eady to his hand. As a common noun, the
Greek word _comus_ signifies carousal,--wassail. In the later classic
period it had become a proper name, standing for a personification of
nocturnal revelry, and a god Comus was frequently depicted on vases and
in mural paintings. Philostratus, in his _Ikones_,--or _Pictures_,--gives
an interesting description of a painting of this god. See Encyclopaedia
Britannica, article _Comus_. Ben Jonson, in his mask, _Pleasure
Reconciled to Virtue_, played in 1619, presents a Comus as "the god of
cheer, or the belly, riding in triumph, his head crowned with roses and
other flowers, his hair curled." The character and the name were the
common property of mask-writers.

The great distinction of Comus is its beauty, maintained at height
through a thousand lines of supremely perfect verse. Greatly dramatic it
of course is not. It yields its meaning to the most cursory reading; it
has no mystery. It is simply beautiful, with a sustained beauty elsewhere
unparalleled.

The following letter of Sir Henry Wotton to the Author deserves to be
read both for its engaging style as a piece of English prose and for its
exquisite characterization of Comus. Wotton was a versatile scholar,
diplomat, and courtier, seventy years old at the time of this letter,
with a reputation as a kindly and appreciative literary critic. He was
now residing at Eton College, where he held the office of Provost.
Milton, thirty years of age, the first edition of his Comus recently
published anonymously, had good cause for elation over such a testimonial
from such a source.

"From the College, this 13 of April, 1638.

"Sir,

"It was a special favour when you lately bestowed upon me here the first
taste of your acquaintance, though no longer than to make me know that I
wanted more time to value it and to enjoy it rightly; and, in truth, if I
could then have imagined your farther stay in these parts, which I
understood afterwards by Mr. H., I would have been bold, in our vulgar
phrase, to mend my draught (for you left me with an extreme thirst), and
to have begged your conversation again, jointly with your said learned
friend, over a poor meal or two, that we might have banded together some
good Authors of the ancient time; among which I observed you to have been
familiar.

"Since your going, you have charged me with new obligations, both for a
very kind letter from you dated the 6th of this mont