t sin, which I did shun,
A year or two, but wallowed in a score?
When thou hast done, thou hast not done,
For I have more.

I have a sin of fear, when I have spun,
My last thread, I shall perish on the shore;
But swear, that at my death, thy son,
Shall shine, as he shines now, and heretofore,
And having done that, thou hast done,
I ask no more.

[Footnote 1: Walton's Life of Donne]

[Footnote 2: Wood vol. v. col. 554.]

[Footnote 3: Walton p. 29].

[Footnote 4: Life ubi supra p. 52].

[Footnote 5: Walton, p. 39, 41.]

[Footnote 6: Walton ut Supra, p. 46]

* * * * *

MICHAEL DRAYTON

A Renowned poet, who lived in the reigns of Elizabeth, James and
Charles I. sprung from an ancient family, originally descended from
the town of Drayton in Leicestershire,[1] but his parents removing
into Warwickshire, he was born there, as he himself declares in his
Poly-olbion, Song 13. A little village called Harsul in that county
claims the honour of his birth, by which accident it is raised from
obscurity; he was born in the year 1573, according to the most
accurate computation that can be made from the dates of his works.
When he was but very young he gave such discoveries of a rising genius
as rendered him a favourite with his tutors, and procured him the
patronage of persons of distinction. In the year 1573, being then but
about ten years of age, he was page to some honourable person, as may
be collected from his own words: In some of his epistles to Henry
Reynold esquire, it appears that even then he could construe his Cato,
and some other little collections of sentences, which made him very
anxious to know, what sort of beings the poets were, and very pressing
upon his tutor to make him, if possible, a poet. In consequence of
this he was put to the reading of Virgil's Eclogues, and 'till even
then, says one of his Biographers, he scorned any thing that looked
like a ballad, though written by Elderton himself. This Elderton was a
famous comedian in those days, and a facetious companion, who having
a great readiness at rhiming, composed many catches on Love and Wine,
which were then in great vogue among the giddy and volatile part of
the town; but he was not more celebrated for drollery than drinking,
so that he obtained the name of the bacchanalian buffoon, the
red-nosed ballad-maker, &c. and at last by the excessive indulgence of
his favourite vice, he fell a mar