THE Shepheardes Calender: The title of Spenser’s book communicates a double message: on the one hand, the title aligns the book with the tradition of the English almanac; on the other, it aligns the book with the tradition of European pastoral, as signaled by the word ‘Æglogues’ in the subtitle (see Introduction). Early modern punctuation allows for ‘Shepheardes’ to be either possessive singular (shepherd’s) or plural (shepherds’), and arguments can be made for both (Var 7: 235). One recent modernized edition opts for the plural, ‘The Shepherds’ Calendar’ (Brooks-Davies 1995: 7), which emphasizes the poem’s community of shepherds. One of the recognized models for the design of Spenser’s book also uses the plural: The Kalender of Shepherdes (1st edition 1506; reprinted nearly annually throughout the sixteenth century), which E.K. refers to in his Dedicatory Epistle. Yet Januarye begins with reference to ‘A shepeheards boy’ (1), and Immerito recurrently features his own personal possessiveness (e.g., ‘I have made a Calender’ [Envoy 1]), suggesting that the title straddles the divide of individual and communal production: this is a book about a community of shepherds and an individual shepherd’s representation of that community (even as it is a representation of his alienation from that community).

proportionable: Corresponding. Proportion is one of Spenser’s emphases throughout the Calender (L.S. Johnson 1990: 45; see 43, 49-50). Cf. Ded Ep 143-4: ‘these xii. Æglogues, which for that they be proportioned to the state of the xii. Monethes’; and Gen Arg 21-2: ‘These xii. Æclogues every where answering to the seasons of the twelve monthes.’

Entitled: See OED for the word ‘entitle’ meaning ‘To inscribe, dedicate (a book) to a person’ or ‘To ascribe (a literary work) to an author’. The ambiguity is playful given that the author of the book does not appear on the title page. The verb ‘Entitled’ anticipates (and perhaps plays on) the subsequent noun ‘titles’.

NOBLE AND VERTVous Gentleman . . . titles: In 1579, Sidney was a Gentleman (rather than a Knight) and descended from the noble Dudley family on his mother’s side, his uncle being Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester. Spenser may originally have intended to dedicate the Calender to Leicester (see To His Booke 11n and Letters 4.15n). Spenser remembers Sidney often in his poetry, especially in the funeral elegy ‘Ast’ but also in Time and CCCHA. Sidney may also have influenced the figure of Calidore, hero of the Legend of Courtesy, in FQ VI (on the Sidney-Spenser relation, see SpE s.v. ‘Sidney, Philip’).

learning and cheualrie: Two important ideals of Elizabethan humanist culture, embodied in Sidney. Cf. To His Booke 3-4.

[printer’s ornament]: The square image of six standard printer’s flowers was used by Singleton previously in (e.g.) An Exposition upon the Cxxx. Psalm . . . Written by Martin Luther (London, 1574).

Hugh Singleton: A bookseller, printer, and bookbinder who worked in London between 1548 and 1593 at the sign of the Golden Tun in Creede Lane (as the imprint records). Only a few months before publication of the Calender, Singleton had printed John Stubbes’ The Discoverie of a Gaping Gulf whereinto England is likely to be Swallowed, a polemical indictment of the proposed wedding match between Queen Elizabeth and the French Duc d’Alençon, a publication that infamously cost Stubbes his right hand. Singleton was also found guilty and ordered to lose his hand but later was pardoned, almost certainly because a printer had less responsibility than a publisher (in this case, the publisher, William Page, did lose his hand). Singleton’s role as the printer of the Calender has political and religious significance, because he is associated not simply with the Leicester-Sidney faction mounting the attack on the queen’s wedding match but also with the Protestant reform movement circulating around this faction (Norbrook 2002: 63, 67; S.K. Galbraith 2008: 22-5).

Ludgate: The westernmost gate in London Wall, and thus a section of London, popular with printers and booksellers, who had their shops built around St. Paul’s Cathedral, which sat atop Ludgate Hill. Creed Lane, where Singleton’s shop was located, is near the west end of St. Paul’s.

signe of the gylden Tunne: Singleton’s shop bore the sign of a single golden ‘Tunne’ or cask.