DRAY'TON, mcit.%11, (1563-1(3311. _\11 Eng lish poet. Ile was born in Ilartshill. in \\ ar m, iekshirp. (1t thy events of his life hut little i- known. Ile was a page probably in the house hold 1,1 Sir Henry (34,0,14.re of Powlesworth, to whom lie was indebted for his early education. In 1:011 he was in London. although under dames he 1.1iled in efforts to gain the royal favor. lle began his literary career with a metrical rendering of parts Of the Ilible ealled The II ar hum y of the Church (1591). The volume was tOndOnniell by the if', and all but forty espies of the edition were destroyed. This was followed, in by nine eclogues with the title. The ...qte ph, rtrs Garland and in 1.194 by a series of sonnets, in which was celebrated some 1111k110Wil W0111:111, 'Under the Dame 'Idea.' l)rayt I famous sonnet ("Since there's no help, come let its kiss and I,elongs to it later period. rnytund's Heroical Eps.siIt s I :0)7 1 was a sneeessftil imitation of (Ivi,rs In 1003 appeared a long historical poem. called The Da rons' "liars. parts of which, in another metrical form. had been published seven years before. Some of l)rayton's very best work—as the Da !lad of yinrourt —is con tained in ins, Lyrical and Pastoral (about I . For many years he had been at work
n a long de-criptive poem. lt was published under the title (first in-lallment 1613: complet O, In:2•1. Though monotonous as a whole, it contains fine passages. Drayton 4.pened a new vein in the fairy poem V i so phid ia, time of a collection of poems published in This new vein was further worked in the ten i In ',halls. in the .11 its, Eiggium (1630). lie also collaborated in several plays. Thougli much of his work is uninteresting. lie wrote many choice poems. NV e have nothing more dainty than his fairies, and no finer martial ballad than his Agincourt. }le wits buried in \Vestmin .\11licy. The Spenser Society has reprinted Po, rose of f 60.; ( Lyrie and l'as tom l (1'191) • Pot y-(rthinn ( 1 S90) . and liases' f:/asilon I Is11-21. Consult, also, selections from the Pof Ins. by II. :Morley 11,011,14.n. and by privately printed at Chilworth I1Ss31 and Elton. oaluet ion to Drayton ( I wo:1