"Arcades" is a masque

Masque

The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in 16th and early 17th century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio...

 written by John Milton

John Milton

John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...

 and performed on 4 May 1634. The piece was written to celebrate the character of Alice Spencer

Alice Spencer

Alice Spencer, Countess of Derby was an aristocratic English woman, and a noted patron of the arts. Poet Edmund Spenser represented her as "Amaryllis" in his pastoral poem Colin Clouts Come Home Againe and dedicated his The Teares of the Muses to her. Her first husband was Ferdinando Stanley, 5th...

, the Countess Dowager of Darby, widow of Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby

Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby

Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby was the son of Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby and Lady Margaret Clifford. According to the will of Henry VIII, his mother was heiress presumptive of Elizabeth I of England from 1578 to her own death in 1596...

, during her 75th birthday. The masque distinguishes Spencer as having a greater far superior to other noble women by titling Spencer as queen of a metaphorical Arcadia

Arcadia

Arcadia is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Peloponnese. It is situated in the central and eastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. It takes its name from the mythological character Arcas. In Greek mythology, it was the home of the god Pan...

 that is far superior than any other realm. The piece served as a basis for Milton's later masque, Comus

Comus (John Milton)

Comus is a masque in honour of chastity, written by John Milton. It was first presented on Michaelmas, 1634, before John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater at Ludlow Castle in celebration of the Earl's new post as Lord President of Wales.Known colloquially as Comus, the mask's actual full title is A...

.

Background

Spencer's family invited Milton to write a masque for a celebration to honour her on her 75th birthday, 4 May 1634. This arrangement was made possible through the intervention of Henry Lawes

Henry Lawes

Henry Lawes was an English musician and composer.He was born at Dinton in Wiltshire, and received his musical education from John Cooper, better known under his Italian pseudonym Giovanni Coperario, a famous composer of the day...

, the Earl's music tutor for his children, and friend to Milton's father. Milton wrote Arcades and the piece was performed at the Harefield estate. This masque established many themes and ideas later developed in his other masque, Comus.

Masque

The masque begins by praising the countess and describes her in royal terms during the first song:

Mark what radiant state she spreads,

In circle round her shining throne

Shooting her beams like silver threads:

this, this is she alone,

Sitting like a gooddess bright,

In the center of her light (lines 14–19)

Genius continues this idea and emphasizes that she was:

the great mistress of yong princely shrine,

Whom with low reverence I adore as mine, (lines 36–37)

According to Genius, sirens, similar to the muses, create a music that fills the senses:

But else in deep of night when drowsiness

Hath locked up mortal sense, then listen I

To the celestial sirens' harmony (lines 61–63)

Genius describes how he, unlike mortals, is able to hear the song of the sirens and the song compelled him to an innocent rapture along with the Fates who are also seduced by the siren song:

Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie,

To lull the daughters of Necessity,

And keep unsteady Nature to her law,

and the low world in measured motion draw

After the heavenly tune, which none can hear

Of human mold with gross unpurged ear;

And yet such music worthiest were to blaze

The peerless height of her immortal praise, (lines 68–75)

Her magnificence is further distinguished from any others during the second song:

Such a rural queen

All Arcadia hath not seen. (lines 94–95)

This is compounded by the third song declaring that other queens are below her status and concluding the masque:

Here ye shall have greater grace,

To serve the Lady of this place.

Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were,

Yet Syrinx well might wait on her.

Such a rural queen

All Arcadia hath not seen. (lines 104–109)

Themes

Arcades sought to draw upon pastoral elements and mocked the pastoral Caroline traditions

Charles I of England

Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

 of Henrietta Maria of France

Henrietta Maria of France

Henrietta Maria of France ; was the Queen consort of England, Scotland and Ireland as the wife of King Charles I...

. Instead of following traditional themes inherent in the genre that welcome guests, the guest characters in the masque seek to praise the Countess who is guided by the spirit Genius. Genius is not a unique figure in Miltonic poetry and he is similar to a demon or Thyrsis in Comus because he relies on divine music for an earthly purpose.

The masque portrays a powerful female character at the centre of the plot. Although he does not say that she is part of the surrounding social context, especially one that could be seen in a negative light, she does have direct connections to classical female divinities, such as Cybele

Cybele

Cybele , was a Phrygian form of the Earth Mother or Great Mother. As with Greek Gaia , her Minoan equivalent Rhea and some aspects of Demeter, Cybele embodies the fertile Earth...

 and Latona

Leto

In Greek mythology, Leto is a daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe. The island of Kos is claimed as her birthplace. In the Olympian scheme, Zeus is the father of her twins, Apollo and Artemis, the Letoides, which Leto conceived after her hidden beauty accidentally caught the eyes of Zeus...

, who have established divine families. The female figure is not only a mother of her family; she is also mother of a greater version of Arcady. In her position, the people and spirits of the land honour her for her greatness.