
Luke Batterham
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ARNE'S SETTING OF MILTON'S COMUS: this, one of Arne's best-known works, featured his sister Susannah Cibber and Cecilia Young, whom he had married a year before: 'His sister and new wife were both great assets to Arne, as tragedienne and singer respectively, and were used to great effect in his setting of Comus (John Milton's masque as adapted by John Dalton), which ran at Drury Lane from 4 March 1738. This work remained in the repertory into the following century. The combination of talent from the Arne and Cibber families, a resurgence of interest in Milton, and the simple melodic charm of Arne's score ensured its great success. Arne's music was imitated by Handel in his L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, an oratorio that like Comus was adapted from Milton' (David J. Golby, ODNB). His setting of 'Sweet Echo' for his new wife was to prove perennially popular.