ARCADES.* Part of an Entertainment presented to the Countess Dowager of Derby,† at Harefield, by some noble persons of her family; who appear on the scene in pastoral habit, moving toward the seat of state, with this song: I. SONG. Look, nymphs and shepherds, look, This, this is she To whom our vows and wishes bend; Mark, what radiant state she spreads, Sitting like a goddess bright, The same character may be given of the style, sentiments, imagery, and tone of these Fragments, as far as they go, as of Comus. Warton observes,-"Unques tionably this Mask was a much longer performance. Milton seems only to have written the poetical part, consisting of these three songs, and the recitative soliloquy of the Genius: the rest was probably prose and machinery, and the whole was acted by persons of Lady Derby's own family." Milton is not the only great English poet who has celebrated this Countess Dowager of Derby. She was the sixth daughter of Sir John Spenser, with whose family Spenser the poet claimed an alliance. In his "Colin Clout's come Home again," (written about 1595,) he mentions her under the appellation of Amaryllis, with her sister Phyllis or Elizabeth, and Charillis or Anne: and in the dedication to her, of his "Tears of the Muscs," he acknowledges the particular bounties she had conferred upon himself and other poets. Thus the lady who presided at the representation of Milton's Arcades, was not only the theme, but the patroness of Spenser. Mother of a hundred gods? Juno dares not give her odds. Who had thought this clime had held A deity so unparallel'd? As they come forward, the Genius of the wood appears, and, turning towards them, speaks: GEN. Stay, gentle swains; for, though in this disguise, Fair silver-buskin'd nymphs, as great and good; 23. Give her odds. This certainly seems no very elegant phrase, but it was a mode of compliment usual in Milton's time.TODD. 26. Stay, &c. That is, though ye (the actors being of Lady Derby's own family) are disguised like rustics, and wear the habit of shepherds, I perceive ye are of honourable birth, your nobility cannot be concealed. 28. Arcady. The inhabitants of Arcadia, in the Peloponnesus, were devoted to pastoral life; and hence the scene of many ancient pastoral poems, as well as of Sir Philip Sidney's "Arcadia," is laid there. Hence, of course, the name of this pastoral fragment of a Mask by our author. 31. Arethuse. It was fabled that Arethusa, a nymph, and one of Diana's attendants, being pursued by the river-god Alpheus, was changed into a fountain, and flowed under the earth across the Adriatic, and came up at Ortygia, an island in the bay of Syracuse. 34. Quest: Inquiry, search. 46. To curl: To dress with curls. A horn of bugle small, Which hung adowne his side in twisted gold And tassels gay. |