William Shakespeare, Richard Barnfield, and the Sixth Earl of De ...

Why believe that the “friend” promised future praise here in the slightly earlier (by less than a year) Greenes Funeralls' Sonnet V is William Stanley? It is one thing to see that continuity between The Affectionate Shepheard and Cynthia, but why should one believe in consistent addressee continuity between Greenes Funeralls' Sonnet V and The Affectionate Shepheard of several months later?

The answer emerges from taking a closer look at Greenes Funeralls. It is peopled by several pastoral bit players who pop on and off its tiny stage not to return, but it has only three main personages (other than the author himself, Barnfield/Daphnis). The first is obviously the late Robert Greene, the center of the book, beloved of Barnfield for the excellence of his verse. The second is Ferdinando Stanley, William's elder brother and fifth earl of Derby at the time Greenes Funeralls was published in February of 1594 (he had two months to live before his sensational murder by poison). Ferdinando is given the pastoral name Amintas here—he had just recently been given it by both Edmund Spenser and Thomas Nashe—and to this identification I will return. The third is the unnamed man referred to in the conclusion of Sonnet V, quoted previously (“Do what I can / To praise the man”).

My argument is this: William Stanley would seem from the evidence to be the Ganymede of both The Affectionate Shepheard and Cynthia. In addition, his elder brother Ferdinando is beseeched by Barnfield to join him in writing poems of praise to the dead Greene in earlier works. Furthermore, Barnfield promises future praise in Sonnet V to a man other than Ferdinando—which he