George Gascoigne (c. 15357 October 1577) was an English poet, soldier and unsuccessful courtier. He is considered the most important poet of the early Elizabethan era, following

Sir Thomas Wyatt Sir Thomas Wyatt (150311 October 1542) was a 16th-century English politician, ambassador, and lyric poet credited with introducing the sonnet to English literature. He was born at Allington Castle near Maidstone in Kent, though the family was o ...

and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey and leading to the emergence of

Philip Sidney Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...

. He was the first poet to deify

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". Eli ...

, in effect establishing her cult as a virgin goddess married to her kingdom and subjects. His most noted works include ''A Discourse of the Adventures of Master FJ'' (1573), an account of courtly intrigue and one of the earliest English prose fictions; ''The Supposes'', (performed in 1566, printed in 1573), an early translation of Ariosto and the first comedy written in English prose, which was used by

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

as a source for ''

The Taming of the Shrew ''The Taming of the Shrew'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1592. The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunk ...

''; the frequently anthologised short poem "Gascoignes wodmanship" (1573) and "Certayne Notes of Instruction concerning the making of verse or ryme in English" (1575), the first essay on English versification.

Early life

The eldest son of Sir John Gascoigne of

Cardington, Bedfordshire Cardington is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Bedford in Bedfordshire, England. Part of the ancient hundred of Wixamtree, the settlement is best known in connection with the Cardington airship works founded by Short Brothers durin ...

, Gascoigne was educated at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

, and on leaving the university is supposed to have joined the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's I ...

. He became a member of

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and W ...

in 1555. He has been identified without much show of evidence with a lawyer named Gastone who was in prison in 1548 under very discreditable circumstances. There is no doubt that his escapades were notorious, and that he was imprisoned for debt. George Whetstone says that Sir John Gascoigne disinherited his son on account of his follies, but by his own account he was obliged to sell his patrimony to pay the debts contracted at court. He was MP for

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst t ...

in 1557–1558 and 1558–1559, but when he presented himself in 1572 for election at Midhurst he was refused on the charges of being "a defamed person and noted for

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...

", "a common Rymer and a deviser of slaunderous Pasquelles", "a notorious rufilanne", and a constantly indebted

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

. His poems, with the exception of some commendatory verses, were not published before 1572, but they may have circulated in manuscript before that date. He tells us that his friends at Gray's Inn importuned him to write on

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

themes set by them, and that two of his plays were acted there. He repaired his fortunes by marrying the wealthy widow of William Breton, thus becoming stepfather to the poet,

Nicholas Breton Nicholas Breton (also Britton or Brittaine) (c. 1545/53 – c. 1625/6) was a poet and prose writer of the English Renaissance. Life Nicholas belonged to an old family settled at Layer Breton, Essex. His father, William Breton, a London merchan ...

. In 1568 an inquiry into the disposition of William Breton's property with a view to the protection of the children's rights was instituted before the Lord Mayor, but the matter was probably settled in a friendly manner, for Gascoigne continued to hold the Breton

Walthamstow Walthamstow ( or ) is a large town in east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London and the ancient county of Essex. Situated northeast of Charing Cross, the town borders Chingford to the north, Snaresbrook and Sout ...

estate, which he had from his wife, until his death.

Plays at Gray's Inn

Gascoigne translated two plays performed in 1566 at

, the most aristocratic of the Renaissance London Inns of Court: the prose comedy ''Supposes'' based on Ariosto's '' Suppositi'', and ''Jocasta'', a tragedy in blank verse which is said to have derived from

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars ...

's '' Phoenissae'', but appears more directly as a translation from the Italian of

Lodovico Dolce Lodovico Dolce (1508/10–1568) was an Italian man of letters and theorist of painting. He was a broadly based Venetian humanist and prolific author, translator, and editor; he is now mostly remembered for his ''Dialogue on Painting'' or ''L'Areti ...

's ''Giocasta''.

''A Hundreth Sundry Flowres'' (1573) and ''Posies of Gascoigne'' (1575)

Gascoigne's best known and controversial work was originally published in 1573 under the title by London printer Richarde Smith. The book purports to be an anthology of courtly poets, gathered and edited by Gascoigne and two other editors known only by the initials "H.W." and "G.T." The book's content is throughout suggestive of courtly scandal, and the aura of scandal is skilfully elaborated through the effective use of initials and posies—Latin or English tags supposed to denote particular authors—in place of the real names of actual or alleged authors. Judged to be offensive, the book was "seized by Her Majesty's High Commissioners." Gascoigne republished the book with certain additions and deletions two years later under the alternative title, ''The Posies of George Gascoigne, Esquire''. The new edition contains three new dedicatory epistles, signed by Gascoigne, which apologise for the offence that the original edition had caused. This effort failed, however, as the book was also ruled offensive and likewise seized.

