MICHAEL**, an eminent English poet, was born at Harshull, in the parish of Atherston, in 1563, and was descended of an ancient family in Warwickshire. His propensity to poetry showed itself even from his infancy; and we find that his principal poems had been published, and he himself distinguished as a poet, by the time he had attained about thirty years of age. It appears from his poem of Moses's Birth and Miracles, that he was a spectator at Dover of the Spanish Armada; and it is not improbable that he was there engaged in some military employment. It is certain, indeed, that, owing both to his merit as a writer and to his valuable qualities as a man, he was held in high estimation, and warmly patronized by several personages of consequence, particularly by Sir Henry Goodere, Sir Walter Aston, and the Countess of Bedford, to the first of whom he owns himself indebted for the greater part of his education, whilst by the second he was for many years supported. Amongst his poems the most celebrated is the *Poly-Oblion*, a chorographical description of England, with its productions, antiquities, and curiosities, in dodeca-syllabic verse. This 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. In 1626 we find him styled poet-laureat in a copy of verses written in commendation of Abraham Holland; but as Ben Jonson then held that office, it is to be Dreams understood in a loose sense as a term of commendation; and, in fact, it was bestowed on others as well as Drayton, without being confined strictly to the office commonly known by that appellation. He died in 1631; and was buried amongst the poets in Westminster Abbey, where his bust is still to be seen, with an epitaph penned by Ben Jonson.