and his allegorical poem, in which a poor owl is attacked by smaller birds until the royal eagle saves him, seems in obscure and heavy fashion to imply that now that a king gifted, as Bacon declared, "with the knowledge and illumination of a priest and the learning and universality of a philosopher" had ascended the throne, the cause of learning would be safe under the protection of this British Solomon. Only once again did Drayton attempt satire; this was in the "Moone calf," published in 1627, and again he was unsuccessful. The opening years of James's reign were marked by great literary activity on the part of the poet. In this very year, 1604, there appeared another poem which, following the 'Moyses in a Map of his Miracles." lead of George Buchanan's "Jephtha" and the "Judith" of Du Bartas, dealt with Scripture history. It was called "Moyses in a Map of his Miracles," and related in alternate rhyme the story of the birth and death of Moses, together with the miracles wrought in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness. In the description of the tenth plague Drayton had present to his mind the dreadful visitation of the previous year, upon which we have seen Dekker employing his pen, and of which John Davies of Hereford also wrote in the following year in his "Humours Heau'n on Earth: With the Civile Warres of Death and Fortune. As also the Triumph of Death: or, the Picture of the Plague, according to the Life; as it was in A.D. 1603.”* Two other poems, not published till 1630, also treat of sacred subjects; "Noahs Floud," which contains some touches of happy quaintness, and "David and Golia." In 1607 he added his "Legend" of Cromwell to the three others mentioned below, and this formed part of the final edition of the "Mirrour for Magistrates," which appeared in 1610. But before this, in 1605, were printed "Poems: by A list of the writings of John Davies will be found in the Bibliography. Poems of Michaell Draiton, Esquire," this being the first of several collected editions of his works. It included the Barons' Wars, the Heroicall Epistles, sixty- 1605. seven sonnets- -a revision of his "Idea "—and the three Legends, Robert Duke of Normandy, Matilda, and Piers Gaveston. As if to supplement this, there was published, probably in the same year, although the title-page bears no date, "Poemes, Lyrick and Pastorall: Odes, Eglogs, and the Man in the Moone." This book contains some of the choicest of Drayton's poems, those which, together with his delightful "Nymphidia," his "Polyolbion," and his "Pastoralls," give him his real place as a poet. The volume opened with twelve new odes, the last being his "Ballad of Agincourt," one of our finest martial poems. Later in life, in the dark days at the beginning of Charles I.'s reign, the poet who in early manhood had seen the triumphs of the Armada, of Drake, and of Essex, beheld England disgraced in Holland, at Cadiz, and at Rochelle, and, patriotic to the last, he wrote a lengthy poem called "The Battaile of Agincourt," and dedicated it to "the noblest Gentlemen of these Renowned Kingdomes of Great Britaine, who in these declining times, have yet in your braue bosomes the sparkes of that sprightly fire of your couragious ancestors." But the charm of the earlier ballad is gone. "The Man in the Moone," with which the volume of 1605 closed, is but a revision of the "Endymion and Phoebe" which had appeared without date, but was registered in 1594. "Poly But Drayton's life-work was his "Poly-olbion"; this name, derived from two Greek words signifying "rich in blessings," being doubtless adopted in the Euphuistic taste of the day from its likeness to "Albion." As early as 1598 Meres* had spoken of Drayton as penning this poem, but no portion appeared till "E. W." x. 367. olbion." 1613, when the first eighteen Books were published. The volume was dedicated to Prince Henry, and was called "A Chorographical description of all the Tracts, Rivers, Movntains, Forests and other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britain, with intermixture of the most Remarkeable Stories, Antiquities, Wonders, Rarities, Pleasures, and Commodities of the same." It was learnedly annotated by John Selden, and was furnished with eighteen maps in which the love of personification which characterises the poem is also seen. The rivers spread their branches like trees, and upon these are perched the half-visible bodies of Naiads, often harp in hand; the hills are crowned with shepherds, whose flocks feed beneath; beside the forests stand the dryads; while upon the little islands huge nymphs are seen perilously balancing themselves with uplifted arms. Why the publication of the first part was delayed we know not, but Drayton himself explains the reason why the second