SOURCE: Maveety, Stanley R. “Versification in The Steele Glas.” Studies in Philology 60, no. 2 (April 1963): 166-73.

In the essay that follows, Maveety examines the structure and meter of The Steele Glas, contending that the structure was heavily influenced by the fourteenth-century poem Piers Plowman.

In 1576 George Gascoigne wrote a poem of about 1200 lines called The Steele Glas. The “trusty” steel glass or mirror is the poet's device in which he sees an unflattering reflection of his own society. Occupational types from kings on down are seen as a rather shabby lot. Pride, greed, and dishonesty are everywhere, and as Gascoigne looks in the glass he speaks directly to some of the offenders in vigorous and often colloquial language. His remedy for society as a whole can be stated quite simply: if each man would perform his duties humbly and honestly, the world would be better off.

Although the poem...