The Masque of Lethe. The FRONT before the SCENE was an ARCH-TRIUMPHAL, On the top of which, HUMANITY, placed in figure, sat with her lap full of flowers, scattering them with her right hand, and holding a golden chain in her left hand, to show both the freedom and the bond of courtesy, with this inscription: SUPER OMNIA VULTUS, On the two sides of the arch, CHEERFULNESS and READINESS, her servants. CHEERFULNESS, in a loose flowing garment, filling out wine from an antique piece of plate; with this word: ADSIT LÆTITIÆ DATOR. READINESS, a winged maid, with two flaming bright lights in her hands; and her word, AMOR ADDIDIT ALAS. The SCENE discovered is, on the one side, the head of a boat, and in it CHARON putting off from the shore, having landed certain imagined ghosts, whom MERCURY there receives, and encourageth to come on towards the river LETHE, who appears lying in the person of an old man. The FATES sitting by him on his bank; a grove of myrtles behind them, presented in perspective, and growing thicker to the outer side of the scene. O Mercury, perceiving them to faint, calls them on, and shows them his golden rod.* love, I now to salter water turn Than that I die in; then a fourth, to cry Amid the surges, Oh! I burn, I burn. A fifth laugh out, It is my ghost, not I. Mer. Nay, faint not now, so near the And thus in pairs I found them. Only one fields of rest. Here no more Furies, no more torments dwell The whole masque was sung after the Italian manner, stylo recitativo, by Master Nicholas Lanier; who ordered and made both the scene and the music. There is, that walks, and stops, and 3 Fate. And know all nature's dates? Mer. They say themselves, they are dead. 1 Fate. It not appears Or by our rock, 2 Fate. Our spindle, 3 Fate. Or our shears. Fates. Here all their threads are growing, yet none cut. Mer. I 'gin to doubt, that Love with charms hath put This phant'sy in them; and they only think That they are ghosts. I Fate. If so, then let them drink Of Lethe's stream. 2 Fate. "Twill make them to forget Love's name. 3 Fate. And so, they may recover yet. Mer. Go, bow unto the reverend lake: [To the Shades. And having touched there, up and shake The shadows off, which yet do make Us you, and you yourselves mistake. Cho. Return, return, Like lights to burn For others' good: Will fame old Lethe's flood; That now are hurled About in tempest, how they prove Leap forth your light it is the nobler made, By being strook out of a shade. Here they dance forth their entry, or first dance: after which CUPID-appearing, meets them. Cup. Why, now you take me! these are rites That grace Love's days, and crown his nights! These are the motions I would see, Mer. Look, look unto this snaky rod, And stop your ears against the charming god; His every word falls from him is a snare: Who have so lately known him, should beware. Here they dance their Main DANCE. Cup. Come, do not call it Cupid's crime, Is bred that tries the truth of life. Here they take forth the Ladies, and the REVELS follow.' After which, Mer. Nay, you should never have left off; But stayed, and heard your Cupid scoff, To find you in the line you were. pears from other passages, were usually composed of galliards and corantos. Their introduction was no less desirable than judicious, as it gave fulness and majesty to the show, and enabled the Court to gratify numbers who were not qualified to appear in it as performers. I Cup. Your too much wit breeds too much fear. Mer. Good Fly, good night. Cup. But will you go? Can you leave Love, and he entreat you so? This night I will create my holiday, Fate is content these lovers here But what he will call Hermes to. As these have to thank him and Destiny. Cho. All then take cause of joy; for who hath not? Old Lethe, that their follies are forgot: Mer. As if that Love disarmed were less We, that their lives unto their fates they a fire! Away, away. They dance their going out: which done, Mer. Yet lest that Venus' wanton son Should with the world be quite undone, For your fair sakes (you brighter stars, Who have beheld these civil wars) fit; They, that they still shall love, and love with wit. And thus it ended.1 1 This little drama is written with all the ease and elegance of Pope, who is not without some petty obligations to it, in his Rape of the Lock. The Vision of Delight: PRESENTED AT COURT IN CHRISTMAS, 1617. THE VISION OF DELIGHT.] From the fol. 1641. This is one of the most beautiful of Jonson's little pieces, light, airy, harmonious, and poetical in no common degree. It stands without à parallel among performances of this kind; and might have convinced even Dr. Aikin, if he had ever condescended to look into Jonson, that "this once celebrated author" had something besides the song in the Silent Woman (see vol. i. p. 406 6), to relieve "the prevalent coarseness of his tedious effusions." Here the first ANTIMASQUE entered. A She-monster delivered of six BURRA- Del. Yet hear what your Delight doth pray: All sour and sullen looks away, NIGHT rises slowly, and takes her chariot See, see, her scepter and her crown By this time the Night and Moon being p. 268. It was probably a glossy kind of perpetuana: whatever it was, the six young monsters were clothed in it, and formed, it may be presumed, some ridiculous contrast to the formal and fantastic habits of the six old men. Night. Break, Phant'sie, from thy cave of And spread thy purple wings; It must have blood, and nought And though it be a waking dream, Cho. Yet let it like an odour rise To all the Senses here, And fall like sleep upon their eyes, Or music in their ear. Phan. Bright Night, I obey thee, and am come at thy call, But it is no one dream that can please these all; Wherefore I would know what dreams would delight 'em: of For never was Phant'sie more loth to affright 'em. The Scene here changed to cloud, from which Break Phant'sie, &c.] In Whalley's cor- I have yet a word to say of Hurd. The And Phant'sie, I tell you, has dreams that have wings, And dreams that have honey, and dreams that have stings: Dreams of the maker, and dreams of the teller, Dreams of the kitchen, and dreams of the cellar : (for I am loth to give it its proper name) may be "Honour, riches, marriage-blessing, Juno sings her blessings on you.” On the conclusion of this rich poetry, Ferdi&c. There were but three personages upon the nand exclaims, This is a most majestic vision! stage, and no scenery of any kind is even hinted at: yet Hurd is not ashamed to affirm that this of Jonson's pieces, by the ingenuity of its contrite mythology, which disgraced the very best struction, left them still more behind it, in the beauty of its shew! and called forth an involuntary exultation from Shakspeare on his superio rity! When we consider that the Masques of Jonson were exhibited with all the magnificence of scenery which the taste and splendour of a Court could bestow, that the performers in them were the most accomplished of the nobility of both sexes, headed by the queen and royal family; that the most skilful musicians were constantly called in to compose the songs, and engaged to execute them; and when we know, the most exquisite voices that could be found on the other hand, that the theatres had no scenery, and that the songs and dances were left to the ordinary performers, what language of reprobation is sufficiently strong to mark the The intrepid absurdity of this insane criticism portentous ignorance which could deliberately This is a most majestic Vision, and a |