I believe Gascoigne also had a more general influence on Spenser in
regard to his blending of poetic influences both Italian and English.
For example, Gascoigne knew Chaucer in great detail, as is evident from
the vast number of references which permeate his work, and which are
identified in Mac Pigman's edition of A Hundreth Sundrie Flowres/Posies.
His verse also shows evidence of his knowledge of Langland and Skelton,
and he wrote in a consciously medievalist style for Lord Grey, who
favoured the Ricardian poets. Spenser would have been well aware of
Gascoigne's "medievalising" experiments, which presumably then
influenced his own ...
Gascoigne's role as an "early adopter" of influences such as the Cingue
Canti, importing ideas from the Italian, extends beyond Ariosto and
Dolce. Gascoigne had his own copy of Petrarch, Il Petrarcha con la
spositione di M. Giovanni Andrea Gesualdo. Prouty's 1942 biography says
the book was in the private collection of Mr Leon Mandel of Chicago,
although I believe it is now in a library somewhere in the US. I haven't
seen it, but it has Gascoigne's signature on the frontispiece and
apparently little if any annotation, sadly. (If anyone has seen it, I'd
be grateful for more information!) Gascoigne knew Petrarch well enough
to extemporise in a petrarchan vein in The Griefe of Joye, as well as in
several of the shorter poems in A Hundreth Sundrie Flowres.
Gillian
On 24/09/2010 22:41, James C. Nohrnberg wrote:
> Gascoigne had enough learning to translate Ariosto's tale of Sospetto --
> in the Cinque Canti -- in/into his Adventures of Master F.J., and
> Spenser had enough Gascoigne to translate F.J.'s resulting Elenor into
> FQ III's Hellenore, wife of the suspicious Malbecco. -- jcn
>
> On Fri, 24 Sep 2010 22:10:41 +0100
> Gillian Austen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> I don't know whether he owned the books, but Spenser was certainly an
>> admirer of George Gascoigne's work. Gascoigne was very briefly the
>> most influential writer in England, from about 1575 to 1579, when
>> Spenser's publication of the Shepheardes Calender made Gascoigne's
>> innovations instantly old-fashioned. Spenser includes one of the
>> better known tributes to Gascoigne: in the commentary on the November
>> eclogues, E.K. tacitly compares Gascoigne to Ovid and Chaucer, as
>> poets who have written on Philomela:
>>
>> "Ma[ster] George Gaskin a wittie gentleman, and the very chefe of our
>> late rymers, who and if some partes of learning wanted not (albee it
>> is well knowen he altogyther wanted not learning) no doubt would have
>> attayned to the excellence of those famous Poets. For gifts of wit and
>> naturall promptnesse appeare in hym aboundantly."
>>
>> This is the highest literary praise possible: in 1579, Ovid and
>> Chaucer were the ancient and the modern poetic forefathers, and E.K.
>> says Gascoigne might have “atteyned to [their] excellence”.
>> Admittedly, it also flags up Gascoigne's personal shortcomings – the
>> lack of “some partes of learning” which held him back. In the same
>> way, Gabriel Harvey - although he publicly praised Gascoigne for his
>> literary achievements - expressed a great deal of personal criticism
>> privately, on his copy of the Posies. Of all the writers who commented
>> posthumously on Gascoigne, Harvey and Spenser are most likely to have
>> known him personally.
>>
>> Elizabeth Heale wrote a fine paper on Spenser and Gascoigne which is
>> being published in the forthcoming collection of New Essays on George
>> Gascoigne.
>>
>> It's also worth noting Gascoigne's long-term connection with Spenser's
>> patron-to-be, Lord Grey, the dedicatee of the highly innovative Steele
>> Glas/Complaynte of Phylomene, among other works. It's reasonable to
>> conclude that Spenser certainly knew, and may have owned, some of
>> Gascoigne's books.
>>
>> Gillian
>>
>> On 24/09/2010 18:08, Kenneth Gross wrote:
>>> in re: Nicholas Canny caused quite a stir in Cambridge in 2001 when (in
>>> conversation with Spenserians) he denied Spenser could have had many
>>> books
>>> at Kilcolman, because in perilous circumstances.
