Gosson, Stephen

, a divine and poet, was born in Kent in 1554, and was admitted scholar of Christ-church, Oxford, in April 1572, but left the university without completing his degrees, and came to London, where he commenced poet, and wrote some dramatic pieces which were never published. He then retired into the country, as tutor to a gentleman’s sons, and became by some means a bitter enemy to the drama and all its concerns. This occasioned some dispute with the father of his pupils, whose service he therefore quitted, and took orders. His first promotion, was to the living of Great Wigborow, in Essex; and his next in 1600, the rectory of St.Botolph, Bishopsgate-street, where he died Feb. 13, 1623. He was a contemporary of Spenser and sir Philip Sidney, whom he imitated, and was thought to have excelled in pastoral poetry. His unpublished plays were, 1. “Cataline’s Conspiracies.” 2. “The Comedy of Captain Mario;” and the “Praise at parting.” In opposition to theatrical amusements he wrote, “Play confuted in five several actions,” 1580, and “The School of Abuse,” 1587 the latter a professed invective against poets, players, and jesters, but with much good sense and good temper. He wrote also the “Ephemerides of Phialo,” 1579, and a sermon entitled “The Trumpet of War.” ²