George Gascoigne

George Gascoigne, from The Lives of Eminent and Remarkable Characters from the Counties of Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk, 1820. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

George Gascoigne (?1535 - 7 October 1577) was an English poet, soldier, artist, and courtier. He is considered the most important poet of the early Elizabethan era, following Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and leading to the emergence of Philip Sidney.

Life

Overview

Gascoigne, son of Sir John Gascoigne, and descended from Sir William Gascoigne, the famous Chief Justice to Henry IV., he was educated at Cambridge, and entered Gray's Inn 1555. While there he produced 2 plays, both translations, The Supposes (1566) from Ariosto, and Jocasta (1566) from Euripides. Disinherited on account of his prodigality, in order to rehabilitate his finances he married a widow, the mother of Nicholas Breton. He had, nevertheless, to go to Holland to escape from the importunities of his creditors. While there he saw service under the Prince of Orange, and was taken prisoner by the Spaniards. Released after a few months, he returned to England, and found that some of his poems had been surreptitiously published. He thereupon issued an authoritative edition under the title of An Hundred Sundrie Floures bound up in one Poesie (1572). Other works are Notes of Instruction: for making English verse, The Glasse of Government (1575), and The Steele Glasse (1576), a satire. He also contributed to the entertainments in honour of Queen Elizabeth I at Kenilworth and appears to have had a share of Court favour. Gascoigne was a man of originality, and did much to popularise the use of blank verse in England.

He was the 1st poet to deify Elizabeth I, in effect establishing her cult as a virgin goddess married to her kingdom and subjects. His most noted works include A Discourse of the Adventures of Master FJ (1573), an account of courtly sexual intrigue and one of the earliest English prose fictions; The Supposes, (performed in 1566, printed in 1573), an early translation of Ariosto and the earliest comedy written in English prose, which was used by Shakespeare as a source for The Taming of the Shrew; the frequently anthologised short poem "Gascoignes wodmanship" (1573); and "Certayne Notes of Instruction concerning the making of verse or ryme in English" (1575), the earliest essay on English versification.

Family

Gascoigne was the eldest son of Sir John Gascoigne of Cardington, Bedfordshire, by his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir Robert Scargill of Scargill, Yorkshire. Through his mother's family he was kinsman to Sir Martin Frobisher. His father's father, Sir William Gascoigne, was great-grandson of Sir William Gascoigne, chief justice of the king's bench; was sheriff of Bedfordshire in 1507, 1514, and 1516; was knighted by Henry VIII, and was controller to the household of Cardinal Wolsey.

Youth and education

The poet, when dedicating his Tale of Hemetes to Elizabeth in 1576, declares that he "poured forth" in his writings "such Englishe as I stole in Westmerland,’ expressions that seem to imply that he was brought up in Westmoreland. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where Stephen Nevynson was his tutor. He left without a degree, and is said to have entered the Middle Temple before 1548.

He is often stated to have suffered imprisonment in 1548 for dicing. This story is founded on an account of the arrest of "Mr. Gastone the lawyare … a great dicer" in the Autobiographical Anecdotes of Edward Underhill, 1551 (cf. Narratives of the Reformation, Camd. Soc.) But Gastone and Gascoigne are in all probability quite different persons. Gastone moreover is said in the same place to have "an old wife," whereas the poet seems at the time to have been a bachelor (cf. Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. ix. 15, 152). It is true that the poet's father disinherited him on account of his extravagance, and it was not till late in life that he checked his squandering propensities.

In 1555 he became a student of Gray's Inn (Harl. MS. 1912, f. 33), and is probably the "Gascoine" called as an "ancient" of the inn on 24 May 1557. He paid a formal fine as an ancient in 1565.

Early career

He sat in parliament as M.P. for Bedford in 1557-1558 and 1558-1559. In the spring of 1562, while riding between Chelmsford and London, he began a poem entitled The Complaint of Philomene, but soon flung it aside, and did not complete it till 1576. An early disappointment in love unfitted him for settled occupation. Travel in England and France occupied him about 1563-1564.

Returning to his home in Bedfordshire he visited his friends the Dyve family, and was introduced to Francis Russell, 2nd earl of Bedford, and doubtless to Arthur, lord Grey de Wilton, who became his special patron. Lord Grey invited him to shoot deer in his company 1 winter, and presented him with a cross-bow. Gascoigne proved a poor shot, and excused himself in verse for his incapacity.

