Of the style of this poem, it is to be observed that it is often inexact and almost ungrammatical; and of the metre, that it is very licentious: both with design and the most consummate judgment. An irregular construction carries with it an air of negligence, well suited to this drama, and yet prevents the expression from falling into vulgarity; and a looseness of measure gives grace and ease to the tragic dialogue: but this apology does not extend to such inaccuracies in the mask of Comus;' which, as a work of delight and ostentation, should have been everywhere laboured, as indeed for the most part it is, into the utmost polish of style and metre. Milton learned the secret he has here so successfully practised from his strict attention to the Greek tragedians, especially Euripides. The modern critics of this poet are perpetually tampering with his careless expression, careless numbers, &c., unconscious that both were the effect of art. It is on these occasions we may apply the observation,

·

It is not Homer nods, but we that dream.

The Samson Agonistes' is, in every view, the most artificial and highly-finished of all Milton's poetical works.-HURD.

6

Dr. Warton, in a concluding note on 'Lycidas,' assigns to 'Samson Agonistes' the third place of rank among the poet's works. Lord Monboddo, still more enamoured of its excellencies, says, that it is the "last and the most faultless, in my judgment, of all Milton's poetical works, if not the finest."-"Orig. and Prog. of Language," 2d edit. vol. iii. p. 71. It is certainly, as Mr. Mason long since observed, an excellent piece, to which posterity has not yet given its full measure of popular and universal fame. "Perhaps,” says this judicious writer in a letter to a friend concerning his own impressive tragedy of "Elfrida," "in your closet, and that of a few more, who unaffectedly admire genuine nature and ancient simplicity, the 'Agonistes' may hold a distinguished rank: yet surely, we cannot say, in Hamlet's phrase, that it pleases the million; it it is still caviare to the general.' "Elfrida," edit. 1752, Lett. ii. p. vi. vii.-TODD. Dr. Johnson has criticised in the "Rambler," No. 139, 140, Samson Agonistes' as wanting a middle, though he allows it a beginning and an end. He says:-"The tragedy of Samson Agonistes' has been celebrated as the second work of the great author of 'Paradise Lost,' and opposed with all the confidence of triumph to the dramatic performances of other nations. It contains indeed just sentiments, maxims of wisdom, and oracles of piety, and many passages written with the ancient spirit of choral poetry, in which there is a just and pleasing mixture of Seneca's moral declamation with the wild enthusiasm of the Greek writers: it is therefore worthy of examination, whether a performance thus illuminated with genius and enriched with learning, is composed according to the indispensable laws of Aristotelian criticism; and, omitting at present all other considerations, whether it exhibits a beginning, a middle, and an end.

"The poem has a beginning and an end which Aristotle himself could not have disapproved; but it must be allowed to want a middle, since nothing passes between the first act and the last, that either hastens or delays the death of Samson. The whole drama, if its superfluities were cut off, would scarcely fill a single act; yet this is the tragedy which ignorance has admired, and bigotry applauded.

"Such are the faults, and such the beauties of Samson Agonistes;' which I have shown with no other purpose than to promote the knowledge of true criticism. The everlasting verdure of Milton's laurels has nothing to fear from the blasts of malignity; nor can such attempt produce any other effect than to strengthen their shoots by lopping their luxuriance."

Cumberland, in his "Observer," vol. iv. No. 111, very properly defends the middle of this drama against Johnson's attack. He contends that the captious critic has misunderstood Aristotle's rule; and concludes thus:

"Of the character, I may say in few words, that 'Samson' possesses all the terrific majesty of Prometheus Chained,' the mysterious distress of ' Edipus,' and the pitiable wretchedness of Philoctetes.' His properties, like those of the first, are something above human; his misfortunes, like those of the second, are derivable from the pleasure of Heaven, and involved in oracles; his condition, like that of the last, is the most abject which human nature can be reduced to from a state of dignity and splendour.

"Of the catastrophe, there remains only to remark, that it is of unparalleled majesty and terror."

