self to deeds of charity and hospitality. The Countess' first husband had been married twice prior to his marriage to her, and her second husband had been married once before; their children had intermarried, and at the date of this masque she (at seventy) had numerous children and grandchildren. It was they who planned this entertainment in memory of the many which the venerable lady had witnessed. The two sons of the Earl of Bridgewater already mentioned as taking part in Cœlum Britannicum, now the Countess' step-sons, were pupils of Lawes, and it was therefore natural that they should want him to take charge of the music; it was also natural that he should ask Milton to furnish the text, -speeches and songs being a part of the extensive pageant, Arcades.

4. mistook. Milton is fond of those old forms. Cf. Nativity, 20; Comus, 558.

8-13. Fame that

erst, etc. An allusion to the tributes to the Countess by Spenser and those who had written masques in her honor.

14-19. Mark what radiant state, etc. An allusion to the actual surroundings of the Countess in the masque.

(M.)

20. Latona. The mother of Apollo and Diana. 21. the towered Cybele. Cybele, the wife of Saturn and "the mother of the gods," wore a diadem of three towers.

Cf. Eneid, vi. 784-786:

"The Berycinthian mother rides tower-crowned through the towns of Phrygia, proud of the gods that have sprung from her." Cf. Faerie Queene, IV. xi. 28:

"Old Cybele, arrayd with pompous pride,

Wearing a Diademe embattild wide

With hundred turrets," etc.

23. Juno dares not give her odds. Could not afford to give her any advantage in a contest for beauty. Masson gives an interesting interpretation of this passage. He says it should be read with the picture of the venerable lady before us as she appeared on that evening of the masque, throned, and surrounded by two generations of her descendants. "Does it not

granel

v.p.173

then mean, even now, the handsomest of her daughters must do her best to keep up with her?"

26. gentle. Of gentle blood. Masson assumes that Lawes took the part of Genius of the Wood.

27. honour. Nobility of birth.

30, 31. Divine Alpheus, etc. Alpheus was the name of a river in Arcadia which ran underground for some distance. The legend was that Alpheus, a young hunter, was in love with a nymph Arethusa, and when she fled from him to Ortygia in Sicily, he was turned into a river and followed her under the sea, rising again in Ortygia where the waters blended with those of a fountain called after her, Arethusa. Cf. Lycidas, 85, 132, and Eneid, iii. 694-696 :

"Alpheus the river of Elis made himself a secret passage under the sea; and he now, through thy mouth, Arethusa, blends with the waters of Sicily."

33. silver-buskined Nymphs. The ladies of the masque wearing buskins, as did Diana and her nymphs. Cf. Eneid, 340-41. 336, 337 :

"Tyrian maidens like me are wont to carry the quiver and tie the purple buskin high up the calf."

34. free. noble or generous.

46. curl. Drayton, in his Polyolbion, alluding to a grove says, "Where she her curled head unto the eye may

show."

47. wanton windings wove. Cf. Faerie Queene, I. ii. 13, for alliteration:

"Whose bridle rung with golden bels and bosses brave." (M.)

(M.)

51. thwarting. Athwart or zigzag. 52. cross dire-looking planet. Alluding to the malignant influence of planets. Cf. Hamlet, i. 1 :

"Then no planets strike,' etc.

53. hurtful worm. Cf. Lycidas, 46.

57. tasselled horn.

Cf. Faerie Queene, I. viii. 3:

"Then tooke that Squire an horne of bugle small,
Which hong adowne his side in twisted gold

And tasselles gay."

Milton's idea of

60. murmurs. Charms. Cf. Comus, 526. 63-73. the celestial Sirens' harmony, etc. the music of the spheres is that each of the nine spheres is presided over by a Muse. As the spheres revolve, the Muses sing in harmony, while the Fates are turning the spindle of Necessity (adamantine) on which the threads of human and divine lives are wound. Cf. Plato, Republic, x. Chap. 14.

