Stephen Gosson (April 1554 – 13 February 1624) was an English satirist.

Biography

Gosson was baptized at St George's Church,

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

, on 17 April 1554. He entered

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517 by Richard Fo ...

in 1572, and on leaving the university in 1576 he went to London. In 1598,

Francis Meres Francis Meres (1565/1566 – 29 January 1647) was an English churchman and author. His 1598 commonplace book includes the first critical account of poems and plays by Shakespeare. Career Francis Meres was born in 1565 at Kirton Meres in the par ...

in his ''Palladis Tamia'' mentions him with Sir

Philip Sidney Sir Philip Sidney (30 November 1554 – 17 October 1586) was an English poet, courtier, scholar and soldier who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan era, Elizabethan age. His works include a sonnet sequence, ' ...

Edmund Spenser Edmund Spenser (; – 13 January 1599 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) was an English poet best known for ''The Faerie Queene'', an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the House of Tudor, Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is re ...

, Abraham Fraunce, and others as the "best for pastorall", but no pastorals of Gosson's are extant. He is said to have been an actor. After the publication of the ''Schoole of Abuse'', Gosson retired to the country, where he acted as tutor to the sons of a gentleman (''Plays Confuted''. "To the Reader," 1582).

Anthony à Wood Anthony Wood (17 December 1632 – 28 November 1695), who styled himself Anthony à Wood in his later writings, was an English antiquary. He was responsible for a celebrated ''Hist. and Antiq. of the Universitie of Oxon''. He meticulously rese ...

places this earlier and assigns the termination of his tutorship indirectly to his animosity against the stage, which apparently wearied his patron of his company. Gosson took holy orders, was made lecturer of the parish church at

Stepney Stepney is an area in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London. Stepney is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name was applied to ...

(1585), and was presented by Queen

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...

to the rectory of

Great Wigborough Great Wigborough is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Great and Little Wigborough in the Colchester borough of Essex, England. The place-name 'Wigborough' first appears in the ''Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Mi ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, which he exchanged in 1600 for St Botolph's, Bishopsgate.

Works

anti-theatrical Antitheatricality is any form of opposition or hostility to theater. Such opposition is as old as theater itself, suggesting a deep-seated ambivalence in human nature about the dramatic arts. Jonas Barish's 1981 book, ''The Antitheatrical Prejudic ...

writer, Gosson by his own confession wrote plays, for he speaks of ''Catiline's Conspiracies'' as a "Pig of mine own Sowe." Because of their moral standpoint, he excludes such plays as these from the general condemnation of stage plays in his ''Schoole of Abuse, containing a pleasant invective against Poets, Pipers, Plaiers, Jesters and such like Caterpillars of the Commonwealth'' (1579). The euphuistic style of this pamphlet and its ostentatious display of learning were in the taste of the time, and do not necessarily imply insincerity. Gosson justified his attack on the grounds of the disorder which the love of

melodrama A melodrama is a Drama, dramatic work in which plot, typically sensationalized for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodrama is "an exaggerated version of drama". Melodramas typically concentrate on ...

and of vulgar comedy was introducing into the social life of London.

, in his '' Teares of the Muses'' (1591), laments the same evils, if only in general terms. The tract was dedicated to

Sir Philip Sidney Sir Philip Sidney (30 November 1554 – 17 October 1586) was an English poet, courtier, scholar and soldier who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan age. His works include a sonnet sequence, '' Astrophil and ...

, who seems to have resented being connected with it. Edmund Spenser wrote to

Gabriel Harvey Gabriel Harvey (1545 – 11 February 1631) was an English writer. Harvey was a notable scholar, whose reputation suffered from his quarrel with Thomas Nashe. Henry Morley, writing in the ''Fortnightly Review'' (March 1869), has argued that Harve ...

(16 October 1579) of the dedication that the author "was for hys labor scorned." Gosson dedicated, however, a second tract, ''The Ephemerides of Phialo ... and A Short Apologie of the Schoole of Abuse'', to Sidney on 28 October 1579. Gosson's attack on poets seems to have had a large share in inducing Sidney to write his ''Apologie for Poetrie'', which probably dates from 1581. The publication of his polemic provoked many retorts, the most formidable of which was

Thomas Lodge Thomas Lodge (September 1625) was an English writer and medical practitioner whose life spanned the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. Biography Early life Thomas Lodge was born about 1557 in West Ham, the second son of Sir Thomas Lodge ...

's ''Defence of Playes'' (1580). The players themselves retaliated by reviving Gosson's own plays. Gosson replied to his various opponents in 1582 by his ''Playes Confuted in Five Actions'', dedicated to Sir

Francis Walsingham Sir Francis Walsingham ( – 6 April 1590) was principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I of England from 20 December 1573 until his death and is popularly remembered as her " spymaster". Born to a well-connected family of gentry, Wa ...

. ''Pleasant Quippes for Upstart New-fangled Gentlewomen'' (1595), a coarse satiric poem, is also ascribed to Gosson. The ''Schoole of Abuse'' and ''Apologie'' were edited (1868) by

Edward Arber Edward Arber (4 December 183623 November 1912) was an English scholar, writer, and editor. Background and professional work Arber was born in London. From 1854 he 1878 he worked as a clerk in the Admiralty, and began evening classes at Ki ...

in his ''English Reprints''. Two poems of Gosson's are included.

Notes

References

External links

*
The Schoole of Abuse
' by Stephen Gosson * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gosson, Stephen 1554 births 1624 deaths 16th-century English dramatists and playwrights English male dramatists and playwrights 16th-century English poets English male poets 16th-century English writers 16th-century English male writers 17th-century English dramatists and playwrights 17th-century English poets 17th-century English writers 17th-century English male writers Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford English satirists People from Canterbury