Might be a diamant worthy to inchase it, Ruled by a sun that to this height doth grace it:

Whose beams shine day and night, and are of force

To blanch an Ethiop and revive a corse.
His light sciential is, and, past mere nature,
Can salve the rude defects of every creature.
Call forth thy honoured daughters then;
And let them, 'fore the Britain men,
Indent the land with those pure traces
They flow with in their native graces.
Invite them boldly to the shore;
Their beauties shall be scorched no more:
This sun is temperate, and refines
All things on which his radiance shines.

Here the Tritons sounded, and they danced on shore, every couple as they advanced severally presenting their fans: in one of which were inscribed their mixt names, in the other a mute hieroglyphic expressing their mixed qualities. Their own single dance ended, as they were about to make choice of their men: one from the sea was heard to call them with this CHARM, sung by a tenor voice,

*

Come away, come away,
We grow jealous of your stay:
If you do not stop your ear,
We shall have more cause to fear

* Which manner of Symbol I rather chose than Imprese, as well for strangeness as relishing of antiquity, and more applying to that original doctrine of sculpture which the Egyptians are said first to have brought from the Ethiopians. Diod, Sicul. Herod.

Syrens of the land, than they
To doubt the Syrens of the sea.

Here they danced with their men several measures and corantos. All which ended, they were again accited to sea, with a SONG of two trebles, whose cadences were iterated by a double echo from several parts of the land.

Daughters of the subtle flood,

Do not let earth longer entertain you; I Ech. Let earth longer entertain you. 2 Ech. Longer entertain you. 'Tis to them enough of good, That you give this little hope to gain you.

I Ech. Give this little hope to gain you. 2 Ech. Little hope to gain you.

night grows old,

And we are grieved we cannot hold
You longer light; but comfort take.
Your father only to the lake
Shall make return: yourselves, with feasts,
Must here remain the Ocean's guests.
Nor shall this veil the sun hath cast
Above your blood more summers last,
For which you shall observe these rites :
Thirteen times thrice on thirteen nights,
(So often as I fill my sphere
With glorious light throughout the year)
You shall, when all things else do sleep
Save your chaste thoughts, with reverence
steep

Your bodies in that purer brine

And wholesome dew called ros-marine :
Then with that soft and gentler foam
Of which the ocean yet yields some

1 [Accited to sea. In the Brit. Mus. MS. this stands "provoked from the sea."F. C.]

[Vowed was water. Owed was water, MS.

F. C.I

Whereof bright Venus, beauty's queen,
Is said to have begotten been,
You shall your gentler limbs o'er-lave,
And for your pains perfection have :
So that this night, the year gone round,
You do again salute this ground;
And in the beams of yond bright sun,
Your faces dry,—and all is done.

At which, in a dance, they returned to the sea, where they took their shell, and with this full SONG went out.

Now Dian, with her burning face,
Declines apace :

THE QUEEN,

By which our waters know To ebb, that late did flow. Back seas, back nymphs; but with a forward grace,

Keep still your reverence to the place: And shout with joy of favour you have won, In sight of Albion, Neptune's son.

So ended the first Masque; which, beside the singular grace of music and dances, had that success in the nobility of performance as nothing needs to the illustration but the memory by whom it was personated.1

CO. OF BEDFORD,2}. {AGLAIA.

1 By whom it was personated.] Jonson gives us the names of the masquers as they danced on shore in couples, from their splendid shell, together with the symbols which they bore in their hands.

Countess of Bedford.] Lucy, the lady of Edward, third Earl of Bedford, and daughter of John, Lord Harrington. She was a munificent patron of genius, and seems to have been peculiarly kind to Jonson. One of the most exquisite compliments that ever was offered to talents, beauty, and goodness, was paid by the grateful poet to this lady. (Epig. 76.) The biographers are never weary of repeating after one another, that she was "the friend of Donne and Daniel, who wrote verses on her" but of Jonson, who wrote more than both, they preserve a rigid silence.

Lady Herbert.] Called by Sir Dudley Carleton, Ann Herbert. She was the daughter of Sir William Herbert, of St. Julian's, Monmouthshire, and a great heiress. This lady was at first intended for her cousin, Philip Herbert, brother of the celebrated Lord Pembroke, the friend of Jonson and of genius; but married Sir Edward, afterwards Lord Herbert of Cherbury.

Countess of Derby.] Alice, the daughter of Sir John Spencer, of Althorpe (where Jonson's beautiful Entertainment of The Satyr was represented), and widow of Ferdinando, fifth Earl of Derby. She took for her second husband Lord Keeper Egerton.

For this celebrated lady, who appears to have greatly delighted in these elegant and splendid exhibitions, Milton wrote his Arcades, the songs of which are a mere cento from our

The Symbols.

1. A golden tree, laden with fruit.

}2. {The figure Icosaedron of crystal.

}3. {A pair of naked feet in a river.

4. {The SALAMANDER simple.

author's Masques, of which, in fact, it is a very humble imitation.

5 Lady Rich.] There were two of this name; but the person here meant was probably Penelope, Lady Rich, whose story made some noise at a subsequent period. She parted from her husband, as it was said, by consent, and while he was yet living married Mountjoy, Earl of Devonshire. The match was unfortunate. The King was offended, the Earl miserable, and Laud, who performed the ceremony, passed through many years of obloquy for his officiousness, notwithstanding his pretended ignorance of the lady's former marriage.

Countess of Suffolk.] Catharine, the daughter of Sir Henry Knevit, of Charlton, in Wiltshire, married first to Richard, Lord Rich, and afterwards to Lord Thomas Howard, first Earl of Suffolk. She was more famed for accomplishments than virtues, and is said to have trafficked for more favours than those of her lord.

