Unfortunate Traveller, The, or The Life of Jacke Wilton
Unfortunate Traveller, The, or The Life of Jacke Wilton,a prose tale of adventure by T. Nashe , published 1594 , the earliest picaresque romance in English, and the most remarkable work of the kind before Defoe . It is dedicated to the earl of Southampton.
Jack Wilton is ‘a certain kind of an appendix or page’ attending on the court of Henry VIII at the time of the siege of Tournay. He lives by his wits, playing tricks on a niggardly old victualler and other gullible occupants of the camp, and gets whipped for his pains. He goes to Münster, which the Anabaptists are holding against the emperor, and sees John of Leyden hanged. The earl of Surrey, the lover of the Fair Geraldine, takes him to Italy as his page. During their travels they meet Erasmus, Sir Thomas More, Cornelius Agrippa, and Aretino. They hear Luther disputing at Wittenberg. Wilton passes himself off as the earl of Surrey and runs away with an Italian...
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