Notes to Chapter 117 Prynne, Histrio-Mastix (London, 1633 [1634]), sig. *** ; Walter Montague, The
Shepheard’s Paradise (London, 1659). Published as a royalist testimonial in 1659, the
preface indicates that the play remained long “concealed.”
18 Prynne, Histrio-Mastix, 225. He cites a myriad of authorities, classical and Christian, to
support his claims about the scandal of dancing, pointing directly at “Queenes them-
selves, and the very greatest persons, who are commonly most devoted to it” (p. 236).
19 Documents relating to... William Prynne, ed. S. R. Gardiner (Westminster, 1877), 16.
20 The title in the 1645 Poems is “Arcades. Part of an Entertainment presented to the
Countess Dowager of Derby at Harefield, by some Noble persons of her Family, who
appear on the Scene in pastoral habit, moving toward the seat of State.” The title
suggests that this brief work served as prologue to an evening of festivities and dances.
21 The Miltons’ musical associates at this time probably included Lawes, who taught sing-
ing to Lady Alice Egerton and her sister, Lady Mary. See Cedric C. Brown, Milton’s
Aristocratic Entertainments (Cambridge, 1985), 181, n. 1.
22 Shawcross, in “Speculations on the Dating of the Trinity MS of Milton’s Poems,”
Modern Language Notes 75 (1960), 11–17, argues that the changes in Arcades (and A
Maske) in the Trinity manuscript were all post-performance changes, and that Arcades
was copied into the manuscript in 1637, the date he assigns to that document. His
argument depends on an implausibly rigid application of Helen Darbishire’s conclusion
that Milton began to change from a Greek “e” to an italic “e” around 1637. While
generally true, that date is not a watershed, given that Milton used the italic “e” occa-
sionally before 1637, and as early as 1629 in his signature in the university graduation
book for his Bachelors degree. Shawcross’s argument is answered by Cedric C. Brown,
“Milton’s Arcades in the Trinity Manuscript,” Review of English Studies n.s. 37 (1986),
542–9; and by S. E. Sprott, John Milton: A Maske. The Earlier Versions (Toronto, 1973),
5, 9–10.
23 Brown, Aristocratic Entertainments, 7–26, 47, and “Milton’s Arcades: Context, Form, and
Function,” Renaissance Drama 8 (1977), 245–74. Parker, II, 755–8, dates the work 1630,
based on his dubious assumption that chronology is the chief determinant of Milton’s
arrangement in the 1645 Poems. The 1632 date is supported by the fact that the third
item in the Trinity manuscript is a heavily corrected autograph letter composed directly
in that notebook early in 1633.
24 See Brown, “Arcades in the Trinity Manuscript.” The subtitle, “Part of a Masque,” is
corrected to “Part of an Entertainment,” suggesting that Milton was at first uncertain as
to the scope of the festivities planned and the place of dancing in them. The opening
lines are crossed out and verses more suited to song are substituted. Several other changes
in stage directions and text indicate that Milton’s conception evolved as he learned
more about what was wanted for the occasion. The title, Arcades, may have been added
before publication in 1645.
25 For the countess’s household and familial responsibilities, see Brown, Aristocratic Enter-
tainments, 16–26.
26 For the charges and depositions in the trial of Mervin Touchet, Earl of Castlehaven, see
A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason, eds. William Cobbett
and T. S. Howell, 33 vols (London, 1809), III, cols 401–18. Barbara Breasted, “Comus
and the Castlehaven Scandal,” MS 3 (1971), 201–24, argues the strong impact of that
affair on Milton’s choice and management of the theme of chastity in Comus. Cedric
Notes to Chapter 3