Lady Bevill.] This lady, I believe (for I have but little skill in these matters), was Frances, sister of the Countess of Suffolk, just mentioned. She was the wife of Sir William Bevill, a gentleman of Cornwall; after his death she married Roger, fifth Earl of Rutland, and brought him one daughter, who married the favourite Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.

Lady Effingham.] Probably Anne, the daughter of Lord St. John, married in 1597 to William, eldest son of Charles, second Lord Howard of Effingham, Lord High Admiral at the period of the Spanish invasion.

* Hesiod. in Theog.

1 Lady Elizabeth Howard.] Daughter of the lady just mentioned. She married Lord Mordaunt, afterwards Earl of Peterborough. Lady Susan Vere.] Susan Herbert, as Sir Dudley calls her, daughter of Edward, Earl of Oxford. About a week before this Masque was performed she married Philip Herbert, afterwards Earl of Montgomery. Her marriage was celebrated with great pomp at Court, of which many particulars are recorded among the state papers of the day.

8 Lady Worth.] Lady Mary Wroth, to

whom our author subsequently dedicated the Alchemist. See vol. ii. p. 2.

Lady Walsingham.] Of this person I can say nothing. She appears too old for the granddaughter of the Countess of Suffolk, who married a Thomas Walsingham of Kent, and too young for the daughter of Elizabeth's celebrated minister, who had besides twice changed her name.

The Oceania are not appropriated; they were probably personated by the younger branches of the noble families mentioned above. They were the "light bearers," as the poet terms them, and he has judiciously nanaged to make them an integral part of the exhibition.

Two years being now past that Her Majesty had intermitted these delights, and the third almost come, it was her highness's pleasure again to glorify the Court, and command that I should think on some fit presentment which should answer the former, still keeping them the same persons, the daughters of Niger, but their beauties varied according to promise, and their time of absence excused, with four more added to their number.

To which limits, when I had apted my invention, and being to bring news of them from the sea, I induced BOREAS, one of the winds, as my fittest messenger; presenting him thus:

In a robe of russet and white mixt, full and bagged; his hair and beard rough and horrid; his wings gray, and full of snow and icicles; his mantle borne from him with wires, and in several puffs; his feet* ending in serpent's tails; and in his hand a leaveless branch laden with icicles.

But before, in midst of the hall, to keep the state of the feast and season, I had placed JANUARY† in a throne of silver; his robe of ash-colour, long, fringed with silver; a white mantle; his wings white, and his buskins; in his hand a laurelbough; upon his head an anademe of

*So Paus. in Eliacis reports him to have, as he was carved in arcâ Cipselli.

† See Iconolog. di Cesare Ripa.

laurel, fronted with the sign Aquarius, and the character: who, as Boreas blustered forth, discovered himself.

Boreas. Which among these is Albion, Neptune's son?

Januarius. What ignorance dares make that question?

Would any ask who Mars were in the wars,
Or which is Hesperus among the stars?
Of the bright planets, which is Sol? or

can

A doubt arise, 'mong creatures, which is man?

Behold, whose eyes do dart Promethean

fire

Throughout this All; whose precepts do inspire

The rest with duty; yet commanding cheer :

And are obeyed more with love than fear.

Boreas. What Power art thou that thus informest me?

Janu. Dost thou not know me? I too well know thee

By thy rude voice,‡ that doth so hoarsely blow;

Thy hair, thy beard, thy wings, o'er-hilled with snow,1

1 Thy wings o'er-hilled with snow.] i.e., covered over with snow: the spelling is varied, but it is the same with the Saxon word hele.WHAL.

tion.

Thy serpent feet, to be that rough Northwind,

Boreas, that to my reign art still unkind.
I am the prince of months, called January;
Because by me, Janus* the year doth vary,
Shutting up wars, proclaiming peace and
feasts,

Freedom and triumphs; making kings his guests.

Boreas. To thee then thus, and by thee to that king,

That doth thee present honours, do I bring

Present remembrance of twelve Ethiop dames:

Who, guided hither by the moon's bright flames,

To see his brighter light, were to the sea Enjoined again, and (thence assigned a day For their return) were in the waves to

leave

Their BLACKNESS, and true BEAUTY to receive.

Janu. Which they received, but broke their day: and yet

Have not returned a look of grace for it, Shewing a coarse and most unfit neglect. Twice have I come in pomp here to expect

Their presence; twice deluded, have been fain

With other ritest my feasts to entertain; And now the third time, turned about the year,

Since they were looked for, and yet are not here!

Boreas. It was nor will nor sloth that

caused their stay;

For they were all prepared by their day, And with religion forward on their way: When Proteus, the grey prophet of the

sea,

Met them, and made report how other four

Of their black kind (whereof their sire had W store)

Faithful to that great wonder so late done Upon their sisters by bright Albion,

* See the offices and power of Janus, Ovid. Fast. 1.

t Two marriages, the one of the Earl of Essex, 1606; the other of the Lord Hay, 1607.

tRead his description, with Vir. Geor. 4, Est in Carpathio Neptuni gurgite vates, Caruleus Proteus.

§ Because they were before of her complexion.

To give authority to this part of our fiction, Pliny hath a chap. 95 of his 2 book Nat. Hist. de insulis fluctuantibus. Et Card. lib. I de rerum vari. &c., cap. 7, reports one to be in his time known in the lake of Lomond, in Scotland. To let pass that of Delos, &c.

T The daughter of Erectheus, King of Athens, whom Boreas ravished away into Thrace, as she was playing with other virgins by the flood Ilissus: or (as some will) by the fountain Cephisus.