Several authors have suggested that Willobie was not the real author of the poem. Arthur Acheson suggested that Matthew Roydon may have been the author, arguing that the poem obliquely described Shakespeare's relationship to Jane Davenant, the mother of William Davenant, who later hinted that he was Shakespeare's son. Roydon's authorship was later tentatively endorsed by G. B. Harrison, and reasserted by Christopher Hill. M. C. Bradbrook argued that it was a collaborative work written by Walter Raleigh's circle, the so-called School of Night, with which Roydon was associated.