In 1566 he produced at Gray's Inn The Supposes, a prose adaptation of Ariosto's comedy Gli Suppositi. Aided by Francis Kinwelmersh, who contributed acts i. and iv., he also wrote a blank-verse tragedy in 5 acts called Jocasta, adapted from Euripides's Phœnissæ. Sir Christopher Yelverton supplied an epilogue. A folio manuscript of this play, dated 1568, was in the possession of Mr. Corser.

Gascoigne was now, he writes, "determined to abandon all vain delights, and to return unto Gray's Inn, there to undertake again the study of common laws" (Poems, i. 63). 5 fellow-students, Francis and Anthony Kenwelmersh, John Vaughan, Alexander Nevile, and Richard Courtop, challenged him to write 5 poems on as many Latin mottoes proposed by themselves; he consented, and in these verses, published some years later, freely reproached himself with past excesses.

His 1st published verse was a sonnet prefixed to The French Littleton … by C. Holiband, London, 1566. To retrieve his fortunes he married around this date Elizabeth, the well-to-do widow of William Breton of London. The lady's first husband, by whom she was mother of poet Nicholas Breton, and of 4 other children, died on 12 January 1559. Gascoigne must have married her some time before 27 October 1568. On that day the lord mayor, in the interest of Gascoigne's step-children, directed an inquiry into the disposition of William Breton's property, which, it was suggested, was misused by their mother and Gascoigne. Whatever the result of the inquiry, Gascoigne seems to have secured a residence at Walthamstow out of Breton's estate, which he retained till his death.

His debts were still numerous, and he had to "lurk at villages" and avoid the city. In 1572 he presented himself for election as M.P. for Midhurst, and was duly returned. But a petition was presented, apparently by his creditors, against his being permitted to take his seat. In this document he was not only charged with insolvency, but with manslaughter and atheism, and with being "a common rymer and a deviser of slanderous pasquils against divers persones of great calling" (cf. Gentlemans Magazine 1851, pt. ii. 241–4).

In Netherlands

To avoid further complications, he resolved to go abroad. He took passage at Gravesend for Holland on 19 March 1572. A drunken Dutch pilot ran the vessel aground on the Dutch coast. 20 of the crew were drowned, and Gascoigne and 2 friends, Rowland Yorke and Herle, narrowly escaped with their lives.

Gascoigne, who was nicknamed "the Green Knight," obtained a captain's commission under William, prince of Orange, and saw some severe service. But a quarrel with his colonel soon drove him to Delft, in order to resign his commission to the prince. While the negotiation was in progress a letter addressed to Gascoigne from a lady at the Hague, then in the possession of the Spaniards, fell into the hands of his personal enemies in the Dutch camp. A charge of treachery was raised, but the prince perceived the baselessness of the accusation, and gave Gascoigne passports enabling him to visit the Hague.

Gascoigne afterwards joined an English reinforcement under Colonel Chester, and distinguished himself at the siege of Middleburg, when the prince rewarded him with a gift of 300 guilders in addition to his ordinary pay. Soon afterwards he was surprised by 3,000 Spaniards while commanding 500 Englishmen with Captain Sheffield. The English retreated to Leyden, but their Dutch allies closed the gates against them. All surrendered to Loques, the Spanish general.

Gascoigne and his fellow-officers were sent home after four months' imprisonment. His knowledge of languages — Latin, French, Italian, and Dutch — enabled him to converse freely with his Spanish captors; and his friendliness with Loques exposed him to new charges of treachery. He wrote for his patron, Lord Grey of Wilton, 2 narratives of his adventures while they were in progress, "The fruites of warre, written uppon this Theame Dulce Bellum inexpertis," and "Gascoignes voyage into Hollande, An. 1572." His military adventures occupied less than 3 years.

Later writing

In Gascoigne's absence a collected volume of his verse was published without his authority by H[enry?] W[otton?], who had obtained the manuscript from another friend, G[eorge ?] T[urberville ?] . The volume bore the title A hundreth Sundrie Flowres bounde up in one small Poesie: Gathered partely by Translation in the fyne outlandish Gardins of Euripides, Ovid, Petrarke, Ariosto, and others, and partly by invention out of our owne fruitefull orchardes in England, London, for R. Smith [1572]. The editor, in the course of the volume, says that Gascoigne, "who hath never been dainty of his doings, and therefore I conceal not his name," was author of the largest portion of the book. But in spite of the editor's assertion that more than 1 author is represented in the collection, there is little doubt that Gascoigne is responsible for the whole.

