FURTHER READING
Lindley, David. Thomas Campion. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1986.
Susan L. AndersonIDEAS MIRROUR (OVERVIEW) MICHAEL
DRAYTON (1594–1619) MICHAEL DRAYTON’s Ideas
Mirrour fi rst appeared in 1594 as a series of 51 SONNETs
with two dedicatory poems: one to Anthony Cooke
and the other to MARY SIDNEY HERBERT, countess of
Pembroke. By the time of its fi nal version in 1619,
Ideas Mirrour contained 63 sonnets.
Along with SIR PHILIP SIDNEY, EDMUND SPENSER, and
SAMUEL DANIEL, Drayton was a pioneer of the sonne-
teering craze in Elizabethan England. His work was
long considered to have been one of the most signifi -
cant infl uences on WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’s sonnets,
though more recently this infl uence has been called
into question.
Drayton’s sonnets, called amours, are written largely
in the ENGLISH SONNET form, with each poem consist-
ing of three QUATRAINs written in an abab rhyme scheme
and ending in one fi nal, rhymed COUPLET. However,
Drayton does vary this formula in some of his poems;
in two of them, for example, he includes an extra qua-
train, while in others the rhyme scheme for the qua-
train is abba and not abab.
The entire SONNET SEQUENCE is inspired by a woman
that Drayton labels Idea, a name he utilized in some of
his other poems; it probably comes from a French son-
net sequence called L’Idée by Claude de Pontoux. Idea
herself, whom Drayton alludes to throughout the piece,
has been identifi ed by critics as Lady Anne Rainsford,
née Goodere. Anne Goodere was the daughter of Sir
Henry Goodere, Drayton’s patron during his youth,
and the two young people likely shared a friendship.
Though Anne married within her social circle, Drayton
remained faithful to his poetic love, and referred to her
in several of his works, including IDEA THE SHEPHEARDS
GARLAND, The Barons Wars, and his magnum opus,
Poly-Olbion. Critics have often speculated about the
exact nature of the relationship between Drayton and
Lady Rainsford, but there is no evidence to indicate
whether or not they were lovers.
The poems in the sonnet collection vary in their
excellence: While critics note that several are worthy
examples of Elizabethan sonneteering and Sonnet 61 is
a veritable masterpiece, many are also pedestrian and
common. Nonetheless, Ideas Mirrour was popular from
its release. Drayton, who constantly revised and reis-
sued his earlier works, made numerous alterations to
the text between 1594 and his death in 1631. He issued
wholly new versions of the sonnet sequence in 1599,
1600, 1602, 1605, and 1619. Changes included altera-
tions within the poems themselves, the addition of new
sonnets, the omission of others, and ultimately the
rearrangement of the entire sequence. Critics contend
that Drayton’s changes wholly altered the scope of his
work, and that the Ideas Mirrour of 1594 is not the
same text that was released in 1619 (which was reis-
sued under the simpler title of Idea). The individual
sonnets that follow here are the numbers of the 1619
edition, but the text of the 1599 version.
FURTHER READING
Brink, Jean R. Michael Drayton Revisited. Boston: Twayne,
1990.
Buxton, John, ed. The Poems of Michael Drayton. Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1953.
Elton, Oliver. Michael Drayton: A Critical Study. New York:
Russell & Russell, 1966.
Whitaker, Lemuel. “The Sonnets of Michael Drayton.” Mod-
ern Philology 1, no. 4 (1904): 563–567.
Michael CorneliusIdeas Mirrour: Sonnet 12 (“To nothing fi tter
can I thee compare”) MICHAEL DRAYTON (1599)
Sonnet 12, also known as “Amour XII,” fi rst appeared
in the 1599 edition of Ideas Mirrour as Sonnet 14 before
being renumbered for the fi nal 1619 edition. The entire
SONNET SEQUENCE concerns the poet’s love for and
unswerving dedication to a woman he calls Idea, who
has been identifi ed by critics as Lady Anne Rainsford, a
childhood friend of the author’s.
In Sonnet 12, which MICHAEL DRAYTON dedicates
“To the soul” (something he also does for Sonnet 13),
the author interweaves a complex CONCEIT wherein
Idea, his love, is considered to be a physical manifesta-
tion of such divine gifts as will, reason, memory, sense,
conscience, and love, while conversely personifying
these traits through the guise of Idea: “In judging, Rea-
son only is her name; / In speedy apprehension it isIDEAS MIRROUR: SONNET 12 223