In this essay, Hibbard details what is known and what can be surmised of Nashe's efforts to make a living as a writer, suggesting that in Pierce Penilesse the author strove to capitalize on his status as a starving artist and not to produce a coherent satire. The critic concludes that the public response to Pierce Penilesse steered Nashe toward the kind of occasional writing that would characterize his career.

In this essay, Hutson provides the social and economic context for Nashe's writing. The critic finds in Nashe a transitional figure between new and old economies, comparing his work to that of Jonson, Herrick, and other contemporaries.

In this excerpt, McKerrow surveys the classical and contemporary works that most influenced Nashe's writing, particularly those of Pietro Aretino and François Rabelais. The critic argues that Nashe's borrowings often do not reflect a significant debt to earlier authors, suggesting that the author read widely but not deeply.

In the following excerpt from his study of literature and social stratification in Renaissance England, Holbrook analyzes the social symbolism of Nashe's Lenten Stuffe, with particular emphasis on themes of the outsider and the interplay between high and low social status.

In the essay below, Crewe contrasts Nashe's theatrical rhetoric with Puritan rhetorical standards, arguing that the language of excess in Nashe is an effective rhetorical strategy and not merely a lack of self-control. The critic primarily focuses on Nashe's earlier works, noting that in later works the author attempted to redeem his rhetoric from the dangers of theatrical duplicity or manipulation.

In this excerpt, Hilliard demonstrates Nashe's basic conservatism in his early works, including his involvement in the Marprelate controversy. Hilliard concludes, however, that the arguments of the Marprelate debate, as reflected in An Almond for a Parrat, planted the seeds for Nashe to become less orthodox in his later career.

In the following essay, Sulfridge analyzes the effect of Nashe's explicitly unconventional style on the reader, arguing that the text makes the reader a sort of victim of its alienating style.

In this essay, Kaula offers a thorough analysis of several aspects of Nashe's style and suggests that Nashe's self-conscious use of literary technique provides a unity many critics find lacking in his works.

In the following essay, Nicholl characterizes the career of Thomas Nashe as that of a tabloid journalist: topical, sensational, and highly temporal. The critic suggests that Nashe's forays into urban grittiness were not attempts to highlight or change social problems, but rather opportunities for laughter and immediate experience.

In the following essay, Duncan-Jones examines Nashe's relationship to Sir George Carey and Lady Carey in order to demonstrate the extreme poverty and legal difficulties Nashe experienced in his career. A letter from Carey to his wife demonstrates Nashe's debt to the Careys and the danger that his enemy Gabriel Harvey genuinely posed to him.

In the following excerpt from his study of Elizabethan fiction, Barbour examines Nashe's concept of prose, with particular attention to his The Terrors of the Night.

In this excerpt, Holbrook discusses how Nashe navigated high and low social and rhetorical positions in Pierce Penilesse. The critic argues that although Nashe was adept at using low and popular voices in his writing, his social viewpoint does not generally reflect a truly populist position.

In the following essay, the critics suggest that Nashe manipulates the reader through the use of specific narrative strategies and thereby implicates the reader in the violence of the text.

In this essay, McGinn reports on contemporary and later responses to Nashe's work, including his reputation as an anti-Martinist pamphleteer. The critic asserts that Nashe's work has been misunderstood and underrated in modern times because scholars have failed to recognize the aims of his writing. McGinn suggests that Nashe is better appreciated as a journalist or satirist whose writing was for the moment rather than for posterity.

In this excerpt, Lewis characterizes Nashe as one of the greatest prose humorists and pamphleteers of his time. The critic writes that Nashe was highly original and uniquely able to use coarse and grotesque language to his rhetorical advantage, comparing him to both Picasso and James Thurber in his mastery of dark and violent imagery, used primarily to comic effect.