COMUS;

A Mask,

PRESENTED AT LUDLOW CASTLE, 1634,

BEFORE

JOHN, EARL OF BRIDGEWATER,

THEN PRESIDENT OF WALES.

LUDLOW CASTLE.

TODD has given a copious historical account of this castle, which I shall omit. It had long been the palace of the princes of Wales, and was inhabited by Prince Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII.; it was built by Roger de Montgomery, about 1112. Sir Henry Sidney, when Lord President of Wales, expended large sums upon this building. The castle was delivered to the Parliament in 1646; the court of marches was afterwards abolished, and the lords presidents discontinued in 1688: from that time the castle fell into decay.

JOHN, EARL OF BRIDGEWATER.

THE family of Egerton is of the most undoubted antiquity, and was one of the first of the rank of commoners in Cheshire, being among the barons of the earl palatine of the county at the Conquest. The Cholmondeleys are from the same male stock the male line of the eldest branch of the family still survives in Sir Philip de Malpas Egerton, Bart., but the founder of the nobility of the Bridgewater branch was Lord Chancellor Egerton, born about 1540. He was a natural son of Sir Richard Egerton of Ridley, who died 1579, son of Sir Ralph Egerton of Ridley in Cheshire, standard-bearer of England, by an heiress of one of the Bassets of Blore, in the county of Stafford. Sir Thomas Egerton was made Solicitor-General, 2nd June, 1581; Attorney-General, 2nd June, 1592; Master of the Rolls, 10th April, 36 Eliz.; Lord Keeper, 6th May, 1596; created Baron of Ellesmere, 21st July, 1603, by King James, and three days afterwards constituted Lord High Chancellor of England; advanced to the dignity of Viscount Brackley, 7th November, 1616; and died full of years and honours, at the age of seventy-seven, on the 15th of March, 1617, and was buried at Doddleston, in the county of Cheshiret.

This is not the place to enter into a long examination of this celebrated man's public character. The late Francis Henry Egerton, the last Earl of Bridgewater,

The last heiress of the elder branch of the Bassets of Blore married William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, whose daughter by her married John Egerton, second Earl of Bridgewater.

The ancestor of these Bassets married the heiress of the elder branch of the Byrons. In the church of Blore was the brass-plate recording this marriage, when I visited that church in autumn, 1789.

By some extraordinary neglect, no memorial was erected over this great man's remains, till the present learned, accomplished, and amiable Archdeacon Wrangham, the rector of the parish, placed an epitaph at his own expense.

who died in 1829, printed in folio a large collection of materials for his life, of which a great part have been introduced into the last edition of the "Biographia Britannica." He was a man remarkable for discretion, sagacity, and wisdom in perilous times. He was the founder of the present system of equity in chancery; and his contest with Chief Justice Coke, and triumph over the great learning and abilities of that bad-tempered man, is alone matter of high fame. In all the pages of history which have gained any credit, his reputation stands bright and clear: he accumulated a large fortune for his posterity, which was vastly augmented by the illustrious marriage which his son made with Lady Frances Stanley, daughter and coheir of Ferdinando, Earl of Derby, and the Lady Alice, before whom Milton's 'Arcades' was acted.

This son John, second Viscount Brackley, was created Earl of Bridgewater 27th May, 1617, two months after his father's death. From this time, this earl was by his marriage lifted at once to the very first and most illustrious rank of nobility. The blood of the Stanleys, Cliffords, Brandons, Wodevilles, Tudors, and Plantagenets, all centred in his children.

In 1631 he was appointed Lord President of Wales. "I have been informed from a manuscript of Oldys," says Mr. Warton, "that Lord Bridgewater, being appointed Lord President of Wales, entered upon his official residence at Ludlow castle with great solemnity on this occasion he was attended by a large concourse of the neighbouring nobility and gentry. Among the rest came his children; in particular, Lord Brackley, Mr. Thomas Egerton, and Lady Alice,

To attend their father's state

And new-entrusted sceptre.