70. unsteady Nature. Such Nature seemed until the law of the whole was understood.

72, 73. which none can hear, etc. Cf. Merchant of Venice, v. 1:

"But whilst this muddy vesture of decay

Doth grossly close us in, we cannot hear it."

Cf. Tennyson, Higher Pantheism:

"And the ear of man cannot hear, and the eye of man cannot

88, 89. shady roof, etc. Cf. Faerie Queene, I. i. 7 :

"Whose loftie trees, yclad with sommer's pride,
Did spred so broad, that heaven's light did hide,
Not perceable with power of any starr."

97-109. Ladon's, etc. Ladon was a river in Arcadia. Lycæus, Cyllene and Manalus, mountains of Arcadia. Syrinx, a nymph who, being pursued by Pan, was changed into a reed of which Pan made his pipe.

Masson thinks the allusion here is to the masque of Ben Jonson's, which the Countess may have seen many years before at her home, Althorpe.

"And the dame hath Syrinx' grace;

O that Pan were now in place."

!

TEXTUAL

The more important readings in the Cambridge Mss. are as follows:

1, 2. Milton originally used a different metre:

"Look, Nymphs and Shepherds, look! here ends our quest, Since at last our eyes are blest."

These lines were dashed out with a cross line to begin as now. 10-14. These four lines were :

"Now seems guilty of abuse

And detraction from her praise :

Less than half she hath expressed;
Envy bid her hide the rest."

"Her hide" is erased and "conceal" written over it.

18. Sitting, was "seated."

23. Juno. This was erased and "Ceres" substituted, and again "Ceres" erased and "Juno" restored.

24. had, was "would have."

41. What shallow-searching, was "Those virtues which dull." 44. am, was "have."

59. This line was, "And number all my ranks and every sprout."

62. locked up mortal sense, was "chained mortality."

81. ye, was "you."

91. you, was "ye."

1634-1637-1645

COMUS

(Two copies, one, Lawes' stage-copy; and the other in Milton's own hand in the Cambridge MSS.)

Green says:

"The historic interest of Milton's Comus lies in its forming part of a protest made by the more cultured Puritans

at this time against the gloomier bigotry which persecution was fostering in the party at large."

In respect of the time, nature of the occasion, and the characters involved, Comus and Arcades are closely connected. Sir John Egerton, first Earl of Bridgewater, was the son of the Countess-Dowager's second husband, Sir Thomas Egerton, by a previous marriage; he married Frances, daughter of the Countess by her first husband, Lord Strange. Their children were the two sons who acted in the masque Cœlum Britannicum, and who were concerned in the previous masque Arcades; two married daughters, and the beautiful Lady Alice, unmarried. Sir John was appointed Lord President of the Council in the principality of Wales in June, 1631. The official seat was at Ludlow Castle in Shropshire, built by the descendants of the Conqueror. The site of the castle, on the rocky heights above the green valley where two rivers meet, is beautiful and commands a magnificent outlook over the surrounding country. Its associations are those of the old wars of Welsh and Norman, the Wars of the Roses, and the history of the Prince of Wales.

"Child of loud-throated War! the mountain stream
Roars in thy hearing; but thy hour of rest

Is come, and thou art silent in thy age."

The Earl did not assume the duties of office until 1634. The festivities of inauguration were enlivened by the performance of a masque in the great hall of the castle by members of the Earl's family, in the presence of a distinguished assembly of guests, on Michaelmas Night, September 29.

The association of the two young sons of the Earl with Lawes in the Cœlum Britannicum, and with Lawes and Milton in Arcades, is sufficient to account for their respective parts in this distinguished pageant. Lady Alice took the part of The Lady, the two brothers the parts of first and second Brother respectively, and Lawes himself that of the Attendant Spirit. The name Comus was not applied to the masque during Milton's life. In the Cambridge Ms. it is- "A Masque Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634, before the Earl of Bridgewater, Lord