M A 
fcngfc, ancl' efpecially fome kind of pomp or pageant, feem 
to have been features in all of them,—in all, at leaft, that 
pretend to a dramatic form; for the title, in fotne in- 
ibrnces, appears to have been warranted by the exhibition, 
real or defcriptive, of a piece of dumb (how ; and this, 
together with the name itfelf, and the mention of the 
word pageant, may lead us to its true origin and definition, 
tjte former of which is otherwife loft amidft a multitude 
of (hows, myfteries, and mufical dramas. 
The made then, as far as its aftocs and in-door character 
were concerned, feems to have grown more immediately 
out of the entertainment called a mafquerade ; and, as far 
as its gorgeoufnefs and machinery, out of the pageants or 
public (hows with which it was cuftomary in the reign of 
the Tudors to welcome princes and other perfons of dif- 
tinclion. From the latter it took its deities and allegori¬ 
cal .perfons; and from the former its reprefentation by 
families, or by parties of the gentry and nobility. See 
the article London, vol.xiii. p. 7a, 75, 80. 
Both thefe kinds of exhibition, with a remote relation- 
fliip to the Greek ftage, and a nearer one to the feftive 
compofition of the Provengals, had their birth in Italy, 
the foil in which every fpecies of modern poetry feems to 
have originally fprung up. The firft appearance of one 
of them, or perhaps combination of both, undoubtedly 
took place at Florence, in the time of Lorenzo de Medici, 
when a party of perfons, during a feafon of public fefti- 
vlty, made their appearance in the ftreets, riding along in 
procefiion and d re fled up like reanimated dead bodies, 
who fung a tremendous chorus, reminding the appalled 
fpeftators of their mortality. (Rofcoe’s Hift. of Lorenzo 
de Medici.) Spectacles of this nature were clearly the 
origin of the Trionfi, or Triumphs, of the Italian poets ; 
and under different afpefts, and with more or lefs afifump- 
tion of a dramatic air, foon fpread all over Italy, now 
contracting themfelves into domeftic and gorgeous con¬ 
gratulations at the nuptials of great men, now' fplitting 
from a particular purpofe into the fcattered and indivi¬ 
dual freaks of carnivals and mafquerades. 
The fondnefs of the Inns of Court for this fpecies of 
performance may be referred to the old theatrical exhibi¬ 
tions in monafteries and colleges; but the connexion with 
mafquerades in general feems eafily traceable. The niaf- 
querade, in this country, as a particular entertainment, 
was for a long time confined to the houfes of the great, 
and to the celebration of births, marriages, and the higher 
defeription of feltive meetings; and as the mafquers, who 
fometimes went vifiting in a troop, would now and then 
come upon their boll unawares, it may he conjeftured, 
that, finding themfelves encouraged by fuccefs to give 
their compliments a more prepared and poetical turn, 
they gradually a (Turned characters in honour of the day’s 
celebration, and accompanied their appearance with fongs 
and dialogue: in a (hort time, the pageants that were 
every day occurring, and the very nature of the exhibition 
itfelf, eafily fuggelted the addition of allegory and per¬ 
sonification; by further degrees, a feene and a ftage a role ; 
the compofer and machinilt were regularly employed ; and 
at length the Mask, took its place as a fpecies of fanciful 
drama, which the poet was to render as agreeable and fur- 
priflng as he could. The ma(k therefore, in its proper 
fcharafter, and fuch as it flouriftied in this country during 
the fineft times of our poetry, may be defined-—" A mixed 
drama, .allowing of natural incidents as of every thing 
elfe that is dramatic; but more efientially given up to the 
fancy, and abounding in machinery and perfonification, 
generally with a particular allufion.” 
To fotne critics, the licenfe which fuch a fpecies of 
compofition allows is intolerable. They fee in it nothing 
but the violation of rales and probabilities; and turn 
afide from the mod charming fancy, when it comes to 
them in a drefs which the French have not‘authorized. 
