furniture, with the names of the purchasers, in | Buck's Antiquities, published in 1774, which must Harl. MSS. No. 4898, and No. 7352: from which I select a few curious articles. "In the Princes Chamber. One standing beddstead, covered with watchet damaske, with all the furniture suitable thereunto belonging, &c. Sold Mr Bass ye 11.th of March 1650 for 36 10s. "One suit of old tapistry hangings cont. in all 120 ells at 2 per ell; Sold Mr Cleam, ye 18. January 1650 for 15£. "In the Governour's Quarter. Two pictures, ye one of the late king, and the other of his queen, 10. Sold to Mr Bass. "One large old Bible, 6. Sold to Mr Bass. Mr Brown. "In the Shovell-board Room. Nine peeces of green kersey hangings paned wth gilt leather, 8 window curtaines, 5 window peeces, a chimney peece, and curtaine rodds, and three other small peeces in a presse in ye wardrobe val. togeather 25£. WITH Ye PROTEctor. "In y Hall. Two long tables, two square tables with formes, one fire-grate, one side table, a court cuppboard, two wooden figures of beasts, 3 candlesticks, & racks for armour, 1£. Sold to Mr Bass." have been written many years before, it is said "Many of the royal apartments are yet entire; and the sword, with the velvet hangings, and some of the furniture are still preserved." And Grose in his Antiquities, published about the same time, extracting from the Tour through Great Britain what he pronounces a very just and accurate account of this castle, represents the chapel having abundance of coats of arms upon the pannels, and the hall decorated with the same ornaments, together with lances, spears, firelocks, and old armour. Of these cu rious appendages to the grandeur of both, little perhaps is now known. Of the chapel, a circular building within the inner court is now all that remains. Over several of the stable doors, however, are still the arms of queen Elizabeth, and the earl of Pembroke. Over the inner gate of the castle, are also some remains of the arms of the Sidney family, with an inscription denoting the date of the queen's reign, and of sir Henry Sidney's residence, in 1581, together with the following words, Hominibus ingratis loquimini lapides. No reason has been assigned for this remarkable address. Perhaps sir Henry Sidney might intend it as an allusion to his predecessors, who had suffered the stately fabric to decay; as a memorial also, which no successor might behold without determining to avoid its application: Nonne IPSAM DOMUM metuel, ne quam VOCEM ELICIAT,nonne PARIETES CONCIOS? who visited the castle in 1768, has acquainted me, that the floors of the great council chamber were then pretty entire, as was the stair-case. The covered steps leading to the chapel were remaining, but the covering of the chapel was fallen: yet the arms of some of the lords presidents, painted on the walls, were visible. In the great council chamber was inscribed on the wall a sentence from 1 Sam. xii. 3. All of which are now wholly gone. The person, who showed this gentleman the castle, informed him that, by tradition, the Mask of Comus was performed in the council chamber. Among the valuable collections of the same gentleman is an extensive account of Ludlow town and castle from the most Mr. Dovaston, of the Nursery, near Oswestry, No other remarkable circumstances distinguish the history of this castle, till the court of the Marches was abolished, and the lords presidents were discontinued, in 1688. From that period its decay commenced. It has since been gradually stript of its curious and valuable ornaments. No longer inhabited by its noble guardians, it has fallen into neglect; and neglect has encouraged plunder. "It will be no wonder that this noble castle is in the very perfection of decay, early times, to the first year of William and Ma. when we acquaint our readers, that the present ry, copied by him from a MS. of the rev. Rich. inhabitants live upon the sale of the materials. Podmore, A. B. rector of Coppenhall in Co. All the fine courts, the royal apartments, halls, Pal. of Chester, and curate of Cundover, Salop, ⚫ and rooms of state, lie open and abandoned, and collected with great care from ancient and auFrom this interesting compilasome of them falling down." Tour through thentic books. Great Britain, quoted by Grose, art. Ludlow tion I have been informed that the court of the Castle. See also two remarkable instances reMarches was erected by Edward IV. in honour lated by Mr. Hodges in his Account of the Castle, of the earls of March, from whom he was desp. 39. The appointment of a governor, or stew-cended, as the court of the duchy of Lancaster had ard of the castle, is also at present discontinued. Butler enjoyed the stewardship, which was a lucrative as well as an honourable