M.D.

From _Annalia Dubrensia_ (1636).

TO MY NOBLE Friend Mr. ROBERT DOVER, on his braue annuall
_Assemblies_ vpon _Cotswold_.

Douer, to doe thee Right, who will not striue,
That dost in these dull yron Times reuiue
The golden Ages glories; which poore Wee
Had not so much as dream't on but for Thee?
As those braue _Grecians_ in their happy dayes,
On Mount Olympus to their _Hercules_
Ordain'd their games Olimpick, and so nam'd
Of that great Mountaine; for those pastimes fam'd:
Where then their able Youth, Leapt, Wrestled, Ran,
Threw the arm'd Dart; and honour'd was the _Man_ 10
That was the Victor; In the Circute there
The nimble Rider, and skill'd Chariotere
Stroue for the Garland; In those noble Times
There to their Harpes the Poets sang their Rimes;
That whilst _Greece_ flourisht, and was onely then
Nurse of all Arts, and of all famous men:
Numbring their yeers, still their accounts they made,
Either from this or that _Olimpiade_.
So _Douer_, from these _Games_, by thee begun,
Wee'l reckon Ours, as time away doth run. 20
Wee'l haue thy Statue in some Rocke cut out,
With braue Inscriptions garnished about;
And vnder written, _Loe, this was the man,_
DOVER, _that first these noble Sports began._
Ladds of the Hills, and Lasses of the Vale,
In many a song, and many a merry Tale
Shall mention Thee; and hauing leaue to play,
Vnto thy name shall make a Holy day.
The _Cosswold_ Shepheards as their flockes they keepe,
To put off lazie drowsinesse and sleepe, 30
Shall sit to tell, and heare thy Story tould,
That night shall come ere they their flocks can fould.

_Michaell Drayton._

NOTES

These notes are not intended to supply materials for the criticism of
the text. So freely, indeed, did Drayton alter his poems for a fresh
edition, that the ordinary machinery of an _apparatus criticus_ would be
overtasked if the attempt were made. All that has been undertaken here
is to provide the requisite information in places where the text
followed seemed open to suspicion.

It may be added that the punctuation of the originals has in general
been preserved; in a few flagrant instances, where the text as it stood
was misleading, it has been modified. Such changes ar