substituted, ‘of all other the most complete and best proportioned.’ Drayton was constantly engaged in revising his works, and ‘The Barons' Wars’ saw many changes before it reached its final shape. ‘Mortimeriados’ was dedicated, in nine seven-line stanzas, to the Countess of Bedford; but when, in 1603, Drayton reissued the poem, he withdrew the dedication and cancelled various references to his patroness. In the eighth eclogue of ‘Poemes Lyrick and Pastorall,’ n.d. (1605?), he inveighs against a certain Selena, who had temporarily befriended ‘faithfull Rowland,’ but had afterwards transferred her patronage to ‘deceitfull Cerberon.’ Rowland is the pastoral name which Drayton had adopted for himself; Cerberon's personality is matter for conjecture; but it is more than probable that Selena was intended for the Countess of Bedford. The invective was cancelled in later editions.
‘England's Heroicall Epistles,’ 1597, his next work of importance, is the most readable of Drayton's longer works. The book was modelled on Ovid's ‘Heroides,’ and Drayton has shown himself to be no unworthy pupil of the skilful Roman artist. A second edition appeared in 1598; a third, with the addition of the sonnets, in 1599; a fourth in 1602, again with the sonnets; and a fifth, with ‘The Barons' Wars,’ in 1603. Historical notes are appended to each epistle; and to each pair of epistles (with a few exceptions) Drayton prefixed a dedication to some distinguished patron. In the dedication to the Earl of Bedford he mentions the obligations under which he stood to the family of the Haringtons, and states that he had been commended to the patronage of Sir John Harington's daughter, Lucy, countess of Bedford, by ‘ that learned and accomplished gentleman Sir Henry Goodere (not long since deceased), whose I was whilst hee was, whose patience pleased to beare with the imperfections of my heedles and unstayed youth.’
From Henslowe's ‘Diary’ it appears that Drayton was writing for the stage between 1597 and 1602. He wrote few plays single-handed, but worked with Henry Chettle [q. v.], Thomas Dekker [q. v.], and others. In December 1597 he was engaged with Munday on a lost play called ‘Mother Redcap.’ On 20 Jan. 1598–9 he received three pounds ‘in earneste of his playe called Wm. Longberd’ (Diary, ed. Collier, p. 142), and on the following day he acknowledged the receipt of ‘forty shillinges of Mr. Phillip Hinslowe, in part of vili, for the playe of Willm. Longsword’ (ib. p. 95). Probably both entries refer to the same lost play. In 1599 he wrote the ‘First Part of Sir John Oldcastle,’ with Wilson, Hathway, and Munday; and in January 1599–1600 he was engaged with the same authors on ‘Owen Tudor.’ There was a ‘Second Part of Sir John Oldcastle;’ but it is not clear whether it was written by the four playwrights or whether Drayton was solely responsible. ‘The First Part of the true and honorable History of the Life of Sir John Oldcastle’ was published in 1600 in a corrupt form. Some copies fraudulently bear Shakespeare's name on the title-page. In May 1602 Drayton wrote, with Dekker, Webster, Middleton, and Munday, a play which Henslowe calls ‘too harpes’ (‘Two Harpies’). The anonymous ‘Merry Divel of Edmonton,’ 1608, has been attributed to Drayton on the authority of Coxeter, but no evidence has been adduced in support of Drayton's claim.
There is a tradition that Drayton was employed by Queen Elizabeth on a diplomatic mission in Scotland. In an obscure passage of the satirical poem ‘The Owle,’ 1604, he states that he went in search of preferment ‘unto the happie North,’ and ‘there arryv'd, disgrace was all my gayne.’ On the accession of James he published ‘To the majestie of King James. A gratulatorie Poem,’ 1603, 4to, and in the following year gave a further proof of his loyalty in ‘A Pæan Triumphall: composed for the societie of the Goldsmiths of London congratulating his Highnes Magnificent Entring the Citie,’ 1604. But his hopes of gaining advancement from James were rudely disappointed; his compliments met with indifference and contempt. Many years afterwards (1627) in an epistle to his friend George Sandys he refers to the ill-treatment that he had experienced. Chettle, in ‘England's Mourning Garment,’ n.d. (1603), hints that he had been too hasty in paying his addresses to the new sovereign:
Think 'twas a fault to have thy Verses seene
Praising the King ere they had mournd the Queen.
In 1604 appeared ‘The Owle,’ an allegorical poem, in imitation of Spenser's ‘Mother Hubbard's Tale,’ on the neglect shown to learning. If Drayton had not expressly stated that it was written earlier than the ‘Gratulatorie Poem,’ it would be reasonable to assume that it was inspired by indignation at the treatment that he had received from the king. ‘The Owle’ was dedicated to the young Sir Walter Aston [q. v.], to whom he also dedicated the 1603 edition of ‘The Barrons Wars’ and ‘Moyses in a Map of his Miracles,’ 1604. From a passage in the last-named poem it has been hastily inferred that Drayton had witnessed at Dover the destruction of the Spanish armada. At his investiture as knight