post, while the principality court existed. And, in an apartment over the gateway of the castle, he is said to have written his inimitable Hudibras. The poet had been secretary to the earl of Carbery, who was lord president of Wales; and who, in the great rebellion, had afforded an asylum to the excellent Jeremy Taylor. In the account of Ludlow castle, prefixed to been before by Henry IV. in honour of the house of Lancaster: that the household of Ludlow castle was numerous and splendid, and that the lord president lived in great state. The chaplain had the yearly fee of £.50 with diet for hiruself and one servant. The other officers of the court bad fees and salaries suitable to their several ranks. See also Sidney State Papers, vol. i. p. 5, 6. where the “Fees annually allowed to the Cicero pro Cælio, sect. 25. COMUS. counsel and commissioners, and the officers | displayed. But at the same time it is a melanwaiges," An. 3 Edw. VI. are set forth. The choly monument, exhibiting the irreparable efcourt consisted of the lord president, vice-presi- fects of pillage and dilapidation. ORIGIN OF COMUS. By Mr. WARTON. He IN Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess, an Arcadian comedy, recently published, Milton found many touches of pastoral and superstitious imagery, congenial with his own conceptions. Many of these, yet with the highest improvements, he has transferred in Comus: together with the general cast and colouring of the piece. catched also from the lyric rhymes of Fletcher, that Dorique delicacy, with which sir Henry Wotton was so much delighted in the songs of Milton's drama. Fletcher's comedy was coldly received the first night of its performance. But it had ample revenge in this conspicuous and indisputable mark of Milton's approbation. It was afterwards represented as a Mask at court, before the king and queen on twelfth-night, in 1633. I know not, indeed, if this was any recommendation to Milton; who, in the Paradise Lost, speaks contemptuously of these interludes, which had been among the chief diversions of an elegant and liberal monarch. B. iv. 767. court-amours dent, and council, who were composed of the lord chancellor, lord treasurer, lord keeper of the privy seal, lord treasurer of the king's household, chancellor of the exchequer, principal secretary of state, the chief justices of England, and of the Common Pleas, the chief baron of the Exchequer, the justices of Assize for the counties of Salop, Gloucester, Hereford, and Monmouth, the justice of the grand Session in Wales, the chief justice of Chester, attorney and solicitor general, with many of the neighbouring nobility, and with various subordinate officers. See Mr. Hodges's Hist. Acc. of the Castle, p. 67, 68. From the inedited tour of a traveller in 1 535, communicated to me by Joseph Cooper Walker, esq. it appears that there was also a secretary to the court; the office of which was then filled by At lord Goring, and said to be worth 3000£. the same time, sir John Bridgeman was the chief justice of the court. The traveller adds, that in the absence of the president, the chief justice represented the president's person, and kept "the king's house in the castle, which is a prettie little neate castle, standing high, kept in good repaire:" and that he was "invited by the judge to dinner, and verye kindly and respectfully entertained." This court was dissolved by act of parliament Mix'd dance, and wanton mask, or midnight in the first year of Williain and Mary, at the humble suit of all the gentlemen and inhabitants of the principality of Wales; by whom it was represented as an intolerable grievance. The situation of the castle is delightful, and romantic. It is built in the north-west angle of the town upon a rock, commanding an extensive and beautiful prospect northward. On the west it is shaded by a lofty hill, and washed by the river. It is strongly environed by walls of immense height and thickness, and fortified with round and square towers at irregular distances. The walls are said by Grose to have formerly been a mile in compass; but Leland in that The intemeasure includes those of the town. rior apartments were defended on one side by a deep ditch, cut out of the rock; on the other, by an almost inaccessible precipice overlooking the vale of Corve. The castle was divided into two separate parts: the castle, properly speaking, in which were the palace and lodgings; and the green, or outwork, which Dr. Stukely supposes to have been called the Barbican. See his ItiThe green takes in a nerary, Iter iv. p. 70. large compass of ground, in which were the court of judicature and records, the stables, garIn the den, bowling-green, and other offices. front of the castle, a spacious plain or lawn forIn 1772 a public merly extended two miles. walk round the castle was planted with trees, and laid out with much taste, by the munificence of the countess of Powis. See Mr. Hodges's Hist. Acc. p. 54. The exterior appearance of this ancient edifice bespeaks, in some degree, what it once has been. Its mutilated towers and walls still afford an idea of the strength and beauty, which so noble a specimen of Norman architecture formerly ball, &c." And in his Ready and easy Way to establish a free The ingenious and accurate Mr. Reed has In mus had been instructed by his mother Circe. Peele's play opens thus. Anticke, Frolicke, and Fantasticke, three adventurers, are lost in a wood, in the night. They agree to sing the old song, "Three merrie men, and three merrie men, I in the wood, and thou on the ground, They hear a dog, and fancy themselves to be "When as the rie reach to the chin, At length to pass the time trimly, it is proposed that the wife shall tell "a merry winters tale," or, "an old wiues winters tale," of which sort of stories she is not without a score. She begins, There was a king, or duke, who had a most beautiful daughter, and she was stolen away by a necromancer, who turning himself into a dragon, carried her in his mouth to his castle. The king sent out all his men to find his daughter; "at last, all the king's men went out so long, that hir two brothers went to seeke hir." Immediately the two brothers enter, and speak. "1 Br. Vpon these chalkie cliffs of Albion, We are arriued now with tedious toile, &c. To seeke our sister, &c." 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 driven 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. "Faire maiden, white and red, For feare thou make the golden beard to weepe!" With this stage-direction, "A head comes up full I must not omit, that Shakespeare 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 wo men in their handes." Frolicke says, "Who have we here, our amourous haruest starres ?" -They sing, "Loe, here we come a reaping a reaping, And thus we passe the yeare so long, Compare the Mask in the Tempest, A. iv. S. i. "You sun-burnt sicklemen, of August weary, Come hither from the furrow, and be merry; Make holy-day: your rye-straw hats put on, And these fresh nymphis encounter every one 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 be at least 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 haemony which the Spirit gives to the two Brothers. About the year 1615, a mask called the Inner Temple Masque, written by William Browne, author of Britannia's Pastorals, which I have frequently cited, was presented by the students of the Inner Temple. See Notes on Com. v. 252, 636, 659. 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. I will give some proofs of parallelism as we go along. 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 almost as soon totally neglected and forgotten. BEFORE the starry threshold of Jove's court care Confin'd and pester'd in this pin-fold here,' But to my task. Neptune, besides the sway crowns, And wield their little tridents: but this isle, The nodding horrour of whose shady brows Who, ripe and frolic of his full grown age, taste To quench the drought of Phoebus; which asthey | Venus now wakes, and wakens love. [thirst:) (For nost do taste through fond intemperate Soon as the potion works, their human counte nance, The express resemblance of the gods, is chang'd All other parts remaining as they were; 70 But boast themselves more comely than before; 128 Dark-veil'd Cotytto! to whom the secret flame Of midnight torches burns; mysterious dame, That ne'er art call'd, but when the dragon woom Of Stygian darkness spets her thickest gloom, And makes one blot of all the air; Stay the cloudy ebon chair, Wherein thou rid'st with Hecat', and befriend Of all thy dues be done, and none left out; Ere the babbling eastern scout, The nice Morn, on the Indian steep 80 From her cavin'd loop-hole peep, I shoot from Heaven, to give him safe convoy, As now I do: but first I must put off 90 Dropping odours, dropping wine. Rigour now is gone to bed, And Advice with scrupulous head. With their grave saws, in slumber lie. And to the tell-tale Sun descry Our conceal'd solemnity. Come, knit hands, and beat the ground THE MEASURE, 140 Break off, break off, I feel the different pace 149 Our number may affright: some virgin sure 160 And hug him into snares. When once her eye I shall appear some harmless villager, Whom thrift keeps up about his country gear. And hearken, if I may, her business here. The Lady enters. This way the noise was, if mine ear be true, 170 110 Such as the jocund flute, or gamesome pipe, 119 Who, in their nightly watchful spheres, Night hath better sweets to prove, 180 |