Thomas Nashe: Balladeer

Sixteenth-century pamphleteer, playwright, and poet Thomas Nashe captured his own biting wit and quick-temper in his scathing pamphlets that fired relentless attacks at his arch-enemy Gabriel Harvey (Nicholl 2). Hidden amongst jibes and insults aimed at his nemesis are details of Nashe’s close relationship with printer-publisher John Danter, the Danter family and their print shop. These anecdotal and emotional responses will be set alongside archival evidence of Nashe and Danter’s working relationship, and it is from viewing their relationship through this combined lens that it becomes necessary to offer Nashe as a probable writer of many of Danter’s printed ballads. In lieu of extant proof, I will bring together circumstantial evidence which, when viewed as a whole, suggests that ‘balladeer’ ought to be added to Nashe’s list of authorship roles.