Milton Author:Stopford A. Brooke Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: favourite subject of the spheral music that the nine Sirens sing:— " And the low world in measured motion draw After the heavenly tune." The songs which c... more »lose it are pretty, but below Milton's power. The whole piece, in fact, bears the stamp of the occasional. Comus.—The name Comus was given to this masque after Milton's death. Its proper description is "A Masque Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634, before the Earl of Bridgewater, Lord President of Wales." Lord Bridgewater was stepson of the Countess of Derby and son of Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, and was married to his stepsister, Lady Frances Stanley. He was made Lord President of Wales and went down, with his powers freshly defined by a Royal Letter, to the castle of Ludlow, his official seat, in 1631. His family accompanied him, and among them his youngest daughter Lady Alice Eger- ton and her two younger brothers, Viscount Brackley and Mr. Thomas Egerton. These three were the Lady, and The Two Brothers in the Masque of Comus which was now acted, at the close of the long festivities, on Michaelmas night, 1634, in the great hall of the castle. Lawes,1 the musician, took the part of the Attendant Spirit. It is not known who acted Comus and Sabrina. The first scene discovered a wild wood, and Lawes, as the Attendant Spirit, descended, singing a part of the epilogue transposed for the occasion, the words To the ocean being altered to '''From the heavens" and ending with the line, Where a cherub soft reposes, 1 I.awes, son of Thomas Lawes, Vicar-Choral of Canterbury, a well-known musician, who, Milton says, reformed his art. Composer of airs to the poems of Waller, Carew, and Cart- wright. Published Ayres and Dialogues for one, two, and three voices. Introduced, it may be from Italy, a softer character into English musi...« less