ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I trace the involvement of Harvey and Spenser in William Shakespeare's education as a poet in the late 1570s. If it was Shakespeare who masked himself as the R.L. investigated in the previous chapter, we need to account for his acquisition ofltalian. If William Smith is the same historical person, we need to account for his tribute to Spenser as the poetic mentor of his youth. R.L. 's connections with the Sidney circle and Sidneian publishers demand explanation. I shall take up the 'William Smith' skein to pursue them through Spenser's Shepheardes Calender; a Paper Book associated with the Calender, which contains work by a mysterious A.W.; a catalogue of A.W. 's poems; further texts by A.W.; a sonnet in Smith's Chloris related to a sestina of A.W.'s; and the 'Three Familiar Letters' 'passed between' Harvey and Spenser in 1579/80. This trawling expedition nets more pseudonyms for Shakespeare.
