The Path to Elizium "Lately Discovered": Drayton and the Early Stuart Court

Abstract

O never aske, Michael Drayton begged his audience, I came to this place. Yet oddity of scene at end of The Muses Elizium of 1630 soon compels Drayton's readers to wonder how he did. A long, productive career had established him as of two or three most 'anti-establishment' poets of his in judgment of one critic, Jean R. Brink, in a recent book. Yet in this entertainment Drayton himself made an appearance as an aged satyr, disturbing a group of Caroline aristocrats dressed as nymphs. After having served for years as a critic of his age, satyr had found that business of the worlds enormities to trace eventually so enraged him that he set out to find Elizium, there to bemoane my miserable case to more sympathetic ears. The stage was then set for an extended indictment of beastly mens miserable case, a task at this point in Drayton's career so routine as to be second nature. In end, his complaint proved to be remarkably mild for a man who had earlier protested that everything he wrote naturally slid into biting satire. It was enough, however, to move nymphs to urge him to forget entirely about base world outside and to join them in delights of their isolated fairy world. Their request was a surprising one to have made to a man whose preceding works had invariably focused on realm's history and politics. Yet it was no more surprising than his answer; he readily accepted their offer of sanctuary and ceased his lamentations.1

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