"Stay, gentle fwains; for, though in this difguife, That is, "Although ye are disguised like rufticks, and wear the habit of fhepherds, I perceive that ye are of honourable birth, your nobility cannot be concealed." T. WARTON. It is probable, that these "perfons of Lady Derby's own family" were the children of the Earl of Bridgewater, who had married a daughter of the Countefs. And Arcades perhaps was acted the year before Comus. In 1632 Milton went to refide with his father at Horton, in the neighbourhood of Harefield; and might have been foon afterwards defired to compofe this dramatick entertainment. Lord Brackley, Mr. Thomas Egerton, and Lady Alice Egerton, the performers in Comus, appeared upon the stage at Court in 1633, in Carew's Mask of Coelum Britannicum; and Arcades might be a domestick exhibition fomewhat prior to that of Carew's Mafk; as being intended perhaps to try, and encourage, their confidence and skill, before they performed more publickly. Among the manufcripts that once belonged to lord chancellor Egerton, and which are now in the poffeffion of the Marquis of Stafford, there is a curious illustration of domestick manners, on three folio-fheets, in an "Account of difbursements for Harefield, where the lord keeper Egerton and the countess of Derby refided in 1602." TODD. The Countess Dowager of Derby. Alice, countefs dowager of Derby, married Ferdinando Lord Strange; who on the death of his father Henry, in 1594, became earl of Derby, but died the next year. She was the fixth daughter of fir John Spenfer of Althorpe in Northamptonshire. She was afterwards married [in 1600] to lord chancellor Egerton, who died in 1617. See Dugd. Baron. iii. 414. 251. She died Jan. 26, 1635-6, and was buried at Harefield. Arcades could not therefore have been acted after 1636. See MSS. Willis, Bibl. Bodl. fol. Num. viii. f. 54. Pedigr. Bucks. Harrington has an Epigram to this lady, B. iii. 47. In praife of the Counteffe of Derby, married to the Lord Chancellour. "This noble counteffe lived many yeeres "With Derby, one of England's greatest peeres; "Fruitfull and faire, and of fo cleare a name "All eares, eyes, tongues, heard, faw, and told, her "honour, &c." A Dedication to this Lady Dowager Derby, full of the most exalted panegyrick, is prefixed to Thomas Gainsforde's Hiftorie of Trebizonde, a fet of tales. Lond. 1616. 4to. A countess of Derby acted in Jonfon's First Queene's Mafque at Whitehall, 1605. See Works ut fupr. p. 899. And in the Second Queene's Mafque at Whitehall, 1608. Ibid. p. 908. And again, in the Mafque of Queenes at Whitehall, 1609. Ibid. p. 964. Perhaps, this is not our countefs Dowager Alice; but Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edward earl of Oxford, the Countefs of carl William, who fucceeded his brother Ferdinando. See alfo Birch's Prince Henry, p. 196. An Epicedium of Latin verfes, on the death of earl Henry, abovementioned, containing much panegyrick on earl Ferdinando, was printed at Oxford, 1593, 4to. But Milton is not the only Great English poet who has celebrated this countefs dowager of Derby. She was the fixth daughter, as we have feen, of fir John Spenfer, with whose family Spenfer the poet claimed an alliance. In his Colin Clouts come home again, written about 1595, he mentions her under the appellation of Amaryllis, with her fifters Phyllis, or Elizabeth, and Charillis, or Anne; thefe three of fir John Spenfer's daughters being best known at court. See v. 536. "Ne leffè praife-worthie are the Sifters three, "Of which I meanest boast myselfe to be; "And moft that unto them I am fo nie: "Phyllis, Charillis, and fweet Amaryllis." After a panegyrick on the two first, he next comes to AMARIL- "But Amarillis, whether fortunate "That freed is from Cupids yoke by fate, "Since which the doth new bands aduenture dread ;- Shepheard, whatever thou haft heard to be "In this or that prayfd diuerfly apart, "In her thou maist them all affembled fee "And feald vp in the threasure of her heart." And in the fame poem, he thus apoftrophises to her late husband earl Ferdinand, under the name Amyntas *. See v. 434. "Amyntas quite is gone, and lies full low, 66 Having his Amarillis left to mone! Helpe, o ye Shepheards, help ye all in this,- "And eke could pipe himselfe with paffing skill.” He And to the fame lady Alice, when Lady Strange, before her husband Ferdinand's fucceffion to the earldom, Spenfer addreffes his Teares of the Muses, published in 1591, in a Dedication of the highest regard: where he fpeaks of "your