Comus: A Masque

About

Milton's Comus (1634) is the supreme surviving example of the court masque — a genre combining poetry, music, dance, and allegory that was the elite entertainment form of Stuart England. It was written for performance at Ludlow Castle and dramatizes the temptation of a virtuous Lady by Comus, a sorcerer who embodies sensual pleasure; her brothers must rescue her with the help of the pastoral deity Sabrina. Milton's verse is extraordinary — some of the finest he ever wrote — and the masque's philosophical argument about chastity and spiritual freedom anticipates Paradise Lost. As theater it requires imaginative adaptation; as poetry for reading aloud it is magnificent.