{{short description|16th/17th-century English playwright}}
'''William Gager''' (1555–1622) was an English jurist, now known for his Latin dramas. William Gager was the son of Gilbert Gager and Thomasina Cordell Gager.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Brooke|first=C. F. Tucker|date=1951|title=The Life and Times of William Gager (1555-1622)|journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society|volume=95|issue=4|pages=401–431|issn=0003-049X|jstor=3143282}}</ref> He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford.<ref>''Concise Dictionary of National Biography''</ref> thumb|Christ Church dining hall, where Gager's plays were performed. His works were produced at the University of Oxford, from 1582 to 1592.<ref name="Kinney">Arthur F. Kinney, ''A Companion to Renaissance Drama'' (2002), p. 263.</ref> He was considered one of the major dramatists of the late sixteenth century. Apart from one comedy, ''Rivales'' (1582), which has not survived, his works were all Latin tragedies.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bartleby.com/216/1210.html|title = §10. Gager's "Meleager" and "Dido". XII. University Plays. Vol. 6. The Drama to 1642, Part Two. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. 1907–21| date=26 June 2022 }}</ref> They include ''Oedipus'' (1582), ''Meleager'' (1582), ''Dido'' (1583) and ''Ulysses Redux'' (1592).<ref name="Kinney" /> He stayed closer to the model of Senecan tragedy than other contemporaries, and adapted Seneca's ''Hippolytus'' in 1592, with the addition of scenes.<ref>H. B. Charlton, ''The Senecan Tradition in Renaissance Tragedy'' (1946), p. 61.</ref> He was also a Neo-Latin poet.<ref>[http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/gager/poetry/intro.html Online texts]</ref>
Gager is mentioned alongside Shakespeare in Francis Meres' ''Palladis Tamia or Wits Treasury'' in the section 'A Comparative discourse of our English poets, with the Greeks, Latine and Italian Poets': "''The best Poets for Comedy among the Greeks are these, Menander, Aristophanes, Eupolis Atheniensis, Alexis Terius, Nicostratus, Amipsias Atheniensis, Anaxedrides, Rhodius, Aristonymus, Archippus Atheniensis and Callias Atheniensis; and among the Latines, Plautus, Terence, Naeuius, Sext. Turpilius, Licinius Imbrex, and Virgilius Romanus: so the best for Comedy amongst us bee, Edward Earle of Oxforde, '''Doctor Gager of Oxforde''', Maister Rowley once a rare Scholler of learned Pembrooke Hall in Cambridge, Maister Edwardes one of her Majesties Chappell, eloquent and wittie John Lilly, Lodge, Gascoyne, Greene, Shakespeare, Thomas Nash, Thomas Heywood, Anthony Mundye our best plotter, Chapman, Porter, Wilson, Hathway, and Henry Chettle."''
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.thefreelibrary.com/William+Gager:+The+Complete+Works.-a018557543 Review of ''William Gager: The Complete Works''] *[http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/gager/ Hypertext edition of The Complete Works]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gager, William}} Category:1555 births Category:1622 deaths Category:English Renaissance dramatists Category:16th-century English writers Category:16th-century English male writers Category:17th-century English writers Category:17th-century English male writers Category:People educated at Westminster School, London Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Category:16th-century English dramatists and playwrights Category:English male dramatists and playwrights Category:16th-century writers in Latin Category:17th-century writers in Latin Category:Neo-Latin poets