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GASCOIGNE, GEORGE (c. 1535—1577)

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 494 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GASCOIGNE, See also:GEORGE (c. 1535—1577) , See also:English poet, eldest son of See also:Sir See also:John Gascoigne of Cardington, See also:Bedfordshire, was See also:born probably between 1530 and 1535• He was educated at Trinity See also:College, See also:Cambridge, and on leaving the university is supposed tohave joined the See also:Middle See also:Temple. He became a member of See also:Gray's See also:Inn in 1555• He has been identified without much show of See also:evidence with a lawyer named Gastone who was in See also:prison in 1548 under very discreditable circumstances. There is no doubt that his escapades were notorious, and that he was imprisoned for See also:debt. George See also:Whetstone says that Sir John Gascoigne disinherited his son on See also:account of his follies, but by his own account he was obliged to sell his patrimony to pay the debts contracted at See also:court. He was M.P. for See also:Bedford in 1557—1558 and 155$-1559, but when he presented himself in 1572 for See also:election at See also:Midhurst he was refused on the charges of being " a defamed See also:person and noted for See also:manslaughter," " a See also:common See also: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 See also: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 See also:William See also:Breton, thus becoming step-See also:father to the poet, See also:Nicholas Breton. In 1568 an inquiry into the disposition of William Breton's See also:property with a view to the See also:protection of the See also:children's rights was instituted before the See also:lord See also:mayor, but the See also:matter was probably settled in a friendly manner, for Gascoigne continued to hold the See also:Walthamstow See also:estate, which he had from his wife, until his See also:death. He sailed as a soldier of See also:fortune to the See also:Low Countries in 1572, and was driven by stress of See also:weather to See also:Brill, which luckily for him had just fallen into the hands of the Dutch. He obtained a See also:captain's See also:commission, and took an active See also:part in the See also:campaigns of the next two years, during which he acquired a profound dislike of the Dutch, and a See also:great admiration for William of See also:Orange, who had personally intervened on his behalf in a See also:quarrel with his See also:colonel, and secured him against the suspicion caused by his clandestine visits to a See also:lady at the See also:Hague.

Taken prisoner after the evacuation of Valkenburg by the English troops, he was sent to See also:

England in the autumn of 1574. He dedicated to Lord See also:Grey of See also:Wilton the See also: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 See also:share in devising the masques, published in the next See also:year as The Princely Pleasures at the Courte at Kenelworth, which celebrated the See also:queen's visit to the See also:Earl of See also:Leicester. At See also:Wood-stock in 1575 he delivered a See also:prose speech before See also:Elizabeth, and presented her with the Pleasant See also:Tale of Hemetes the Heremitel in four See also:languages. Most of his See also:works were actually published during the last years of his See also:life, after his return from the See also:wars. He died at Bernack, near See also:Stamford, where he.was the See also:guest of George Whetstone, on the 7th of See also:October 1577. George Whet-See also:stone wrote a See also:long dull poem in See also:honour of his friend, entitled " A Remembrance of the wel-imployed life and godly end of George Gaskoigne, See also:Esquire." His theory of metrical See also:composition is explained in a See also:short See also:critical See also:treatise, " Certayne Notes of Instruction concerning the making of See also:verse or ryme in English, written at the See also:request of See also:Master Edouardo See also:Donati," 2 prefixed to his Posies (1575). He acknowledged See also:Chaucer as his master, and differed from the earlier poets of the school of See also:Surrey and See also:Wyatt chiefly in the added smoothness and sweetness of his verse. His poems were published in 1572 during his See also:absence in See also:Holland, surreptitiously, according to his own account, but it seems probable that the " editor " who supplied the See also:running comment was none other than Gascoigne himself. A hundreth Sundrie Floures See also:bound up in one small Posie. Gathered partely (by See also:translation) in the See also:fyne outlandish Gardens of See also:Euripides, See also:Ovid, Petrarke, See also: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 1 Printed in 1579 in a pamphlet called The Paradoxe, the author of which, See also:Abraham See also:Fleming, does not mention Gascoigne's name. 2 Reprinted in vol. ii. of J. Haslewood's See also:Ancient Critical Essays r11—1815), and in See also:Gregory See also:Smith's Elizabethan Critical Essays 04).

