the erudition of Selden in his Annotations to each Song. The first part
was, for various reasons, a drug in the market, and Drayton found great
difficulty in securing a publisher for the second part. But during the
years from 1613 to 1622, he became acquainted with Drummond of
Hawthornden through a common friend, Sir William Alexander of Menstry,
afterwards Earl of Stirling. In 1618, Drayton starts a correspondence;
and towards the end of the year mentions that he is corresponding also
with Andro Hart, bookseller, of Edinburgh. The subject of his letter was
probably the publication of the Second Part; which Drayton alludes to in
a letter of 1619 thus: 'I have done twelve books more, that is from the
eighteenth book, which was Kent, if you note it; all the East part and
North to the river Tweed; but it lies by me; for the booksellers and I
are in terms; they are a company of base knaves, whom I both scorn and
kick at.' Finally, in 1622, Drayton got Marriott, Grismand, and Dewe, of
London, to take the work, and it was published with a dedication to
Prince Charles, who, after his brother's death, had given Drayton
patronage. Drayton's preface to the Second Part is well worth quoting:

'_To any that will read it._ When I first undertook this Poem, or, as
some very skilful in this kind have pleased to term it, this Herculean
labour, I was by some virtuous friends persuaded, that I should receive
much comfort and encouragement therein; and for these reasons; First,
that it was a new, clear, way, never before gone by any; then, that it
contained all the Delicacies, Delights, and Rarities of this renowned
Isle, interwoven with the Histories of the Britons, Saxons, Normans, and
the later English: And further that there is scarcely any of the
Nobility or Gentry of this land, but that he is in some way or other by
his Blood interested therein. But it hath fallen out otherwise; for
instead of that comfort, which my noble friends (from the freedom of
their spirits) proposed as my due, I have met with barbarous ignorance,