the Valentine, and the Crier.  In the comparison of the two editions the nobler, if more strained, tone of the earlier is obvious; it is still Elizabethan, in its nobility of ideal and purpose, in its enthusiasm, in its belief and confidence in England and her men; and this even though we catch a glimpse of the Jacobean woe in the Ode to John Savage:  the 1619 Odes are of a different world; their spirit is lighter, more insouciant in appearance, though perhaps studiedly so; the rhythms are more fantastic, with less of strength and firmness, though with more of grace and superficial beauty; even the very textual alterations, while usually increasing the grace and the music of the lines, remind the reader that something of the old spontaneity and freshness is gone.

In 1607 and 1609, Drayton published two editions of the last and weakest of his mediaeval poems—­the Legend of Great Cromwell; and for the next few years he produced nothing new, only attending to the publication of certain reprints and new editions.  During this time, however, he was working steadily at the Polyolbion, helped by the patronage of Aston and of Prince Henry.  In 1612-13, Drayton burst upon an indifferent world with the first part of the great poem, containing eighteen songs; the title-page will give the best idea of the contents and plan of the book:  ’Poly-Olbion or a Chorographicall Description of the Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and other Parts of this renowned Isle of Great Britaine, With intermixture of the most Remarquable Stories, Antiquities, Wonders, Rarityes, Pleasures, and Commodities of the same:  Digested in a Poem by Michael Drayton, Esq.  With a Table added, for direction to those occurrences of Story and Antiquities, whereunto the Course of the Volume easily leades not.’ &c.  On this work Drayton had been engaged for nearly the whole of his poetical career.  The learning and research displayed in the poem are extraordinary, almost equalling the erudition of Selden in his Annotations to each Song.  The first part was, for various reasons, a drug in the market, and Drayton found great difficulty in securing a publisher for the second part.  But during the years from 1613 to 1622, he became acquainted with Drummond of Hawthornden through a common friend, Sir William Alexander of Menstry, afterwards Earl of Stirling.  In 1618, Drayton starts a correspondence; and towards the end of the year mentions that he is corresponding also with Andro Hart, bookseller, of Edinburgh.  The subject of his letter was probably the publication of the Second Part; which Drayton alludes to in a letter of 1619 thus:  ’I have done twelve books more, that is from the eighteenth book, which was Kent, if you note it; all the East part and North to the river Tweed; but it lies by me; for the booksellers and I are in terms; they are a company of base knaves, whom I both scorn and kick at.’  Finally, in 1622, Drayton got Marriott, Grismand, and Dewe, of London, to take the work, and it was published with a dedication to Prince Charles, who, after his brother’s death, had given Drayton patronage.  Drayton’s preface to the Second Part is well worth quoting: