In Palladis Tamia (1598) Frances Meres called William Warner "our English Homer." For Gabriel Harvey, Thomas Nashe, and Michael Drayton, among others, Warner was the equal both of classical writers such as Homer, Virgil, Horace, and Ovid and of contemporary writers such as Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, and Sir Philip Sidney. In England's Parnassus (1600) Robert Allott champions Warner for his sententious coinings and quotes passages from his work extensively, citing only Spenser and Drayton more frequently. This immense popularity was based on his major work, the verse chronicle Albion's England (1586--1612). For modern readers these comparisons and the excessive praise seem uncalled for, since Warner is almost a cipher, a forgotten, or at best unsuccessful, author. Even though his prose romance Syrinx (1584) was influential, his masterpiece did not stand the test of time. However, Warner does not deserve oblivion. Albion's England is a precursor of Drayton's Polyolbion (1605-1629); it...