George Gascoigne — a remark

From the V2Melody quotations library — share the card, then explore the poet and poems below.

“The first and most necessary point that ever I found meet to be considered in making of a delectable poem is this, to ground it upon some fine invention. For it is not enough to roll in pleasant words, nor yet to thunder in rim, ram, ruff by letter, unless the invention have in it also aliquid salis.”

Insisting that genuine invention must underlie mere verbal skill or alliteration · Essay, Certayne Notes of Instruction Concerning the Making of Verse or Ryme in English

About George Gascoigne

George Gascoigne

c. 1539–7 October 1577

George Gascoigne, born about 1539 and dead on 7 October 1577, was one of the most adventurous and consequential writers of early Elizabethan England. Poet, translator, dramatist, critic, court entertainer, soldier, traveler, and sometime political aspirant, he lived with the instability and appetite that his writing…

More by George Gascoigne

Poems by George Gascoigne

All poems by this poet

More remarks by George Gascoigne

All remarks by this poet

Poet page · All remarks · Quotations hub

Skip to main content