Stephen Gosson
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Stephen Gosson (April 1554 – 13 February 1624) was an English satirist.


Biography

Gosson was baptized at St George's church,
Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...
, on 17 April 1554. He entered
Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517, it is the 12th ...
, 1572, and on leaving the university in 1576 he went to London. In 1598 Francis Meres in his ''Palladis Tamia'' mentions him with Sir
Philip Sidney Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek language, Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philip ...
,
Edmund Spenser Edmund Spenser (; 1552/1553 – 13 January 1599) was an English poet best known for ''The Faerie Queene'', an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of ...
, Abraham Fraunce and others as the "best for pastorall", but no pastorals of Gosson's are extant. He is said to have been an actor. After the publication of the ''Schoole of Abuse'' Gosson retired to the country, where he acted as tutor to the sons of a gentleman (''Plays Confuted''. "To the Reader," 1582). Anthony à Wood places this earlier and assigns the termination of his tutorship indirectly to his animosity against the stage, which apparently wearied his patron of his company. Gosson took holy orders, was made lecturer of the parish church at
Stepney Stepney is a district in the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The district is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name appl ...
(1585), and was presented by Queen
Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...
to the rectory of Great Wigborough,
Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
, which he exchanged in 1600 for St Botolph's, Bishopsgate.


Works

An anti-theatrical writer, Gosson by his own confession wrote plays, for he speaks of ''Catiline's Conspiracies'' as a "Pig of mine own Sowe." Because of their moral standpoint, he excludes such plays as these from the general condemnation of stage plays in his ''Schoole of Abuse, containing a pleasant invective against Poets, Pipers, Plaiers, Jesters and such like Caterpillars of the Commonwealth'' (1579). The
euphuistic Euphuism is a peculiar mannered style of English prose. It takes its name from a prose romance by John Lyly. It consists of a preciously ornate and sophisticated style, employing a deliberate excess of literary devices such as antitheses, alliterat ...
style of this pamphlet and its ostentatious display of learning were in the taste of the time, and do not necessarily imply insincerity. Gosson justified his attack on the grounds of the disorder which the love of
melodrama A modern melodrama is a dramatic work in which the plot, typically sensationalized and for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or exces ...
and of vulgar comedy was introducing into the social life of London.
Edmund Spenser Edmund Spenser (; 1552/1553 – 13 January 1599) was an English poet best known for ''The Faerie Queene'', an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of ...
, in his '' Teares of the Muses'' (1591), laments the same evils, if only in general terms. The tract was dedicated to
Sir Philip Sidney ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...
, who seems to have resented being connected with it. Edmund Spenser wrote to
Gabriel Harvey Gabriel Harvey (c. 1552/3 – 1631) was an English writer. Harvey was a notable scholar, whose reputation suffered from his quarrel with Thomas Nashe. Henry Morley, writing in the ''Fortnightly Review'' (March 1869), has argued that Harvey's Lati ...
(16 October 1579) of the dedication that the author "was for hys labor scorned." Gosson dedicated, however, a second tract, ''The Ephemerides of Phialo ... and A Short Apologie of the Schoole of Abuse'', to Sidney on 28 October 1579. Gosson's attack on poets seems to have had a large share in inducing Sidney to write his ''Apologie for Poetrie'', which probably dates from 1581. The publication of his polemic provoked many retorts, the most formidable of which was
Thomas Lodge Thomas Lodge (c. 1558September 1625) was an English writer and medical practitioner whose life spanned the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. Biography Thomas Lodge was born about 1558 in West Ham, the second son of Sir Thomas Lodge, Lo ...
's ''Defence of Playes'' (1580). The players themselves retaliated by reviving Gosson's own plays. Gosson replied to his various opponents in 1582 by his ''Playes Confuted in Five Actions'', dedicated to Sir
Francis Walsingham Sir Francis Walsingham ( – 6 April 1590) was principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I of England from 20 December 1573 until his death and is popularly remembered as her "spymaster". Born to a well-connected family of gentry, Wals ...
. ''Pleasant Quippes for Upstart New-fangled Gentlewomen'' (1595), a coarse satiric poem, is also ascribed to Gosson. The ''Schoole of Abuse'' and ''Apologie'' were edited (1868) by Edward Arber in his ''English Reprints''. Two poems of Gosson's are included.


Notes


References

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External links

*
The Schoole of Abuse
' by Stephen Gosson * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gosson, Stephen 1554 births 1624 deaths 16th-century English dramatists and playwrights 16th-century English poets 16th-century English writers 16th-century male writers 17th-century English dramatists and playwrights 17th-century English poets 17th-century English writers 17th-century English male writers Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford English satirists People from Canterbury