<P> Then he moved to London and started his literary career in earnest . The remaining decade of his life was dominated by two concerns: finding an adequate patron and participating in controversies, most famously with Richard and Gabriel Harvey . He arrived in London with his one exercise in euphuism, The Anatomy of Absurdity . His first appearance in print was, however, his preface to Robert Greene's Menaphon, which offers a brief definition of art and overview of contemporary literature . After this (and the publication of Anatomy) he was drawn into the Martin Marprelate controversy on the side of the bishops . As with the other writers in the controversy, his share is difficult to determine . He was formerly credited with the three "Pasquill" tracts of 1589--1590, which were included in R.B. McKerrow's standard edition of Nashe's works: however McKerrow himself later argued strongly against their being by Nashe . The anti-Martinist An Almond for a Parrot (1590), ostensibly credited to one "Cutbert Curry - knave," is now universally recognised as Nashe's work, although its author humorously claims, in its dedication to the comedian William Kempe, to have met Harlequin in Bergamo while returning from a trip to Venice in the summer of 1589 . But there is no evidence Nashe had either time or means to go abroad, and he never subsequently refers to having visited Venice elsewhere in his work . </P> <P> In 1590, he contributed a preface to an unlicensed edition of Philip Sidney's Astrophil and Stella, but the edition was called in, and the authorised second edition removed Nashe's work . </P> <P> At some time in the early 1590s Nashe produced an erotic poem, The Choice of Valentines that begins with a sonnet to "Lord S". It has been suggested that The Choice of Valentines was written possibly for the private circle of Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby (then known as Lord Strange). It has alternatively been suggested that "Lord S ." refers to the Earl of Southampton, Shakespeare's patron, just as Nashe had inscribed The Unfortunate Traveler, to "Lord Henry Wriothesley Earl of Southampton". </P> <P> The Choice of Valentines circulated only in manuscript . It describes the Valentine's Day visit of a young man named' Tomalin' to the brothel where his lover, "Mistris Francis", has recently become employed . Tomalin poses as a customer . Having paid ten gold pieces for her favours, Tomalin makes his way towards his erotic goal . </P>

Who wrote the poem in time of pestilence