Gosson, Stephen (c. 1554-1624)

English playwright, satirist, and clergyman. Moved by a sermon preached in London during an outbreak of the plague, he abandoned the theatre and became one of its severest critics in his prose satire The School of Abuse (1579). It is written in euphuistic style (see euphuism) and was dedicated to Philip Sidney, who did not receive it well; it is believed to have evoked his Apology for Poetry (1595). Gosson took orders in 1584 and died rector of St Botolph's, London.