ABSTRACT
In the epitaph, Milton declares that Shakespeare needs no tomb or memorial. Yet Milton's evocation of The Winter's Tale raises new problems. The music that wakes the statue returns in A Masque, however, and it turns out to be a decidedly Shakespearean music, though with certain alterations. Combination of nature deities with golden age music audible in a fallen world seems to automatically summon Shakespearean echoes. The Lady delicately refers to Echo's frustrated passion for Narcissus, but promises translation to the sky instead of new embodiment. In the Bridgewater performance, the Lady sang, 'And hold a counterpoint to all heav'n's harmonies'. The song of Circe and the per Sirens reproduces itself not through echoes per se, but through the response of the listeners. For Milton, Sirens are closely associated with the problem of the relationship of heavenly and earthly music-and with the kind of prelapsarian song that, if heard on earth, might erase the Fall itself.
