The Unfortunate Traveller and Other Works

Thomas Nashe

jun. de 2006 · Penguin UK

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Written in the late sixteenth century, at the pinnacle of the English Renaissance, the rich and ingenious works of Thomas Nashe uniquely reveal the ambivant nature of the Elizabethan era. Mingling the devout and the bawdy, scholarship and slang, they express throughout an irrepressible, inexhaustible wit and an astonishing command of language. This collection of Nashe's finest works includes The Unfortunate Traveller, the sharp and grotesque tale of Jack Wilton, an Englishman travelling through Europe; Pierce Penniless, a biting satire on the society of his age; Terrors of the Night; Lenten Stuff; the sensual poem The Choice of Valentines; and extracts from Christ's Tears over Jerusalem and other works. Wide-ranging in subject, all capture the unique voice and fantastic ingenuity of one of the most entertaining Elizabethan writers - a man regarded by his contemporaries as the 'English Juvenal'.

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Thomas Nashe arrived in London from Cambridge in 1588, the year of the Armada. Known as a member of the group of "University Wits," he went on to turn his lively and prolific energy to a number of literary endeavors. He began his career with an attack on recent efforts and soon joined in the controversial Marprelate polemic, writing against the Puritans. Other satires followed, but Nashe's most engaging work is the picaresque relation of the adventures of Jack Wilton in The Unfortunate Traveller (1594). The hero's journey through Reformation Europe provides Nashe with many an opportunity for his dark and irreverent sarcasm; themes of violence, disease, and erotic corruption combine to deliver what is perhaps the period's finest parody of both literary and religious institutions. Nashe also wrote for the stage and was among the people sent to the Fleet prison for his role in the Isle of Dogs controversy. Nashe died in poverty at the age of 33.