THE "Comus" of Milton, next to the great epic, is the author's greatest production. It was written upon the occasion of a visit to the Earl of Bridgewater, at Ludlow, and was first acted by the Earl's sons and daughters. Dr. Johnson says, the fiction is derived from Homer's Circe, but it nevertheless was founded in reality. It happened, at the time of Milton's residence in Ludlow, that the two sons of the Earl, Lord Brackley and Mr. Egerton, and Lady Alice Egerton, his daughter, passing through the Haywood Forest, in Herefordshire, were benighted, and the lady for some time lost; this accident being related to their father, upon their arrival at the castle, Milton, at the request of his friend, Henry Lawes, who taught music in the family, wrote this Masque. Lawes set it to music, and it was acted on Michaelmas night; the two brothers, the young lady, and Lawes himself, bearing each a part in the representation. Dryden's "Alexander's Feast" represents one of those gorgeous orgies, in which the great Grecian was wont to indulge, when, after having conquered the world, he wept that there were no more worlds to conquer. The versification is a good example of the author's vigorous, manly style, and the reader will readily recognise in it several of our most popular quotations. The two short poems by Cowley, the "Grasshopper" and "Hope," are pleasing specimens of the light, airy, and fanciful mind of their author. The "Grasshopper" is replete with beauty and simplicity. "Tartana" is one of the few poems that Ramsay wrote in the English dialect. If the author lived in these days, he would have been delighted to see his favourite tartan so generally approved-adorning alike the sovereign, and the subjects of not only braid Scotland, but of the British Isles. The poem is not much known in England, but is well worthy a place in the "Book of Celebrated Poems." "Windsor Forest," "The Hermit," and the "Hymn to the Seasons," are established favourites of the public, and are selected for this Collection, because of the exquisite beauty of their imagery, and still more beautiful moral teaching. COMUS, A MASK. PRESENTED AT LUDLOW CASTLE, 1634, BEFORE JOHN, EARL OF BRIDGEWATER, THEN PRESIDENT OF WALES. BEFO The first Scene discovers a wild wood. The ATTENDANT SPIRIT descends or enters. EFORE the starry threshold of Jove's court Of bright aërial spirits live insphered 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 |