GASCOIGNE, GEORGE, was the eon of Sir John Gascoigne, the head of an ancient family in Essex. The date of his birth is uncertain; but it was not later, and may have been earlier, than the year 1537. He was educated at Cambridge, and afterwards entered at Gray's Inn as a student of law; but his youthful prodigality caused his father to disinherit him, as far as it was possible to do so. Upon this, having endeavoured in vain to obtain employment at home, he embarked for Holland, and took service as a soldier of fortune under William, Prince of Orange, whose favour he gained in two years of Lard warfare. At the end of this time he was one of five hundred Englishmen who, being left to garrison the indefensible fort of Falken burg, fought their way to the walls of Leyden during its siege, but being refused admittance, were compelled to surrender to the Spaniards. Their lives were spared ; and they were sent home to England after being kept four months as prisoners. Here Gascoigne resumed the study of the law, but never prosecuted the profession seriously or with success ; and he appears to have possessed means sufficient for his subsistence, although we read of his having been at one time, towards tho cloys of his life, a prisoner in the Compter. He married (it is said) a Scottish lady whom he met in France; and usually resided at Walthamstow in his native county, where garden ing and literary composition were his chief employments. In 1575, having been introduced to Queen Elizabeth, he attended ono of her progresses; and at Kenilworth, on that occasion, he recited verses before her, and wrote en account of the pageantriea. It will be recollected what use Sir Walter Scott has made of this incident. He died of some slow disease, at Stamford, on the 7th of October 1577, commending his wife and child to the bounty of the queen.
The earliest of Gascoigne's printed volumes bears date 1572; and hie works were collected ten years after his death, in a volume bearing this title : 'The whole Woorkes of George Gascoigne, Eaquyre : newly compyled into one volume : that is to say, His Flowers, Hearbes, 1Veedes; the Fruitea of Warre; the Comedic called Supposes ; the Tragedie of beasts; the Steel Glasse; the Complaynt of Phylomeae; the &Weil, of Ferdinando leronimi; and the Princelye Pleasures of Kenilworth Castle,' London, 1587, 4to, black letter. The chief among
his non-dramatio poems is the satire called ' The Steel Glasse,' written in blank verse, and first printed in 1576. This poem, with the ' Fruiter of Werra' (which gives many particulars of the author's life), and several other specimens of his poetry, are reprinted in Southey's ' Select Works of the British Poets, from Chaucer to Jenson,' 1831; and either from those, or from places given by Campbell and others, a notion may be formed of the serious ethical tone of feeling, the frequency of familiar Illustration, and the antique and half allegoric cast of imagery, which distinguish the works of this interesting old poet. His prose ' Notes of Instruction concerning the makynge of verse,' have been reprinted by Mr. Ilsalewood, in his ' Ancient Critical Essays upon English Poets and Poesy,' 1815. Gas coigne hula likewise a place in the history of the English drama. His comedy of 'The Supposes,' a free translation from 'Gil Suke poeiti,' of Ariosto, was first performed by the gentlemen of Gray s Ian in 1566 ; and is the earliest prose play existing in the language : Its chief importance arises from the use supposed to have been made of it in ' The Taming of the Shrew.' The ' Lomita, first played at the same place and in the same year as ' The Supposes,' Is fouuded upon the ' Phconissie of Euripides, of which however it is an alteration, rather than a traualation. Three authors had part in it, Gascoigne, Francis Kinwelmarah, and Christopher Yelverton, Gaacesigao working on the second, third, and fifth acts. Some specimens of it, with a short critical estimate, will be fuuud in Colliers' History of English Dramatic Poetry.' It is mainly curious as having been the second draina in blank verse which was composed in our language. Mr. Collier gives also an account of another dramatic piece of Gascoigne, The Glasse of Government,' first printed in 1575, which possesses very little merit.