GASCOIGNE

gascoigne, george (c. 1535-1577), english poet, eldest son of sir john gascoigne of cardington, bedfordshire, was born probably between 1530 and 1535. he was educated at trinity college, cambridge, and on leaving the university is supposed to have joined the middle temple. he became a member of gray's inn 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 m.p. for bedford 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," "a common rymer and a deviser of slaunderous pasquelles," "a notorious ruffianne," an atheist and constantly in debt. his poems, with the exception of some commendatory verses, were not published before 1572, but they were probably circulated in ms. before that date. he tells us that his friends at gray's inn importuned him to write on latin themes set by them, and there two of his plays were acted. he repaired his fortunes by marrying the wealthy widow of william breton, thus becoming step-father 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 the lord mayor, but the matter was probably settled in a friendly manner, for gascoigne continued to hold the walthamstow estate, which he had from his wife, until his death. he sailed as a soldier of fortune to the low countries in 1572, and was driven by stress of weather to brill, 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, 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. taken prisoner after the evacuation of valkenburg by the english troops, he was sent to england in the autumn of 1574. he dedicated to lord grey of 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. at woodstock in 1575 he delivered a prose speech before elizabeth, and presented her with the _pleasant tale of hemetes the heremite_[1] in four languages. most of his works were actually published during the last years of his life, after his return from the wars. he died at bernack, near stamford, where he was the guest of george whetstone, on the 7th of october 1577. george whetstone wrote a long dull poem in honour of his friend, entitled "a remembrance of the wel-imployed life and godly end of george gaskoigne, esquire." his 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,"[2] prefixed to his _posies_ (1575). he acknowledged chaucer as his master, and differed from the earlier poets of the school of surrey and wyatt chiefly in the added smoothness and sweetness of his verse. his poems were published in 1572 during his absence in holland, surreptitiously, according to his own account, but it seems probable that the "editor" who supplied the running comment was none other than gascoigne himself. _a hundreth sundrie floures bound up in one small posie. gathered partely (by translation) in the fyne outlandish gardens of euripides, ovid, petrarke, ariosto and others; and partely by invention out of our owne fruitfull orchardes in englande, yelding sundrie savours of tragical, comical and moral discourse, bothe pleasaunt and profitable, to the well-smelling noses of learned readers_, was followed in 1575 by an authorized edition, _the posies of g.g. esquire_ ... (not dated). gascoigne had an adventurous and original mind, and was a pioneer in more than one direction. in 1576 he published _the steele glas_, sometimes called the earliest regular english satire. although this poem is elizabethan in form and manner, it is written in the spirit of _piers plowman_. gascoigne begins with a comparison between the sister arts of satire and poetry, and under a comparison between the old-fashioned "glas of trustie steele," and the new-fangled crystal mirrors which he takes as a symbol of the "italianate" corruption of the time, he attacks the amusements of the governing classes, the evils of absentee landlordism, the corruption of the clergy, and pleads for the restoration of the feudal ideal.[3] his dramatic work belongs to the period of his residence at gray's inn, both _jocasta_ (of which acts i. and iv. were contributed by francis kinwelmersh) and _supposes_ being played there in 1566. _jocasta_ was said by j.p. collier (_hist. of dram. poetry_ iii. 8) to be the "first known attempt to introduce a greek play upon the english stage," but it turns out that gascoigne was only very indirectly acquainted with euripides. his play is a literal version of lodovico dolce's _giocasta_, which was derived probably from the _phoenissae_ in the latin translation of r. winter. _supposes_,[4] a version of ariosto's _i suppositi_, is notable as an early and excellent adaptation of italian comedy, and moreover, as "the