Thomas Nashe

Abstract

Thomas Nashe was born in Lowestoft, the son of a curate. He was educated at St John’s College, Cambridge, travelled in France and Italy, and in 1588 settled in London as a writer. His first publication, a preface to Robert Greene’s Menaphon, was an attack on the writings of his contemporaries. He probably wrote one or more of the anti-Puritan attacks on the Marprelate tracts. He became involved in prolonged literary battles, the best product of which is Pierce Penniless his supplication to the devil. His prose ranges from the pious Christ’s Tears over Jerusalem to his violent picaresque masterpiece, The Unfortunate Traveller; his Ovidian romance, The Choice of Valentines, is a witty and obscene poem. He collaborated in a controversial play, The Isle of Dogs, which was suppressed and is now lost.