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or the fhaping of your farther journey into Italy, where he did refide by my choice fom time for the king, after mine own recefs from Venice.

I fhould think that your best line will be thorow the whole length of France to Marseilles, and thence by fea to Genoa, whence the paffage into Tufcany is as diurnal as a Gravefend barge: I haften as you do Florence, or Siena, the rather to tell you a fhort story from the intereft you have given me in your fafety.

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At Siena I was tabled in the house of one Alberto Scipioni an old Roman courtier in dangerous times, having bin steward to the Duca di Pagliano, who with all his family were strangled, save this onely man that efcaped by forefight of the tempeft: with him I had often much chat of those affairs; into which he took pleasure to look back from his native harbour; and at my departure toward Rome (which had been the center of his experience) I had wonn confidence enough to beg his advice, how I might carry my felf fecurely there, without offence of others, or of mine own conscience. Signor Arrigo mio, (fayes he) I penfieri ftretti, et il vifo fciolto, will go fafely over the whole world; Of which Delphian oracle (for fo I have found it) your judgement doth need no commentary: and therfore (Sir) I will commit you with it to the best of all fecurities, Gods dear love, remaining

Your friend as much at command
as any of longer date

HENRY WOOTTON†.

That is, "Thoughts clofe, Looks loose."

† Milton mentions this Letter of fir Henry Wootton for its elegance, in his DEFENSIO SECUNDA POPULI ANGLICANI. “Abeuntem, vir clariffimus Henricus Woottonus, qui ad Venetos VOL. I.

orator

I

SIR,

POSTSCRIPT.

HAVE exprefly fent this my foot-boy to prevent your departure without fom acknowledgement from me of the receipt of your obliging Letter, having my felf through fom bufines, I know not how, negletted the ordinary conveyance. In any part where I shall understand you fixed, I fhall be glad, and diligent to entertain you with bome-novelties; even for fom fomentation of our friendship, too foon interrupted in the cradle*.

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"orator Jacobi regis diu fuerat, et votis et præceptis eunti peregre "fane utiliffimis, ELEGANTI EPISTOLA perfcriptis, amiciffime profequutus eft." PROSE WORKS, ii. 332. This letter appeared first in the edition of 1645, where it is prefixed to CoмUS, p. 71. I know not why it was fuppreffed, and by Milton himself, in that of 1673. It was reftored to its proper place by Tonfon, in his edition of 1705. It appears in the third edition of the RELIQUIE WOTONIANE, p. 343. Lond. 1672. 8vo. But not in edit. 1657. "Lord S." mentioned above, is Lord Scudamore. See Philips's LIFE of Milton, p. xi.

*He fhould have faid, "in its cradle." See the beginning of the LETTER.

PRELIMI

PRELIMINARY NOTES

O N

COM US.

SOM

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OME idea of this venerable and magnificent pile, in which MEU s was oflayed with great splendour, in 1834, at a period when Masques were the most fashionable entertainment of our nobility, will probably gratify thofe, who read Milton with that curiofity which results from tafte and imagination.

It was founded on a ridge of rock overlooking the river Corve, by Roger Montgomery, about the year 1112, in the reign of king Henry the first. But without entering into its more obfcure and early annals, I will rather exhibit the ftate and condition in which it might be fuppofed to fubfift, when Milton's drama was performed. Thomas Churchyard, in an old poem called the WORTHINES OF WALES, printed in 1578, has a chapter intitled "The Castle of Ludloe." In one of the ftate apartments, he mentions a superb efcocheon in ftone of the Arms of Prince Arthur fon of Henry the seventh and an empalement of Saint Andrew's Crofs with Prince Arthur's Arms, painted in the windows of the Great Hall. And in the Hall and Chambers, he fays, there was a variety of rich workmanship, fuitable to fo magnificent a castle. "In it is a Chapel, he adds, most trim and coftly, fo bravely wrought, fo fayre and finely framed, &c." About the walls of this Chapel were fumptuously painted, " a great device, worke most rich and rare," the Armes of many of the kings of England, and of the lords of the Caftle from fir Walter Lacie the first lord, &c. "The armes of all these afore spoken of, are "gallantly

