An Introduction to Michael Drayton. By Oliver Elton, B.A. (Printed
for the Spenser Society.)—In this modest Introduc- tion Mr. Elton has compressed all that is known or conjectured about one of the most voluminous of English poets. The con- jectures are considerably in advance of the knowledge. Drayton shares the fate of a far greater Elizabethan ; and beyond a few comparatively barren facts, we know nothing with certainty about him. This is not from any lack of diligence on the part of editors and students, and especially of Mr. Bullen, who is justly called by Mr. Elton an "expert in Elizabethan lore." To him we are indebted, not only for criticism and bibliographical details, but for a selection which contains nearly everything of genuine worth in Drayton's vast body of verse. With much labour Mr. Elton has managed to throw a little light, or what seems like light, on the poet's biography. "Drayton," he writes, "has hitherto been, so far as any one knew, much in Melchisedek's position—parent- less," and he has discovered a possible, and indeed probable, ancestry of butchers. Something more than was known before he can tell us of the Goodere family, with whom Drayton spent his youth at Polesworth, and of Anne, the eldest daughter, who lives in the poet's "Idea," and in one of the most beautiful love- sonnets ever written. Of Sir Henry Rainsford also, who married Anne, and became a cherished friend of Drayton, Mr. Elton has gleaned a little information; but there are serious blanks in the story impossible to fill up. We do not know if the poet went to a University, if he ever married, or how through long years his life was spent. Even the month or day of his death is unknown, although Drayton's fame was such that he was thought worthy of a tomb in Westminster Abbey. The tomb, as everyone knows, is in Poet's Corner, but the body is said to be
buried in another part of the building. of Drayton's ponderous verse is dead. Even the " Polyolbion," despite Lamb's noble eulogy, is only read by students ; but the " Ballad c. Ag. n. court," " Nymphidia," and the exquisite sonnet already r :atoned —" Since there's no help, come, let us kiss and part "— suftioe to keep Drayton in remembrance. Mr. Elton deserves the thanks of all lovers of poetry for the service rendered to the poet in this carefully written Introduction.
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