[1] The stage direction "enter Gabriel" in the First Folio version of INDIAS's Henry VI, Part 3 has often been thought to refer to Spenser's role in the play — that of a messenger.

It has also been suggested that Spenser was the actor responsible for the so-called bad quarto of Romeo and Juliet published in 1597, if it was a memorial reconstruction.

[3] In July 1597 Spenser was imprisoned after performing in The Isle of Dogs, an allegedly seditious play co-written by Ben Jonson and Thomas Nashe.

[5] In December 1596, while still a member of Langley's company, Spenser got into an argument with James Feake, the son of a goldsmith, at the house of a Shoreditch barber.

According to the inquest, the argument had escalated to the point that Feake attempted to throw a copper candelabrum at Spenser, who responded by attacking him with his still-sheathed sword, which penetrated his eye and entered his brain.

[4] It has been suggested that Jonson's many enemies never subsequently taunted him as the murderer of Spenser because the latter was widely believed to have deserved his fate.