HE text of the poems included in this volume is THE substantially that of Professor Masson's "Globe" edition of Milton's Poetical Works, 1877. I have to thank Messrs Macmillan and Co. for their courtesy in allowing me to use this text. In common with all recent editors of Milton I am under great obligations to Professor Masson. School-editions of Comus and Arcades I have avoided using. As some attention is paid in the notes to points of etymology, I may say that the authors from whom most of the information has been taken are Professor Skeat, Professor Earle, Dr Morris, and, for French words, Brachet. The New English Dictionary, too, has been consulted often. I have endeavoured to reproduce with correctness the views of the writers mentioned; and it need scarcely be added that responsibility for any errors that may be noticed rests with me. V. 209094 b In editing Comus and Arcades I have tried to illustrate the fact that each-especially Comus-was written with a view to actual representation. Remarks therefore have been made in the notes upon the probable details of the performance of either piece; and with the same object a sketch (necessarily brief) of the history of the Masque has been given in the Introduction. Mr Fleay's great work, the Chronicle History of the stage, contains the facts that bear on the development of the Masque, and Mr Symonds in his Shakspere's Predecessors furnishes exactly the criticism that we want, and from him should expect. To each I owe a considerable debt. Mr Leonard Whibley, of Pembroke College, kindly read |