portion did not at once appear. He wrote in 1619: "It lieth by me, for the booksellers and I are in terms. They are a company of base knaves, whom I both scorn and kick at." But in 1622 the remaining twelve songs were issued, together with a reprint of the previous eighteen; there were no notes or maps for this new portion, which was dedicated to Prince Charles. "Poly-olbion " is a work of nearly fifteen thousand lines, written in rhyming Alexandrines. Only two Books, the twenty second and twenty-fourth, exceed a thousand lines in length; the average of the others is 420. The taste for personification which has been noticed as marking the literature of the day is maintained throughout. As the poet describes county after county, the goddess of a river will arise and sing the beauties of the scenery through which the stream flows; the hills take up the strain, and tell of their own beauties, of legendary lore, or of the indebtedness of the plains beneath for the streams they cause to flow; the presiding deity of a forest will tell of Robin Hood and his merry men, and instruct us in the local legends of the spot. Full of quaint and minute learning, local knowledge, and romantic touches, the poem, strange as it is, is singularly interesting. If it reaches no great height it sinks to no depth; we move, so to speak, with a kind of swinging motion along a lofty tableland where fresh, healthy breezes blow; we note the varying scenery, we watch the fish in the clear streams, and learn their names; we cull the flowers, we linger within the woods, or are present at the wedding of a Thames with an Isis. Poems of 1627. The poems of 1627, which included "The Battaile of Agincourt," also contained twelve "elegies," from one of which quotation has already been made. One other, that "To my most dearly loved friend, Henry Reynolds Esquire," tells in pleasant verse of Poets and Poesie"; in it we hear of Chaucer and Gower, Surrey and Wyatt, Gascoigne, Spenser, Sidney, Marlowe, Daniel, and others. In this volume was also republished the masterpiece of Drayton's smaller verse, the exquisitely dainty "Nymphidia "-a true inspiration of genius, which had first appeared in 1619. Playful, sprightly, airy, it takes us to Fairyland and makes us live where tiny gnats take the place of steeds, where a beetle's head may serve for a helmet, and an earwig for a charger; and where Mab, Queen of Fairies, and all her maids can nestle securely within a hazel-nut! Drayton wrote much-some sixty thousand lines, and in many styles. We might almost say of him, as of Goldsmith, that "he left no species of writing untouched;" and if we cannot quite truthfully add that there was nothing which he touched that he did not adorn, at least it is true that in his smaller poems he has written that which cannot die. Even in his last volume, "The Muses Elizium," published in 1630 when he was sixty-seven, the "Nymphals" reveals a vein of poetry hardly V-VOL XI. inferior to that of his early pastoral work. He died on December 23 of the next year. Samuel Samuel Daniel * also began the reign of James with a poem to the king. It was called a "A Panegyrike Congratulatorie," and was presented to James before he reached London at Burleigh Haringtonnow Burley-on-the-hill-in Rutlandshire. In seventy-three stanzas of eight lines, the poet anticipated the happy results likely to flow from the union of the two kingdoms. Daniel, who had moved in courtly circles, met with the royal favour which Drayton had sought in vain. The new queen "delighted much in his conversation and poems;" he was appointed "to allow plays;" in 1607 he became Groom of the Privy Chamber with a salary of £60 a year; and a further mark of literary appreciation was at once given him. Before Christmas, 1603, the royal party moved to Hampton Court, where a series of festivities took place to celebrate the advent of the House of Stuart to the throne. Ambassadors from abroad, and nobles from nearer home, were gathered with their retainers, until the twelve hundred rooms of the palace were insufficient, and tents had to be erected in the royal park. To the banquets, the balls and masquerades, the tennis matches, and the running at tilt, a royal masque was to be added. And when, in the hall of Wolsey's palace, a British queen first took part in a dramatic representation, the masque she thus graced was "The "The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses," written by Samuel Daniel. This was acted on the evening of Sunday, January 8th, 1604. At one end of the hall, where the minstrel gallery still stands, a "mountain" was built; at the other, over the daïs, was a Temple of Peace and the Cave of Somnus. The guests were arranged on either side, leaving a broad space down the centre from * "E. W." x. 330. |