Comus

The scene with the brothers and their meeting with the Attendant Spirit takes up almost one-third of the text. Its length suggests that it is thematically important, if not obviously related to the play’s central conflict.

The imagery the brothers use helps clarify the episode’s function. The scene begins with Elder Brother’s apostrophe to the moon and stars, appealing for a ray of light in this “double night of darkness and of shades” (Line 335). Second Brother then issues his own plea for familiar sounds like the flock of sheep in the sheepfolds. The former invokes the dichotomy of light and dark that frequently serves as a shorthand for good and evil, while the latter recalls the Christian metaphor of Christ as a shepherd and humans as his flock. The brothers’ words thus firmly align them with the forces of good.

As their conversation turns to their sister, the theme of The Invincible Nature of Chastity emerges more clearly. Second Brother wonders where the Lady might be and what danger she might be in. However, Elder Brother counsels him not to imagine the worst. He is confident their sister is in no danger because she has peace of mind, “the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever” (Line 368). Virtue such as their sister possesses lives by its own “radiant light” (Line 374), which is independent of sun or moon and would still exist if those two celestial bodies sank into the sea. With this, he suggests that she embodies a different principle of life than is common on Earth, partaking in the sphere of the divine. Furthermore, in addition to “Virtue” (Line 373), she possesses “Wisdom” (Line 375) and “Contemplation” (Line 377); she thus has the capacity for reason that upholds morality. 

Elder Brother then contrasts light and darkness in a way that elaborates on the importance of moral character: 

He that has light within his own clear breast

May sit i’ the center, and enjoy bright day,

But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts

Benighted walks under the mid-day sun;

Himself is his own dungeon (Lines 381-85).

This suggests the power of the individual mind to create its own reality, a perspective that Milton will later present in Book 1 of Paradise Lost: “The mind is its own place and in itself / Can make a hell of heaven or a heaven of hell” (Lines 254-55). 

Elder Brother’s confidence, however, does not entirely convince his more anxious sibling. What Elder Brother says about wisdom and contemplation might be all very well for an old monk whose life affords few opportunities for temptation. By contrast, beauty must be well-defended to ensure his sister’s safety since any hostile entity will not “wink on Opportunity” (Line 401) (that is, close the eyes to “opportunity”). She is, Second Brother points out, a “single helpless maiden” (Line 402) out there alone. Elder Brother acknowledges the point but says he is more inclined to hope than fear; their sister has a “hidden strength” (Line 415) and he has confidence in that. He defines that strength as chastity, which, in this context, means not only abstaining from sexual relations but also the love of all things good, as flowing from God. The chaste individual orders their passions and desires toward the expression of the good. According to Elder Brother, “She that has that [chastity] is clad in cómplete steel” (Line 421). The metaphor of chastity as armor reveals what is to the Elder Brother the flaw in Second Brother’s understanding of safety and danger; he conceives of these in largely physical terms (by which standard their sister is indeed vulnerable), ignoring the more significant metaphysical context implied by the earlier discussion of virtue, vice, and character.

He then embarks on a lecture to his younger brother, complete with classical references, on the power of chastity and the calamity that takes place when it is lost. Not even evil creatures that walk the night—ghost, goblin, or fairy—have power over chastity. This is why, in classical mythology, Diana the huntress was able to repel the dart of Cupid. The same was true of Minerva, the virgin goddess of wisdom and war. On her shield was the “snaky-headed” (Line 447) Gorgon Medusa, which froze her enemies to stone. The Elder Brother interprets the shield as the “rigid looks of chaste austerity, / And noble grace that dashed brute violence / With sudden adoration and blank awe” (Lines 450-52). It is not merely that virtue supersedes physical strength in importance; rather, Elder Brother suggests, virtue can actually bend material reality to its purposes because it derives from God. As Elder Brother goes on to explain, the angels protect those who cleave to chastity and “[b]egin to cast a beam on th’ outward shape, / The unpolluted temple of the mind, / And turn[] it by degrees to the soul’s essence” (Lines 460-62) until it becomes immortal. 

Elder Brother then contrasts this with the ill effects of lust, which defile the soul and cause it to lose its original divine attribute, like shadows that haunt sepulchers and new-made graves—the graves of those who were drawn down by “carnal sensuality / To a degenerate and degraded state” (Lines 474-75). This last part of Elder Brother’s speech summarizes the conversation between Socrates and Cebes in Plato’s dialogue Phaedo. Thus, Elder Brother introduces the contrasts of chastity and lust, virtue and vice, to add to the contrasts already outlined of light and dark and good and evil.

The brothers’ debate is ended by the appearance of the Attendant Spirit, whom the brothers take to be Thyrsis, their father’s shepherd. The Spirit tells them that Comus is in the woods, ready to transform, by means of the potion he offers, passing travelers into “the inglorious likeness of a beast” (Line 528). The Spirit here elaborates on yet another contrast. When the faces of those who accept Comus’s “pleasing poison” (Line 526) are transformed, the result is the “unmoulding” (Line 529) of “reason’s mintage” (Line 529) that is normally seen in the human face. His words underscore the idea that reason is of God, as opposed to the sensual indulgence that Comus promotes, which stands as a lower level of life—one associated with nonhuman animals. The contrast is thus between reason and the sensual appetite; the latter should always be controlled by reason and restraint. Reason is a gift from God that allows humans to choose virtue over vice. Noticeable here also is that the Spirit characterizes Comus as a formidable opponent; his “poison” (Line 526) is “pleasing” (Line 526) because it appeals to humanity’s fallen nature. 

The motif of music underpins the contrasts that the Spirit here lays out. The Spirit has heard the “barbarous dissonance” (Line 550) of Comus and his followers. The word choice positions their “music” as the virtual antithesis of the “artful strains” (Line 494) of the shepherd and his pipe that Elder Brother comments upon; Comus and those like him produce chaotic, discordant noise, whereas those who follow God and virtue obey the laws of harmony. The contrast recurs beginning at Line 555, when the Spirit mentions that he also heard the sound of the Lady as she sang as sweetly as the nightingale. Music thus emerges as aligned with the forces of civilization, reason, and order.

The Spirit’s arrival also effectively resolves the brothers’ debate about their sister. The Spirit knows that she is in danger, and Second Brother is alarmed, but his brother remains confident: “Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt, / Surprised by unjust force, but not enthralled” (Lines 589-90). Nevertheless, he resolves to rescue his sister by force. However, the Spirit tells him that his courage will not be able to overcome the magician’s art and gives him a protective plant to aid him. He says it is even more effective than moly, a magical plant that the god Hermes gave to Odysseus to protect him from Circe’s spells (as told in Book 10 of the Odyssey). The plant is called “haemony” (Line 638); the name is Milton’s invention. Its leaves are dark and have “prickles” (Line 631) on them. It may symbolize a kind of Platonic-Christian temperance or Christian transformation and redemption, as suggested by the dark prickles (evocative of Christ’s crown of thorns) and “bright golden flow’r” (Line 633), indicating triumph over suffering or sorrow. The gift’s broader significance lies in its suggestion that physical strength alone is insufficient to defeat evil; the brothers require divine aid, echoing the necessity of God’s grace.