>>>
>>> just a speculation: he might not have had many books, but he might well
>>> have had at least the commonplace book or books into which he'd been
>>> copying
>>> things from years of past reading, to aid his undoubtedly capacious
>>> memory.
>>> That might have been a strange library of quotations in itself.
>>>
>>> KG
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Sep 24, 2010 at 12:59 PM, Herron, Thomas<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hello -- yes, see DSWO's published paper on the subject "Did Spenser
>>>> Read
>>>> Tasso?" and also Raymond Gillespie for the Bristol book trade with
>>>> Munster
>>>> that David mentions (and cf. Gillespie and Hadfield's volume on the
>>>> history
>>>> of the Irish book). For a couple of old Catholic books associated with
>>>> Raleigh in his house in Youghal (found in a wall), see discussion in
>>>> Sir
>>>> John Pope Hennessy, *Sir Walter Raleigh in Ireland* (1883).
>>>>
>>>> Thomas Harriot also in Ireland in the late 1580s/early 1590s, living at
>>>> Molanna, Co. Waterford, and I can't imagine him going anywhere
>>>> without a
>>>> library of some kind.
>>>>
>>>> For discussion of library catalogs of collections of the earls of
>>>> Desmond
>>>> and Kildare, see the opening chapter (on renaissance influence in
>>>> Ireland)
>>>> in Sidwell and Harris (eds), *Making Ireland Roman* (Cork UP 2009).
>>>> This
>>>> book should interest Lee Piepho and other neo-latinists esp.
>>>>
>>>> Nicholas Canny caused quite a stir in Cambridge in 2001 when (in
>>>> conversation with Spenserians) he denied Spenser could have had many
>>>> books
>>>> at Kilcolman, because in perilous circumstances. But I don't think that
>>>> should be the final word on the subject. NB Spenser was interlinked
>>>> with
>>>> Dublin until at least 1586, and probably later: he may not have
>>>> formally
>>>> moved in to Kilcolman until the late 1580s, and FQ I-III (at least)
>>>> perhaps
>>>> mostly written by then. Also, Cork and Youghal and Kilmallock and
>>>> Limerick,
>>>> all towns, were not far away from Kilcolman; even closer was Mallow,
>>>> home of
>>>> the Norrises, which was not sacked in 1598. As Andrew K. rightly points
>>>> out, monastic life still a real and shadowy presence in Munster in
>>>> the late
>>>> 16th century, incl wandering friars (pesky Archimago).
>>>>
>>>> Sincerely, Thomas
>>>> ________________________________________
>>>> From: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List [[log in to unmask]] On
>>>> Behalf Of David Wilson-Okamura [[log in to unmask]]
>>>> Sent: Friday, September 24, 2010 9:39 AM
>>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>>> Subject: Re: Spenser's libraries?
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, Sep 24, 2010 at 7:56 AM, Hannibal Hamlin
>>>> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>>> the libraries
>>>>> available to Spenser, especially at Cambridge. As I recall, these have
>>>> been
>>>>> catalogued and studied.
>>>>
>>>> Kaske organized a session about this at the Cambridge Spenser
>>>> conference in 2000. Adams's catalogue of the Cambridge libraries lists
>>>> books that were available _when he conducted the census_. But many of
>>>> these were acquired in the sixteenth century. I.e., "being in Adams"
>>>> does not equal "available to Spenser." A catalogue of Roffie's library
>>>> would be a good idea if there isn't one already. What I puzzle over
>>>> are the books that Spenser had (or could borrow) in Ireland. What was
>>>> in L. Bryskett's library? Or Barnabe Googe's? There was a book trade
>>>> with Bristol, but it was mostly textbooks. And yet, somehow, Spenser
>>>> found an authorized text of Tasso, and absorbed it while he was there.
>>>> So someone was bringing in new, Continental works of literature.
>>>> Bryskett is my best guess, but that's as far as I've gotten.
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Dr. David Wilson-Okamura http://virgil.org [log in to unmask]
>>>> English Department Virgil reception, discussion, documents,&c
>>>> East Carolina University Sparsa et neglecta coegi. -- Claude Fauchet
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>
> [log in to unmask]
> James Nohrnberg
> Dept. of English, Bryan Hall 219
> Univ. of Virginia
> P.O Box 400121
> Charlottesville, VA 22904-4121
>
>
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