Comus (John Milton)
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Comus (A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634) is a masque in honour of chastity, written by John Milton and first presented on Michaelmas, 1634, before John Egerton, Earl of Bridgewater at Ludlow Castle in celebration of the Earl's new post as President of Wales. Known colloquially as Comus, the mask's actual full title is A Mask presented at Ludlow Castle 1634: on Michelmas night, before the right honorable John, Earl of Bridgewater, Viscount Brackley, Lord President of Wales, and one of His Majesty's most honorable privy council. Comus was printed anonymously in 1637, and included by Milton himself in his Poems of 1645 and 1673.
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[edit] Plot
The 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 and is finally rescued from his seductions by the brothers, aided by The Attendant Spirit. With a song, the Spirit conjures the water nymph Sabrina (pronounced suh-BRIH-na), who frees the the Lady on account of her steadfast virtue.
The music, in a baroque style, was composed by Henry Lawes, who also played the part of The Attendant Spirit. Generically, masques were not dramas; they could be viewed as pre-figuring the recitative of opera.
[edit] Comus and the Masque Genre
Masques were a favourite court celebration during the reign of Charles I and often included courtiers, nobles and sometimes even the royals themselves in the performance: Bridgewater's own children were the principal actors in this masque. The Puritan Milton's use of the genre, however, may be seen as an attempt for him to "reclaim" masque, which were associated with the perceived debauchery of the royal court, for godly or virtuous purposes. Rather than praising an aristocrat, the famous concluding lines of the masque, recited by the Attendant Spirit, urge
- Mortals that would follow me,
- Love virtue, she alone is free,
- She can can teach ye how to climb
- Higher than the Sphery chime;
- Or of Virtue feeble were,
- Heav'n itself would stoop to her (ll. 1018-1023).
Comus was influenced by a prior masque, Aurelian Townshend's Tempe Restored, which had been staged at Whitehall Palace in London in February 1632. Both Henry Lawes and Alice Egerton, the Earl's daughter who played the Lady, had performed in Townshend's masque.[1]
[edit] Castlehaven Scandal
An air of controversy surrounds this masque, as the Earl of Castlehaven, Bridgewater's brother-in-law, was the subject of a sordid sodomy and rape scandal for which he was executed. Some critics have conjectured that the masque, with its focus on chastity, was designed to "cleanse" the Egerton family. The notable articles in this strain of criticism include:
- Brested, Barbara. "Comus and the Castlehaven Scandal" Milton Studies 3 (1971), 201-224.
- Creaser, John. "Milton's Comus: The Irrelevance of the Castlehaven Scandal." Milton Quarterly 4 (1987): 25-34.
- Hunter, William B. Milton's Comus: Family Piece. New York: Whitson Publishing, Troy, NY: 1983.
- Marcus, Leah. "The Milieu of Milton's Comus: Judicial Reform at Ludlow and the Problem of Sexual Assault." Criticism 25 (1983): 293-327.
- Weitz (Miller), Nancy. "Chastity, Rape, and Ideology in the Castlehaven Testimonies and Milton's Ludlow Mask." Milton Studies 32 (1995): 153-68.
The following book discusses the trial of the Earl of Castlehaven:
- Cynthia B. Herrup, A House in Gross Disorder: Sex, Law and the 2nd Earl of Castlehaven. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
[edit] Notes
- ^ John G. Demaray, "Milton's Comus: the Sequel to a Masque of Circe," Huntington Library Quarterly 29 (1966), pp. 245-54.
