M A 
that purpofe. They meet and contend. Then Mercury, 
for his part, brings forth an anti-mafque, all of fpirits or 
divine natures, but yet not of one kinder livery, becaufe 
that had been fo much in ufe heretofore, but, as it were, 
In confort, like to broken mulic; and, preferving the 
propriety of the devife, for that rivers in nature are main¬ 
tained either by fprings from beneath or (bowers from 
above, he raifetji four of the Naiades out of the foun¬ 
tains, and bringeth down five of the Hyades out of the 
clouds, to dance. Hereupon, Iris feoffs at Mercury, for 
that he had devifed a dance but of one fex, which could 
have no life 5 but Mercury, who was provided for that 
exception, and in token that the match fhould be blefied 
both with love and riches, calleth forth out of the groves 
four Cupids, and brings down from Jupiter’s altar four 
ftatues of gold and filver to dance with the nymphs and 
liars, in which dance the Cupids being blind, and the 
liatues having half life put into them, and retaining ftill 
fame of their old nature, giveth fit occafion to new and 
ilrange varieties both in the mufic and paces. This was 
the firft anti-mafque. 
“ Then Iris, for her part, in fcorn of this high-flying 
devife, and in token that the match (ball likewife be bleffed 
with the love of the common people, calls fo Flora her 
confederate (for that the months of flowers are likewife 
the months of fweet fhowers and rainbows) to bring in a 
May-dance, or rural dance, confiding likewife not of any 
fuited perfons, but of a confufion or commixture of all 
fuch perfons as are natural and proper for country fports. 
This is the fecond anti-mafque. 
“ Then Mercury and Iris, after this vieing one upon 
the other, feem to leave their contention ; and Mercury, 
by the confent of Iris, brings down the Olympian knights, 
intimating, that Jupiter, having, after a long difeontinu- 
ance, revived the Olympian games, and fummoned there¬ 
unto from all parts the livelieft and aftiveft perfons that 
were, had enjoined them, before they fell to their games, 
to do honour to thefe nuptials. The Olympian games 
portend to the match celebrity, viflory, and felicity. 
“ The fabric was a mountain with two defeents, and 
ferved with two traverfes. At the entrance of the king, 
the firft traverfe was drawn, which was a pendant of a hill 
to {he life, with divers bofeages and grovets upon the 
lteep or hanging grounds thereof 5 and at the foot of the 
hill four delicate fountains running with water, and bor¬ 
dered with fedges and water-flowers. 
“ Iris firft appeared ; and, prefently after, Mercury, 
.driving to overtake her. Iris appareled in a robe of dif- 
coloured taffeta, figured in variable colours like the rain, 
bow, a cloudy wrjath on her head, and trefles. Mercury 
in doublet and hofe of white taffeta, a white hat, wings 
.on his fhoulders and feet, his caduceus in his hand.” 
Then the dialogue begins. 
With thefe writers the mafic may be faid to have begun 
and ended j for, though a few pieces are to be found un¬ 
der the fame title, or that of operas, in the works of Dry- 
den and others, yet, upon the whole, the diftimff fpecies 
of drama, both in character and mode of performance, 
had gone by: the witchery that had confented to vifit 
the dreams of an earlier and lefs fophifticated age, had 
vanifiied. The Puritans, who firft put an end to them, 
and who, for the molt part, were as difagreeable a body 
of perfons as Liberty could have taken it into her head 
to make ufe of, quarrelled with every thing they found 
eftablifhed, liberal as well as defpotic ; and the golden 
age of Englifh poetry, in its feeling as well as its freaks, 
in its fublimity and love of nature as well as its fports 
and extravagancies, clofed at the very moment when it 
might have given additional luftre to the age of freedom. 
Tire liarfh and disputatious period that fucceeded, and the 
ftill more unfeeling debauchery of the one after that, 
effectually prevented the re-appearance of genuine poetry. 