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gallantly and cunningly fett out in that Chapell.-Now is to be rehearfed, that fir Harry Sidney being lord Prefident buylt "twelve roomes in the fayd Castle, which goodly buildings doth "fhewe a great beautie to the fame. He made alfo a goodly Ward"robe underneath the new Parlor, and repayred an old Tower "called Mortymer's Tower, to kepe the auncient recordes in the "fame; and he repayred a fayre roume under the Court-house, and made a great wall about the wood-yard, and built a most "braue Conduit within the inner Court: And all the newe build"ings over the Gate, fir Harry Sidney, in his dayes and govern"ment there, made and fet out, to the honour of the queene, and "the glorie of the Castle. There are in a goodly or stately place, 66 my lorde earl of Warwick's Arms, [of] the earl of Derbie, the "earl of Worcester, the earl of Pembroke, and fir Harry Sidney's "Armes in like manner: al thefe ftand on the left fide of the [great] Chamber. On the other fide are the Armes of North"wales and Southwales, two red lyons and two golden lyons [for] "Prince Arthur. At the end of the Dyning Chamber, there is a pretty device, how the hedge-hog broke his chayne and came " from Ireland to Ludloe. There is in the Hall a great grate of "iron [a portcullis], of a huge height." fol. 79. This once belonged to the grand portal of the Caftle. In the Hall, or in one of the Great Chambers, Coмus was acted. We are told by David Powell, the Welch hiftorian, that fir Henry Sidney knight, made lord Prefident of Wales in 1564," repaired the Caftle of Ludlowe "which is the cheefeft houfe within the Marches, being in great "decaie, as the Chapell, the Court-house, and a faire Fountaine, "&c. Alfo he erected divers new buildings within the faid Caftell, "&c." HIST. of CAMBRIA, edit. 1580. 4to. p. 401. In this Caftle, the Creation of Prince Charles to the Principality of Wales, and earldom of Chester, afterwards king Charles the first, was kept as a feftival, and folemnised with uncommon magnificence, in the year 1616. See a Narrative entitled "The Loue of Wales to their "Soueraigne Prince, &c." Lond. 1616. 4to. Many of the exteriour towers ftill remain. But the royal apartments, and other rooms of state, are abandoned, defaced, and lie expofed to the weather. It was an extenfive and well-wrought fabric. Over the ftable-doors are still the Arms of queen Elizabeth, Lord Pembroke, &c. Frequent tokens of antient pomp peep out from amidst the rubbish of the mouldering fragments. Prince Arthur, abovementioned, died in 1502, after his fhort cohabitation with his wife the princefs Catharine of Spain, at this Castle, which was the palace of the Prince of Wales, appendent to his Principality. It was conftantly inhabited by his deputies, ftyled the Lord Prefidents of Wales, till the principality-court, a separate jurisdiction, was abolished by king William. Its buildings, together with the town of Ludlow, were reprefented in one of the fcenes of the Mask. See after v. 957. With whatever feats of chivalry it might have been antiently ennobled, the repre

fentation

fentation of COMUS in this ftately fortrefs, will ever be mentioned as one of the moft memorable and honourable circumstances in the courfe of its hiftory.

JOHN EARL OF BRIDGEWATER
AND HIS FAMILY.

IR John Egerton, fecond fon of Thomas lord Chancellor Egerton, knight of the Bath, Baron of Elesmere, earl of Bridgewater, and lord Prefident of Wales, before whom COMUS was prefented at Ludlow Caftle in 1634, married Frances fecond daughter of Ferdinando earl of Derby. And thus it was for the fame family that Milton wrote both ARCADES and COмUs: for Alice the countess dowager of Derby, before whom ARCADES was prefented, was mother to Frances Lady Bridgewater; and the third wife of lord John Bridgewater's father, lord Chancellor Egerton, but without iffue. See fupr. p. 111. And Dugd. BARON. vol. ii. pp. 414, 415. 250, 251. Our earl John was appointed to the Prefidency of Wales by king Charles the firft at Theobalds, May 12, 1633. Rym. FOED. xix. 449. He died in 1649. His lady in 1635. See Note on Coм. v. 34.

They had iffue, four fons and eleven daughters. JOHN lord viscount Brackley, the third fon, who performed the part of the FIRST BROTHER in CoмUS, fucceeded to his father's inheritable titles, and was at length of the Privy council to king Charles the fecond. He died Octob. 26, aged fixty four, in 1686. He was therefore only twelve years old when he acted in Comus. And his brother THOMAS, who played the SECOND BROTHER, was ftill younger. Hence in the dialogue between Comus and ths Lady, v. 289.

Com. Were they of manly prime, or youthful bloom?
Lad. As smooth as Hebe's their unrazor'd lips.

Where fee the Note. Chauncy, the hiftorian of Hertfordshire, who was well acquainted with this young JOHN lord Brackley when a man, fays that he was a nobleman of the most valuable and amiable qualities: " he was of a middling ftature, with black hair, a round visage, a modeft and grave afpect, a fweet and pleasant counte"nance, and comely prefence. He was a learned man, and de"lighted much in his library." HIST. HERTF. p. 554. This account of his perfon perfectly correfponds with Milton's description of his beauty and deportment while a boy: and the panegyric, we may suppose, was as justly due to his brother Thomas, Com. 298.

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