have his book
burnt before his face by the hangman; and to suffer perpetual
imprisonment: a most barbarous sentence, which Green[71] says, "showed
the hard cruelty of the Primate."

Milton's masque of "Comus" was produced the following year (1634) for
performance at Ludlow Castle, in Shropshire, which was the seat of
government for the Principality of Wales, the Earl of Bridgewater
being then the Lord President, and having a jurisdiction and military
command that comprised the English counties of Gloucester, Worcester,
Hereford and Shropshire. Ludlow Castle was to the Lord President of
Wales of that period what Dublin Castle is to the Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland in the present day; and, as hospitality was one of the duties
of the Lord President's office, the Earl and Countess of Bridgewater
gave a grand entertainment to the country people, in which the masque
of "Comus" was an important feature. The music was composed by the
eminent musician Henry Lawes, and the masque was adapted for
performance by the family of the earl and countess, who then had ten
children--eight daughters and two sons.

It is quite refreshing to think of the author of "Paradise Lost," with
his friend Lawes, the musician, among the country dancers, listening
to the song of the attendant spirit:--

"Back, shepherds, back; enough your play
Till next sun-shine holiday:
Here be, without duck or nod,
Other trippings to be trod
Of lighter toes, and such court guise
As Mercury did first devise
With the mincing Dryades,
On the lawns, and on the leas."

"But Milton was a courtier when he wrote the Masque at Ludlow Castle,"
says Charles Lamb, "and still more of a courtier when he composed the
'Arcades'" (a masque, or entertainment presented to the Countess
Dowager of Derby, at Harefield, by some noble persons of her family).
"When the national struggle was to begin, he becomingly cast these
varieties behind him."

From "Archaeologia" (vol. xviii. p. 335), we learn that "Richard
Evelyn, Esq., High Sheriff of Surrey and Sussex in 1634, held a
splendid Christmas at his mansion at Wotton, having a regular Lord of
Misrule for the occasion: and it appears it was then the custom for
the neighbours to send presents of eatables to provide for the great
consumption consequent upon such entertainments. The following is a
list of those sent on this occasion: two sides of venison, two half
brawns, three pigs, ninety capons, five geese, six turkeys