At war in the Netherlands

When Gascoigne sailed as a soldier of fortune to the

Low Countries The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...

in 1572, his ship was driven by stress of weather to Brielle, which luckily for him had just fallen into the hands of the Dutch. He obtained a captain's commission, and took an active part in the campaigns of the next two years including the Middelburg siege, during which he acquired a profound dislike of the Dutch, and a great admiration for William of Orange, who had personally intervened on his behalf in a quarrel with his colonel, and secured him against the suspicion caused by his clandestine visits to a lady at

the Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

Taken prisoner after the evacuation of Valkenburg by English troops during the Siege of Leiden, he was sent to England in the autumn of 1574. He dedicated to Lord Grey de Wilton the story of his adventures, ''The Fruites of Warres'' (printed in the edition of 1575) and ''Gascoigne's Voyage into Hollande.'' In 1575 he had a share in devising the masques, published in the next year as '' The Princely Pleasures at the Courte at Kenelworth'', which celebrated the queen's visit to the

Earl of Leicester Earl of Leicester is a title that has been created seven times. The first title was granted during the 12th century in the Peerage of England. The current title is in the Peerage of the United Kingdom and was created in 1837. Early creatio ...

. At

Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aq ...

in 1575 he delivered a prose speech before Elizabeth, and was present at a reading of the ''Pleasant Tale of Hemetes the Hermit,'' a brief romance, probably written by the queen's host, Sir Henry Lee. At the queen's annual gift exchange with members of her court the following New Year's, Gascoigne gave her a manuscript of ''Hemetes'' which he had translated into Latin, Italian, and French. Its frontispiece shows the Queen rewarding the kneeling poet with an accolade and a purse; its motto, "Tam Marti, quam Mercurio", indicates that he will serve her as a soldier, as a scholar-poet, or as both. He also drew three emblems, with accompanying text in the three other languages. He also translated Jacques du Fouilloux's ''La Venerie'' (1561) into English as ''The Noble Arte of Venerie or Hunting'' (1575) which was printed together with George Turberville's ''The Book of Falconrie or Hawking'' and is thus sometimes misattributed to Turberville though in fact it was a work by Gascoigne.

Later writings and influences

Most of his works were published during the last years of his life after his return from the wars. He died in Stamford in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

on 7 October 1577 and was buried on 13 October in the graveyard of

St Mary's Church, Stamford St Mary's Church, Stamford is a parish church of the Church of England, located in Stamford, Lincolnshire, lending its name to St Mary's Hill (part of the old Great North Road) on which it stands, and which runs down to the river crossing op ...

.Ronald Binns, ''Gascoigne: The Life of a Tudor Poet'' (York: Zoilus Press, 2021), p. 470. Gascoigne's theory of metrical composition is explained in a short critical treatise, "Certayne Notes of Instruction concerning the making of verse or ryme in English, written at the request of Master Edouardo Donati," prefixed to his ''Posies'' (1575). He acknowledged

Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

as his master, and differed from the earlier poets of the school of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey and Thomas Wyatt chiefly in the greater smoothness and sweetness of his verse.

Notes

References

* Cunliffe, John W. ''George Gascoigne: The Posies.'' (originally published 1907, reprinted by Greenwood Press, 1969). * Cunliffe, John. W. ''Supposes and Jocasta: Two Plays Translated from the Italian, the first by Geo. Gascoigne and the second by Geo. Gascoigne and F. Kwinwelmersh'' (Boston: D.C. Heath & Co., 1906). * Prouty, C.T. ''George Gascoigne's A Hundredth Sundrie Flowres''. (Columbia: University of Missouri, 1942). * Ward, B.M. ''A Hundredth Sundrie Flowres From the Original Edition of 1573''. (1928; reprinted with supplementary materials under the editorship of Ruth Loyd Miller, Minos Publish Co., 1975). ;Attribution *

External links

* *
The Works of George Gascoigne at Luminarium

The Gascoigne Seminar
"is a discussion list for scholars working on George Gascoigne and other early Elizabethan writers, to facilitate the exchange of ideas about the generation at the very beginning of the English literary renaissance.” * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gascoigne, George 1530s births 1577 deaths Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge 16th-century English poets People from Bedford English prisoners and detainees English MPs 1558 English MPs 1559 English male poets Members of Gray's Inn People from Cardington, Bedfordshire