Their port was more than human, as they stood: Of fome gay creatures of the element, That in the colours of the rainbow live, And play i' th' plighted clouds. I was awe-struck, Again, the Lady requests Echo, v. 236. Canft thou not tell me of a gentle pair, That likeft thy Narciffus are! And hence thefe expreffions in Henry Lawes's Dedication of Co. Mus to lord JOHN, in his edition 1637, written when he was now three years older, that is about fifteen in which Lawes mentions "the faire hopes and rare endowments of your much-promising youth, which give a full affurance to all that know you of a future excellence." He then calls him Sweet Lord, " wishing him to live long, to be the honour of your name, &c." And in the beginning of the Dedication, he says, This poem which received its first occafion of birth from yourself and others of your noble fa"mily, and much honour from your own perfan in the performance, &c." See this Dedication above, p. 117. This young nobleman married at nineteen, 1642, Elizabeth daughter of William duke of Newcastle; who died in 1663, leaving a numerous iffue. See the next Note. She was a moft amiable character: and the earl her hufband ordered it to be recorded on his tomb in Gadefden church, that he enjoyed almost twenty-two years, all the happiness a man could receive in the fweet fociety of the best of wives." Till his death he was inconfolable for her lofs. In the Newcastle Book on Horfemanship, there is a print of this JOHN earl of Bridgewater (the FIRST Brother in Coмps) and his countefs ELIZABETH, grouped with other figures. There is also a large mezzotinto print in quarto of this earl, done in 1680, from a portrait by William Claret an imitator of Lely, which I believe is at Afhridge. Mr. THOMAS Egerton, abovementioned, who performed the part of the SECOND BROTHER in our drama, was a fourth fon of the old earl John, and died unmarried at twenty three. The Lady ALICE Egerton, probably so named from her grandmother in law the countefs dowager of Derby, who acted the Lady in CoмUS, was the eleventh daughter, and could not now have been more than thirteen years old. She was taught mufic by Henry Lawes. She became the third countefs of Richard lord Vaughan of -> Emlyn, and earl of Carbury, who lived at Golden-Grove in Carmarthenshire, and by whom he had no issue, about 1653. See the next Note. And Dugd. BARON. vol. ii. 470. In Henry Lawes's" Select "AYRES and DIALOGUES for the Theorbo, &c." publifhed 1669, there is a fong addreffed to this Lady from her hufband, called the EARL TO THE COUNTESS OF CARBURY. I will cite the two last stanzas, which are excellent in the affected and witty ftyle of the times. When first I view'd thee, I did spy Thy foul ftand beckoning in thine eye; Two balls of wax fo run, When melted into one : Mix'd now with thine my heart now lies, For fince I can't pretend to have For when thou'rt call'd to bliss, 'Cause piercing Thine he kills My heart. This Lady ALICE muft not be confounded with Lord Carbury's fecond countess Frances, who died Oct. 9, 1650: and to whom there is a funeral Sermon, with a Latin epitaph, both fuperabundantly full of her praises, by the pious and learned bishop Jeremy Taylor. The earl, in the Epitaph, with great tenderness expreffes his intention of refting in the fame grave with this accomplished lady, although he married fo foon afterwards, as we have feen, the lady ALICE Egerton. See bifhop Taylor's SERMONS, edit. 5th. fol. Printed for R. Royston, 1678. This Lord Carbury was Privy counsellor to Charles the fecond. He harboured in his houfe at Golden Grove bishop Taylor abovementioned, during the Rebellion and most of that prelate's works are dedicated to him. This Richard earl of Carbury fucceeded his father in law, John carl of Bridgewater, in the Presidentship of Wales: which I chiefly mention, to introduce a circumstance more to his honour, that at the Restoration he appointed Butler to the Stewardship of Ludlowcaftle, a very refpectable and lucrative office, while the principalitycourt continued to be held there. See Wood, AтH. OXON. ii. 452. And Whitlock, MEм. p. 115. edit. 1682. Butler had been before lord Carbury's fecretary. The two young noblemen of