Gascoigne, << GAS koyn, >> George (1525?-1577), was an Elizabethan author who pioneered in many literary forms. His best-known play, Supposes (1566), was based on I Suppositi (1509) by Ludovico Ariosto, and was the first English adaptation of Italian comedy. Supposes was also the first English prose comedy, and brought the classical comedy of romance, disguise, and mistaken identity to English drama. Shakespeare used Supposes in the plot of The Taming of the Shrew. Gascoigne’s poems influenced the work of Edmund Spenser.
Gascoigne’s The Adventures of Master F. J. (1573) was one of the forerunners of the novel. He also produced courtly entertainments. The most ambitious was The Princely Pleasures at Kenilworth Castle, with texts by Gascoigne and others. It was performed before Queen Elizabeth I in 1575. Gascoigne was born in Bedfordshire. He died on Oct. 7, 1577.
