Of Camball and of Algarsife,
And who had Canace to wife,
That owned the virtuous ring and glass,
And of the wondrous horse of brass
On which the Tartar king did ride;
And if aught else great bards beside
In sage and solemn tunes have sung,
Of turneys and of trophies hung,
Of forests and enchantments drear,
Where more is meant than meets the ear.
Thus, Night, oft see me in thy pale career,
Till civil-suited Morn appear,

Not tricked and frounced as she was wont
With the Attic boy1 to hunt,

But kerchiefed in a comely cloud,

While rocking winds are piping loud,
Or ushered with a shower still,
When the gust hath blown his fill,
Ending on the rustling leaves

With minute-drops from off the eaves.
And when the sun begins to fling
His flaring beams, me, goddess, bring
To arched walks of twilight groves,
And shadows brown that Sylvan 2 loves
Of pine or monumental oak,

Where the rude axe with heavèd stroke
Was never heard the nymphs to daunt,
Or fright them from their hallowed haunt.
There in close covert by some brook,

1 See Glossary, "Attica."

2 51.

115

120

125

130

135

As may with sweetness, through mine ear,
Dissolve me into ecstasies,

And bring all Heaven before mine eyes.

And may at last my weary age

Find out the peaceful hermitage,

151.

*Lycidas, 183.

155

160

165

The hairy gown and mossy cell,
Where I may sit and rightly spell
Of every star that heaven doth show,
And every herb that sips the dew,
Till old experience do attain
To something like prophetic strain.
These pleasures, Melancholy, give,
And I with thee will choose to live.

170

175

INTRODUCTION TO COMUS.

General Characteristics.

IN Comus the student will find an opportunity to familiarize himself with poetic types of the highest importance. Because of its external form, it must be classed as a drama; in its spirit, its literary dress, its obvious purpose, and its history, it belongs to the sub-class "masque"; in its interpolated songs it presents exquisite examples of the pure lyric; in its inner purpose and motive it is an allegorical "criticism of life"; and until it has been studied from each of these points of view, it will not have yielded all its possibilities of literary training or of æsthetic pleasure to the reader.

The masque is a product of the Renaissance movement in Italy during the latter part of the Middle Ages, a movement marked by a tendency to excess in every activity of life. It led to extravagance in dress, exaggeration in language, and affectation in manners. The passion for dramatic representation was native to the Italians, but to a people feeling the stimulus of Renaissance activities, ordinary dramatic productions proved too tame to satisfy their craving for novelty and brilliancy, and the masque-type was developed to satisfy what now seems an unnatural and false taste. The distinctive features of the new type were that it enriched the normal dramatic forms by the addition of elements which would call for lavish expenditure, and provide an opportunity for gorgeous and striking display, viz. (1) scenic effects, (2) musical numbers, (3) dancing, and (4) representations of the supernatural. As the Renaissance was marked by a widespread study of the Greek and Latin

classics, it was inevitable that their stories of gods, demigods, monsters, and prodigies should be drafted into the service of the masque-maker, to aid him in securing spectacular effects.

The masque made its appearance in England during the reign of Elizabeth. That period saw the Renaissance movement, with its plenitude of life, at its culmination. Literature, science, art, religion, all suddenly gave evidence of a new and surprising vigor. With the increase of wealth, English social life was in a few decades entirely transformed. Education, before scanty and imperfect, became the possession of the many. The regular drama was still crude in form and not yet wholly in good repute as a means of public entertainment, but in the masque the rich found a ready means for displaying the new wealth, the new taste, the new learning, the new culture derived from the Continent, of which the masque was itself an example. Since masques must treat of themes acceptable according to the standards of culture and of taste prevailing among the upper classes, their subjects would be abstract, symbolic, poetic in character; their language would be richly adorned with the fruits of the new culture; their music and dancing would afford to the titled and aristocratic amateur actors an opportunity for the display of personal gifts and graces; and their expensiveness rendered them the exclusive luxury of the wealthy few. At first they were presented at the annual revels of societies of learned men (e.g. the lawyers of Gray's Inn and the Inner Temple, or the masters and pupils of Cambridge University), where the expense could be shared among a large number of persons; but later, numerous masques were produced at the court and at the residences of wealthy nobles, who vied with one another

*

* The masque — The Triumph of Peace - presented by the four Inns of Court in 1634 cost over £21,000 in the money of that time.