ABSTRACT
Thomas Nashe was born in Lowestoft, attended St John's College, Cambridge, where, as 'a little ape', he says, he thought Lyly's Euphues was the last word; but he entered London literary society in 1588, and by 1592 had learned to scorn Euphuism, seeking his own mode of expression. His career was a stormy one since many of his writings were polemic or satirical in tone. Nashe denies, in his introductory address to readers of the second edition of his Christs Teares over Jerusalem, that this has any connection with any English university man save perhaps Harvey, and discuss the accusations which levelled against his own style in that work. That defence forms the first excerpt. The second excerpt is descriptive style in The Unfortunate Traveller, where he relates picaresque adventures of one Jack Wilton, an adventurer living on his wits. The passage forms part of his account of the seductive luxury of life among the wealthy inhabitants of contemporary Rome.