The book opens with the Supposes and Jocasta, which are followed by "A discourse of the adventures passed by Master F[erdinando] I[eronimi]," a prose tale from the Italian, interspersed with a few lyrics; a number of short poems called "The deuises of sundrie Gentlemen;" and finally a long unfinished series of semi-autobiographical reflections in verse, entitled "The delectable history of Dan Bartholomew of Bath." Many of the shorter pieces were suspected of attacking well-known persons under fictitious names.

A loud outcry was raised, to which Gascoigne replied by reissuing, "from my poore house at Walthamstow in the forest, 2 Feb. 1575," the volume enlarged and altered, under his own name. The new title ran The Posies of George Gascoigne, Esquire: Corrected, perfected, and augmented by the authour, London, for R. Smith. Some copies bear in the imprint the name of H. Bynneman as Smith's printer. An apologetic dedication is addressed to "the reverend divines unto whom these posies shall happen to be presented."

The works are here divided into 3 parts, entitled respectively Flowers, Hearbes, and Weedes. The 1st part contains short poems and a completed version of "Dan Bartholomew;" the 2nd includes the "Supposes," the "Jocasta," and more short poems; the 3rd part is chiefly occupied with a revised version of "the pleasant fable of Ferdinando Ieronimi and Leonora de Valasco, translated out of the riding tales of Bartello" (i.e. Bandello). The volume concludes with a critical essay in prose entitled "Certayne notes of Instruction concerning the making of verse or ryme in English, written at the request of Master Edouardo Donati."

Henceforth Gascoigne confined himself to literary work, but he still suffered much from poverty. In 1575 appeared his "tragicall comedie," called A Glasse of Government, chiefly in prose, but with 4 choruses and an epilogue in verse, and 2 didactic poems introduced into the 3rd act. A poem by him of 58, "in the commendation of the Noble Art of Venerie," was prefixed to George Turberville's Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting (1575).

Gascoigne accompanied Queen Elizabeth on her visit to the Earl of Leicester's castle of Kenilworth, 9-27 July 1575, and was commissioned by Leicester to write verses and masques for the entertainment of his sovereign. Many of these were issued in 1576, in a separate volume entitled The Princelye Pleasures at the Courte of Kenelwoorth, to which George Ferrers, Henry Goldingham, and William Hunnis were also contributors. A reprint of this work is dated 1821, and it reappears in the appendix to Adlard's Amye Robsart, 1870.

Gascoigne's prose "tale of Hemetes the heremyte, pronownced before the Q. Majesty att Woodstocke, [11 Sept.] 1575," in the course of the progress from Kenilworth, was not included in The Princelie Pleasures, nor was it printed in its author's lifetime. Gascoigne wrote it in 4 languages — English, French, Latin, and Italian. In 1579 Abraham Fleming had the boldness to annex this "pleasant tale …, newly recognised both in Latin and English," to his volume called The Paradoxe, and allowed it to be supposed that he was the author. Gascoigne's original manuscript, with a dedication to the queen, and a drawing representing him in the act of offering it to her, is in the British Museum (Reg. MS. 18 A. 49, p. 27). It has been printed by W.C. Hazlitt in his collected edition of Gascoigne's works.

It was also in 1576 that Gascoigne's well-known satire in blank verse appeared, dedicated to Lord Grey, titled The Steele Glas. He completed this satire 12 April 1576, "amongst my books in my house here at Walthamstow." At the end of the volume was placed "The Complainte of Phylomene," Gascoigne's 1st poetic effort, begun 13 years before. To the Steele Glas a youthful friend, "Walter Raleigh of the Middle Temple," prefixed commendatory stanzas, the earliest by him to appear in print.

In April 1576 a visit to Sir Humphry Gilbert at Limehouse suggested to Gascoigne the publication of Gilbert's account of the voyage to Cathay in 1566, which he duly prepared for the press. There followed 2 serious efforts in prose("the fruites of repentaunce," Gascoigne called them) entitled respectively The Droomme of Doomesday, a translation from the Latin of Lothario Conti (May 1576; 1586), dedicated to Francis, 2nd earl of Bedford, and A delicate Diet for daintie-mouthde Droonkardes (22 August 1576), dedicated to Lewis Dyve. The 1st is described at length in Brydges's Restituta, iv. 299–307; the 2nd was reprinted by F.G. Waldron in 1789.

