Pasquill Cavaliero
Encyclopedia
Pasquill Cavaliero is the name adopted by a pseudonym
ous defender of the Anglican hierarchy in a 1589 English political and theological controversy. The controversy is known to historians of Early Modern England as the "Martin Marprelate episode" after "Martin Marprelate
", the nom de plume
adopted by a Puritan
critic of the Anglican establishment. Pasquill authored and published three tracts responding to Martin, all of them in 1589:
Traditionally the three tracts have been attributed to Thomas Nashe
, although there has also been speculation that Anthony Munday
, like Nashe apparently active as an anti-Martinist agent, might have written them. This attribution has not received much support, and even though Roland McKerrow included the tracts in his definitive Collected Works of Thomas Nashe, he conceded not only that "external evidence of Nashe's authorship...is of the vaguest" but that "against the attribution, there is internal evidence which seems to me to be of far more weight than the external evidence for it." Notwithstanding these remarks by McKerrow, the leading Nashe scholar of the early 20th century, as of 2010 ostensibly authoritative reference sources such as Early English Books Online and the Short Title Catalog still attribute the works to Nashe.
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
ous defender of the Anglican hierarchy in a 1589 English political and theological controversy. The controversy is known to historians of Early Modern England as the "Martin Marprelate episode" after "Martin Marprelate
Martin Marprelate
Martin Marprelate was the name used by the anonymous author or authors of the seven Marprelate tracts which circulated illegally in England in the years 1588 and 1589...
", the nom de plume
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
adopted by a Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
critic of the Anglican establishment. Pasquill authored and published three tracts responding to Martin, all of them in 1589:
- A Countercuffe Given to Martin Junior (1600 words), dated Aug 6 or 8, 1589 "from Gravesend Barge" – a customary point of departure from London to the Continent or Mediterranean
- Pasquil's Return (9600 words) with a postscript "from London Stone" dated Oct 20, 1589
- The First Part of Pasquill's Apology (8300 words), dated July 2, 1590
Traditionally the three tracts have been attributed to Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe was an English Elizabethan pamphleteer, playwright, poet and satirist. He was the son of the minister William Nashe and his wife Margaret .-Early life:...
, although there has also been speculation that Anthony Munday
Anthony Munday
Anthony Munday was an English dramatist and miscellaneous writer. The chief interest in Munday for the modern reader lies in his collaboration with Shakespeare and others on the play Sir Thomas More and his writings on Robin Hood.-Biography:He was once thought to have been born in 1553, because...
, like Nashe apparently active as an anti-Martinist agent, might have written them. This attribution has not received much support, and even though Roland McKerrow included the tracts in his definitive Collected Works of Thomas Nashe, he conceded not only that "external evidence of Nashe's authorship...is of the vaguest" but that "against the attribution, there is internal evidence which seems to me to be of far more weight than the external evidence for it." Notwithstanding these remarks by McKerrow, the leading Nashe scholar of the early 20th century, as of 2010 ostensibly authoritative reference sources such as Early English Books Online and the Short Title Catalog still attribute the works to Nashe.