George Gascoigne

Gascoigne's life was fraught with setbacks. After leaving Trinity College he became a member of Grey's Inn -- one of four Inns of Court where barristers trained -- but was imprisoned for debt in 1548. He was forced to sell his patrimony (his father was Sir John Gascoigne) in an attempt to procure funds for the legitimizing

of his wife's prior divorce (Gascoigne married the widow of William Breton after his imprisonment, making him the step-father of the poet Nicholas Brenton [ oldpoetry.com/authors/Nicholas%20Breton ]) and also to finance his life as a courtier, which was a failure. He was denied a Parliamentary Membership for Midhurst in 1572 -- a post he had held twice in the past for Bedford (1557-1559) -- on the grounds that he was "a defamed person and noted for manslaughter, a common Rymer and a deviser of slaunderous Pasquelles, a notorious rufilanne," an atheist and perpetually in debt. He then turned his sights to military commission, and in 1572 set off to fight in the Low Countries war. Although he played an active role in the campaigns there and managed to procure a professional friendship with William of Orange, whom he greatly admired, this venture also ended badly during the evacuation of Valkenberg, where Gascoigne was captured by the Spanish and held as a prisoner for almost four years.



Gascoigne saw his most fruitful years after his return to England in 1575. His collection of poetry -- The Posies -- was published, as was the collaborative piece The Princely Pleasures at the Courte at Kenelworth and a number of other plays and prose works he had produced during his life. He also delivered a speech to Queen Elizabeth I at Woodstock, and recited the Pleasant Tale of Hemetes the Hereinitei in four languages. He died at Bernack, Stamford on October 7th, 1577.



Gascoigne's poetry is considered highly experimental for the time it was written in; though the bulk of his poetic work is written in what he called the "plain style," he also incorporated more daring innovations into his works, including, but not limited to, poulter's measure, fourteeners, decasyllabic stanzas and couplets. He is also credited with a number of firsts; The Supposes was the first English translation of an Italian prose comedy; his translation of Jocasta was the first version of a Greek tragedy to be performed in English;   Glass of Government was the first original English drama written in blank-verse; The Steel Glass was the first original English poem written in blank-verse; Certain Notes of Instruction is considered the first important treatise on English prosody, and Adventures of Master F.J. was one of the first English prose-narratives, early precursors to the modern novel. The motto which appears under his likeness on the right, Tam Marti Quam Mercurio, means 'As Much For Mars As For Mercury.'











Biography Source: Wikipedia, Norton Anthology of English Lit. (7th ed., vol I)

Picture Source: University of Virginia