DRAYTON, MICHAEL, an eminent English poet, was born in 1563, of an ancient family in Warwickshire. His propensity to poetry was extremely strong, even from his infancy; and we find the most of his principal poems published, and himself highly distinguished as a poet, by the time he was about 30 years of age.—It appears from his poem of Moses's Birth and Miracles, that he was a spectator at Dover of the famous Spanish armada, and it is not improbable that he was engaged in some military employment there. It is certain, that not only for his merit as a writer, but his valuable qualities as a man, he was held in high estimation, and strongly patronized by several personages of consequence; particularly by Sir Henry Goodere, Sir Walter Afton, and the countess of Bedford; to the first of whom he owns himself indebted for great part of his education, and by the second he was for many years supported.

His poems are very numerous; and so elegant, that his manner has been copied by many modern writers of eminence since. Among these the most celebrated one is the Poly-Albion, a chorographical description of England, with its commodities, antiquities, and curiosities, in metre of 12 syllables; which he dedicated to Prince Henry, by whose encouragement it was written: and whatever may be thought of the poetry, his descriptions are allowed to be exact. He was styled poet lauret in his time: which, as Ben Johnson was then in that office, is to be understood in a loose sense of approbation as an excellent poet; and was bestowed on other as well as Drayton, without being confined strictly to the office known by that appellation. He died in 1631; and was buried in Westminster abbey among the poets, where his bust is to be seen, with an epitaph penned by Ben Johnson.