Michael Drayton Prints and Multiples

Michael Drayton was an English poet of the Elizabethan era. Drayton commenced working on his epic poem, Poly Olbion, in 1598. A topographical poem or book of songs describing England and Wales, it was his life’s work and was published in 1612 with 18 songs and maps, being published in 1622 as an enlarged edition with 30 songs and maps. It consisted of 15000 lines of verse, divided into 30 songs. Cambridgeshire was included in the second and enlarged edition. It has long been held that Drayton probably attended the University of Oxford, on account of allusions within his poetry. His circle included Ben Jonson, and probably Shakespeare too. In 1593, Drayton produced the first of his historical poems, the Legend of Piers Gaveston. Poly Olbion was his enormous attempt to record all places of topographical interest in the country. Places and rivers are included anthropomorphically; Cambridge a young woman with flowing breasts, a castle on her head and carrying the sun and a cup; Ely has a cathedral on his head. Drayton recorded a mixture of the topographical scientific and references to historic myths — druids and King Arthur amongst others. Each river has its own nymph, the rivers being the main emphasis of the maps which otherwise show few geographical features.