In
the original post under this title dated April 18, 2020, as above, I put forward an argument that Edmund Spenser
was probably the rival poet referred to in Shakespeare’s Sonnets 85
and 86. Since then, though, I have reconsidered some of the details of that post, and also realised that there are additional ways in which I can strengthen the
argument. As a result, I have removed the original text from the post, and will
concentrate on writing an updated version to post here later, or perhaps even submit to a journal.