Background
Gosson was baptized at St George's church, Canterbury, on 17 April 1554.
Gosson was baptized at St George's church, Canterbury, on 17 April 1554.
Stephen Gosson attended Oxford.
In 1579 Gosson turned against the stage in The Schoole of Abuse, an attack on the demoralizing effects of poetry and the social evils fostered by the new theaters, which he dedicated without authorization to Sir Philip Sidney. The pamphlet caused a lively controversy; Sidney probably composed his Defence of Poesie to refute its charges against poetry, and Thomas Lodge wrote a reply defending the drama.
In 1584 he was ordained and devoted the remainder of his life to the church.