excellent beautie, your virtuous behauiour, and your noble match with that moft honourable lorde the verie patterne of right nobilitie." then acknowledges the particular bounties which fhe had conferred upon the poets. Thus the Lady who prefided at the reprefentation of Milton's Arcades, was not only the theme but the patronefs of Spenfer. The peerage-book of this moft refpectable Countess is the poetry of her times." T. WARTon. * But if this poem, according to its dedication to Sir Walter Raleigh was printed in 1591, then Amyntas would be Henry lord Compton who died in 1589, and Amaryllis, Anne his widow. Confequently, Alice is not Amaryllis, but another of the three fifters here celebrated. But I date the poem, for unanfwerable reafons, in 1595-6. See Life of Spenfer, prefixed to Mr. Ralphi Church's edition of the Faerie Queene, Lond. 8vo. 1758. vol. i. pp. xviii. xxx. And compare Upton's edition, vol. i. Pref. p. xi. And his note, Faer. Qu. iii. vi. 45. Where Amintas may mean fome other perfon. See Dugd. Baronage, vol. ii. 400. col. 2. 403. col. i. But this doubt does not affect the main purport of my argument. T. WARTON. Amaryllis is certainly the Lady Alice before as. See fome account of the Life of Spenfer, prefixed to the edition of his works in 1805, p. lxxxix, & feq. And for the Amintas's, fee notes on F. Q. iii. vi. 45, and Colin Clouts come home again, v. 434. And Life, p. xcvii. edit. 1805. TODD. It was fo: and I am happy to have an opportunity of proving it by an additional circumftance, hitherto unknown. I will only premife, that Davies, in his Scourge of Folly, 1611. p. 253, addreffes a Copy of Verses to this Countefs, as his "good Lady and Miftreffe." Marfton wrote a Mask, entitled "The Lorde and Lady of Huntingdon's Entertainement of their right Noble Mother Alice Countesse Dowager of Darby, the firfte nighte of her honor's arrivall att the house of Ashby." This Mask is in Manufcript, and belongs to the very curious collection bequeathed by his Grace the Duke of Bridgewater to the Marquis of Stafford. It has never been published. It is dedicated, in the following terms, " To the right Noble Ladye Alice Countess Dowager of Darby. Madam, "If my flight Muse may fute yo. noble merit, "My hopes are crownd, and I fhall cheere my fpirit; "The fervant of yo1. honor'd Virtues, John Marston.” I trust that a further account of this Mafk may be acceptable to the curious and liberal reader. It opens thus, "When hir Ladishipp approached the parke corner a full noife of cornetts winded, and when she entered into the parke the treeble cornetts reported one to another as giueinge warninge of her honor's neerer approach: when prefently hir eye was faluted with an antique gate, &c. When the Counteffe came neare the gate, an old inchauntres, attir'd in crimefon velvet, wth. pale face black haire, and diflykinge countenance, affronted her Ladishipp and thus rudely faluted her: "Woman, Lady, Princes, Nimph, or Goddes, "(More, fure, you are not, and you feeme no leffe,) "Pale Melancholy and Defolation, &c." The whole of this fpeech, I fhould obferve, is among the manufçripts in the British Museum; but no more of the Mask. I proceed therefore with the defcription in the Marquis of Stafford's manufcript. "This fpeach thus ended, presently Saturne yffued from forth the porte, and curyously behoulding the Counteffes fpake thus; "Peace; ftay, it is, it is, it is, even shee: Hayle happy honors of Nobilitye! "Did never Saturn fee? or nere fee fuch? "Sweete glories of your fex, know y yo. eyes "I give up all to joye, and to delight: "And now paffe on, all-happye-making Dame, &c. "Then paffed the whole troupe to the house; vntill ye Counteffe hadd mounted the ftaires to the greate Chamber, on the topp of wch Merimna, having chaunged hir habitt all to white, mett her, and, whilft a conforte foftely played, spake thus: Madam, "See what a chaunge the spiritt of your eyes After which "the Counteffe paffed on to hir Chamber." Then follows "The Masque, presented by 4 knights, and 4 gentlemen, &c. The forme was thus. At the approach of the Counteffes into the greate Chamber, the hoboyes played vntill the roome was marshaled; which once ordered, a travers flyded away, presently a cloude was feene moue vp and downe almost to the topp of the greate Chamber, vpon wch Cynthia was dif covred ryding; hir habitt was blewe fatten fairely imbrodered with ftarres and cloudes: who looking downe, and earnestly furvaying the Ladies, fpake thus: "Are not we Cynthia? and fhall earthe displaye |