Poly-Olbion Project

Towards a critical edition of Michael Drayton's Poly-Olbion.

[Poly-Olbion Project @Poly_Olbion]

Look what landed! Poly-Olbion has its first ever volume of essays.

[Poly-Olbion Project @Poly_Olbion]

One of the questions we get asked the most is: how many rivers are named in Poly-Olbion? According to our index, the answer is 397.

[Poly-Olbion Project @Poly_Olbion]

@RuthSlatter @CathAMClarke @VCH_London 🙏 While you’re both there, can I try one more? We’ve finished annotating PO & of all the 15k lines there’s one that bugs me more than any other. It’s in the ‘clownish blazons’ of counties: ‘And Berkshire hath for hers, Let’s to’t and toss the ball’ (23.245) 🤷‍♂️

[Poly-Olbion Project @Poly_Olbion]

@poppyseedpasta So it feels like there’s something in the descriptions that aligns with the ‘witch’ myth, but that’s not exactly what they’re saying. So not enough evidence for a footnote, without a clearer source. (That said, talking witches were a more delicate subject in the early 17C.)

[Poly-Olbion Project @Poly_Olbion]

Ok, we’re at the stage of annotating the maps - yes, the maps. Last(ish) task. So stand by for a thread that will last a few weeks…

[Poly-Olbion Project @Poly_Olbion]

@poppyseedpasta That’s interesting. Do you have any references on the history of that myth? In the poem, she’s definitely an anthropomorphised figure of the cave. Camden (Drayton’s main source) also stops short of mentioning a witch, but compares Wookey Hole to the Italians’ ‘Sibyls Cave’. 1/2

[Poly-Olbion Project @Poly_Olbion]

Not many poets could have written these opening lines to a pastoral eclogue: Drayton’s ‘Sixth Nymphal’, from Muses Elizium (1630). He’s a (relatively) rare example of a poet who, in many respects, got better with age.

[Poly-Olbion Project @Poly_Olbion]

Full disclosure: it will be up to Philip to draft the ‘British history’ sections of the edition introduction, so I’m free here to speculate. Kind of wondering what he’ll say …

[Poly-Olbion Project @Poly_Olbion]

A new year’s Poly-Olbion provocation: to what extent did Drayton really - I mean, really - believe all that stuff he read in Geoffrey of Monmouth about the Britons, Brutus, Arthur, etc? 1/?

[Poly-Olbion Project @Poly_Olbion]

So did he really believe it, or did he just like the way it lent shape & purpose to his poem? Or, at least, its first half; he pretty much buries the British history in the songs published in 1622.

[David Cooper @DrDavidCooper]

Mersey Paradise: walking through the Garston-Speke Nature Reserve, between cloudbursts, earlier on today #Liverpool

[Dan Bell @DanBell__]

Thank you to everyone who has supported my map illustrations this year. As a small thanks I'd like to give one person a map print of their choice from the selection available on my website. Simply RT if you'd like to take part, and I'll pick a winner at random on New Years Day 🗺️

[Poly-Olbion Project @Poly_Olbion]

@f_r_gell @BiosphereIOM If recent poems are of interest, try https://t.co/uX7rBpQZq5

[Poly-Olbion Project @Poly_Olbion]

Also, as part of the same review, we now have an index of British people and places - with a grand total of 2278 entries! 😮‍💨 4/4

[Poly-Olbion Project @Poly_Olbion]

Just finished, a few hours ahead of schedule, the latest (last-ish?) review of the Poly-Olbion commentary. The focus this time was rivers: we had them all(ish) identified, but we hadn’t accounted for the connections, or geographical narratives they tell. 1/3ish

[Poly-Olbion Project @Poly_Olbion]

Arguably the key (and overlooked) word on this title-page is the verb ‘digested’. He’s telling us how he worked: he’s not creating new knowledge, but gathering together knowledge that exists, usually (albeit with notable exceptions) from impeccable, recent sources.

[Poly-Olbion Project @Poly_Olbion]

On the creation of ‘citied’ as a verb.

Drayton’s hermit lives: ‘a sweet retired life, / From … from the loathsome airs of smoky citied towns’ (13.164-6)

So much insight here about the environmental change that defines the urban experience. He’s writing in early 17C London.