As does his light; and turtle-footed peace'
Dance like a fairy through his realms, while all
That envy him shall like swift comets fall,
By their own fire consumed; and glorious he,
Ruling, as 't were, the force of destiny,

Shall have a long and prosperous reign on earth,
Then fly to Heaven, and give a new star birth.-

A Flourish.-Enter RAYBRIGHT, HUMOUR, BOUNTY, and
DELIGHT.

But see, our star appears; and from his eye
Fly thousand beams of sparkling majesty.
Ray. What bold rebellious caitiffs dare disturb
The happy progress of our glorious peace,
Contemn the justite of our equal laws,
Profane those sacred rights, which still must be
Attendant on monarchal dignity?

I came to frolic with you, and to cheer
Your drooping souls by vigour of my beams,
And have I this strange welcome? Reverend Winter,
I'm come to be your guest; your bounteous, free
Condition does assure me, I shall have

A welcome entertainment.

Win. Illustrious sir! I am not ignorant How much expression my true zeal will want To entertain you fitly; yet my love

And hearty duty shall be far above

My outward welcome. To that glorious light
Of Heaven, the Sun, which chases hence the night,
I am so much a vassal, that I'll strive,

By honouring you to keep my faith alive

To him, brave prince, through you, who do inherit Your father's cheerful heat and quick'ning spirit.

1

-and turtle-footed peace

Dance like a fairy, &c.] This, as well as several other expressions in this elegant "augury," is taken from the beautiful address to Elizabeth, in Jonson's Epilogue to Every Man out of his Humour.

"The throat of war be stopp'd within her realm,

And turtle-footed peace dance fairy-rings,

About her court, &c."-GIFFORD,

VOL. II.-12

Therefore, as I am Winter, worn and spent
So far with age, I am Time's monument,
Antiquity's example; in my zeal,

I, from my youth, a span of time will steal
To open the free treasures of my court,
And swell your soul with my delights and sport.
Ray. Never till now

Did admiration beget in me truly

The rare-match'd twins at once, pity and pleasure. [Pity, that one]

So royal, so abundant in earth's blessings,

Should not partake the comfort of those beams,
With which the Sun, beyond extent, doth cheer
The other seasons; yet my pleasures with you,
From their false charms, do get the start, as far
As Heaven's great lamp from every minor star.
Win. Attendance on our revels! let delight
Conjoin the day with sable-footed night;
Both shall forsake their orbs, and in one sphere
Meet in soft mirth and harmless pleasures here:
While plump Lyæus shall, with garland crown'd
Of triumph-ivy, in full cups abound

Of Cretan wine, and shall dame Ceres call
To wait on you, at Winter's festival;

While gaudy Summer, Autumn, and the Spring
Shall to my lord their choicest viands bring.
We'll rob the sea, and from the subtle air
Fetch her inhabitants, to supply our fare!
That, were Apicius here, he in one night
Should sate with dainties his strong appetite.
Begin our revels then, and let all pleasure
Flow like the ocean in a boundless measure.
[A flourish.
(Here a Masque of the four Elements, Air, Fire,
Water, and Earth: and the four Complexions,
Phlegm, Blood, Choler, and Melancholy.)

1 We have consulted the reader's taste by omitting, as much as poss!ble, whatever might tend to adulterate the rich but somewhat careless poetry with which this drama is inlaid throughout; but his knowledge

Win. How do these pleasures please?
Hum. Pleasures!

of our old dramatic literature may be enlarged by a few observations on the "masque" of which the mere title is given in the text. The mask itself grew out of an opinion strongly current among our ancestors (and which appears to have been derived to them through the schools from the Greek physicians), that man was composed of the four elements, the due proportion and commixture of which in his composition was what produced in him every kind of perfection, mental and bodily. Hence (not to multiply examples) the well-known commendation of Brutus by the first of all dramatic writers:

"His life was gentle, and the elements

So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up

And say to all the world, This was a man."-Jul. Cæs. v. 5. Ine disposition, again, of every man was supposed to arise from four principal humours or fluids in his body; and, consequently, that which was prevalent in any one might he called his particular humour. Blood, phlegm, choler, and melancholy were the four humours; the two latter being not so properly different fluids, as one fluid, bile, in two different states; common bile, xon, choler, and black bile, uɛlayxoλía. From these fluids were supposed to arise the four principal temperaments or complexions, the sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, and melancholic; the fluids themselves being more remotely referred to the four elements. Their connexion is thus stated by Howell:

"And it must be so while the starrs poure different influxes upon us, but especially while the humours within us have a symbolization with the four elements, who are in ruthlesse conflict among themselfs who shall have the mastery, as the humors do in us for a predominancy."— Parley of Beasts, p. 80.