Give others again the fancy, and in a piece profefledly 
fupernatural they will be content to overlook rules and 
probabilities; .they go whitherfoever the poet leads them, 
y.OL. XIV. No, §’88, 
S K. 469 
provided he does it with grace as wall as imagination j 
and, when they find themfelves among fummer clouds or 
enchanted gardens, do not quarrel with him for being 
out of London or Paris. Undoubtedly, that work is the 
nobleft, which can produce the greateft quantity of fan¬ 
cies and probabilities at once, or, in other words, the 
greateft pleafure under the greateft difficulty. A mafk, 
it is confefted, is not a great drama, nor an epic poem. 
But, when the poet choofes lo take leave of the probable, 
it does not follow that he mull abandon the talteful, or 
even the natural, whatever has been the affertion of thofe, 
whofe tafte, if they could have found cut the truth, was 
of as fmall a range as their imagination. Even the im¬ 
probable has its rules, and does not miftake mere exagge¬ 
ration for greatnefs, the (hocking for the terrific, or the 
puerile for the trickfome. In (hort, tafte, as well as fancy, 
has a very extenfive province, even of the mod legitimate 
kind ; and the wild eft imagination may be found there, 
and is, fo long as it carries with it two things which 
may be called the poet’s paflports, and which our critical 
friends on the other fide of the water would be in vain 
called upon to produce—primitive feelings, and a natural 
language. 
It is obfervable, that in proportion as the critic poflefFes 
fomething of poetry himfelf, or the poel ri'fes in the en- 
thufiafm of his art, he gets above this kind of prejudice. 
What are ftyled "fooleries” by Warburton are called 
"liberal and elegant amufements” by Warton; and what 
were neglefted by the wits of Charles the Second’s day 
for French rhetoric, rhyming tragedies, and the conceits 
of the corrupted Italian fchool (for when writers talk of 
the conceits of the Italians, they are fpeaking of what the 
Italians themfelves condemn), were praifed and praftifed 
by the men who, by univerfal confent, are at the head 
of our native poetry. Had our great poets indeed Hopped 
(hort of aftual practice in this inftance, it would be clear, 
from a variety of paflages in their works, what hold thefe 
gorgeous and fanciful exhibitions had taken on their 
minds. Pageant and mafk are common terms in Shake- 
fpeare and Spenfer for fomething more than ordinarily 
ftriking in the way of vifion; they often furnifli them 
with refemblances and reflections; and a great deal of the 
main feature of the Faerie Queen has with great probabi¬ 
lity been traced to the influence of thefe congenial fpec- 
tacles. Milton, it is true, who objefted to kings on earth, 
and filled heaven with regalities; who denied mufic to 
chapel-goers, and allowed it to angels; who would have 
had nothing brilliant in human worlhip, and fprinkled the 
pavement before the deity’s throne with rofes and ama¬ 
ranths ; has a paflage in which he (peaks contemptuoufly of 
Court-amours, 
Mix’d dance, or wanton mafk, or midnight ball. Par. Loft. 
But it was after he had learnt to quarrel with the graces 
of the world, as fomething which Providence had fent us 
only to deny ourfelves. He is fpeaking here too of the en¬ 
tertainment in its abufe rather than in its proper character. 
In his younger, happier, and, it may be added, not lefs 
poetical, days, he counted “ Mafic and antique pageantry” 
among the rational pleafures of cheerfulnefs, and gave them 
perhaps the very higheft as well as moil lovely character 
of ab ft raft and effential poetry, by calling them 
Such fights as youthful poets dream 
On funnner eves by haunted ({ream. Allegro. 
In (hort, Comus had been the refult of his early feelings ; 
and it was curious, that he, who inveighed a gain ft rnalks 
in his more advanced age, (hould have been fated to leave 
to pofterity the very piece by which this fpecies of com¬ 
pofition is chiefly known. 
Comus, however, though an undoubted mafk in fome 
refpefts, as in its magic, its rout of monfters, and its 
particular allufion to an event in the noble family that 
performed it, is more allied, from its regularity of .ftory 
and its deficiency in fcenic (how, to the Favols BoJdiitack i 
6 D 0 ^ 