See also:

biographical See also:Don See also:Bartholomew of See also:Bath, and See also:miscellaneous poems. Real personages, some of whom were well known at court, were sup-posed to be concealed under fictitious names in The Adventures of Master F. J., and the poem caused considerable See also: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 1868–187o The See also:Complete Poems of G. G.... were edited for the See also:Roxburghe Library by Mr W. C. See also:Hazlitt. In his English Reprints Prof. E. See also:Arber included Certayne Notes of Instruction, The See also:Steele See also:Glas and the Complaynt of Philomene.

The Steele Glas was also edited for the Library of English Literature, by See also:

Henry See also:Morley, vol. i. p. 184 (1889). A new edition, The Works of George Gascoigne (The Cambridge English See also:Classics, 1907, &c.) is edited by Dr J. W. Cunliffe. See also The Life and Writings of George Gascoigne, by Prof. See also:Felix E. See also:Schelling (Publications of the Univ. of See also:Pennsylvania See also:series in See also:Philology, vol. ii. No. 4 [1894]) ; C. H. See also:Herford, Studies in the See also:Literary Relations of England and See also:Germany in the Sixteenth See also:Century, pp.

149- (1886); C. H. Herford, " Gascoigne's Glasse of See also:

Government," in Englische Studien, vol. ix. (See also:Halle, 1877, &c.). 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 See also:original mind, and was a See also:pioneer in more than one direction. In 1576 he published The Steele Glas, sometimes called the earliest See also:regular English See also:satire. Although this poem is Elizabethan in See also:form and manner, it is written in the spirit of Piers Plowman.

Gascoigne begins with a comparison between the See also:

sister arts of Satire and See also:Poetry, and under a comparison between the old-fashioned " glas of trustie steele," and the new-fangled crystal mirrors which he takes as a See also:symbol of the " Italianate " corruption of the See also:time, he attacks the amusements of the governing classes, the evils of absentee landlordism, the corruption of the See also:clergy, and pleads for the restoration of the feudal ideal .l His dramatic See also:work belongs to the See also:period of his See also:residence at Gray's Inn, both See also:Jocasta (of which Acts i. and iv. were contributed by See also:Francis See also:Kin.welmersh) and Supposes being played there in 1566. Jocasta was said by J. P. See also:Collier (Hist. of Dram. Poetry iii. 8) to be the " first known See also:attempt to introduce a See also:Greek See also:play upon the English See also:stage," but it turns out that Gascoigne was only very indirectly acquainted with Euripides. His play is a literal version of Lodovico See also:Dolce's Giocasta, which was derived probably from the Phoenissae in the Latin translation of R. See also:Winter. Supposes,2 a version of Ariosto's I Suppositi, is notable as an See also:early and excellent See also:adaptation of See also:Italian See also:comedy, and moreover, as " the earliest play in English prose acted in public or private." See also:Udal's See also:Ralph Roister Doister had been inspired directly by Latin comedy; Gammer Gurton's See also:Needle was a purely native product; but Supposes is the first example of the See also:acclimatization of the Italian See also:models that were to exercise so prolonged an See also:influence on the English stage. A third play of Gascoigne's, The Glasse of Government (published in 1575), is a school See also:drama of the " Prodigal Son " type, See also:familiar on the See also: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 See also:

