And thus I'll take my Pilgrimage,' etc.
Possibly the publisher tacked on these verses without Scoloker's knowledge. It is quite certain that they were not written by the author of Daiphantus, and there are good reasons for assigning them to Sir Walter Ralegh (see Hannah's edition of Ralegh's Poems, 1885).
The 'Odes' of Michael Drayton (pp. 405-441), drawn from Poems Lyrick and Pastorall (1606?), and the later collection of 1619, contain some of his best writing. There is no need to praise the glorious 'Ballad of Agincourt,' but it may be noted that Drayton spent considerable pains over the revision of this poem. It was fine in its original form, but every change found in the later version was a clear improvement. No signs of the file are visible, and we should certainly judge—unless we had evidence to the contrary—that this imperishable 'ballad' had been thrown off at a white heat. Only inferior to 'Agincourt' is the stirring ode 'To the Virginian Voyage.' Professor Arber, a high authority, is of opinion that it was composed some time before 12th August 1606, on which day the Plymouth Company despatched Captain Henry Challons' ship to North Virginia. In this valedictory address Drayton writes:—
'Your course securely steer,
West-and-by-South forth keep!
Rocks,[7] Lee-shores, nor Shoals,
When Æolus scowls,
You need not fear:
So absolute the deep.'
Captain Challons sailed to Madeira, St. Lucia, Porto Rico, and thence towards North Virginia. His little ship of fifty-five tons, with a crew of twenty-nine Englishmen (and two native Virginians), had the ill-luck on 10th November to fall in with the Spanish fleet of eight ships returning from Havanna. It was captured by the Spaniards and the crew were taken prisoners to Spain.