ABSTRACT
Thomas Watson (1557-92) left Oxford without a degree to study law in London. His inclination was always to poetry and he was fortunate enough to meet during his travels on the Continent a future patron in Walsingham, for whom the elegy below. Harvey commends Watson in the third of the Foure Letters (q.v.) for his 'studious endeavours in enriching and polishing his native tongue' ranking him with Spenser, Stanyhurst, Fraunce, Daniel, and of all people (as Nashe himself pointed out) Nashe. In Colin Clout Spenser commends him as the 'noblest swaine,/That euer piped in an oaten quill'.