They had been on a visit at a house of their relations, the Egerton family in Herefordshire; and in passing through Haywood forest were benighted, and the Lady Alice was even lost for a short time. This accident, which in the end was attended with no bad consequences, furnished the subject of a mask for a Michaelmas festivity, and produced Comus.' Lord Bridgewater was appointed [rather, as I appre hend, installed] Lord President, May 12, 1633. When the perilous adventure in Haywood forest happened, if true, cannot now be told; it must have been soon after. The mask was acted at Michaelmas, 1634." Sir John Hawkins has also observed, that this elegant poem is founded on a real story; his account of which, though less particular, agrees with that of Oldys. "Hist. of Music," vol. iv. p. 52. Lawes, in his dedication to Lord Brackley, perhaps alludes to the accident, in stating that the "poem received its first occasion of birth from himself, and others of his noble family."

This first Earl of Bridgewater died 4th December, 1649, aged seventy: his countess died 11th March, 1635-6, aged fifty-two*.

Of Lady Alice Egerton, the youngest daughter, Warton has given an account.

John Egerton, second Earl of Bridgewater, was the Elder Brother in 'Comus,' under the name of Lord Brackley: he was a man of literature, very studious, very accomplished, and very amiable. Sir Henry Chauncey, in his "History of Hertfordshire," has given a very interesting and attractive character, and a lively description of his person. He died 26th October, 1686, aged sixty-four; he was consequently born in 1622. He married Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, daughter of William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, a lady of incomparable beauty, talents, and virtue; of whose "Prayers and Meditations," a manuscript copy has descended to met. She died 14th June, 1663, aged thirty-seven.

In the epitaphs of these two generations, at Little Gadsden, near Ashridge, there is a singular strain of plaintive eloquence.

His daughter, Lady Catherine, married William Courteen, Esq., son and heir of Sir William Courteen, knight, a merchant of London. See the curious and elaborate lives of the Courteens, in the last edition of the "Biographia Britannica." The last of them took the name of Charlton, and was a man of scientific fame.

+ It is particularised in Todd, p. 208, from my communication.

The Earl's affection for his wife, and regret for her loss, even till his death * were extreme†.

John, third Earl of Bridgewater, died 23rd May, 1716, aged sixty-one.

His son Scroop, fourth earl, having married Lady Elizabeth Churchill, one of the coheirs of the famous John, Duke of Marlborough, was raised to a dukedom 18th June, 1720 she died however in her twenty-sixth year, before this promotion, on 22nd March, 1714. The duke died 11th January, 1745; his eldest son John, by his marriage with Lady Rachel Russell, succeeded, and died 26th February, 1748, aged twenty-one. He was succeeded by his only brother, Francis, third and last duke, who died unmarried, 1803, aged sixty-seven. This was the celebrated founder of canal navigation.

General John William Egerton, grandson of Henry, Bishop of Hereford, who died 1746, fifth son of John, third Earl of Bridgewater, succeeded to the earldom. His father was Bishop of Durham, and married, in 1748, Lady Anne Sophia Gray, daughter of Henry, last Duke of Kent of that family: he died 1823, and was succeeded by his brother, the Rev. Francis Henry Egerton, who died at Paris, unmarried,

1829.

Lady Louisa Egerton, born 30th April, 1723, sister of the whole blood to the last Duke of Bridgewater, married 28th March, 1748, Granville Levison, afterwards Earl Gower, and created Marquis of Stafford, whose son by her, the second Marquis of Stafford, was latterly created Duke of Sutherland, and was father of the present Duke of Sutherland and of Lord Francis Gower, on whom the Duke of Bridgewater entailed a large portion of his immense property, in consequence of which he has now assumed the name of Egerton.

Sophia Egerton, sister of the last two earls, married Sir Abraham Hume, Bart., and left two daughters, of whom one married the Earl of Brownlow, and was mother of the present Lord Alfred; and the other married Mr. Charles Long, created Lord Farnborough; but without issue.

I would not have gone into these dry genealogical details, if the title had not now disappeared from the modern peerages.

