Few biographical details are known about Thomas Nashe. Born in Lowestoft, Suffolk to Margaret and William Nashe, who was a clergyman, he was baptised in November 1567, and was probably educated at home by his father before matriculating at St. John’s College, Cambridge in October 1582. He graduated with a BA in March 1586, and then went to London to live by his pen; he is sometimes referred to in literary criticism as a “university wit”, that is, one of a London-based group of writers educated at Oxford or Cambridge that includes Robert Greene and Christopher Marlowe. Nashe would later make approving references to the intellectual vigour of St. John’s College, describing it in his preface to Greene’s
Menaphon(1589), for example, as “that most famous and fortunate Nurse of all…
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Citation: Ord, Melanie. "Thomas Nashe". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 January 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3304, accessed 25 November 2024.]
