ABSTRACT
Michael Drayton (1563-1631) combined a sort of literary professionalism with more traditional poetic ambitions (a mixture extraordinary in his age). He was a friend of Francis Beaumont, William Browne, and Drummond of Hawthornden, all of them nothing as poets if not respectable. He also acquired the services of the antiquary Selden as commentator on his Poly-Olbion. In the circumstances, he could have hitched his wagon to no better star than Spenser's. I have included in this section passages from Selden's notes to Poly-Olbion.
