George Gascoigne’s “Patched Cote”: Writing Pedagogy and Poetic Style in the Literature Classroom

Abstract

This essay situates George Gascoigne’s literary career against humanist commentary on a stylistic error, “patchwork writing,” that emblematizes broader concerns about imitation, originality, transgression, and novelty. It argues that Gascoigne advocated a composition pedagogy rooted in choice, lenience, and attentiveness—and that studying his work can productively revitalize the writing pedagogy of the modern literature classroom. At the turbulent start to Gascoigne’s career, he was forced to patch over his poetry in response to charges of indecorousness. Despite his performative repentance, he would also betray resentment about how such discipline would stifle his creativity. He depicts this stifling in The Glasse of Governement (1575), a closet drama depicting a pair of prodigal sons failing to do their “tedious” homework and ultimately being executed by the state. Reading this tragic outcome against Gascoigne’s poetic principles, as articulated in his verses and in his guidebook, “Certayne Notes of Instruction,” reveals the text critiquing how rigid forms of composition pedagogy reflect political moribundity. The essay concludes by taking up Rebecca Moore Howard’s defense of students’ “patchwriting” as a first step toward reconsidering how a pedagogy rooted in choice might more centrally inform the role of writing in the early modern literature classroom. [A.N.D.]