whom I have been here speaking, JOHN Lord Brackley afterwards earl of Bridgewater, and his brother Mr. THOMAS Egerton, were practitioners in the business of acting Mafques; and although now fo very young when they played in COMUS, had before appeared on a higher,ftage. They performed in a Mafque called COELUM BRITANNICUM, written by that elegant poet, the rival of Waller, Thomas Carew, and pre fented fented in 1633, in the Banquetting-Houfe at Whitehall, on Shrovetuesday night. See Carew's POEMS, p. 215. edit. 1651. It is more than probable, that they played among the young nobility, together with their fifter the lady ALICE, in ARCADES. Where fee v. 26. feq. Their fifter PENELOPE Egerton, a fixth daughter, afterwards married to fir Robert Napier of Luton-Hoo in Bedfordshire, acted at court with the queen and other ladies, in Jonfon's Mafque of CHLORIDIA, at Shrove-tide, 1630. Jonson's WORKS, vol. vi. p. 211. All that I have mentioned of the Egerton or Bridgewater family, are buried under a stately monument in the church of Little-Gadefden in Hertfordshire, but bordering upon Buckinghamshire. On that monument, is a long infcription to the memory of the father, the first earl JOHN, the lord Prefident of Wales, who, among other valuable accomplishments, is there faid to have been " a pro* found scholar." It was lucky, that at least one person of the audience, and he the chief, was capable of understanding the many learned allufions in this drama. The family lived at Afhridge in the parish of Gadesden, anciently a royal palace, and ftill inhabited by their illuftrious defcendant the prefent duke of Bridgewater. Milton, as I have related, lived in the neighbourhood; and, as in writing the Mask for Harefield, was partly from that circumftance employed to write Comus: which yet was exhibited at Ludlow caftle, on occafion of Lord Bridgewater's appointment to the principality-court of Wales. HENRY LAWE S. ENRY Lawes, who compofed the mufic for Comus, and H performed the combined characters of the SPIRIT and the thepherd THYRSIS in that drama, was the fon of Thomas Lawes a vicar-choral of Salisbury cathedral. He was perhaps at first a choir-boy of that church. With his brother William, he was educated in mufic under Giovanni Coperario; fuppofed by Fenton in his Notes on Waller to be an Italian, but really an Englishman under the plain name of John Cooper, at the expence of Edward earl of Hertford. In January, 1625, he was appointed Pistoler, or Epiftoler,* of the royal chapel; in November following he became one of the Gentlemen of the choir of that chapel; and foon afterwards, clerk of the cheque, and one of the court-muficians to king Charles the first. In 1633, in conjunction with Simon Ives, he composed the mufic to a Mask prefented at Whitehall on Candlemafs night by the gentlemen of the four Inns of court, under the direction of fuch *This officer, before the Reformation, was a Deacons and it was his business to read the Epifle at the altar. grave grave characters as Noy the attorney-general, Edward Hyde afterwards earl of Clarendon, Selden, and Bulstrode Whitlock. Lawes and Ives received each one hundred pounds as compofers; and the whole coft, to the great offence of the puritanical party, amounted to more than one thousand pounds. In Robert Herrick's HESPERIDES, or Poems, are three or four Christmas Odes, fung before the king at Whitehall, composed by Lawes, edit. Lond. 1648. 4to. p. [ad calc.] 31. feq. And in the fame collection, there is an Epigram To Mr. HENRY LAWES, the excellent Compofer of his Lyricks, by which it appears that he was celebrated no lefs as a vocal than an inftrumental performer, ibid. p. 326. Touch but the lire, my Harrie, and I heare Lawes, in the Attendant Spirit, fung the laft Air in Comus, to have been well acquainted with the best poets, and the most refpectable and popular of the nobility, of his times. To fay nothing here of Milton, he fet to mufic all the Lyrics in Waller's POEMS, firft published in 1645, among which, is an ODE addreffed to Lawes, by Waller, full of high compliments. One of the pieces of Waller was fet by Lawes in 1635. He compofed the SONGS, and a Mafque, in the POEMS of Thomas Carew. See