I believe that the earliest sonnet by Spenser of which any trace exists is the one published as Amoretti VIII. It's not "Spenserian" in its rhyme scheme, but "Shakespearean." It appears in several manuscript miscellanies, and is thematically related to Greville's Caelica 3, also to Sidney's A & S 42; this evidence points to composition circa 1580.
Cheers, Jon Quitslund
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From: Bruce Danner <[log in to unmask]>
> Spenserians:
>
> Is the first dated (if not published) Spenserian sonnet the one Gabriel
> Harvey publishes in "Foure Letters", dated 1586? Nashe accused Harvey of
> writing it himself, but doesn't the unusual form work to authenticate it as
> Spenser's?
>
> Are the first published Spenserian sonnets from the dedicatory sonnets in
> 1590 FQ?
>
> Are there Spenserian sonnets published after this time that we assume to
> come from an earlier period (Virgil's Gnat dedication)? On what are these
> assumptions based?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Bruce Danner
> Skidmore College
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