COM US.

* "A Mask prefented at Ludlow-castle."] Some idea of this caftle, in which COMUS was acted with great splendour, and which is now ruinous and perishing, may not be unacceptable to those who read Milton with the fond attentions of a lover. It was founded on a ridge of rock overlooking the river Corve, by Roger Montgomery, about the year 1112, in the reign of king Henry the firft. But without entering into its more obfcure and early annals, I will rather exhibit the state in which it might be supposed to fubfift, when Milton's drama was performed. Thomas Churchyard in a Poem called The WORTHINES OF WALES, printed in 1587, has a Chapter entitled "The "Caftle of Ludloe." In one of the ftate-apartments, he mentions a fuperb efcocheon in stone of the Arms of Prince Arthur; and an empalement of Saint Andrew's Cross with Prince Arthur's Arms, painted in the windows of the Hall. And in the Hall and Chambers, he says, there was a variety of rich workmanship, fuitable to fo magnificent a caftle. In it is a Chapel, he adds, "moft trim and cotly, fo bravely "wrought, fo fayre and finely framed, &c." About the wails of this Chapel, were fumptuously painted "a great device, a worke moft riche "and rare," the Arms of many kings of England, and of the lords of the Castle, from fir Walter Lacie the firit lord, &c. "The armes "of al thefe afore fpoken of, are gallantly and cunningly fet out in "that Chapell.-Now is to be rehearsed, that fir Harry Sidney being "lord Prefident buylt twelve roomes in the fayd Castle, which goodly "buildings doth fhewe a great beautie to the fame. He made alfo a goodly Wardrobe underneath the new Parlor, and repayred an old "tower called Mortymer's Tower, to keepe the auncient recordes in "the fame and he repayred a fayre roume under the Court-house, "and made a great wall about the wood yard, and built a moit "braue Conduit within the inner Court: And all the newe buildings "over the Gate, fir Harry Sidney, in his dayes and government "there, made and fet out, to the honour of the queene, and the glorie of the Castle. There are, in a goodly or ftately place, fet out "my lorde earl of Warwick's Arms, the earl of Darbie, the earl of "Worcester, the car! of Pembroke, and fir Harry Sidney's Armes in "like manner: al thefe ftand on the left fide of the [great] Cham"ber. On the other fide, are the Armes of Northwales and South"wales

"wales, two red lyons and two golden lyons [for] Prince Arthur. At "the end of the Dyning Chamber, there is a pretty device, how the "hedge-hog broke his chayne, and came from Ireland to Ludloe. "There is in the Hall a great grate of iron, [a portcullis] of a huge "height." fol. 79. In the Hall, or one of the great Chambers, COMUS was acted. We are told by David Powell the Welch hiftorian, that fir Henry Sidney knight, made lord President of Wales in 1564, repaired the Caftle of Ludlowe, which is the cheefeft house within "the Marches, being in great decaie, as the Chapell, the Courthouse, "and a faire Fountaine, &c. Alfo he erected diuers new buildings "within the faid Caftell, &c." HIST. of CAMBRIA, edit. 1580. p. 401. 4to. In this caftle, The Creation of Prince Charles to the Principality of Wales and Earldom of Chester, afterwards Charles the First, was kept as a festival, and folemnifed with uncommon magnificence, in the year 1616. See a Narrative entitled "The Loue of "Wales to their Soueraigne Prince, &c." Lond. 1616. 4to. Many of the exteriour towers ftill remain. But the royal apartments, and other rooms of ftate, are abandoned, defaced, and lie open to the weather. It was an extenfive and stately fabric. Over the stable-doors are the arms of queen Elizabeth, Lord Pembroke, &c. Frequent tokens of antient pomp peep out from amidit the rubbish of the mouldering fragments. Prince Arthur, abovementioned, fon of Henry the seventh, died in 1502, in this caftle, which was the palace of the Prince of Wales, appendent to his principality. It was conftantly inhabited by his deputies, ftyled the Lords prefidents of Wales, till the principality-court, a feparate jurifdiction, was diffolved by king William. The caftle was reprefented in one of the scenes of Milton's Mask.

"Before the earl of Bridgewater, then prefident of Wales."] Sir John Egerton fon of Thomas lord Chancellor Egerton, knight of the Bath, earl of Bridgewater, Baron of Elefmere, and lord Prefident of Wales, before whom CoмUS was prefented at Ludlow-caftle, in 1634, married Frances fecond daughter of Ferdinando fifth earl of Derby. And thus it was for the fame family that Milton wrote both ARCADES and COMUS for the countefs dowager of Derby, before whom ARCADES was prefented, was mother to Lady Bridgewater, and, if Dugdale is to be credited, mother in law to Lord Bridgewater her husband. See above, p. 109.

Lord Bridgewater died in 1649. His Lady in 1635. They had fifteen children. John lord vifcount Brackley, the third fon, and who performed the part of the FIRST BROTHER in our Mafk, fucceeded to his father's inheritable titles, and was at length of the Privy-Council to king Charles the fecond. He died, aged fixty-four, in 1686. He was therefore only twelve years old when he acted in COMUS. And his brother Thomas, who played the SECOND BROTHER was ftill younger. Hence, in the dialogue between Comus and the Lady, v.289. Com. Were they of manly prime, or youthful bloɔm ? Lad. As fmooth as Hebe's their unrazor'd lips. Chauncy, the hiftorian of Hertfordshire, who was well acquainted with John Lord Brackley, fays that he was a nobleman of the moft valuable

P

valuable and amiable qualities: " he was of a middling ftature, with “black hair, a round visage, a modest and grave aspect, a sweet and "pleasant countenance, and comely prefence. He was a learned man, "and delighted much in his library, &c." HIST. HERTF. p. 554. This account of his perfon, perfectly correfponds with Milton's defcription of his beauty while a boy and the panegyric, we may fuppofe, was as juftly due to his younger brother Thomas. Com. v. 298. Their port was more than human, as they stood:

I took it for a faery vision

Of fome gay creatures of the element,

That in the colours of the rainbow live,
And play i' th' plighted clouds. I was aw. ftruck,
And, as I paft, I worshipt.