Finally, in January 1576-7, Gascoigne dedicated to Queen Elizabeth, but did not print, a collection of moral elegies entitled The Griefe of Joye. His manuscript is in the British Museum (Royal MS. 18 A. 61), and has been printed by W.C. Hazlitt.

Last years

In May 1576 Gascoigne's health had begun to fail (The Droomme of Doomesday, ded.) The Delicate Diet is dedicated (August 1576) "from my lodging in London."

But there seems good foundation for the categorical assertion of Richard Simpson that Gascoigne was present at the sack of Antwerp by the Spaniards in November 1576. On 10 Nov. 1576 Thomas Heton, governor of the English House at Antwerp, wrote to the privy council that he had sent accounts of the fall of Antwerp by "this bearer, Mr. George Gascoigne [not Gaston, as printed in the Calendar], whose humanity in this time of trouble we for our parts have experimented." There is little doubt that Gascoigne was the author of a prose tract, The Spoyle of Antwerpe: Faithfully reported by a true Englishman, who was present at the same. … London, by Richard Iones. On this tract was founded A Larum for London, or the Siedge of Antwerp, 1602, and Mr. Simpson prints both together in his School of Shakspere, pt. i. (1872).

All the best evidence shows, however, that Gascoigne in his last years was an invalid who moved about very little and spent most of his time in pious exercises. In the autumn of 1577 he went on a visit to his friend and biographer, George Whetstone, at Stamford, Lincolnshire, and he died at Whetstone's house on 7 October 1577, being buried probably in the family vault of the Whetstones at Bernack, near Stamford. He seems to have left a son, William.

Writing

Contemporaries praised Gascoigne. W. Webbe, in his Discourse of English Poetrie, speaks of him as "a witty gentleman and the very chief of our late rhymers," who, though "deficient in learning," was sufficient in "his gifts of wit and natural promptness." Arthur Hall, in the preface to his translation of the Iliad (1581), praises his "pretie pythie conceits." Puttenham, in his Arte of English Poesie, writes of his "good metre" and ‘plentiful vein.’ Francis Meres, in his "Comparative Discourse of our English Poets" in his ‘Palladis Tamia’ (1598), numbers him among "the best poets for" comedies and elegies.

Gabriel Harvey had a good word for his "commendable parts of conceit and endeavour," although he bemoaned his "decayed and blasted estate" (Foure Letters, 1592). Likewise in his ‘De Aulica’ Harvey suggests that Gascoigne, with Chaucer and Surrey, should figure in the library of a maid of honour (Gratulationes Valdinenses, 1578, iv. 21). Edmund Bolton, classing him with the "lesser late poets," says that his "works may be endured."

His Supposes was revived at Trinity College, Oxford, in 1582, and he is represented in the many editions of the Paradise of Dainty Devices (1st edition 1576), and in England's Parnassus, 1600. But he soon fell out of date. An 1596 epigram of Sir John Davies notes as an inconsistency in the character of "a new-fangled youth," that he should "praise old George Gascoines rimes."

Gascoigne's lyrics, such as "the arraignment of a lover," reissued as a broadsheet in 1581, "a straunge passion of a lover," "a lullabie of a lover," or "Gascoignes good-morrow," are his most attractive productions. But even here his hand is often heavy, and his command of language and meter defective. With rare exceptions his verse, "in the measure of xij in the first line and xiiij in the second," is now unreadable.

As a literary pioneer, however, Gascoigne's position is important. "Master Gascoigne," writes ]Nashe (preface to Greene, Menaphon, 1589), "is not to be abridged of his deserved esteem, who first beat the path to that perfection which our best poets have aspired to since his departure." His Supposes, after Ariosto, is the earliest extant comedy in English prose; his Jocasta, after Euripides, is the 2nd earliest tragedy in blank verse; his Steele Glas is probably the earliest "regular verse satire;" his "Certain Notes of Instruction concerning the making of verse," in which he deprecates the sacrifice of reason to rhyme, or the use of obsolete words, is the earliest English critical essay; his Adventures of Ferdinando Ieronimi, translated from Bandello, one of the earliest known Italian tales in English prose.

