"1 Br. Vpon these chalkie cliffs of Albion, A soothsayer enters, with whom they converse about the lost lady. "Sooths. Was she fayre? 2 Br. The fayrest for white and the purest for redde, as the blood of the deare or the driuen snowe, &c." In their search Echo replies to their call. They find too late that their sister is under the captivity of a wicked magician, and that she had tasted his cup of oblivion. In the close, after the wreath is torn from the magician's head, and he is disarmed and killed, by a Spirit in the shape and character of a beautiful page of fifteen years old, she still remains subject to the magician's enchantment. But in a subsequent scene the Spirit enters, and declares, that the Sister cannot be delivered but by a lady, who is neither maid, wife, nor widow. The Spirit blows a magical horn, and the Lady appears; she dissolves the charm, by breaking a glass, and extinguishing a light, as I have before recited. A curtain is withdrawn, and the Sister is seen seated and asleep. She is disenchanted and restored to her senses, having been spoken to thrice. She then rejoins her two brothers, with whom she returns home; and the Boy-Spirit vanishes under the earth. The magician is here called "inchanter vile," as in Comus, v. 907. There is another circumstance in this play, taken from the old English Apuleius. It is where the Old Man every night is transformed by our magician into a bear, recovering in the day-time his natural shape. Among the many feats of magic in this play, a bride newly married gains a marriage-portion by dipping a pitcher into a well. As she dips, there is a voice: "Faire maiden, white and red, "Combe me smoothe, and stroke my head, "Gently dippe, but not too deepe, "For feare thou make the golden beard to weepe! "Faire maiden, white and redde, "Combe me smoothe, and stroke my head: "And every haire a sheaue shall be, "And every sheaue a golden tree!" With this stage-direction, “ A head comes up full of gold; she combs it into her lap." I must not omit, that Shakspeare seems also to have had an eye on this play. It is in the scene where " The Haruest-men enter with a Song." Again, "Enter the Haruest-men singing with women in their handes." Frolicke says, "Who have we here, our amourous harueststarres?" They sing, "Loe, here we come a reaping, a reaping, "To reape our harvest-fruite; "And thus we passe the yeare so long, "And never be we mute." Compare the Mask in the Tempest, A. iv. S. i. where Iris says, "You sun-burnt sicklemen, of August weary, "Make holy-day: your rye-straw hats put on, "In country footing." Where is this stage-direction, "Enter certain reapers, properly habited: they join with the nymphs in a graceful dance." The Tempest probably did not appear before the year 1612. That Milton had his eye on this ancient drama, which might have been the favourite of his early youth, perhaps it may at least be affirmed with as much credibility, as that he conceived the Paradise Lost, from seeing a mystery at Florence, written by Andreini a Florentine in 1617, entitled Adamo. In the mean time it must be confessed, that Milton's magician, Comus, with his cup and wand, is ultimately founded on the fable of Circe. The effects of both characters are much the same. They are both to be opposed at first with force and violence. Circe is subdued by the virtues of the herb Moly, which Mercury gives to Ulysses, and Comus, by the plant Harmony, which the Spirit gives to the Two Brothers. About the year 15, a Mask called the Inner Temple Masque, written by William Browne, author of Britannia's Pastorals, was presented by the students of the Inner Temple. It has been lately printed from a manuscript in the library of Emanuel College: but I have been informed, that a few copies were printed soon after the presentation. It was formed on the story of Circe, and perhaps might have suggested some few hints to Milton. The genius of the best poets is often determined, if not directed, by circumstance and accident. It is natural, that even so original a writer as Milton should have been biassed by the reigning poetry of the day, by the composition most in fashion, and by subjects recently brought forward, but soon giving way to others, and almest as soon totally neglected and forgotten. WARTON. Doctor Newton had also observed, that Milton formed the plan of Comus very much upon the episode of Circe in the Odyssey: And Dr Johnson, in his life of Milton, says, that the fiction is derived from Homer's Circe. But a learned and ingenious annotator on the Lives of the Poets is of opinion, notwithstanding the great biographer's