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v. 834. Held up thire white wrists, and receav'd her in,
And bore her ftraite to aged Nereus hall.

*. 845. Helping all urchin blasts, and ill luck fignes
That the fhrewd meddling elfe delights to leave;
And often takes our cattel with firange pinches.
Which the, &c.

v. 849. Carrol her goodneffe loud in lively layes.
And lovely, from lively.

v. 851. Of panfies, and of bonnie daffadils.

v. 853. Each clafping charme, and fecret holding spell. v. 857. In honour'd virtue's caufe: this will I trie. Before v. 867, is written, "To be faid."

v. 895. That my rich wheeles inlayes.

v. 910. Vertuous Ladie, look on me.
v. 921. To waite on Amphitrite in her bowre.
v. 924. May thy cryftal waves for this.

v. 927. That tumble downe from fnowie hills.
948. Where this night are come in state.

v.

v. 951. All the fwains that near abide.

v. 956. Comé let us hafte, the stars are high,

But night reignes monarch yet in the mid fkie. STAGE-DIRECTIONS. "Exeunt.-The scene changes, and then " is prefented Ludlow town, and the Prefident's castle: then enter "country dances and fuch like gambols, &c. At thefe fports the Da66 mon, with the two Brothers and the Lady, enters. The Dæmon fings." v. 962. Of nimbler toes, and courtly guife,

Such as Hermes did devife.

After v. 965. No STAGE-DIRECTION, only " A Song."
v. 971. Thire faith, thire temperance, and truth.
But patience was first written, and restored.

v. 973. To a crowne of deathleffe bays.
After v.
V. 975, STAGE-DIRECTION,

"The Damon fings or fays."

v. 979. Up in the plain fields of the fky. v. 982. Of Atlas and his nieces three.

v. 984. This verse and the three following were added. v. 990. About the myrtle alleys fling

Balm and caffia's fragrant fmells.

v. 992. Iris there with garnisht [or garish] bow. v. 995. Than her purfled fcarf can fhew,

Yellow, watchet, greene, and blew.

And drenches oft with manna [or Sabaan] dew
Beds of hyacinth and rofes,

Where many a cherub foft reposes.

v. 847. Comparé MIDSUM. N. DREAM, A.iv. S. iv. Of Herne the hunter, who "blafts the tree, and takes the cattle." EDITOR.

v. 982. The "faire daughters of Atlas" are mentioned in B. Jonfon's Mafque, PLEASURE RECONCILED TO VIRTUE, 1619, to which I have often referred the reader. EDITOR.

Y

What relates to Adonis, and to Cupid and Psyche, was afterwards added.

v. 1012. Now my message [or buifneffe] well is done. WARTON.

In doctor Newton's collation of the manufcript a few flight variations may be observed, as also a few additions, most of which correfpond with the Afhridge manufcript; and are therefore noticed in the following copy of that MS.

The fubfequent various readings, from doctor Newton's collation, must be noticed here.

v. 258. Chiding. "It was at firft," And chide. v. 324. And fmoaky rafters,

v. 376. Oft feeks to folitary sweet retire.

v. 480. "Marginal direction," hallow far off.

v. 737. Lift, Lady, be not coy, nor be not cofen'd. v. 1023. Heav'n itself would bow to her.

"So it was at first in the manuscript, and we have been at the "trouble" fays.doctor Newton " of transcribing these variations "and alterations more for the fatisfaction of the curious, than "for any entertainment that it afforded to ourselves." EDITOR.

APPENDIX.

No. II.

APPENDIX. No. II.

ASHRIDGE MANUSCRIPT.

The

HE following Copy of Comus is given from a manuscript belonging to the Duke of Bridgewater's Library at Afhridge. With the use of this manuscript I have been favoured by Mr. Egerton; through whofe application alfo to his Grace I have obtained permiffion to print it. And I submit the entire manufcript, rather than its detached variations, to public inspection, under the hope of gratifying liberal curiofity.

It is a thin quarto bound in vellum, and gilt; and is numbered, P: i. 12. It confifts of twenty leaves, which are not paged. The leaves are ruled, as the distinction of the speakers alfo is written, with red ink. It may, poffibly, be one of the many copies written, before the Mafk was published, by Henry Lawes, who, on his editing it in 1637, complained in his Dedication to Lord Brackley, that "the often copying it had tired his pen" or, at least, it may be a tranfcript of his copy. The profeffional alteration,

"And hould a counterpointe to all Heav'n's harmonies," made by Lawes, in setting to Mufic the Song "Sweet Echo," and obferved by Mr. Warton, occurs alfo in this manufcript.

c

At the bottom of the title-page to this manufcript the fecond Earl of Bridgewater, who had performed the part of the Elder Brother, has written " Author Io: Milton," This, in my opinion, may be confidered as no flight teftimony, that the manufcript prefents the original form of this drama. The Mafk was acted in 1634, and was first published by Lawes in 1637, at which time it certainly had been corrected, although it was not then openly acknowledged, by its author. The alterations and additions, therefore, which the printed poem exhibits, might not have been made till long after the reprefentation; perhaps, not till Lawes had expreffed his determination to publish it. The coincidence of Lawes's Original Mufic with certain peculiarities in this manufcript, which I have already stated in the Account of HENRY LAWEs, may also favour this fuppofition.

Several various readings in this manufcript agree with Milton's original readings in the Cambridge manufcript, and several are

a See Lawes's Dedication to Lord Brackley, PART i. p.I.

b In his Note on CoмUS. V. 243.

c Lawes's Dedication.

d See my addition to Mr. Warton's Account of Henry Lawes, in the PRLIMINARY ILLUSTRATIONS, Part. i. p. 45.

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