Gascoigne's sole original comedy, the ‘Glasse of Government,’ which vaguely embodies some local knowledge acquired by the author in the Low Countries, seems to be "an attempt to connect Terentian situations with a Christian moral." It deals with the careers of 4 youths — 2 prodigals who reach bad ends, and 2 of exemplary virtue, who gain distinction and influence. Mr. Herford shows that it owes much to German school dramas like Gnapheus's Acolastus, 1529, Macropedius's Rebelles, 1535, and Stymmelius's Studentes, 1549 (Herford, Lit. Rel. of England and Germany, pp. 149–64).

Shakespeare probably derived the name Petruchio and the underplot of Lucentio's suit to Bianca in the Taming of the Shrew from Gascoigne's Supposes. ‘From this play also the ridiculous name and character of Dr. Dodipoll seems to have got into our old drama’ (Warton).

A collected edition of Gascoigne's works was published by Abel Jeffes in 1587. Copies are extant with 2 different title-pages, one running The Pleasauntest Workes of George Gascoigne, Esquyre; newly compyled into one volume, the other beginning The whole workes of George Gascoigne, Esquyre. Besides the contents of the 1575 volume there appear here the "Steele Glas," the ‘Complainte of Phylomene,’ and the "Pleasures at Kenelworth Castle."

Gascoigne is well represented in Chalmers's Poets. In 1868-1869 W.C. Hazlitt collected all his extant poems in 2 volumes (Roxburghe Library). Gascoigne's critical essay was reprinted in Haslewood's ‘Ancient Critical Essays,’ 1815, and with his "Steele Glas" and "Complainte of Phylomene" by Professor Arber in 1868.

Critical Introduction

by John Wesley Hales

Amongst the poets that immediately preceded the great Elizabethan Period, which may be said to begin with the publication of The Shepherd’s Calendar in 1580, Gascoigne occupied, and occupies, a notable place. Bolton indeed, in his Hypercritica, speaks slightingly of him: ‘Among the lesser late poets George Gascoigne’s Works may be endured’; but for the most part he is mentioned with high respect and praise. Raleigh commends The Steel Glass in what are his earliest known verses. Puttenham distinguishes him for ‘a good metre and for a plentiful vein.’ Webbe calls him ‘a witty gentleman and the very chief of our late rimers’; ‘gifts of wit,’ he says, ‘and natural promptness appear in him abundantly.’ Amongst other eulogists may be named Nash, Gabriel Harvey, Whetstone.

He was a man of family and position, well known to and amongst the ‘Inns of Court men,’ who, in the Elizabethan age, as in that of Queen Anne, passed for the arch wits and critics as well as the first gentlemen of the day; and when campaigning in the Low Countries he met with adventures which added to his personal prestige. Thus he was a conspicuous figure in the society of his time, and for this reason, if for nothing else, his verses would win esteem and circulation.

Gascoigne, then, is interesting as a poet who was popular during Shakspere’s boyhood and Spenser’s adolescence. But he is yet more important as one who did real service in the way of extending and improving the form of literature—as a pioneer of the Elizabethan Period. ‘Whoever,’ says Nash, ‘my private opinion condemns as faulty, Master Gascoigne is not to be abridged of his deserved esteem, who first beat the path to that perfection which our best poets have aspired to since his departure; whereto he did ascend by comparing the Italian with the English, as Tully did Græca cum Latinis.’ He is the author of our earliest extant comedy in prose—possibly the earliest written—The Supposes, a translation of Ariosto’s Suppositi, and in part the author of one of our earliest tragedies, of Jocasta—a paraphrase rather than a translation of the Phoinissai of Euripides; he is one of our earliest writers of formal satire and of blank verse, and in his ‘Certain Notes of Instruction concerning the making of verse or rime in English written at the request of Master Edouardo Donati,’ one of the earliest essayists, if not the earliest, on English metres.

Happily, we can add, his works have not only these historical claims on our attention; they have intrinsic merits. His lyrics are occasionally characterised by a certain lightness and grace, which give and will give them a permanent life. Singing of all a lover’s moods and experiences—how he passions, laments, complains, recants, is refused, is encouraged—he is never a mere mimic of his Italian masters, or, though somewhat monotonous, wanting in vigour and sincerity. His style is clear and unaffected. The crude taste of his age is often enough apparent; and in this respect his ‘poor rude lines,’ if we ‘compare them with the bettering of the times,’ may sometimes make but little show; but here too he rises above his fellows, who are often simply grotesque when they mean to be fervent, and are dull when they are not grotesque. He writes in various metres with various facility and skill. Of blank verse his mastery is imperfect; he is like a child learning to walk, whose progress is from chair to chair; he lacks freedom and fluency. The metre of his Complaint of Philomene is ill chosen for its purpose. It is a jig, not a movement of ‘even step and musing gait.’ Much of his work is autobiographical. We can trace him ‘from gay to grave,’ perhaps we may add ‘from lively to severe’; for in his later years, by a reaction that is common enough, it would seem he took a somewhat morbid view of the life he was leaving, under-prizing it, after the manner of zealots, even as in his youth he had prized it too highly.

