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Article: Michael Drayton
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of World Biography
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Michael Drayton
The English poet Michael Drayton (1563-1631) attempted to create a strong national culture by turning for inspiration to English history rather than to foreign sources.
Like his contemporary William Shakespeare, Michael Drayton was the son of a prosperous Warwickshire tradesman. He received a good education as a page in the house of Sir Henry Goodere, but there is no record of his ever having studied at a university.
Drayton's first publication,
The Harmony of the Church,
a somewhat clumsy paraphrase of the Bible, appeared in 1591, when he was 28. Succeeding publications exemplify a wide variety of genres.
Idea, the Shepherd's Garland
(1593) is a collection of nine ...