elp and criticism while the volume was in the press. Above all, I
am at every turn indebted to Professor Elton's invaluable _Michael
Drayton_,[29] without which the work of any student of Drayton would be
rendered, if not impossible, at least infinitely harder.

CYRIL BRETT.
ALTON, STAFFORDSHIRE.

[Footnote 1: Cf. Elegy viij, _To Henery Reynolds, Esquire_, p. 108.]

[Footnote 2: Sir Aston Cokayne, in 1658, says that he went to Oxford,
while Fleay asserts, without authority, that his university was probably
Cambridge.]

[Footnote 3: Cf. the motto of _Ideas Mirrour_, the allusions to
_Ariosto_ in the _Nymphidia_, p. 129; and above all, the _Heroical
Epistles_; Dedic. of _Ep._ of _D._ of _Suffolk to Q. Margaret_: 'Sweet
is the _French_ Tongue, more sweet the _Italian_, but most sweet are
they both, if spoken by your admired self.' Cf. _Surrey to Geraldine_,
ll. 5 sqq., with Drayton's note.]

[Footnote 4: Cf. Sonnet xij (ed. 1602), p. 42, ''Tis nine years now
since first I lost my wit.' (This sonnet may, of course, occur in the
supposed 1600 ed., which would fix an earlier date for Drayton's
beginning of love.)]

[Footnote 5: Elegy ix, p. 113.]

[Footnote 6: Cf. Morley's ed. of _Barons' Wars_, &c. (1887), p. 6.]

[Footnote 7: Cf. _E.H. Ep._ 'Mat. to K.J.,' 100 sqq., &c.]

[Footnote 8: Professor Courthope and others. There was some excuse for
blunders before the publication of Professor Elton's book; and they have
been made easier by an unfortunate misprint. Professor Courthope twice
misprints the first line of the Love-Parting Sonnet, as 'Since there's
no help, come let us _rise_ and part', and, so printed, the line
supports better the theory that the poem refers to a patroness and not
to a mistress. Cf. Courthope, _Hist. Eng. Poetry_, iii. pp. 40 and 43.]

[Footnote 9: Cf. _E. and Phoebe_, sub fin.; _Shep. Sir._ 145-8; _Ep. Hy.
Reyn._ 79 sqq.]

[Footnote 10: Those reprints which were really new _editions_ are in
italics.]

[Footnote 11: 1594 ed., Pref. Son. and nos. 12, 18, 28; 1599 ed., nos.
3, 31, 46; 1602 ed., 12, 27, 31; and 1603 ed., 47.]

[Footnote 12: Meres thought otherwise. Cf. _Palladis Tamia_ (1598), 'As
Accius, M. Atilius, and Milithus were called _Tragediographi_, because
they writ tragedies: so may wee truly terme Michael Drayton
_Tragaediographus_ for his passionate penning the downfals of valiant
Robert of Normandy, chast Matilda, and great Gaueston.' Cf. Barnefield,
_Poems: in diuers h