Milton's Comus

By John Milton

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Publication date: November 2010

ISBN: 9781438593258

Digital Book format: PDF (Adobe DRM)

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John Milton was a 17th century poet famed for his two epic poems Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. Milton came under scrutiny for his radical political views and his heretical religious beliefs. Comus (A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634) is a masque in honour of chastity, written by John Milton. From Wikipedia, ôThe plot concerns two brothers and their sister (called the Lady) lost in the wood. The Lady becomes fatigued, and the brothers wander off in search of sustenance. The Lady is captured by the debauched Comus, a character inspired by the god of mockery, brought to his pleasure palace, and magically affixed to a chair with "gums of glutinous heat." Comus urges the Lady to "be not coy" and drink from his magical cup (representing sexual pleasure and intemperance), but she repeatedly refuses, arguing for the virtuousness of temperance and chastity. Meanwhile her brothers, searching for her, come across the Attendant Spirit, an angelic figure sent to aid them, who takes the form of a shepherd and tells them how to defeat Comus. The three manage to rescue her and chase off Comus, but the Lady remains magically bound to her chair. With a song, the Spirit conjures the water nymph Sabrina who frees the Lady on account of her steadfast virtue.ö