The plot of the masque arose from a simple little mishap which happened in the life of the actors. John Milton was then tutor to the Earl of Bridgewater's sons, Lord Brackley and Thomas Egerton. On their way to Ludlow, the young party went through Haywood Forest in Herefordshire. Travelling with her brothers was the Lady Alice Egerton. Somehow, in the depth of the wilderness, the young lady was lost for a short time. Out of this slender plot Milton constructed his masque of "Comus." His friend, Henry Lawes, set his songs to music, and the fair Alice and her two brothers all appeared in the play on Michaelmas night and acted at Ludlow Castle before their parents and assembled guests. As I lay in bed the grace and the charm of the masque returned to me. I thought in the tranquillity of the summer evening I heard the lady calling-- "Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph, that lives unseen Within thy airy shell, By slow meander's margent green, And in the violet-embroidered vale Where the love-lorn nightingale Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well: Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair That likest thy narcissus are? O, if thou have Hid them in some flowery cave Tell me where? Sweet queen of parley, daughter of the sphere, So mayest thou be translated to the skies And give resounding grace to all heaven's harmonies." [Sidenote: THE MASQUE OF "COMUS"] How prettily the lines must have sounded, not through wood and glade, but through the stately presence chamber of Ludlow Castle to the graceful tinkling music Lawes had written for them. The earl and countess sat, I have read, in all the state of the Marches Court in the front row, and were surrounded by neighbours and dependents. There is the grace of great things in "Comus," and a grace and finished purity of soul that have seldom belonged to youth. The elder brother's speech is worthy of Shakespeare-- "He that has light within his own clear breast, May sit in the centre and enjoy bright day. But he, that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts, Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; Himself is his own dungeon." What happened to fair Alice, I have often asked myself, in the time of trouble that was soon to come? I have never been able to find out much, save that she married Lord Carberry, and lived with him at his seat of Golden Grove.