Act the parts of this selection that are in dramatic form. Another fairy song from "A Midsummer Night's Dream," which you may like to read and memorize, is "Over hill, over dale," at the beginning of Act II. "Where the bee sucks," from 'The Tempest," and the first stanza of "Under the greenwood tree," from "As You Like It," are also simple and musical. If you want to know more about Shakespeare and his times, read Bennett's "Master Skylark." Read also T. B. Aldrich's poem on Shakespeare, called "The King." Stratford on Avon (Stratford on Oberon (O'ber on): the fairy king. with a canopy or shelter. blind-worm: an old name for the Philomel (Fil ́o měl): a name given tragic (trăg ́íc): terrible, or very sad. here, a comrade. hide (a bide'): here, endure. device (dě vīçe'): a contrivance. ९९ to say 'prefigure," or suggest. gambol in his eyes: play before him. cavalero, or cavalier, a bold, gay tongs: tongs were formerly used to rattle together in rough music. provender (prov ́en děr): dry food for animals. bottle in old English, bundle. exposition: Bottom means "disposition" or desire. THE ENCHANTED FOREST FROM "COMUS" JOHN MILTON [On a December day in 1608, while Shakespeare was still writing his great plays, and Raleigh was in prison, and Elizabeth had been but five years dead, and James the First was on the throne of England, another great English poet was born in London. It was John Milton. 5 Milton's father made a business of preparing law papers, and was a prosperous man. He was a Puritan, but not so harsh as most of the Puritans of his day, for he loved music and taught his boy to love it. He also loved books, and young John Milton began to show when 10 a very small boy that he loved them, too. His father had a private teacher for him, and when scarcely more than ten years old the boy wrote good verse and sat up later than was good for him over his studies. We are told that his father had the maid sit up with him after the 15 rest of the family had gone to bed. A recent writer1 has said of this time of Milton's life: We can imagine to ourselves the silence of the house, when all the Puritan household had been long abed. We can picture the warm, quiet room where sits the little fair-haired boy poring 20 over his books by the light of flickering candles, while in the 1 H. E. Marshall, English Literature for Boys and Girls. shadow a stern-faced, white-capped Puritan woman waits. She sits very straight in her chair, her worn hands are folded, her eyes heavy with sleep. Sometimes she nods. Then with a start she shakes herself wide awake again, murmuring softly that it 5 is no hour for any Christian body to be out o' bed, wondering that her master should allow so young a child to keep so long over his books. Still she has her orders, so with a patient sigh she folds her hands again and waits. When about twelve years old, young Milton was sent 10 to a famous boys' school in London called St. Paul's, and from there at fifteen he went to Cambridge University. He was a handsome youth, but somewhat proud and independent in his ways of thinking. He was said to be the finest scholar in the university. 15 Milton had planned to be a clergyman of the English Church, but strife arose between the Puritans and the Church, and Milton was a Puritan. It was about this time that the Pilgrims went to Plymouth, and a few years later that colonies of Puritans settled at Salem and 20 Boston, in New England. King James died during these troubles, and Charles the First became king. After finishing his university course and deciding not to be a clergyman, Milton was for a time in some doubt what he should do, but the more he thought of it the 25 more clear it seemed to him that he was born to be a poet. So for five years he lived at home in his father's country house at Horton, about twenty miles from London, writing poetry and studying hard, in order better to fit himself for his work. Between his hours of study and writing he roamed the fields and woods, and thought high thoughts, and saw marvelous visions, some of which he put at once into his verse, while others he kept in his 5 memory and wrote out years afterwards. It was during these years at Horton that he wrote his shorter poems, "L'Allegro," describing happiness; "Il Penseroso," describing meditation; "Lycidas," praising a dear friend who had been drowned; and "Comus," the 10 masque or play from which we are soon to read. But Milton soon tired of this quiet country life. He longed to see more of the world, and at last, with money which his good father gave him, he set out to travel through France, Switzerland, and Italy. While he was 15 in Italy, news came that trouble had sprung up in England between the king and the people, and that war might come of it. At this he immediately gave up his plans for traveling and writing poetry, and went back to England; "For," said he, "I thought it base that while 20 my fellow countrymen were fighting at home for liberty, I should be traveling at my ease." Milton set up a small house in London and took two of his young nephews to live with him. He taught them Latin and Greek, and soon took also several other boys, 25 making, in fact, a small private school. But all the time he kept on writing, and now it was not so much poetry as essays and pamphlets, to help the cause of the people in their struggle for freedom. About this time Milton took a journey to Oxford and came back with a young wife. She was but seventeen 5 about half his age- and the two were not well suited to each other. She cared nothing for books, and he cared little for the sort of merrymaking that she loved. Then, too, young Mary Milton and her father and all her father's family were Royalists- that is, supporters of 10 the king-while Milton was a Puritan. So after a few weeks Mary Milton ran away from her husband and went back to live with her own people. There she stayed until the king was beaten and his followers driven from their homes. Then she came again to her husband and begged 15 his forgiveness, and he not only took her in but took also her father, mother, brothers, and sisters. His own father and his pupils were also living with him at that time, so we may imagine that his house was full. In the year 1649 the king, Charles the First, was 20 beheaded by order of Parliament, and Oliver Cromwell became the head of the government, with the title of "Lord Protector." This new Puritan government remembered how Milton had helped their cause by his essays and pamphlets, and they gave him the important office 25 of Secretary for Foreign Tongues. Besides translating the letters from other governments and answering them in Latin, he was obliged to reply to all the criticisms and |