Recognition

Gascoigne's portrait, subscribed with his favourite motto, Tam Marti quam Mercurio, appears on the back of the title-page of the 1st edition of the Steele Glas. Another portrait appears in the Reg. MS. containing ‘The tale of Hemetes,’ and has been reproduced by W.C. Hazlitt. There is an engraved portrait by Fry.

His poem "A Lover's Lullaby" was included in the Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900.

Publications

Poetry

• The Glasse of Gouernement: A tragicall comedie. London: C. Barker, 1575.
• The Posies. London: Richard Smith, 1575.
• The Pleasauntest Works. London: Abell Ieffes, 1587.
• The Complete Poems (edited by William Carew Hazlitt). London: Roxburghe library / Whittingham & Wilkins, 1869-70.
• A hundredth sundrie flowres (edited by Charles Tyler Prouth), Columbia, MO: University of Missouri, 1942.
• The Steele Glas and The Complainte of Phylomene: A critical edition with an introduction (edited by William L. Wallace). Salzburg, Austria: Institut für Englische Sprache und Literatur, Universität Salzburg, 1975.

Collected editions

• The Whole Woorks. London: Abell Ieffes, 1587.
• Certayne Notes of Instruction in English Verse / The Steele Glas / The Complaynt of Philomene (edited by George Whetstone). London: A. Murray, 1868.
  • (edited by Edward Arber). Westminster: Constable, 1895.
• The Complete Works (edited by John William Cunliffe). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1910; Hildesheim, NY: G. Olms, 1974. Volume I, Volume II.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

"Gascoigne's Lullaby" by George Gascoyne (read by Tom O'Bedlam)

"And If I Did What Then" by George Gascoigne

• Canons of Renaissance poetry
• List of British poets
• Timeline of Britiish poetry

References

•  Lee, Sidney (1890) "Gascoigne, George" in Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 21 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 36-39  . Wikisource, Web, Jan. 15, 2017.
• John W. Cunliffe, George Gascoigne: The posies. (originally published 1907, reprinted by Greenwood Press, 1969).
• John W. Cunliffe, Supposes and Jocasta: Two Plays Translated from the Italian, the first by Geo. Gascoigne and the second by Geo. Gascoigne and F. Kwinwelmersh (Boston: D.C. Heath & Co., 1906).
• G.W. Pigman, George Gascoigne, A Hundredth Sundrie Flowres 1573, Oxford, 2000
• C.T. Prouty, George Gascoigne's A Hundredth Sundrie Flowres. (Columbia: University of Missouri, 1942).
• Ward, B.M. A Hundredth Sundrie Flowres From the Original Edition of 1573. (1928; reprinted with supplementary materials under the editorship of Ruth Loyd Miller, Minos Publish Co., 1975).

External links

Poems

• "A Lover's Lullaby"
• "And if I Did, What Then?: Poem of the Week at The Guardian
• Gascoigne, George (ca. 1534-1577) (4 poems) at Representative Poetry Online
• George Gascoigne 1535-1577 at the Poetry Foundation
• Gascoigne in The English Poets: An anthology: "The Arraignment of a Lover," "A Strange Passion of a Lover," Extracts from The Steel Glass: Piers Ploughman, Epilogus
• The Works of George Gascoigne at Luminarium
• George Gascoigne at PoemHunter (21 poems)

Audio / video

• George Gascoigne poems at YouTube

Books

• George Gascoigne at Amazon.com

About

• George Gascoigne in the Encyclopædia Britannica
• Gascoigne, George in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica * George Gascoigne at Luminarium
• The Gascoigne Seminar “is a discussion list for scholars working on George Gascoigne and other early Elizabethan writers, to facilitate the exchange of ideas about the generation at the very beginning of the English literary renaissance.”

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Gascoigne, George