Leonardo Bruni has been celebrated in the works of Hans Baron for his Florentine patriotism. What stimulated this in Bruni's early works (the Laudatio Florentinae Urbis and the second of the Dialogi addressed to Vergerio), according to Baron, was the Florentine victory over Giangaleazzo Visconti in 1402. Yet Bruni had hardly completed the last of these tributes to Florence before he was off for Rome to spend ten years in the papal curia.

In Book v of The Faërie Queene Spenser describes a curious combat between Artegall and Pollente. Both contestants precipitate themselves into the river from a booby-trapped bridge, where Pollente, 'who that use well knew / To fight in water, great advantage had' (v.ii.13. 5-6); 'which oddes when as Sir Artegall espide, / He saw no way but close with him in haste' (v.ii.14.1-2). Gripping his opponent's iron collar and choking him is the tactic he elects, with this result.

John Minsheu, Shakespeare's contemporary, is primarily known as the author of id est, Ductor in Linguas, The Guide into Tongues (London, 1617). More than any other English work of the period the Ductor in Linguas reflects linguistic research and speculation at home and abroad and represents an important link in the beginnings of modern English lexicography. On the basis of this work Minsheu has been praised as a scholar, antiquarian, and etymologist of note.