who wrote Masks themselves, entertained of their gene

ral aukwardness.

Lysippus. Strato, thou hast some skill in poetry;
What think'st thou of the Masque? Will it be well?
Strato. As well as Masque can be.

Lysippus. As Masque can be?

Strato. Yes.

They must commend their king, and speak in praise
Of the assembly,-bless the bride and bridegroom
In person of some god. They're tyed to rules
Of flattery.

MAID'S TRAGEDY. Act 1. Sc. 1.

Taste and good temper, however, would make a con siderable difference in the merit even of flattery; and it is to be recollected, after all, that the Mask was not of necessity to be complimentary, though it was generally produced on complimentary occasions. Beaumont, in a piece called the Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn, and written in honour of the Elector Palatine's marriage with James's daughter, has exhibited equal delicacy and invention. Carew, in the

succeeding reign, when the Prince, whatever political errors he had derived from a bad education, was a man of taste and respectability, complimented the court in a Mask, entitled Cœlum Britannicum, which, contrary to the usual corruptness of the author's taste, is in some parts worthy the dignity of Milton himself; and among the variety of productions of this kind, which the gentlemen of the law appear to have got up, as the phrase is, for their own amusement, there is one, of a general description, founded on the fable of Circe, and written by William Browne, a student of the Temple in the beginning of James's reign, which reminds us of Milton, and has been supposed by some to have been one of the various productions which furnished hints for his Comus. Browne, though he was deficient in that pervading taste, or selectness, which can alone bring down a man to posterity, or at least enable him to survive but with the curious, was a true poet, with a luxuriant fancy and great powers of description, and has undoubtedly been imitated by Milton in some instances.

These three pieces, the Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn by Beaumont, the Cœlum Britannicum of Carew, and the Inner Temple Mask or Circe of Browne, are of the more ambitious class, that aim to be read, and may be pronounced, perhaps, upon the whole, the best specimens of the Mask, in it's stricter sense, that are to be found. They are far below such a work as Comus; but considered as an inferior species of composition, of no great extent, and, two of them, with a courtly purpose, they possess no small portion of poetry; and may be characterized, the first by fancy and elegance, the second by a lofty strain of sentiment, and the third by a certain full and reposing luxury.

To complete the sketch on the present subject, a specimen may be quoted, from each of these pieces, of the three principal features of the Mask,-it's shew, it's personification, and it's songs. Beaumont has prefaced his with the following "Device or Argument," which contains an analysis of the entire performance, and will exhibit at once the main fabric of a Mask :

66 Jupiter and Juno, willing to do honour to the marriage of the two famous rivers, Thamesis and Rhine" (an allusion to the Princess Elizabeth and the Elector Palatine)" employ their messengers severally, Mercury and Iris, for that purpose. They meet and contend. Then Mercury, for his part, brings forth an antimasque, all of spirits or divine natures, but yet not of one kind or livery, because that had been so much in use heretofore, but, as it were, in consort, like to broken music;-and preserving the propriety of the devise, for that rivers in nature are maintained either by springs from beneath or showers from above,he raiseth four of the Naiades out of the fountains, and bringeth down five of the Hyades out of the clouds, to dance. Hereupon, Iris scoffs at Mercury, for that he had devised a dance but of one sex, which could have no life; but Mercury, who was provided for that exception, and in token that the match should be blessed both with love and riches, calleth forth out of the groves four Cupids, and brings down from Jupiter's altar four statues of gold and silver to dance with the

nymphs and stars, in which dance the Cupids being blind, and the statues having half life put into them, and retaining still some of their old nature, giveth fit occasion to new and strange varieties both in the music and paces. This was the first anti-masque.

"Then Iris, for her part, in scorn of this high-flying devise, and in token that the match shall likewise be blessed with the love of the common people, calls to Flora her confederate (for that the months of flowers are likewise the months of sweet showers and rainbows) to bring in a May-dance, or rural dance, consisting likewise not of any suited persons, but of a confusion or commixture of all such persons as are natural and proper for country sports. This is the second anti-masque.

"Then Mercury and Iris, after this vieing one upon the other, seem to leave their contention; and Mercury, by the consent of Iris, brings down the Olympian knights, intimating, that Jupiter having after a long