is said to have maintained him for some time at Oxford, and by whom he was introduced to the Countess of Bedford. Sir Walter Aston also gave substantial help to Drayton in his early life; but of that early life little is known. It was at the age of eight-and-twenty that Michael Drayton published his first volume of verse. That first book, dedicated to Lady Jane Devereux of Merivale, was described in its title as "The Harmonie of the Church, containing the Spiritual Songs and Holy Hymns of Godly Men, Patriarchs and Prophets, all sweetly sounding to the Glory of the Highest, now (newly) reduced into sundry kinds of English metre: meet to be read or sung, for the solace and comfort of the godly." John Whitgift was then Archbishop of Canterbury, suppressing epigrams and other writings of the poets, and it pleased him to order the destruction of Drayton's volumes, except forty copies which he seized and kept. The Archbishop, who was "bridling the Puritans," perhaps suspected Puritanism in a book professing to be "for the solace and comfort of the godly." In 1593 Drayton published love sonnets and pastorals under the title of "Idea"; "The Shepherd's Garland," fashioned in nine eclogues; "Rowland's Sacrifice to the Nine Muses," taking Rowland for his own pastoral name; and in 1594 these were followed by "Idea's Mirror," "Amours in Quatorzains," and his "Matilda," written in Chaucer's stanza. There is a robust freshness in Drayton's love poems that suggests an independent spirit in their writer. They were addressed to the lady of whose late coming to town Drayton playfully complained in one of his Elegies, and of whom he said in a sonnet to his native river "Arden's sweet Anker, let thy glory be but there may have been no more in them than, according to poetic form, a poet's playful celebration of her graces. Drayton lived to the age of sixty-eight, and died a bachelor. From strains of love that earned him credit among wits and scholars of Elizabeth's Court, Drayton passed to strains of war in the latter years of the reign, when there was no direct heir to the throne, and none knew that Elizabeth-who, for her own politic reasons, had not named a successor-had agreed privately with her council upon all steps to be taken to make the succession sure. It suited her well that a politic omission should be set down to her petticoat. But among her subjects there was widespread expectation that the Queen's death would be made the signal for another civil war. Lodge for that reason wrote his play on Marius and Sylla, called "The Wounds of Civil War." The Second and Third of the Three Parts of Henry VI. on which Shakespeare worked, had the same thought in them. And the poets who wrote during Elizabeth's last years the two chief heroic poems of their time took for their warning themes the two great Civil Wars of the past; Michael Drayton, the Barons' Wars, and Samuel Daniel the wars of York and Lancaster. Drayton's poem first appeared in 1596 as "Mortimeriados; the Lamentable Civil Wars of Edward the Second and the Barons." He had begun to write this poem in Chaucer's seven-lined stanza, but finding that too sweet for a tale of discord and war, rewrote the opening, and completed the work in the Italian octave rhyme, which the strong influence of Italy upon our literature had brought into new prominence, and which was used by Daniel also for his poem upon civil war. In the same year (1596) Drayton produced his "Legend of Robert Duke of Normandy;" and in 1597 he produced,. in imitation of Ovid's "Heroides," "England's Heroical Epistles." He then worked afresh upon his "Mortimeriados," which was enlarged and published in 1603, under the title it now bears, "The Barons' Wars." In the same year (1603) Drayton welcomed the new reign with a Gratulatory Poem, "To the Majestie of King James," which was ungraciously received. He turned with con tempt from the cloud of James's new knights, and the meaner life that gathered about the meaner Court of the new sovereign. James, though a Solomon in his own eyes, ⚫ and warranted a Solomon by Francis Bacon, had mean tastes, and low-minded men stood high in his favour. Daniel as well as Drayton complained bitterly of change of times. Daniel turned his back upon the Court and town, and went away to turn farmer at Beckington. Drayton turned from the Court, and what he thought of it will be found here in some of his Elegies; but he gave himself with new devotion to his Muse. In 1604 he published a satire, "The Owl." In 1605 he published an edition of his "Barons' Wars," with his historical poems, and "Idea." Then he set to work manfully on the long labour of a poetical description of his native land, which he called "Polyolbion" (Many-ways- Happy), of which eighteen books, in Alexandrine verse, were published in 1613; twelve more books followed in 1622; all being illustrated with maps of the several counties described, and notes by his friend John Selden. In 1627 Drayton published a volume containing pieces written in the reign of James. "The Battle of Agincourt" stood first in it, and was followed by some of his daintiest work. It included the delightful fairy mock heroic of the wrath and madness of Oberon, his "Nymphidia," with his "Elegies," and some strains of sweet music in which the poet poured out his affection for his Muse. As we pass from the Elegies in which the poet paints the evil times, we read easily between the lines of his enthusiasm in "The Quest of Cynthia," a song of the search for ideal beauty alike in motive to Keats's "Endymion." We may understand also the peril of the Shepherd's Sirena to whom her lover can go over only by giving his own life to save hers. "Could I give what thou dost crave, But am sure to lose mine own.' 19 We may understand why his fellow-shepherds, fellow-poets, warn him to be up and doing. "For our fields 'tis time to stand, We cannot afford to drop out of companionship a poet so full as Drayton is of grace and vigour. His way of life was very quiet; he loved his friends, and counted among them some of the chief poets and best thinkers of his time. Thomas Fuller, who was twenty-three years old when Drayton died, records of him "that he was a pious poet, his conscience having always the command of his fancy, very temperate in his life, slow of speech, and inoffensive in company. He changed his laurel for a crown of glory, Anno 1631." His piety was that which does not vaunt itself, and gives the sound foundation for a hearty cheerfulness; his quiet in society was that of a mind accustomed to wait and think. February 1887. H. M. THE BARONS' WARS, IN THE REIGN OF EDWARD THE SECOND. THE FIRST CANTO. THE ARGUMENT. The grievous plagues, and the prodigious signs, The Queen's much wrong, whence many mischiefs grow; I. THE bloody factions and rebellious pride Of a strong nation, whose ill-managed might The Prince and Peers did many a day divide ; With whom wrong was no wrong, nor right no right, Whose strife their swords knew only to decide, Spurred to their high speed by their equal spite, Me from soft lays and tender loves doth bring, Of a far worse than civil war to sing, 2. What hellish fury poisoned their hot blood? 3. The inveterate malice in their bosoms bred Who for their Charter waged a former war, Their angry sires, in them that venom fed, As their true heirs of many a wide-mouthed scar: Or was't the blood they had in conquest shed, Having enlarged their country's bounds so far, That did themselves against themselves oppose, With blades of Bilbo changing English blows? 4. O Thou, the wise director of my muse, Upon whose bounty all my powers depend, Into my breast thy sacredst fire infuse; Ravish my spirit this great work to attend: Let the still night my laboured lines peruse, That when my poems gain their wishéd end, Such whose sad eyes shall read this tragic story, In my weak hand may see thy might and glory. |