MILTON, John; Jane Holbeche (scribe).

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Comus, a Mask: (now adapted to the stage) as alter'd from Milton's mask at Ludlow Castle, which was never represented But on Michaelmas-Day 1634; A manuscript copied by Jane Holbeche, a gentlewoman from Solihull, of John Dalton's 1738 adaptation, as indicated by a later manuscript note on the first blank. It was apparently copied from a contemporary printed edition, reproducing the lineation of the title and dramatis personae pages. Jane lived at Touchwood House, a large manor in Solihull, on a road named Drury Lane after the companies of actors who performed there. Jane's father, Sir John Parsons, was Lord mayor of London from 1703 to 1704, which may have given her a foothold in London to see the play performed in 1738 by the Drury Lane theatre company. This included the famous actors James Quin, Anne Marie and Theophilus Cibber and Kitty Clive, all of whom are listed in the dramatis personae in this manuscript.Comus was originally performed on 29 September 1634 at Ludlow Castle in Shropshire, and was first published anonymously a century earlier in 1637 in London.

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