earliest play in english prose acted in public or private." udal's _ralph roister doister_ had been inspired directly by latin comedy; _gammer gurton's needle_ was a purely native product; but _supposes_ is the first example of the acclimatization of the italian models that were to exercise so prolonged an influence on the english stage. a third play of gascoigne's, _the glasse of government_ (published in 1575), is a school drama of the "prodigal son" type, familiar on the continent at the time, but rare in england. it is defined by mr c.h. herford as an attempt "to connect _terentian situation_ with a _christian moral_ in a picture of _school life_," and it may be assumed that gascoigne was familiar with the didactic drama of university life in vogue on the continent. the scene is laid at antwerp, and the two prodigals meet with retribution in geneva and heidelberg respectively. _the spoyle of antwerpe_, written by an eyewitness of the sack of the city in 1576, has sometimes been attributed to gascoigne, but although a george gascoigne was employed in that year to carry letters for walsingham, internal evidence is against gascoigne's authorship. a curious editorial preface by gascoigne to sir humphrey gilbert's _discourse of a discoverie for a new passage to cataia_ (1576) has led to the assertion that gascoigne printed the tract against its author's wish, but it is likely that he was really serving gilbert, who desired the publication, but dared not avow it. the _wyll of the devill_ ... (reprinted for private circulation by dr f.j. furnivall, 1871), an anti-popish tract, once attributed, on slender evidence, to gascoigne, is almost certainly by another hand. gascoigne's works not already mentioned include: "g. g. in commendation of the noble arte of venerie," prefixed to _the noble art of venerie or hunting_ (1575); _the complaynte of phylomene, bound up with the steele glas_ (1576); _the droomme of doomes-day_ (1576), a prose compilation from various authors, especially from the _de contemptu mundi sive de miseria humanae conditionis_ of pope innocent iii., printed with varying titles, earliest ed. (1470?); _a delicate diet for daintie mouthde droonkardes ..._ (1576), a free version of st augustine's _de ebrietate_. _the posies_ (1572) included _supposes_, _jocasta_, _a discourse of the adventures of master f[erdinando] j[eronimi]_, in imitation of an italian novella, a partly autobiographical _don bartholomew of bath_, and miscellaneous poems. real personages, some of whom were well known at court, were supposed to be concealed under fictitious names in _the adventures of master f. j._, and the poem caused considerable scandal, so that the names are disguised in the second edition. a more comprehensive collection, _the whole workes of g. g._ ... appeared in 1587. in 1868-1870 _the complete poems of g. g._ ... were edited for the roxburghe library by mr w.c. hazlitt. in his _english reprints_ prof. e. arber included _certayne notes of instruction, the steele glas_ and the _complaynt of philomene_. _the steele glas_ was also edited for the _library of english literature_, by henry morley, vol. i. p. 184 (1889). a new edition, _the works of george gascoigne_ (the cambridge english classics, 1907, &c.) is edited by dr j.w. cunliffe. see also _the life and writings of george gascoigne_, by prof. felix e. schelling (publications of the univ. of pennsylvania series in philology, vol. ii. no. 4 [1894]); c.h. herford, _studies in the literary relations of england and germany in the sixteenth century_, pp. 149-164 (1886); c.h. herford, "gascoigne's glasse of government," in _englische studien_, vol. ix. (halle, 1877, &c.). footnotes: [1] printed in 1579 in a pamphlet called _the paradoxe_, the author of which, abraham fleming, does not mention gascoigne's name. [2] reprinted in vol. ii. of j. haslewood's _ancient critical essays_ (1811-1815), and in gregory smith's _elizabethan critical essays_ (1904). [3] "againe i see, within my glasse of steele but foure estates, to serve each country soyle, the king, the knight, the pesant, and the priest. the king should care for al the subjects still, the knight should fight, for to defend the same, the pesant, he shoulde labor for their ease, and priests shuld pray, for them and for themselves."-- (arber's ed. p. 57.) [4] the influence of this play on the shakespearian _taming of the shrew_ is dealt with by prof. a.h. tolman in _shakespeare's part in the taming of the shrew_ (pub. of the mod. lang. assoc. vol. v. no. 4, pp. 215, 216, 1890).