosyncratic uses”, such as he does here, ‘Tradition and Innovation in the Macaronic Poetry of Dunbar and Skelton’, MLQ, 53 (1992), 126-49 (p.129).

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