Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

Hunsdon, Lady Berckly, Lady Stanhope, Lady Compton, Lady Fielding, Mrs. Gresly, Mrs. Packington, Mrs. K. Fischer, Mrs. Saychoverell, Mrs. M. Fischer, Mrs. Davers, Mrs. Egerton."

I have been induced to make the preceding large extracts from the Mask, in order that the reader may comprehend the nature of these dramatick entertainments; which, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, were performed frequently at Court, and in the private houses of the Nobility, not without prodigious expence in machinery and decoration; to which humour we certainly owe the entertainment of Arcades, and the inimitable mask of Comus. TODD.

ARCADES.

Part of an Entertainment presented to the Countess Dowager of Derby at Harefield, by some noble persons of her family; who appear on the scene in pastoral habit, moving toward the seat of state, with this Song.

I. SONG.

Look, Nymphs and Shepherds, look,
What sudden blaze of majesty

Is that which we from hence descry,

Too divine to be mistook :

Ver. 1. Look, Nymphs and Shepherds, look, &c.] See the ninth division of Spenser's Epithalamion. And Spenser's April, in praise of queen Elizabeth.

"See, where she sits upon the grassie greene, &c."

See also Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess, A. i. S. i. Where the Satyr stops at seeing the shepherdess Clorin.

"The Syrinx bright:

"But behold a fairer sight.

"For in thy sight,

"Shines more aweful majesty, &c." T. WARTON.

Sylvester thus alludes to queen Elizabeth, Du Bart. ed. 1621.

p. 265.

This, this is she

To whom our vows and wishes bend;
Here our solemn search hath end.

"But what new sun dazles my tender

eyes?"

And thus describes the approach of Solomon and his p. 462.

5

spouse, ib.

"Lo, where they com: O what a splendor bright!
"Mine eyes doo dazle."

But see Spenser, Faer. Qu. vi. ix. 8. TODD.

Ver. 5. This, this is she] Our curiosity is gratified in discovering, even from slight and almost imperceptible traits, that Milton had here been looking back to Jonson, the most eminent mask-writer that had yet appeared, and that he had fallen upon some of his formularies and modes of address. For thus Jonson, in an Entertaynment at Altrop 1603. Works, 1616. p. 874. "This is shee,

"This is shee,

"In whose world of grace, &c."

We shall find other petty imitations from Jonson. Milton says, v. 106.

"Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were,

"Yet Syrinx well might wait on her."

So Jonson, ibid. p. 871. Of the queen and young prince.

"That is Cyparissus' face,

"And the dame has Syrinx' grace;

66

O, that Pan were now in place, &c."

Again, Milton says, v. 46.

"And curl the

"In ringlets quaint.”

grove

So Jonson, in a Masque at Welbeck, 1633. v. 15..

"When was old Sherwood's head more quaintly curl'd?"

But see below, at v. 46. And Observat. on Spenser's Faer. Qu. vol. ii. 256. T. WARTON.

Fame, that, her high worth to raise,
Seem'd erst so lavish and profuse,
We may justly now accuse

Of detraction from her praise;

Less than half we find exprest,
Envy bid conceal the rest.

Mark, what radiant state she spreads,
In circle round her shining throne,
Shooting her beams like silver threads;
This, this is she alone,

10

15

The countess of Derby is also addressed in the formulary, This is she, in Marston's Mask. See the Preliminary Notes. And see Crashaw's Verses on the Duke of York's birth:

"Who's this that comes circled in rayes that scorn

66

Acquaintance with the sun? what second morn

"At mid-day opes a presence, which Heauens eyes
"Stands off and points at ; Is't some deity,

66

Stept from her throne of stars, deignes to be seen? "Is it some deity? or is't our Queen?

"'Tis she, 'tis she."

Compare also Par. L. v. 308, &c. to which passage Mr. Dunster likewise agrees with me in referring Crashaw. TODD.

Ver. 13. Envy bid conceal the rest.] Perhaps in reference to Spenser, F. Q. v. xii. 33.

"For whatso Envie good or bad did find,

"She did conceal, &c." TODD.

Ver. 16. Shooting her beams like silver threads:] See the notes on Par. Lost, B. iv. 555. But here Milton seems to bear in mind the cloth of state under which queen Elizabeth is seated, and which is represented, Faer. Qu. v. ix. 28.

"Glistring like gold amongst the plights enrold,

"And here and there shooting forth silver streames,
'Mongst which crept little angels &c." TODD.

[ocr errors]
« VorigeDoorgaan »