| Birth: | 1545 | | Death: | Feb. 11, 1631 | 
Author. A respected Latin scholar in his day, he influenced early Elizabethan Literature by urging a stylistic return to the Roman classics. He was a friend of Edmund Spenser, who portrayed him as Hobbinol in his famous poem "The Shepheardes Calender" (1579). But he is remembered today, unflatteringly, for his literary feud with writer Thomas Nashe. Harvey was born in Saffron Walden, Essex, England. He studied at Cambridge, became professor of rhetoric there in 1574, and was given a fellowship at Trinity Hall in 1578. He applied for higher positions in the university but his quarrelsome nature caused him to be passed over time and again. In the early 1590's he fell afoul of the University Wits, a group of dissolute, Cambridge-educated writers who were making names for themselves in London. Chief among them was Robert Greene. When Greene died impoverished in 1592, Harvey published a spiteful pamphlet, "Foure Letters" (1592), in which he crowed over the author's demise from "a banquet of pickled herring and Rhenish wine". Thomas Nashe rushed to avenge Greene's memory, condemning Harvey in his prose work "Strange Newes" (1593), and the war of words began. For five years the two men attacked each other (and greatly amused London's reading public) with scurrilous pamphlets; Harvey's include "New Letter of Notable Contents" (1593) and "The Trimming of Thomas Nashe" (1597). Nashe, however, was by far the superior talent and his anti-Harvey invective contains some of the most brilliant satirical writing of the period, especially in "Have with you to Saffron Walden" (1596). That title, which can be read as "Go back to where you came from", proved prophetic. In 1599 London's Archbishop Whitgift put an end to the feud by banning all of Harvey's and Nashe's books, effectively killing both their careers. Nashe was dead within two years and Harvey retired to Saffron Walden, where he spent the rest of his long life in quiet bitterness. His Complete Works were edited in three volumes by Dr. A. B. Grosart (1884 and 1885). (bio by: Bobb Edwards)
Search Amazon for Gabriel Harvey | | | Burial:
Walden Abbey
Saffron Walden
Essex, England |
Maintained by: Find A Grave
Originally Created by: Bobb Edwards
Record added: Apr 18, 2005
Find A Grave Memorial# 10806250 |
|
|
|
|
(4.7 after 11 votes)
