neighbourhood
of Severn as the scene of the drama, had suggested his theme to Milton.
He is evidently indebted for many incidents and ideas to Peele's "Old
Wives' Tale," and the "Comus" of Erycius Puteanus; but there is little
morality in the former production and little fancy in the latter. The
peculiar blending of the highest morality with the noblest imagination
is as much Milton's own as the incomparable diction. "I," wrote Sir
Henry Wootton on receiving a copy of the anonymous edition printed by
Lawes in 1637, "should much commend the tragical part if the lyrical did
not ravish me with a certain Dorique delicacy in your songs and odes,
whereunto I must plainly confess to have seen yet nothing parallel in
our language." "Although not openly acknowledged by the author," says
Lawes in his apology for printing prefixed to the poem, "it is a
legitimate offspring, so lovely and so much desired that the often
copying of it hath tired my pen to give my several friends satisfaction,
and brought me to a necessity of producing it to the public view." The
publication is anonymous, and bears no mark of Milton's participation
except a motto, which none but the author could have selected,
intimating a fear that publication is premature. The title is simply "A
Maske presented at Ludlow Castle," nor did the piece receive the name of
"Comus" until after Milton's death.

It has been remarked that one of the most characteristic traits of
Milton's genius, until he laid hand to "Paradise Lost," is the
dependence of his activity upon promptings from without. "Comus" once
off his mind, he gives no sign of poetical life for three years, nor
would have given any then but for the inaccurate chart or unskilful
seamanship which proved fatal to his friend Edward King, August 10,
1637. King, a Fellow of Milton's college, had left Chester, on a voyage
to Ireland, in the stillest summer weather:--

"The air was calm, and on the level brine
Sleek Panope and all her sisters played."

Suddenly the vessel struck on a rock, foundered, and all on board
perished except some few who escaped in a boat. Of King it was reported
that he refused to save himself, and sank to the abyss with hands folded
in prayer. Great sympathy was excited among his friends at Cambridge,
enough at least to evoke a volume of thirty-six elegies in various
languages, but not enough to inspire any of the contributors, except
Milton, with a poetical thought, while many ar