COMUS.

THIS beautiful MASK has given rise to much Criticism, respecting circumstances of the scene to which objections are applied :-we shall briefly consider them with all possible respect-as the authorities are of high eminence.

FIRST It is objected, that there is a considerable impropriety in the SPIRIT addressing the Audience to acquaint them with his nature and mission, in a monologue of extreme length, in the First Scene.— The remark is, however, attempted to be repelled by a reference to the continued CHORUS of the Greek drama never vacating the stage. This palliation will, notwithstanding its tone of triumph, be of little avail, until it is shewn that there is in Comus any CHORUS whatever. The Greek audiences were not Choroides; that constant occupant of their Theatres, denominated the CHORUS, was relevant to the Drama, and as expedience demanded, either of VIRGINS OF SENATORS, SOLDIERS OF PRIESTS. The Address is, in truth, an elegant absurdity-and intended to the audience.

To the SECOND-Dr. JOHNSON has hinted at the ridiculous expedient to celebrate the beauty of Philosophy, and the sanctity of Virginity, in the dispu

tation of the Brothers overtaken by night; and by darkness divided from their Sister. From this charge the Bard may be more easily vindicated-Why they were so long absent is another question-I have to account for the disputation: we find them in the double obscurity of night and a thick shade formed by innumerous boughs. To dissipate the fear of the Younger Brother for his Sister's safety, the Elder descants upon the unassailable nature of virgin purity. In the uncertainty of their situation, to move was dangerous; to expatiate, therefore, while it fortified their minds against alarming apprehension, deceived the weariness of time, combined with the aking privations of silence and darkness.

COMUS, as it is here given, is an adaptation to the modern stage-by the retrenchment of much Dialogue, and the addition of many Airs.-That the Poetry of this beautiful piece suffers by a modern hand can be little doubted. Veneration for the Author might wish it in the original state; but a dramatic exhibition must please to be repeated ;-the aim should be to venture as little innovation as possible. The Music of ARNE, in the modern Comus, is welk known; it is as intelligent as modern music can be.

Let not this article be closed without paying to deceased merits the praise so deservedly their due :From the late Mr. HENDERSON'S performance of Comus was derived one of the most luxuriant feasts

that the writer of this article ever banqueted upon. The jocundity-plausibility-festivity, and voluptuousness he assumed, were among the finest effects of his consummate abilities. His manner of reciting the rich melody of his first speech, and the happy contempt of

"The blabbing Eastern Scout, the nice Morn, &c."

he who has heard will never forget-he who has not will never conceive.

Mis is

9 Colman's 1772 adaptation

Walton's 1738 version.

PREFACE.

THIS Mask was first represented at Ludlow-Castle on Michaelmas-day 1634, before the Right Hon. the Earl of BRIDGEWATER, Lord President of Wales; the principal Performers were the Lord Brackley, Mr. Thomas Egerton, and the Lady Alice Egerton*. In the year 1774 it was abridged, and has ever since been performed as an Afterpiece at the Theatre-Royal in Covent-Garden. The following were the reasons offered to the Public in favour of the Abridgment, and were prefixed to an edition of the piece then published in its curtailed state.

"Pure Poetry, unmixt with passion, however admired "in the closet, has scarce ever been able to sustain itself on "the stage. In this Abridgment of Milton's Comus no cir"cumstance of the drama contained in the original Mask is "omitted. The divine arguments on temperance and

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chastity, together with many descriptive passages, are "indeed expunged or contracted: but, divine as they are, "the most accomplished declaimers have been embarrassed "in the recitation of them: the speaker vainly laboured to 86 prevent a coldness and languor in the audience; and it "cannot be dissembled that The Mask of Comus, with all "its poetical beauties, not only maintained its place on the "theatre chiefly by the assistance of music, but the musie

The Music was originally composed by Sir Henry Lawes, who also represented Avendant Spirit. The present Music is the composition of Dr. Arne,

"itself, as if overwhelmed by the weight of the drama, al"moft sunk with it, and became in a manner lost to the

stage. That music, formerly heard and applauded with rapture is now restored, and the Mask, on the above con66 siderations, is curtailed.

"As a further argument in favour of the drama in its <6 present form, it might perhaps be urged, that the festivity of the character of Comus is heightened by his as"sisting in the vocal parts as well as in the dialogue, and "that theatrical propriety is no longer violated in the cha"racter of the Lady, who now invokes the Echo in her own

person, without absurdly leaving the scene vacant as "heretofore, while another voice warbled out the song "which the Lady was supposed to execute.

"To conclude, it may not be impertinent to observe, "that The Faithful Shepherdess of Beaumont and Fletcher, "which is esteemed one of the most beautiful compositions "in our language, not only afforded our Author the first

hint of this Mask, but that several brilliant passages of "Comus are imitated from that excellent performance; yet "it is remarkable that the play of The Faithful Shepherdess, "being merely poetical, was condemned on its first repre"sentation; for which hard fate, though succeeding critics "have reprehended the barbarism of that age, yet no at"tempt has ever been hazarded to restore the hapless drama "to the stage."