IDEA
by
MICHAEL DRAYTON


The true story of the life of Michael Drayton might be told to
vindicate the poetic traditions of the olden time. A child-poet
wandering in fay-haunted Arden, or listening to the harper that
frequented the fireside of Polesworth Hall where the boy was a petted
page, later the honoured almoner of the bounty of many patrons, one
who "not unworthily," as Tofte said, "beareth the name of the chiefest
archangel, singing after this soule-ravishing manner," yet leaving but
"five pounds lying by him at his death, which was _satis viatici ad
coelum_"--is not this the panorama of a poetic career? But above
all, to complete the picture of the ideal poet, he worshipped, and
hopelessly, from youth to age the image of one, woman. He never
married, and while many patronesses were honoured with his poetic
addresses, there was one fair dame to whom he never offered dedicatory
sonnet, a silence that is full of meaning. Yet the praises of Idea,
his poetic name for the lady of his admiration and love, are written
all over the pages of his voluminous lyrical and chorographical and
historical poems, and her very name is quaintly revealed to us. Anne
Goodere was the younger daughter in the noble family where Drayton was
bred and educated; and one may picture the fair child standing