Again, the Lady requests Echo, v. 236.

Canft thou not tell me of a gentle pair

That likeft thy Narciffus are?

Mr. Thomas Egerton abovementioned, who performed the part of the SECOND BROTHER, was a fourth fon, and died unmarried at the age of twenty three.

The Lady Alice Egerton, probably fo named from her grandmother the countess dowager of Derby, who acted the Lady in Coмus, was the eleventh daughter, and could not now have been more than thirteen years old. She married Richard Lord Vaughan in England and lord Carbury in Ireland. She died without children. More will be faid of her hereafter.

All that I have mentioned, and many more, of the family, are buried under a stately monument in the church of Gadefden in Hertfordshire, but bordering upon Buckinghamshire. There is a long infcription to the memory of the father, the lord Prefident of Wales, who, among other most refpectable accomplishments is there faid to have been "a profound fcholar." It was lucky, that at least the chief perfon of the audience was capable of understanding the many learned allufions in this drama. The family lived at Afhridge, antiently a royal palace, in the parish of Gadefden, and ftill inhabited by their illuftrious defcendant the prefent duke of Bridgewater. Milton, as we have feen, lived in the neighbourhood; and, as at Harefield, was thence employed to write this Mafk, on occafion of Lord Bridgewater entering upon his official refidence at Ludlow-cattle. The two young noblemen, John Lord Brackley, and Mr. Thomas Egerton, were practitioners in the bufinefs of acting Mafques; and, although fo very young, had before appeared on a higher stage. They acted in a Mafque called COELUM BRITANNICUM, written by that elegant poet, the rival of Waller, Thomas Carew, and performed in 1633, in the Banquetting-house at Whitehall, on Shrovetuesday-night. See Carew's POEMS, p.215. edit. 1651. It is more than probable, that they played among the young nobility, together with their fifter the Lady Alice, in ARCADES. Where fee v. 26. feq. Their fifter, Penelope Egerton, a fixth daughter, acted at court with the queen and other ladies, in Jonfon's Mafque of CHLORIDIA at fhrove-tide, 1630. WORKS, Vol.vi.211.

To the Right Honourable,

JOHN Lord Vicount BRACLY, fon and heir apparent to the Earl of BRIDGEWATER, &c.

MY LORD,

TH

HIS poem, which received its first occafion of birth from yourself and others of your noble family, and much honour from your own perfon in the performance, now returns again to make a finall dedication of itself to you. Although not openly acknowledged by the author, yet it is a legitimate off-spring, so lovely, and fo much defired, that the often copying of it hath tired my pen to give my feverall friends fatisfaction, and brought me to a neceffity of producing it to the publike view; and now to offer it up in all rightfull devotion to those fair hopes, and rare endowments of your much promising youth, which give a full affurance, to all that know you, of a future excellence. Live, fweet Lord, to be the honour of your name, and receive this as your own, from the hands of him, who hath by many favours been long obliged to your most honoured parents, and as in this representation your attendant THYRSIS, fo now in all reall expreffion

Your faithfull and most

humble Servant,

H. LAW ES.

The Copy of a Letter written by Sir HENRÝ WOOTTON, to the Author, upon the following

Poem.

SIR,

IT

From the Colledge, this 13. of April, 1638.

T was a special favour, when you lately beftowed upon me here, the first taste of your acquaintance, though no longer then to make me know that I wanted more time to value it, and to enjoy it rightly; and in truth, if I could then have imagined your farther stay in these parts, * which I understood afterwards by Mr. H., I would have

"Which I understood afterwards by Mr. H."] Perhaps Milton's friend Samuel Hartlib, whom I have feen mentioned in fome of the pamphlets of this period, as well acquainted with fir Henry Wootton. Hartlib was a native of Holland; and being fettled in England, probably became intimate with Milton by means of Thomas Young, Paftor to the English merchants at Hamburgh, Milton's preceptor. Hartlib was warmly attached to the parliament. He was concerned in publishing fome of the pieces written by his friend John Dury, a voluminous and bufy pamphleteer, a Scotch fectarist, firft a prefbyterian and afterwards an independent. Among these are, Seafonable Difcourfe for Reformation, Lond. 1649. 4to. -The Reformed School, Lond. 1650. 12m0. Supplement to the Reformed School, Lond. 1651. 12mo. Thee two laft are new projects for the education of youth. The unchanged conflant and fingle-hearted Peace-maker, &c. Or a Vindication of Mr. J. Durie, &c. Lond. 1650. 4to. An Epiftolary Difcourfe on Toleration, &c. 1644. 4to. It is a defence of independence; and is addressed to Nye and Godwin, two popular prefbyterian minifters, and to Samuel Hartlib, In 1654, three treatifes by different authors were printed together, on The true and ready way to learn the Latin tongue. These were published by Hartlib; who prefixed a panegyrical Dedication to Francis Roufe, Speaker of the Long Parliament. Hartlib alfo publifhed, Twiffe's Doubting Confcience refolved, Lond. 1652. 4to. A tract of calvinistic cafuistry.

About the year 1650, Milton printed a small piece in one sheet, in quarto, A TREATISE OF EDUCATION TO MASTER SAMUEL HART