It is upon this more immediate origin of the four temperaments or complexions from the four humours, and their more remote reference to the four elements, that much of "the morall maske" termed "Microcosmus" is founded. This drama, evidently formed upon "The Sun's Darling," was written by Thomas Nabbes, an author "concerning whom," according to the usual language of our old dramatic calendar, "scarce any thing is recorded," and was printed in 1637. The reader who has not a copy of Dodsley's collection of old plays may be amused by a transcription of some of the dramatis persona.

FIRE, a fierce-countenanced young man, in a flame-coloured robe, wrought with divers-coloured gleams of fire; his hair red, and on his head a crown of flames. His creature a Vulcan.

AIR, a young man of a variable countenance, in a blue robe, wrought with divers-coloured clouds; his hair blue, and on his head a wreath of clouds. His creature a giant, or sylvan.

WATER, a woman in a sea-green robe, wrought with waves; her hair sea-green, and on her head a wreath of sedge, bound about with waves. Her creature a siren.

EARTH, a young woman of a sad countenance, in a grass-green robe, wrought with sundry fruits and flowers; her hair black, and on her head a chaplet of flowers. Her creature a pigmy.

CHOLER, a fencer; his clothes red.

Boun. Live here,

And be my lord's friend; and thy sports shall vary.
A thousand ways; Invention shall beget
Conceits, as curious as the thoughts of Change
Can aim at.

Hum. Trifles! Progress o'er the year
Again, my Raybright; therein, like the Sun,
As he in Heaven runs his circular course,
So thou on earth run thine; for to be fed

With stale delights, breeds dulness and contempt: Think on the Spring.

Ray. She was a lovely virgin.

Win. My royal lord!

Without offence, be pleased but to afford me
To give you my true figure; do not scorn
My age, nor think, 'cause I appear forlorn,
I serve for no use: 't is my sharper breath
Does purge gross exhalations from the earth;
My frosts and snows do purify the air

From choking fogs, make the sky clear and fair:
And though by nature cold and chill I be,
Yet I am warm in bounteous charity;

And can, my lord, by grave and sage advice,
Bring you to the happy shades of paradise.

Ray. That wonder! Oh, can you bring me thither?

Win. I can direct and point you out a path..
Hum. But where's the guide?

Quicken thy spirits, Raybright; I'll not leave thee:
We'll run the self-same race again, that happiness;
These lazy, sleeping, tedious Winter's nights
Become not noble action.

BLOOD, a dancer, in a watchet-coloured (i. e. a pale blue) suit. PHLEGM, a physician, an old man; his doublet white and black; trunk hose.

MELANCHOLY, a musician; his complexion, hair, and clothes black; a lute in his hand. He is likewise an amorist.

For further information on this subject the reader is referred to Archdeacon Nares's valuable glossary, under the words Elements and Humours.

Ray. To the Spring

I am resolv'd

The SUN appears above.

Oh, what strange light appears!

The Sun is up, sure.

Sun. Wanton Darling, look,

And worship with amazement.
Omnes. Gracious lord!

[Recorders.

Sun. Thy sands are number'd, and thy glass of frailty

Here runs out to the last.-Here, in this mirror,
Let man behold the circuit of his fortunes;
The season of the Spring dawns like the morning,
Bedewing childhood with unrelish'd beauties
Of gaudy sights; the Summer, as the noon,
Shines in delight of Youth, and ripens strength
To Autumn's manhood; here the evening grows,
And knits up all felicity in folly:

Winter at last draws on, the night of age;
Yet still a humour of some novel fancy
Untasted or untried puts off the minute
Of resolution, which should bid farewell
To a vain world of weariness and sorrows.

The powers, from whom man does derive the pedigree

Of his creation, with a royal bounty,

Give him Health, Youth, Delight, for free attend

ants,

To rectify his carriage: to be thankful

Again to them, man should cashier his riots,
His bosom's wanton sweetheart, idle Humour
His reason's dangerous seducer, Folly.

Then shall,

Like four straight pillars, the four Elements
Support the goodly structure of mortality;
Then shall the four Complexions, like four heads
Of a clear river, streaming in his body,

Nourish and comfort every vein and sinew;