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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
The first of the “Two other very commendable letters” in the correspondence between Spenser and Harvey has been reprinted in every complete edition of the poet's works since it was first printed by Hughes in 1715 and has been frequently cited by scholars during the past century, either because of the general light which it throws on this oddly assorted pair, or because of its famous reference to the 
the “surceasing and silence of balde Rymers,” or because of the evidence which it supplies of a close relationship at this time between Spenser and the Earl of Leicester. Nevertheless, there seems to be no general agreement among editors and scholars as to the precise date at which this letter was written; and as a result, every one who has quoted it has put forward his own assumption as its proper interpretation. It is the object of this paper to discuss these assumptions, and to determine, if possible, the true explanation of the date at which this letter was composed.
1 The Works of Gabriel Harvey, D.C.L. vol. I, Huth Library. 1884.
2 Spenser's Works, ed. Todd, 1805, I, 29.
3 Ancient Critical Essays upon English Poets and Poesy (London, 1815) II, 20.
4 I, 29.
5 Hans Berli, Gabriel Harvey, Dickterfreund und Kritiker, Zurich diss., 1913.
6 G. C. Moore Smith, Gabriel Harvey's Marginalia, Straftord-upon-Avon, 1913, p. 28; italics mine.
7 That he should be gone over sea “neither the next nor the nexte weeke.” (See Harvey's reply of Oct. 23, 1579.)
8 Edwin Greenlaw, “Spenser and the Earl of Leicester,” P.M.L.A., XXV, 537-8.
9 P. W. Long, “Spenser and the Bishop of Rochester,” P.M.L.A. XXXI, 721.