third edit, 1651, p. ult. The Mafque was exhibited in 1633. In the title page to COMEDIES, TRAGI-COMEDIES, and other PoE MS, by William Cartwright, published in 1651, but written much earlier, it is faid, that the " Ayres and Songs were set by Mr. "Henry Lawes," and Lawes himself has a commendatory poem prefixed, infcribed, "To the memory of my moft deferving and "peculiar friend, Mr. William Cartwright." See Note on ČOM. v. 86. The mufic to Lovelace's AMARANTHA, a Paftoral, is by Lawes. Wood, АTH. OXON. ii. 229. He published " AYRES "and DIALOGUES for one, two, and three voyces, &c. Lond. "1653." fol. They are dedicated to Lady Vaughan and Carbury, who had acted the LADY in COMUs, and to her fifter Mary, Lady HERBERT of Cherbury. See the laft NOTE. Both had been his scholars in mufic, "To the two most illuftrious SISTERS, "ALICE, Counteffe of Carberie, and Mary, Lady Herbert of "Cherbury and Caftle-ifland, daughters to John, earl of Bridge"water, Lord Prefident of Wales, &c. No fconer I thought "of making thefe publick, than of infcribing them to your Ladi"fhips: most of them being compafed, when I was employed by attend 66 your ever honoured parents to your Ladifhips' education "in mufick: who, as in other accomplishments fit for perfons of 'your quality, excelled most ladies, especially in Vocal Musick, VOL. I. R wherein "wherein you were fo abfolute, that you gave life and honour to "all I taught you: and that with more understanding, than a new "generation [of compofers] pretending to skill, I dare fay, are capable of." [See Coм. v. 85. And the Note.] The words of the numerous fongs in this work, are by some of the most eminent poets of the time. A few young noblemen are alfo contributors. The composers are not only Henry and William Lawes, but Wilfon, Coleman, Webb, Lanier, &c. One of the pieces by H. Lawes, is a poem by John Birkenhead, called an "An"niversary on the Nuptials of John, earl of Bridgewater, Jul. "22, 1642." See p. 33. And Wood, ATH. OXON. ii. 640. This was the young lord Brackley, who played the FIRST BROTHER in COMUs, and who married Elizabeth, daughter of William, duke of Newcastle. See the last Note. Another is the COMPLAINT of ARIADNE, written by Cartwright, and printed in his POEMS, p. 238. [See below, SON N. xiii. 11.] For a compofition to one of the airs of this piece, which gained exceffive and unufual applaufe, Lawes is faid to be the first who introduced the Italian ftyle of mufic into England. In the Preface he fays, he had formerly compofed airs to Italian and Spanish words: and, allowing the Italians to be the chief masters of the musical art, concludes that England has produced as able musicians as any country of Europe, and cenfures the prevailing fondness for Italian words. To this Preface, among others, are prefixed Waller's verfes abovementioned; and two copies by Edward and John Philips, Milton's nephews. There are alfo " Select AYRES and "DIALOGUES to fing to the Theorbo-lute, or Bass-viol, com'posed by Mr. Henry Lawes, late fervant to his Majesty in his "publick and private Muficke, and other excellent mafters. The "fecond Book. Lond. Printed by W. Goodbid for John Play"ford, and to be fold at his shop in the Temple near the Church"dore, 1669." Here is the SONG, quoted in the laft NOTE, called The Earl to the countess of Carbury. See p. 90. Compare Wood, ATH. OXON. ii. F. p. 59. Befides his Pfalms, printed for Moseley, 1648, in conjunction with his brother William, and to which Milton's thirteenth SONNET is prefixed, To Mr. H. Lawes on the publishing his Airs, dated in the Trinity manufcript, Febr. 9, 1645, Lawes compofed tunes to Sandys's admirable PARAPHRASE of the Pfalms, first published in 1638. [See Note on SONN. xiii. v. 11.] I know not, if any of these Pfalm-tunes were ever popular: but Lawes's feventy-fecond Pfalm was once the tune of the chimes of Saint Lawrence Jewry. Wood fays, that he had feen a poem written by fir Walter Raleigh, "which "had a mufical compofition of two parts fet to it by the incom"parable artist Henry Lawes." ATHEN. OXON. ii. p.441. num. 5ro. See alfo vol. i. F. p. 194. More of Lawes's works, are in the Treasury of Mufick, 1669. In the Mufical Companion, 1662. 66 |