The Faerie Land: Michael Drayton's Vision of Britain

“Of Albion's glorious Ile of Wonders ... I write.”
Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion (1612; 1622)

“It is thus that real fairies would speak if they existed.”
C. S. Lewis on Michael Drayton

The Faerie Land is a groundbreaking exhibition inspired by the poet laureate Michael Drayton's (1563-1631) epic topographical poem of England and Wales, Poly-Olbion, a magical, expansive poetic journey through the landscape, history, folk traditions, customs and commodities of early modern England and Wales, imagined county by county. Largely forgotten now, its influence nevertheless ripples through our culture like an underground river.

A 12-year-old John Lennon inscribed Drayton's poetry in his famous juvenilia notebook of 1952; Edith Wharton cited him as her favourite poet; Hardy knew swathes of Poly-Olbion, peppering references through his novels; Seamus Heaney once recited verses in his honour in the churchyard at Clifford Chambers, where Drayton summered, and it is said that Shakespeare spent the last night before his death in April 1616 in a "merry meeting" with Drayton and Ben Jonson, and "it seems drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted."

The Faerie Land represents a taster of the rich artistic output of The Children's Poly-Olbion, a Heritage Lottery and AHRC funded collaboration between Flash of Splendour, Exeter University and the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), in which marginalised and disabled children and young adults across the UK engaged with the texts and maps of Poly-Olbion and cutting edge contemporary artists were invited to create new child-focused works based on the poem.

In addition to the children's powerful and accomplished works, the exhibition features a specially commissioned map of England and Wales by cutting-edge artist cartographer Stephen Walter, a new series of children's illustrations by David McInness and an important collection of 17th Century maps and texts.

Accompanying events include a special preview from 6-9pm on Thursday 10 September, a free concert of Jacobean music on Friday 11 September at 1 pm and a literary talks on Saturday 19 September.