GASCOIGNE, gas-kOill', GEORGE ( C.1535-77 ) An English poet. He was born about 1535, the son of Sir John Gascoigne, of Cardington, Bed fordshire, and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, but left without a degree, entering, it is said, the Middle Temple before 1548. In 1555 he became a student of Gray's Inn; in 1557-59 he was member of Parliament; about 1566 he married and settled at Walthamstow. To escape his numerous creditors he went to Holland in 1572, where he served with distinction under William, Prince of Orange; but was cap tured by the Spaniards under the walls of Ley den and sent back to England after an impris onment of four months. He accompanied Queen Elizabeth on her memorable visit to Kenilworth in 1575, and was commissioned by Leicester to write verses and masques for her entertainment. These appeared in The Princely Pleasures (1576). He died October 7, 1577, while on a visit to his friend George Whetstone, at Stam ford, Lincolnshire. Gascoigne is best known by his lyrics, such as "The Arraignment of a Lover" and "A Strange Passion of a Lover."
But much of his other work is of very great his torical interest. The Supposes, an adaptation of Ariosto's Gli Suppositi, is the earliest extant comedy in English prose. It was produced at Gray's Inn in 1566. Aided by Francis Kinwel mersh, he wrote Jocasta, a free rendering of Euripides's Thomism. This is the second ear liest English tragedy in blank verse. The Steel Glass (1576), written in blank verse, is our earliest regular verse satire. Certain Notes of Instruction Concerning the Making of Blank Verse (1575) is the earliest English critical essay. An edition of Gascoigne's Works was pub lished by Jeffes (London, 1587). His Complete Poems were edited by W. C. Hazlitt, Roxburghe Library (London, 1868-69). For his principal poems, consult the excellent edition, with full biographical notes, edited by Arber (London, 1868). Consult Lee, Dictionary of National Biography.