George Gascoigne was an important poet in the early Elizabethan era (1588 – 1608). Born in Bedfordshire around 1539, George Gascoigne was the son of a farmer. He didn’t do well with his father’s profession – he tanked the farm and was imprisoned for debt. He apparently didn’t have the best relationship with his family. His father disinherited him, his mother stole his sheep, and his brother sued him on several occasions.
After landing himself in debtors prison, he got out by serving a while in the army in the Netherlands. He served under an apparently not-so-talkative commander named “William the Silent.” He would later write the satyr steel glas about the senselessness of war.
He returned to England, worked on getting his collected works published, got censored, revised his works, got accused of treason, got acquitted of treason, and just when his fortune was finally turning for the better – caught an illness that killed him.
