COMU S.

A MASK,

PRESENTED AT LUDLOW CASTLE, 1634,

BEFORE THE EARL OF BRIDGEWATER, THEN PRESIDENT

OF WALES.

The Persons.

THE ATTENDANT SPIRIT, afterwards in the

habit of THYRSIS.

COMUS, with his crew.

THE LADY.

FIRST BROTHER.

SECOND BROTHER.

SABRINA, the Nymph.

The Chief Persons who presented were

THE LORD BRACKLY.

MR. THOMAS EGERTON, his Brother.

THE LADY ALICE EGERTON.

CALIFOREA

COMU S.

The first scene discovers a wild wood. The ATTENDANT SPIRIT descends or

enters.]

ATTENDANT SPIRIT.

BEFORE the starry threshold of Jove's court

My mansion is, where those immortal shapes

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

Confined, and pestered in this pinfold here,

Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being,
Unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives,
After this mortal change, to her true servants,
Amongst the enthroned gods on sainted seats.
Yet some there be, that by due steps aspire
To lay their just hands on that golden key,2
That opes the palace of eternity:

To such my errand is; and but for such,
I would not soil these pure ambrosial weeds
With the rank vapours of this sin-worn mould.
But to my task. Neptune, besides the sway
Of every salt flood, and cach ebbing stream,
Took in by lot 'twixt high and nether Jove
Imperial rule of all the sea-girt isles,
That, like to rich and various gems,3 inlay
The unadornéd bosom of the deep:
Which he, to grace his tributary gods,

By course commits to several government,

And gives them leave to wear their sapphire crowns,

And wield their little tridents; but this isle,

The greatest and the best of all the main,
He quarters to his blue-haired deities;

And all this tract that fronts the falling sun

A noble peer of mickle trust and power
Has in his charge, with tempered awe to guide

An old and haughty nation, proud in arms:
Where his fair offspring, nursed in princely lore,

Are coming to attend their father's state,

And new-entrusted sceptre ; but their way

Lies through the pérplexed paths of this drear wood, The nodding horror of whose shady brows