Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gosynhyll, Edward
GOSYNHYLL, EDWARD (fl. 1560), poet, was author of the ‘Scole House of Women,’ a satirical and humorous attack upon women. The poem, in seven-line stanzas, first appeared without any author's name in 1541 (London, by Thomas Petyt); the colophon gives a wrong date, 1561. A reply by Robert Vaughan or Vaghne, entitled ‘A Dyalogue Defensive,’ was issued in 1542, and in 1560 Edward More of Hambledon also replied to Gosynhyll in ‘The Defence of Women,’ 1560, 4to. But Gosynhyll himself recanted earlier. About 1542 William Myddylton brought out his ‘Prayse of all Women called Mulierum Pean,’ London, n.d., a poem in the same metre as the ‘Scole House,’ in which Gosynhyll claimed the authorship of that diatribe, and sought to make amends for his lack of chivalry. In 1557 John Kynge obtained a license from the Stationers' Company for a reprint of the ‘Scole House,’ and this appeared in 1560. An undated reprint of ‘The Prayse of all Women’ was also issued by Kynge about the same time. A third edition of the ‘Scole House’ was published by Edward Allde in 1572, and this edition E. V. Utterson reprinted in his ‘Early Popular Poetry,’ 1817, ii. 51–93. John Kynge was likewise the publisher about 1560 of ‘A Dialogue [in verse] bytwene the Commune Secrætary and Jealousye, touchynge the unstableness of Harlottes.’ J. P. Collier, when reprinting twenty-five copies about 1842, showed good grounds for attributing this poem to Gosynhyll.
[Corser's Collectanea; Collier's reprint of A Dialogue; Collier's Bibl. Cat. i. 324–6; Collier's Stationers' Reg. (Shakesp. Soc.), i. 3; Utterson's Select Pieces, ii. 51–93.]