into the hall by torchbearers, while the musicians played. The women first danced alone; then the men alone; and then the men and women together. After they had danced the slow and stately dances assigned to them, the "Morris dancers," probably professionals, came in to dance the more lively and the less dignified measures. At this early time there was no singing or speaking.

Gradually scenery and conversation were introduced. At an entertainment at Westminster Hall in the year 1501 a castle on wheels, after the fashion of the wagons on which the Miracle plays were enacted, was drawn into the hall with eight "goodly and fresh ladies" looking out of the windows. To these ladies came Hope and Desire as ambassadors in love from certain knights. The ladies scorned the suit; whereupon the knights stormed the castle and carried off the ladies as prizes. The dance then began. Soon it became common for little scenes with speaking and singing to precede and explain the dance. The characters were, for the most part, not men and women out of real life, but virtues and vices personified, and the gods and goddesses of classical mythology.

In the early years of the seventeenth century the mask received a remarkable development. The best poets of the time contributed the words; the best musicians of the time wrote the music; the best architects were employed upon the scenery. The costumes were extravagant. Variety was introduced in the form of an antimask, in which professional players performed comic dances to give relief to the slow and stately measures. Members of the nobility and of learned societies vied with one another to make these entertainments elaborate, until the expense of producing a mask became enormous. The Triumph of Peace, performed in 1634 by four learned societies, is said to have cost the almost incredible sum of $100,000.

The mask, then, differed from the ordinary drama in the following particulars :

(1) The scenery was elaborate.

(2) The costumes were unusually expensive.

(3) Music and dancing were the important factors.
(4) The characters were allegorical and supernatural.

(5) The dignified parts were taken by amateur actors, persons of high social standing. Only the comic antimask was given over to professionals. (For a more complete account of the mask, see Introduction to Evans's English Masque.)

Comus was written to celebrate the entrance of John, Earl of Bridgewater, upon his duties as Lord President of Wales, and was performed at Ludlow Castle in September, 1634. Inigo Jones, a famous architect of the time, contrived the scenery. Lawes, a musician of London and tutor to the children of the Earl, wrote the music and had general charge of the performance. Lawes himself played the part of the Attendant Spirit. The parts of the Lady and the Two Brothers were taken by the children of the Earl.

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

LINES 5-11. Express the thought in plain language.
LINES 12-13. See Matthew xvi. 19.

LINES 19-33. Explain how all this mythology is worked into an elaborate compliment to the Earl of Bridgewater. Line 33 is an appeal to local feeling.

LINES 37-38. Keep the scene before the mind. Remember that the best architect of the time contrived the scenery. LINES 50-72. What is the difference between the power of Circe (see Gayley's Classic Myths, pp. 318 ff.) and that of Comus? Give both a dramatic and a symbolic reason for making the potion of Comus affect the head only.

LINES 73-77.

What is the allegorical meaning? LINES 93 ff. "Comus" is a Greek word meaning revelry. Comus and his rout present the antimask. The parts were taken by hired actors. Picture the scene (see stage directions). Explain the change in the meter. What is the effect of the change?

LINE 118. Scan the line.

LINE 126. Explain how this is a low standard of morals, and so expresses the moral depravity of Comus.

LINES 129-133. What is the effect of the change in the meter?

LINE 144. The speaking stops here, while Comus and his company dance.

LINE 145. Why change from the short rhymed couplet to blank verse?

LINES 153-154. What does the actor do as he pronounces these lines? (Cf. line 165.)

LINE 179. Explain the etymology and history of "wassail." LINES 188-190. Note how definite is the picture of the coming of night. Explain "sad," "votarist," "palmer," "weed," "Phoebus," "wain."

LINES 219–225. "Notice the ingenious device by which the Spirit, hiding above, is enabled to confirm the Lady's faith, and the audience is reminded of his presence and his purpose."

LINES 230-243. Read aloud to catch the rhythm. Look up the story of Echo and Narcissus in a classical dictionary.

LINE 243. "Add the charm of Echo to the music of the spheres" (Bell). Explain "the music of the spheres."

LINE 244. What two persons are complimented?

LINE 254. The Naiades were water nymphs. What were wood nymphs called (line 964)?

M

LINE 262. Are these words appropriate in the mouth of Comus?

LINE 273. "Extreme" is accented on the first syllable. (Cf. "complete," line 420.) In Milton and Shakespeare, adjectives of two syllables are accented on the first syllable if the word following is accented on the first syllable. Otherwise the adjective takes the accent on the last syllable. Explain how the metrical requirements determine this law.

LINES 331 ff. How do the two brothers differ in temperament? Is the dialogue dramatic?

LINES 381-384. Memorize.

LINES 441-452. What is peculiar about Milton's interpretation of the myths of Diana and Minerva? (For the myths, see Classical Dictionary.)

LINE 495. The waters stop in their course to listen. Cf. Il Penseroso, 59.

LINE 553. One manuscript reads "drowsy frighted;" another, "drowsy flighted." Which seems the better?

LINES 555-562. A splendid example of exaggeration used for compliment to Lady Alice.

LINE 637. Where has the story which is here referred to been mentioned before?

LINE 656. Why does the Spirit leave to the brothers the task of rescuing the Lady?

LINES 667 ff. Explain how truth and falsehood are craftily mixed in the words of Comus. Has the conversation which follows any bearing upon the notions about life held by the Cavaliers and the Puritans? Milton is not quite in sympathy with either party.

LINES 756-800. Milton has forgotten that it is the Lady who is talking, and speaks in his own person. Note other undramatic passages in the poem.

LINE 814. Why does Milton make the success of the brothers only partial?

LINES 922 ff. Read aloud to get the beauty of the lines, and to visualize the imagery.

LINE 957. The second part of the antimask.

LINE 965. What takes place on the stage, lines 965-966 ? LINE 1000. For Venus and Adonis, see Classical Dictionary. LINE 1005. For Cupid and Psyche, see Pater's Marius the Epicurean, Chapter V, or William Morris's Earthly Paradise.

TOPICS FOR ESSAYS AND REPORTS

1. The Structure of L' Allegro and Il Penseroso.

2. The Story of Orpheus and Eurydice.

3. The Story of Echo and Narcissus.

4. The Story of Cupid and Psyche.

5. The Powers of Circe and Comus.

6. How far Milton was a Puritan.

7. The Mask and the Drama compared.

8. Milton's Political Life.

THE GOLDEN TREASURY, BOOK IV

The poems of this book belong, for the most part, to the first thirty years of the nineteenth century, the blossoming time of modern English poetry. The tendency toward the emotional and imaginative, which had steadily increased during the last half of the eighteenth century, reached its climax with the publication of The Lyrical Ballads in 1798, and maintained ascendency for the next quarter of a century in the poetry of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, and Keats. This poetry has the following marked characteristics :

(1) Much of it treats of common life, particularly English rural life. Princes and nobles were no longer necessary for