This collection of essays situates George Gascoigne in context as the pre-eminent writer of the early part of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. His ceaseless experimentation was hugely influential on those later Elizabethans - including Spenser, Sidney and Shakespeare - who represent the great flowering of the English literary renaissance. Gascoigne rarely returned to a genre, writing prose fiction, blank verse, plays, sonnets, narrative verse, courtly entertainments, satire and many other literary forms, and the later Elizabethans were fully aware of his significance.
These essays are organised into three main sections: influences upon Gascoigne, such as Skelton; Gascoigne’s influence on others, including Spenser; and finally a reassessment of his critical neglect and the story behind his marginalised status in the English literary canon. As only the second multi-authored essay collection on Gascoigne, this book makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of this important and often misunderstood writer.
Introduction by Arthur Kinney
I: Influences on Gascoigne
1. Robert Maslen, "Gascoigne, Piccolomini, and the Demilitarisation of the Siege of Troy"
2. Jane Griffiths, "Ficta sub imagine texta: John Skelton and George Gascoigne"
3. Mike Pincombe, "George Gascoigne and Female Complaint"
II: Gascoigne’s Influence on Elizabethan Literature
Gascoigne and Drama
4. Richard McCoy, "Gascoigne's Poses and Supposes"
5. Stephen Hamrick, " "Certain decayed men": Gascoigne’s Catholic Maske"
Gascoigne and Poetry
6. Elizabeth Heale, "Spenser and Gascoigne"
7. Chris Goodwin, "Gascoigne’s Lute, Gascoigne’s Sparrow and Gascoigne’s Goodnight: imitatio and the "verie sweete notes adapted"
8. Michael Hetherington, "Gascoigne, Miscellaneity, and Aesthetic Satisfaction"
9. David Trim, "Gascoigne the soldier-poet: rhetoric, representation and reality"
Gascoigne and Prose Fiction
10. Susan C Staub, "'Pretty conceits as pleased her peevish fantasy': the 'Manling' Secretary in The Adventures of Master F.J."
11. Katharine Wilson, "Not forgetting Frances: ‘Adventures’ in Elizabethan fiction"
III: Gascoigne’s Critical Reputation
12. Gillian Austen, " ‘The very chefe of our late rymers’: George Gascoigne and Literary Fame"
Biography
Gillian Austen is a Visiting Fellow in the Department of English, University of Bristol, England, UK.
