George Gascoigne

George Gascoigne (1525?-1577), English poet, whose best-known works are his lyric poems, including “The Arraignment of a Lover” and “A Strange Passion of a Lover.” Born probably in Cardington, Bedfordshire, and educated at the University of Cambridge, Gascoigne studied law and from 1557 to 1559 represented Bedford in Parliament. His play The Supposes, the first English comedy in blank verse, was produced in 1566. It was based on Gli suppositi (The Suppositions, 1509), by the Italian poet Ludovico Ariosto.

Gascoigne is also remembered as an innovator who adapted foreign literary forms to English. An authorized edition of his work, The Posies of George Gascoigne (1575), contains short poems and Jocasta, a blank-verse adaptation of Phoenissae, by the Greek dramatist Euripides. This volume also includes what appears to be the earliest English critical essay on prosody (the study of the metrical structure of verse), “Certain Notes of Instruction Concerning the Making of Verse.”