assertion, that "it is rather taken from the Comus of Erycius Puteanus, in which, under the fiction of a dream, the characters of COMUS and his attendants are delineated, and the delights of sensualists exposed and reprobated. This little tract was published at Louvain in 1611, and afterwards at Oxford in 1634, the very year in which Milton's Comus, was written." Note signed H. in Johnson's Lives of the Poets, vol. i. p. 134, edit. 1790, and p. 123, edit. 1794. In Remarks on the Arabian Nights Entertainments by RICHARD HOLE, L. L. B. Lond. 1797, this observation has been confirmed by various extracts from Puteanus's work. "Milton certainly read this performance with such attention, as led, perhaps imperceptibly, to imitation.-His Comus Offers to every weary traveller His orient liquor in a chrystal glass. In Puteanus, one of his attendants discharges that office. Hic [in limine] adolescens cum amphorâ et cyatho stabat et intrantibus propinabat vinum. [p. 35, ed. 1611.] From the following passage, Milton seems to have derived his idea of the mode, in which he first in troduces the voluptuous enchanter. Interea COMVS, luxu lasciviâque stipatus, ingreditur : et quid attinet pompam explicare? Hore suavissimos Veris odores, omnemque florum purpuram spargebant. Amorem Gratia, Delicia, Lepores, ceteræque Hilaritatis illices sequebantur: Voluptatem Risus, Iocusque. Cum Saturitate soror Ebrietas erat, crine fluxo, rubentis Aurore vultu: manu thyrsum quatiebat; ac breviter totum Bacchum expresserat. [p. 30, ed. supr.] These figurative personages recal to our minds, Meanwhile welcome Joy, and Feast, Midnight Shout, and Revelry, Tipsy Dance, and Jollity. In the same speech our poet evidently has in view a lively Anacreontic Ode, which the Comus of Puteanus likewise addresses to his dissipated votaries.” Hole's Remarks, &c. pp. 233, 234. The lines, which Mr. Hole has extracted from this Ode, are given as" resemblances which can hardly be considered accidental;" and he adds, "whoever chooses to compare farther the poetical address of Comus in each author, will find a similar spirit and congeniality of thought, though the Dutch Muse in point of chastity is very inferior to the British." Remarks, &c. p. 236.* Milton, however, in his imitations of Puteanus, has interwoven many new allusions and refined sentiments. Puteanus, it must be acknowledged, is sprightly as well as poignant. But in his Comus we shall search in vain for the delicacy of expression and vigour of fancy, which we find in the Comus of Milton. From the indecencies also in Puteanus the reader will turn away with disgust; but to the jollities in Milton he can listen "unreproved," because, as Dr. Johnson has observed, his "invitations to pleasure are so general, that they excite no distinct images of corrupt enjoyment, and take no dangerous hold on the fancy. The late ingenious Mr. Headley, in the Supplement to his Select Beauties of Ancient English Poetry, 1787,directs the reader of Milton's Comus to the Christ's Victorie of Giles Fletcher; in which the story of Circe is introduced. TODD. *Other resemblances are pointed out by Mr. Todd in his edition of Milton's Poetical Works. L. THE PERSONS. The Attendant Spirit, afterwards in the habit of Thyrsis. Comus, with his Crew. The Lady. First Brother. Second Brother. Sabrina, the Nymph. The chief Persons, who presented, were - The Lord Brackley. Mr. Thomas Egerton, his Brother. The Lady Alice Egerton. COMUS. The first Scene discovers a wild Wood. The Attendant Spirit descends or enters. BEFORE the starry threshold of Jove's court In regions mild of calm and serene air Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot, Which men call Earth; and, with low-thoughted care 5 10 Verse 7.-pester'd] Pester'd is crowded. Ital. pesta, a crowd or throng. TODD. Ib.-pin-fold.] Pin-fold is now provincial, and signifies sometimes a sheep-fold, but most commonly a pound. WARTON. V. 11. the enthron'd gods.] *Fenton reads th' enthroned. Warton would prefer this tamer expression," the gods enthron'd." Dr. Newton is with Fenton. Mr. Todd contends for the old reading. How an admirer of Milton could hesitate one moment is astonishing. Besides the collocation, which is very poetical, and quite Miltonic, the accent is designedly placed on the first syllable, enthron'd. Have we not had already serene?-and, further on, there is perplex'd, and other instances without end. It is one of the leading characteristics of his versification. L. Milton's allusion in this line is scriptural. So, in G. Fletcher's Christ's Victorie, Part iii. st. 51. "And ye glad Spirits, that now sainted sit] |