George Peele

George Peele (c. 1556–1596) was an English Elizabethan dramatist and poet, often linked with the group known as the University Wits. He was educated at Oxford, where he produced academic entertainments, and later worked in London writing for the commercial stage and for civic pageantry. Peele is known for plays such as *The Arraignment of Paris* and *The Old Wives’ Tale*, and for his contributions to public spectacles, including the Lord Mayor’s shows. His writing is noted for rhetorical flourish and lyrical passages, and he helped shape the development of early English drama in the years before Shakespeare’s dominance.