Gabriel Harvey
Gabriel Harvey was an influential English scholar and writer who emerged from humble beginnings as the son of a rope-maker in Essex. He pursued higher education at Cambridge University, where he earned his bachelor's degree from Christ's College and later completed his M.A. at Pembroke Hall. During his time at Cambridge, Harvey formed a notable friendship with the poet Edmund Spenser, whose work displays Harvey's influence. Harvey's academic career progressed as he became a fellow at Pembroke Hall, a professor of rhetoric, and later the master of Trinity Hall. His scholarly contributions were marred by controversy when a private letter criticizing the Earl of Oxford was published, leading to a series of satirical verses that were also circulated without his consent. Despite the backlash, Harvey continued to be a significant figure in literary circles until the later years of his life, which he spent in retirement in his hometown. His legacy reflects the complex interplay of academic achievement and personal rivalry in the landscape of Elizabethan literature.
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Subject Terms
Gabriel Harvey
Writer
- Born: c. 1550
- Birthplace: Saffron-Walden, near Cambridge, England
- Died: February 11, 1631
- Place of death: Saffron-Walden, England
Biography
Gabriel Harvey was the oldest child of an Essex rope-maker who would become a reputed scholar and writer in adulthood. He attended Christ’s College at Cambridge for his bachelor’s degree from 1566 to 1570, and completed his M.A. at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, in 1573. It was during these years that Harvey built a friendship with Edmund Spenser, some of whose work bears Harvey’s influence. Harvey was elected Pembroke Hall fellow in 1570, and he accepted a position as professor of rhetoric at Cambridge in 1574 and as fellow of Trinity Hall in 1578. After becoming junior proctor of Cambridge University in 1583, Harvey was elected master of Trinity Hall in 1585, the same year he earned a doctorate in civil law from the University of Oxford.
Controversy found the scholar in 1579, when a private letter from Harvey to his friend Spenser was published. In this letter, Harvey attacked the Earl of Oxford in verse. Harvey and the earl had evidently had a more cordial relationship in years past. Harvey wrote a number of satirical verses about individuals in high standing, some of which were published without his consent, and when Archbishop Whitgift lashed out at the genre of satire in 1599, many of Harvey’s writings were destroyed, with an order that they not be reprinted. Harvey spent the last years of his life in retirement, in his native community.