Gabriel Harvey

Background

Gabriel Harvey was born in 1550 in United Kingdom.

Education

Harvey received his early education at the town's grammar school, and matriculated at Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1566. In 1570 he was elected fellow of Pembroke Hall. Here he formed a friendship with Edmund Spenser, who may have been his pupil.

Career

He became reader in rhetoric in about 1576, and in 1578, on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth's visit to Sir Thomas Smith at Audley End House, he was appointed to dispute publicly before her.

In 1583 he became junior proctor of Cambridge University, and in 1585 was elected master of Trinity Hall, of which he had been a fellow from 1578, but the appointment appears to have been quashed at court.

In 1585 he received the degree of Doctor of Civil Law from the University of Oxford, and is found practising at the bar in London.

Harvey was also a wordsmith and has been credited with the coining or first use of the word "jovial", as well as the words "conscious", "extensively", "idiom", "notoriety" and "rascality".

Personality

Harvey influenced Spenser greatly for a short time, and the friendship lasted. Harvey's genuine friendship for Spenser shows the best side of his character, which appeared uncompromising and quarrelsome to the world in general.

Quotes from others about the person

• Henry Morley: "Harvey's Latin works demonstrate that he was distinguished by qualities very different from the pedantry and conceit usually associated with his name."

Connections

Father:

John Harvey

John Harvey (d.1593) was a yeoman farmer and master ropemaker from Saffron Walden, Essex, United Kingdom.

Mother:

Alice

Brother:

Richard

Brother:

John

(d. July 1592)

Sister:

Mercy

enemy:

Thomas Nashe

Thomas Nashe was an Elizabethan playwright, poet, satirist and a significant pamphleteer. He is known for his novel The Unfortunate Traveller, his pamphlets including Pierce Penniless, and his numerous defences of the Church of England.

Friend:

Edmund Spenser