MICHAEL, a celebrated English poet, was born at Harshull in Warwick in 1563. The events of Drayton's life are involved in great obscurity. It is believed that he went to Oxford, which he quitted without taking his degree, and that he afterwards entered the army. In 1598 he published his first work, under the title of The Shepherd's Garland, a collection of pastoral poems, in a style which was then becoming highly popular in England. As a whole, this work was utterly unworthy of its author's powers, and it is now almost entirely forgotten, with the exception of the ballad of Dowsabel, which Percy incorporated in his Reliques. The Shepherd's Garland was reprinted in 1619, under the title of Eclogues. To the historical poetry of his era Drayton made two valuable contributions in his Barons' Wars, and England's Heroical Epistles, works in themselves highly interesting, and in many passages both touching and imaginative, though neither of them exhibits a just conception of the poet's privilege of idealizing the actual. Drayton's fame as a poet, however, rests on his Polyolbion, the greatest of his works. The general outline of this composition is descriptive, though it partakes largely of the nature of didactic, historical, and pastoral poetry. The thinly disguised design of the author is to furnish a topographical description of England; a purpose so dangerously prosaic, that his greatest work, though redeemed by many passages of fine fancy and sentiment, as well as splendid diction, has hardly ever perhaps been read through from beginning to end. The immense length of the poem, as well as its occasional obscurity and cumbrousness, have likewise greatly interfered with its popularity. The measure which Drayton adopted for the Polyolbion is the Alexandrine, which has rarely been managed with greater skill. The Barons' Wars again are written in the Ottava rima. Drayton's little fairy tale, entitled Nymphidia, is a composition which, in its peculiar vein, has never been surpassed.

After the publication of the Polyolbion, the only event of importance in the life of Drayton was his appointment to the office of poet laureate. He died in 1631, and his tomb may still be seen in the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey.