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 awe-struck,
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!

And hence thefe expreffions in Henry Lawes's Dedication of CoMUS to lord JOHN, in his edition 1637, written when he was now three years older, that is about fifteen: in which Lawes mentions "the faire hopes and rare endowments of your much-promifing youth, which give a full affurance to all that know you of a future excellence." He then calls him Sweet Lord, "wishing him "to live long, to be the honour of your name, &c." And in the beginning of the Dedication, he says, "This poem which received its

firft occafion of birth from yourself and others of your noble fa"mily, and much honour from your own perfon in the performance, "&c." See this Dedication above, p. 117. This young nobleman married at nineteen, 1642, Elizabeth daughter of William duke of Newcastle; who died in 1663, leaving a numerous iffue. See the next Note. She was a moft amiable character: and the earl her hufband ordered it to be recorded on his tomb in Gadefden church, that he enjoyed almoft twenty-two years, all the happiness a man "could receive in the fweet fociety of the best of wives." Till his death he was inconfolable for her lofs. In the Newcastle Book on Horfemanfhip, there is a print of this JOHN earl of Bridgewater (the FIRST Brother in COMUs) and his countefs ELIZABETH, grouped with other figures. There is alfo a large mezzotinto print in quarto of this earl, done in 1680, from a portrait by William Claret an imitator of Lely, which I believe is at Afhridge.

Mr. THOMAS Egerton, abovementioned, who performed the part of the SECOND BROTHER in our drama, was a fourth fon of the old earl John, and died unmarried at twenty three.

The Lady ALICE Egerton, probably fo named from her grandmother in law the countefs dowager of Derby, who acted the Lady in Comus, was the eleventh daughter, and could not now have been more than thirteen years old. She was taught mufic by Henry Lawes. She became the third countefs of Richard lord Vaughan of Emlyn, and earl of Carbury, who lived at Golden-Grove in Carmarthenshire, and by whom fhe had no iffue, about 1653. See the next Note. And Dugd. BARON. vol. ii. 470. In Henry Lawes's" Select AYRES and DIALOGUES for the Theorbo, &c." published 1669, there is a fong addreffed to this Lady from her husband, called the EARL TO THE COUNTESS OF CARBURY. I

will cite the two laft ftanzas, which are excellent in the affected and

witty ftyle of the times.

When first I view'd thee, I did spy
Thy foul ftand beckoning in thine eye;
My heart knew what it meant,
And at its firft kifs went;

Two balls of wax fo run,

When melted into one :

Mix'd now with thine my heart now lies,
As much love's riddle as thy prize.

For fince I can't pretend to have
That heart which I fo freely gave,
Yet now tis mine the more,
Because tis thine, than twas before,
DEATH will unriddle this;

For when thou'rt call'd to bliss,
He needs not throw at me his dart,

'Caufe piercing Thine he kills My heart.

This Lady ALICE must not be confounded with Lord Carbury's fecond countefs Frances, who died Oct. 9, 1650: and to whom there is a funeral Sermon, with a Latin epitaph, both fuperabundantly full of her praifes, by the pious and learned bishop Jeremy Taylor. The earl, in the Epitaph, with great tenderness expreffes his intention of refting in the fame grave with this accomplifhed lady, although he married fo foon afterwards, as we have feen, the lady ALICE Egerton. See bishop Taylor's SERMONS, edit. 5th. fol. Printed for R. Royton, 1678. This Lord Carbury was Privy counfellor to Charles the fecond. He harboured in his houfe at Golden Grove bishop Taylor abovementioned, during the Rebellion and moft of that prelate's works are dedicated to him. This Richard earl of Carbury fucceeded his father in law, John earl of Bridgewater, in the Prefidentfhip of Wales: which I chiefly mention, to introduce a circumftance more to his honour, that at the Restoration he appointed Butler to the Stewardship of Ludlowcaftle, a very refpectable and lucrative office, while the principalitycourt continued to be held there. See. Wood, Aтн. OXON. ii. 452. And Whitlock, ME м. p. 115. edit. 1682. Butler had been before lord Carbury's fecretary.

fo

The two young noblemen of whom I have been here speaking, JOHN Lord Brackley afterwards earl of Bridgewater, and his brother Mr. THOMAS Egerton, were practitioners in the business of acting Masques; and although now so very young when they played in COMUS, had before appeared on a higher tage. They performed in a Mafque called COELUM BRITANNICUM, written by that elegant poet, the rival of Waller, Thomas Carew, and prefented

fented 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, afterwards married to fir Robert Napier of Luton-Hoo in Bedfordshire, acted at court with the queen and other ladies, in Jonfon's Masque of CHLORIDIA, at Shrove-tide, 1630. Jonfon's WORKS, Vol. vi. p. 211.

All that I have mentioned of the Egerton or Bridgewater family, are buried under a stately monument in the church of Little-Gadefden in Hertfordshire, but bordering upon Buckinghamshire. On that monument, is a long inscription to the memory of the father, the firft earl JoHN, the lord Prefident of Wales, who, among other valuable accomplishments, is there said to have been " a pro“'found scholar." It was lucky, that at least one person of the audience, and he the chief, was capable of understanding the many learned allufions in this drama. The family lived at Ashridge in the parish of Gadesden, anciently a royal palace, and still inhabited by their illuftrious defcendant the prefent duke of Bridgewater. Milton, as I have related, lived in the neighbourhood; and, as in writing the Mask for Harefield, was partly from that circumftance employed to write CoмUs: which yet was exhibited at Ludlow caitle, on occafion of Lord Bridgewater's appointment to the principality-court of Wales.

ENRY Lawes, who compofed the mufic for CoмUS, and

H performed the combined characters of the SPIRIT and the

thepherd THYRSIs in that drama, was the fon of Thomas Lawes a vicar-choral of Salisbury cathedral. He was perhaps at first a choir-boy of that church. With his brother William, he was educated in mufic under Giovanni Coperario; fuppofed by Fenton in his Notes on Waller to be an Italian, but really an Englishman under the plain name of John Cooper, at the expence of Edward earl of Hertford. In January, 1625, he was appointed Pistoler, or Epiftoler, of the royal chapel; in November following he became one of the Gentlemen of the choir of that chapel; and soon afterwards, clerk of the cheque, and one of the court-musicians to king Charles the first.

*

In 1633, in conjunction with Simon Ives, he compofed the mufic to a Mask prefented at Whitehall on Candlemafs night by the gentlemen of the four Inns of court, under the direction of fuch

This officer, before the Reformation, was a Deacon and it was his business to read the Epifle at the altar.

grave

grave characters as Noy the attorney-general, Edward Hyde afterwards earl of Clarendon, Selden, and Bulftrode Whitlock. Lawes and Ives received each one hundred pounds as compofers; and the whole coft, to the great offence of the puritanical party, amounted to more than one thousand pounds. In Robert Herrick's HESPERIDES, or Poems, are three or four Christmas Odes, fung before the king at Whitehall, compofed by Lawes, edit. Lond. 1648. 4to. p. [ad calc.] 31. feq. And in the fame collection, there is an Epigram To Mr. HENRY LAWES, the excellent Compofer of his Lyricks, by which it appears that he was celebrated no less as a vocal than an inftrumental performer, ibid. p. 326.

Touch but the lire, my Harrie, and I heare
From thee fome raptures of the rare Gotiere;
There, if thy voice commingle with the string,
I heare in thee the rare Laniere to fing,
Or curious Wilson, &c.—

Lawes, in the Attendant Spirit, fung the laft Air in Coмus,
or all the lyrical part to the end, from v. 958. He appears
to have been well acquainted with the best poets, and the most re-
spectable and popular of the nobility, of his times. To fay nothing
here of Milton, he fet to mufic all the Lyrics in Waller's POEMS,
first published in 1645, among which, is an ODE addreffed to
Lawes, by Waller, full of high compliments. One of the pieces
of Waller was fet by Lawes in 1635. He compofed the SONGS,
and a Masque, in the POEMS of Thomas Carew. See third edit.
1651, p. ult. The Mafque was exhibited in 1633. In the title.
page to COMEDIES, TRAGI-COMEDIES, and other POEMS,
by William Cartwright, published in 1651, but written much
earlier, it is faid, that the "Ayres and Songs were fet by Mr.
"Henry Lawes," and Lawes himself has a commendatory poem
prefixed, infcribed, "To the memory of my moft deferving and
"peculiar friend, Mr. William Cartwright." See Note on Čoм.
v. 86. The mufic to Lovelace's AMARANTHA, a Paftoral, is
by Lawes. Wood, АTH. OXON. ii. 229. He published " AYRES
"and DIALOGUES for one, two, and three voyces, &c. Lond.
"1653." fol. They are dedicated to Lady Vaughan and Carbury,
who had acted the LADY in COMUS, and to her fifter Mary, Lady
HERBERT of Cherbury.
See the laft NOTE. Both had been
his fcholars in mufic. 66 To the two most illuftrious SISTERS,
ALICE, Counteffe of Carberie, and Mary, Lady Herbert of
"Cherbury and Caftle-ifland, daughters to John, earl of Bridge-
"water, Lord Prefident of Wales, &c. No fconer I thought
"of making thefe publick, than of infcribing them to your Ladi.
"fhips: most of them being compofed, when I was employed by
your ever honoured parents to attend your Ladifhips' education
"in mufick: who, as in other accomplishments fit for perfons of
your quality, excelled moft ladies, especially in Vocal Mufick,
VOL. I.

46

R

wherein

"wherein you were fo abfolute, that you gave life and honour to "all I taught you: and that with more understanding, than a new generation [of compofers] pretending to skill, I dare say, are "capable of." [See Coм. v. 85. And the Note.] The words of the numerous fongs in this work, are by fome of the most eminent poets of the time. A few young noblemen are also contributors. The compofers are not only Henry and William Lawes, but Wilfon, Coleman, Webb, Lanier, &c. One of the pieces by H. Lawes, is a poem by John Birkenhead, called an 66 An"niversary on the Nuptials of John, earl of Bridgewater, Jul. "22, 1642." See p. 33. And Wood, ATH. OXON. ii. 640. This was the young lord Brackley, who played the FIRST BROTHER in COMUs, and who married Elizabeth, daughter of William, duke of Newcastle. See the laft Note. Another is the COMPLAINT of ARIADNE, written by Cartwright, and printed in his POEMS, p. 238. [See below, SON N. xiii. 11.] For a compofition to one of the airs of this piece, which gained exceffive and unusual applaufe, Lawes is faid to be the first who introduced the Italian ftyle of mufic into England. In the Preface he says, he had formerly compofed airs to Italian and Spanish words: and, allowing the Italians to be the chief masters of the mufical art, concludes that England has produced as able musicians as any country of Europe, and cenfures the prevailing fondness for Italian words. To this Preface, among others, are prefixed Waller's verfes abovementioned; and two copies by Edward and John Philips, Milton's nephews. There are alfo "Select AYRES and "DIALOGUES to fing to the Theorbo-lute, or Bafs-viol, compofed by Mr. Henry Lawes, late fervant to his Majesty in his "publick and private Maficke, and other excellent masters. The "fecond Book. Lond. Printed by W. Goodbid for John Play"ford, and to be fold at his shop in the Temple near the Churchdore, 1669." Here is the SONG, quoted in the last NOTE, called The Earl to the countess of Carbury. See p. 90. Compare Wood, ATH. Oxon. ii. F. p. 59. Befides his Pfalms, printed for Mofeley, 1648, in conjunction with his brother William, and to which Milton's thirteenth SONNET is prefixed, To Mr. H. Lawes on the publishing his Airs, dated in the Trinity manufcript, Febr. 9, 1645, Lawes compofed tunes to Sandys's admirable. PARAPHRASE of the Pfalms, first published in 1638. [See Note on SONN. xiii. v. 11.] I know not, if any of these Pfalm-tunes were ever popular: but Lawes's seventy-second Pfalm was once the tune of the chimes of Saint Lawrence Jewry. Wood fays, that he had seen a poem written by fir Walter Raleigh, " which had a mufical compofition of two parts fet to it by the incom"parable artift Henry Lawes." ATHEN. OXON. ii. p.441. num. 510. See alfo vol. i. F. p. 194. More of Lawes's works, are in the Treafury of Musick, 1669. In the Mufical Companion, 1662.