The Shepherd's Calendar, the first major work published by Edmund Spenser (1552 or 1553 - 1599), one of the major poets of the Elizabethan era, played a decisive role in the eventual formation of literary English. Now, almost four and a half centuries later, it remains not just a literary monument, familiarity with which is mandatory for every enlightened reader, but also a lively, fascinating read. The first publication of the “Calendar” contained lengthy, often purely ironic notes compiled by Spencer on behalf of the fictitious "E. K" and reproduced in the proposed Russian translation with all possible completeness available.