The Mufe, it is true, had not quite forfaken the land, nor 
given it up to a hopeleffnefs of better days. In the per-' 
Ion of Milton, fhe had retired into a facred obfeurity, and 
S K. 47I 
built herfelf, as it were, an invifible bower, where the 
afeenfion of her voice, and the mingling of her majeftic 
organ, might be heard at intervals by a few favoured 
ears 5 but the reft of the country was occupied with a 
very different fucceflion of founds j and after “ a fullen 
interval of war,” came in 
The barbarous diffdnance 
Of Bacchus and his revellers. 
In fhort, both Puritan and Cavalier, though in different 
ways and for different objefls, did their belt to fubftitnte 
words for things, and art for nature ; and hence arofe in 
this country all which has been fince underftood as verfe 
diftinguifhed from poetry. And here might be difeerned 
the real poetical corruption, of which the critics after¬ 
wards complained, and which they confounded with every 
fpecies of exuberant fancy. Majks, which though of a 
lawlefs nature in their incidents referred their feelings and 
expreflions to nature, were the exuberance of an age of 
real poets; it was conceits that firft marked the reverfe; 
and the introduction of fatire, of declamation, and of 
what has been called the reafoning fpirit in poetry, has 
maintained the perverfion more or lefs ever fince, or at 
lea ft till within a very late period. 
Mafks, however, contained a good deal of real poetry, 
and might have been very entertaining to thofe who ne- 
verthelefs knew how to fet a proper value on the more 
regular works of imagination. But it is obvious, that, 
from the nature of their objeff in general, they ran a 
chance of not living beyond their day, or at any rate of 
pa fling unnoticed by the great mafs of readers among the 
more prominent works of their authors. This has accord¬ 
ingly been the cafe. The only way to leeure them a better 
fate, was to contrive fuch additional touches of defeription 
and human nature, as fhould fupply the lofs of the parti* 
cirfar and temporary intereft by what was univerfaliy and 
perpetually engaging. \ye have feen what prevented the 
writers in molt inftancas from having f'ufficient zeal for 
this compofition, and what approaches it made to the 
chance of vitality in proportion as the objeft of the pane¬ 
gyric was refpetlable, the fubjeft capable of natural ernbel- 
lilhment, or the writer freed from the trammels of a par¬ 
ticular allufion. The want of choice and inclination 
however ufually prevailed over the ambition of the au¬ 
thor, who was moft likely employed in works of more ge¬ 
neral intereft; and, while we can trace the belt pieces of 
this defeription to the circumftances above-mentioned, as 
in the inftances of Beaumont and Browne, yet there is an 
air, it muff be confeffed, of conftraint and imperfection in 
all; and we muff ftill return to Comus, which was evi¬ 
dently written cheerfully and ambitioufiy, as the only,’and 
at the fame time the lea It fpccific, production of the kind, 
that can be truly be faid to have outlived its occafion. 
To MASK, v. a. To difguife with a mafk or vifor.— 
The old Vatican Terence has, at the head of every feene, 
the figures of all the perfons, with their particular dif- 
guifes; and I iaw an antique ffatue majked, which was 
perhaps defigned for Gnatho in the Eunuch, for it agrees 
exactly with the figure he makes in the manufeript. Adclifon » 
Him he knew well; and guefs’d that it was (lie ; 
But, being majk'd, he was not lure. Shakefpeare. 
To cover; to hide.— Majking the bufinefs from the common 
eye, for 1 umiry weighty reafons. Shakejpeare’'s Macbeth. 
As when a piece of wanton lawn, 
A thin aerial veil, is drawn 
O’er beauty’s face, feeming to hide, 
More fweetly fhows the blufhing bride : 
A foul whole intellectual beams 
No mills do majk, no lazy fleams. Crafliaxo » 
To MASK, v. n. To revel ; to play the mummer 5 
Majking habits and a borrow’d name, 
Contrive to hide my plenitude of ihame* Prior . 
To be difguifed any way. 
MASK 