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 See also:vogue on the continent. The See also:scene is laid at See also:Antwerp, and the two prodigals meet with retribution in See also:Geneva and See also:Heidelberg respectively. The Spoyle of Antwerpe, written by an eyewitness of the See also:sack of the See also:city in 1576, has sometimes been attributed to Gascoigne, but although a George Gascoigne was employed in that year to carry letters for See also:Walsingham, See also:internal evidence is against Gascoigne's authorship. A curious editorial See also:preface by Gascoigne to Sir See also:Humphrey See also:Gilbert's Discourse of a Discoverie for a new Passage to Cataia. (1576) has led to the assertion that Gascoigne printed the See also:tract against its author's wish, but it is likely that he was really serving Gilbert, who desired the publication, but dared not ayow it. The Wyll of the Devill . . . (reprinted for private circulation by Dr F. J. See also:Furnivall, 1871), an See also:anti-popish tract, once attributed, on slender evidence, to Gascoigne, is almost certainly by another See also:hand. Gascoigne's works not already mentioned include: " G. G. in See also:commendation of the See also:noble Arte of Venerie," prefixed to The Noble See also:Art of Venerie or See also:Hunting (1575) ; The Complaynte of Phylomene, bound up with The Steele Glas (1576); The Droomme of Doomes-See also:day (1576), a prose compilation from various authors, especially from the De contemptu mundi sive de miseria humanae conditionis of See also:Pope See also:Innocent III., printed with varying titles, earliest ed.

(1470?) ; A Delicate See also:

Diet for daintie mouthde droonkardes . ... (1576), a See also:free version of St See also:Augustine's De ebrietate. The Posies (1572) included Supposes, Jocasta, A Discourse of the Adventures of Master F[erdinando] J[eronimi], in See also:imitation of an Italian novella, a partly auto- ' " Againe I see, within my glasse of Steele But foure estates, to serve each See also:country soyle, The See also:King, the See also:Knight, the Pesant, and the See also: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.) 2 The influence of this play on the Shakespearian Taming of the See also:Shrew is dealt with by Prof. A. H. Tolman in See also:Shakespeare's Part in the Taming of the Shrew (Pub. of the Mod. See also:Lang. Assoc. vol. v.

No. 4, pp. 215, 216, 1890). GASCOIG1;1E, SIR WILLIAM (c. 1350-1419), See also:

chief See also:justice of England in the reign of Henry IV. Both See also:history and tradition testify to the fact that he was one of the great lawyers who in times of doubt and danger have asserted the principle that the See also:head of the See also:state is subject to See also:law, and that the traditional practice of public See also:officers, or the expressed See also:voice of the nation in See also:parliament, and not the will of the monarch or any part of the legislature, must See also:guide the tribunals of the country. He was a descendant of an ancient See also:Yorkshire See also:family. The date of his See also:birth is uncertain, but it appears from the year-books that he practised as an See also:advocate in the reigns of See also:Edward III. and See also:Richard H. On the banishment of Henry of See also:Lancaster Gascoigne was appointed one of his attorneys, and soon after Henry's See also:accession to the See also:throne was made chief justice of the court of king's See also:bench. After the suppression of the rising in the See also:north in 1405, Henry eagerly pressed the chief justice to pronounce See also:sentence upon See also:Scrope, the See also:archbishop of See also:York, and the earl See also:marshal See also:Thomas See also:Mowbray, who had been implicated in the revolt. This he absolutely refused to do, asserting the right of the prisoners to be tried by their peers. Although both were afterwards executed, the chief justice had no part in the transaction.

It has been very much doubted, however, whether Gascoigne could have displayed such See also:

independence of See also:action without prompt See also:punishment or removal from See also:office following. The oft-told tale of his committing the See also:prince of See also:Wales to prison must also be regarded as unauthentic, though it is both picturesque and characteristic. The See also:judge had directed the punishment of one of the prince's riotous companions, and the prince, who was See also:present and enraged at the sentence, struck or grossly insulted the judge. Gascoigne immediately committed him to prison, using See also:firm and forcible See also:language, which brought him to a more reasonable See also:mood, and secured his voluntary obedience to the sentence. Thekingissaid to have approved of the See also:act, but there appears to be See also:good ground for the supposition that Gascoigne was removed from his See also:post or resigned soon after the accession of Henry V. He died in 1419, and was buried in the See also:parish See also:church of Harewood in Yorkshire. Some See also:biographies of the judge have stated that he died in 1412, but this is clearly disproved by See also:Foss in his Lives of the See also:Judges; and although it is clear that Gascoigne did not hold office long under Henry V., it is not absolutely impossible that the scene in the fifth act of the second part of Shakespeare's Henry IV. has some See also:historical basis, and that the judge's resignation was voluntary.

End of Article: GASCOIGNE, GEORGE (c. 1535—1577)

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