George Gascoigne (c. 1535 – 7 October 1577) was an English poet, soldier and unsuccessfulcourtier. He is considered the most important poet of the earlyElizabethan era, followingSir Thomas Wyatt andHenry Howard, Earl of Surrey and leading to the emergence ofPhilip Sidney.[1] He was the first poet to deifyQueen Elizabeth I, in effect establishing her cult as a virgin goddess married to her kingdom and subjects.[2] His most noted works includeA 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 ofAriosto and the first comedy written in English prose, which was used byShakespeare as a source forThe Taming of the Shrew;[3] the frequently anthologised short poem "Gascoignes woodmanship" (1573) and "Certayne Notes of Instruction concerning the making of verse orryme in English" (1575), the first essay on English versification.[4]
The eldest son of Sir John Gascoigne ofCardington, Bedfordshire, Gascoigne was educated atTrinity College, Cambridge,[5] and on leaving the university is supposed to have joined theMiddle Temple. He became a member ofGray's Inn in 1555.[5] 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 wasMP forBedford in 1557–1558 and 1558–1559, but when he presented himself in 1572 for election atMidhurst he was refused on the charges of being "a defamed person and noted formanslaughter", "a common Rymer and a deviser of slaunderousPasquelles", "a notorious rufilanne", and a constantly indebtedatheist.
His poems, with the exception of somecommendatory 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 onLatin 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. 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 theLord Mayor, but the matter was probably settled in a friendly manner, for Gascoigne continued to hold the BretonWalthamstow estate, which he had from his wife, until his death.
Gascoigne translated two plays performed in 1566 atGray's Inn, the most aristocratic of the Renaissance LondonInns of Court: the prose comedySupposes based onAriosto'sSuppositi, andJocasta, a tragedy in blank verse which is said to have derived fromEuripides'sPhoenissae, but appears more directly as a translation from the Italian ofLodovico Dolce'sGiocasta.[6]
Gascoigne's best known and controversial work was originally published in 1573 under the titleA Hundreth Sundry Flowres bound up in one small Poesie. Gathered partely (by translation) in the fyne outlandish Gardins ofEuripides,Ovid,Petrarch,Ariosto and others; and partly by Invention out of our owne fruitefull Orchardes in Englande, Yelding Sundrie Savours of tragical, comical and moral discourse, bothe pleasaunt and profitable, to the well-smelling noses of learned readers, 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."[7] 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.
When Gascoigne sailed as asoldier of fortune to theLow Countries in 1572, his ship was driven by stress of weather toBrielle, 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 theMiddelburg siege, during which he acquired a profound dislike of the Dutch, and a great admiration forWilliam 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 atthe Hague.
Taken prisoner after the evacuation ofValkenburg by English troops during theSiege of Leiden, he was sent to England in the autumn of 1574. He dedicated toLord Grey de Wilton the story of his adventures,The Fruites of Warres (printed in the edition of 1575) andGascoigne's Voyage into Hollande. In 1575 he had a share in devising themasques, published in the next year asThe Princely Pleasures at the Courte at Kenelworth, written to celebrate the queen's 1575 visit to theEarl of Leicester atKenilworth Castle.[8] AtWoodstock in 1575 he delivered a prose speech beforeElizabeth, and was present at a reading of thePleasant 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 ofHemetes 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.[9] He also translated Jacques du Fouilloux'sLa Venerie (1561) into English asThe Noble Arte of Venerie or Hunting (1575) which was printed together withGeorge Turberville'sThe Book of Falconrie or Hawking and is thus sometimes misattributed to Turberville though in fact it was a work by Gascoigne.
Most of his works were published during the last years of his life after his return from the wars. He died inStamford inLincolnshire on 7 October 1577 and was buried on 13 October in the graveyard ofSt Mary's Church, Stamford.[10]
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 hisPosies (1575). He acknowledgedChaucer as his master, and differed from the earlier poets of the school ofHenry Howard, Earl of Surrey andThomas Wyatt chiefly in the greater smoothness and sweetness of his verse. In this text, Gascoigne emphasises the importance of 'invention' in writing a poem: "the rule of invention, which of all other rules is most to be marked".[11]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Gascoigne, George".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 493–494.
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