On the illustrious founder of canal navigation, a great national benefactor, it is unnecessary to enlarge: perhaps he did not take the literary turn of his ancestors, which, if not more useful, would have been more congenial to the pursuits which I admire. He was a man of retired, and somewhat eccentric habits; and wrapped up exclusively in the mighty works which he was meditating, and carrying on. He was not a man of visionary talents; and cared little, I believe, about the history of his ancestors, or the glories of past times: he felt no interest in the curious library §, amassed by his forefathers, nor in the long galleries of the portraits of the great chancellor's Elizabethan contemporaries. His ancient mansion of Ashridge, which before the Reformation had been a monastery, he suffered to fall to decay, inhabiting only a few rooms in the porter's lodge ||.

* See, in "Censura Literaria," an account of George Wither's "Hallelujah," with the manuscript notes of this Earl's own copy.

+ I have mentioned the funeral certificate by the heralds: their inaccuracy is always proverbial. The earl survived his son Thomas a year; yet though the son's marriage and issue are given, no notice is taken of his death. I found it in a memorandum in an account-book of his widow. Afterwards I found, by Clutterbuck's "History of Hertfordshire," that he was buried at Little Gadsden, in the family vault. His widow, Esther Busby, survived till 1724.

The first Duke of Bridgewater had a daughter by his first lady, who first married Wriothesly Russell, third Duke of Bedford, who died 1732, without issue; and afterwards William Villiers, Earl of Jersey, from which marriage the present Earl of Jersey is descended.

§ From the use of this library Mr. Todd derived a great part of his bibliographical knowledge in old English poetry, and of the predecessors and contemporaries of Milton: many of the volumes had probably gone through the hands of the illustrious poet.

I visited it in August, 1789, and took a hasty list of the portraits. See "Topographer," 1789, 1790, 8vo. four vols.

General John Egerton, who succeeded to the earldom and ancient portion of the Bridgewater estates, inherited none of the old family love of literature. He was of manners chillingly cold, and a reserved pride, mixed with something of concealed sarcasm, which was apt to give great offence: he piqued himself upon his proprieties, and would never do anything out of rule or fashion: he rebuilt the mansion of Ashridge most magnificently, but was fond of money, and over-thrifty in many of his habits. He never had any children, but left the principal property to his widow for her life, who still enjoys it.

His brother and successor, Francis Henry Egerton, was prebendary of Durham, and rector of the rich family living of Whitchurch in Shropshire. For about twenty of the last years of his life he resided at Paris, having bought the grand hotel of the Ducs de Noailles, between the Rue St. Honoré and the Rue de Rivoli, where he lived at a great expense, and in much pomp. He was a strange man, the reverse of his brother: an admirable classical scholar, a great lover of books, with many flashes of genius, and fitful acts of generosity and munificence: in short, many of his habits were so singular as only to be accounted for by the obliquities of mental disease. By his will he became a public benefactor, enriching the library of the British Museum, and leaving a large sum to be expended in the authorship and publication of what have since appeared under the title of the "Bridgewater Treatises." He delighted in the history of his family, and the glory of his ancestors; he caused to be printed a translation of Comus' in Italian verse; and was at the expense of many other privately-printed gifts to literature. It cannot be denied that he was both vain and proud: but let his learning, his talents, and acts of public benefit veil his foibles.

Lord Francis Gower, now Egerton, who represents and possesses a magnificent portion of the Bridgewater property, with the library, splendid collection of pictures, and other reliques, embellishes his descent by his literary accomplishments, his genius, and his devotion to the muses.

Thus has passed away the male line of this illustrious family*. The length of Mr. Todd's note, in his Milton, upon the subject, has set me an example which will apologise for my substituting in its room another which fills less space. Considering the early connexion of Milton with this house, and that hence came the exquisite mask of Comus,' I venture to hope that it will not be deemed irrelevant. Descent is nothing unless it stimulates to accomplish the mind with high decorations, tc nurse high pursuits, and to cherish high emotions of the heart. Who sleeps upon his honours who relies only on reflected glory,-is an imbecile and culpable cipher.

* I believe that only five males are now living, who are half-Egertons, viz., whose mothers were Egertons, of whom my brother and myself are two. Lord Francis is only an Egerton by his paternal grandmother; the same is the case with Mr. Egerton of Tatton.