John Milton (1608–1674) Poems of Mr. John Milton, both English and Latin, compos’d at several times... (London: Humphrey Moseley, 1645). Ee.3.21, opening of A Mask, pp.74-75.
Now generally known by the name of its anti-hero, Comus, Milton’s A Mask was first performed for the Countess of Derby’s festivities at Ludlow Castle in 1634. The music was composed by Henry Lawes, a friend of Milton’s, for whom he composed the sonnet, ‘To Mr H. Lawes, on his Airs’. Masques were a form of courtly entertainment that involved singing, acting, dancing, and elaborate stage sets. The genre was extremely popular with King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria, who liked to become involved in acting the masques staged in their honour. Milton, however, turns the genre to reformist ends, alluding to the excesses of the Caroline court in the figure of the anarchic tempter, Comus.