SOURCE: Oldfield, Genevieve Ambrose. “New Light on the Life of George Gascoigne.” The Review of English Studies 13, no. 50 (April 1937): 129-38.

In the following essay, Oldfield focuses on Gascoigne's marriage and apparent disinheritance and how these events are reflected in the poet's writings.

Although many facts in the life of the Elizabethan poet George Gascoigne are obscured by the lapse of time and disputed by his biographers, it is my intention to consider now only two of these matters, i.e. (1) the so-called “disinheritance theory,” which presupposes that Gascoigne was legally disinherited before his father's death; and (2) the poet's marriage, which long has been enshrouded in mystery and which still presents its baffling points.

First of all, in considering the disinheritance theory, the poet's own words should have some weight in the matter, though, unsupported by other proof, they would avail but little. However, it is as well at...