Comus

The Lady has been bound to an enchanted chair by Comus’s magic art, and she is forced to listen to him as he tries to tempt her. The chair reveals both Comus’s power and the limitations of it; much as the brothers overestimate the importance of physical prowess, Comus here relies on physical restraint that leaves the Lady’s spiritual resolve intact. 

Comus thus turns to a second weapon. Trying to sound like a voice of reason, Comus tells her of “this cordial julep” (Line 672); that is, a refreshing drink. Its power to produce joy, he says, is even greater than the “Nepenthes” (Line 675). This is a Greek word that means “sorrow-dispelling”; Milton uses it as a name for an opiate and refers to an incident in the Odyssey when Helen mixes it in wine and gives it to her husband, Menelaus, and Odysseus’s son, Telemachus, to make them forget their grief. Comus goes on to say that the Lady owes it to herself to take advantage of his offer since part of the human condition is that the body needs refreshment when tired. It would be “cruel to [her]self” (Line 679), Comus tells her, to deny this fact. 

However, unlike Eve in the book of Genesis and Paradise Lost, who gives in to Satan’s temptation, the Lady resists with ease. She has now observed for herself Comus’s deceptive nature and is not about to be fooled again. She can see perfectly well the ugly “monsters” (Line 695) that Comus surrounds himself with, which differ markedly from the “safe abode” (693) he described to her. She therefore calls him out for his “lies” (Line 692), implicitly identifying him with Satan, the liar, and explains that she is not interested in being trapped by the tempting “baits fit to ensnare a brute” (Line 700). Her word choice (“brute” [Line 700]) implies that only an animal or an uncultured human would fall prey to Comus’s tricks, paving the way for her assertion of the superiority of reason and self-control—what she calls “the well-governed and wise appetite” (Line 705). 

Comus continues undeterred but adopts a line of reasoning premised on select elements of Christian thought: that God created the natural world, that he did so in part for humanity’s benefit, and that divine order is observable in nature. He argues that the abundance that nature pours forth is there to enjoy; not to do so in the name of self-restraint or chastity is simply a waste, as appetite exists to be gratified. He adopts a tone of mocking humor in dismissing those who live the life of modesty and restraint, which ignores and scorns the many riches around them: 

[…] If all the world

Should in a pet of temperance feed on pulse,

Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but frieze,

Th’ All-giver would be unthanked, would be unpraised (Lines 720-23). 

Here, “pet” (Line 721) means “fit,” pulses are food items such as beans, the clear stream means water, and frieze is a heavy woolen cloth considered at the time to be a modest, unostentatious form of clothing. Comus’s ability to twist Christian doctrine to suit his ends is the ultimate proof of his deceit; here, for instance, he suggests that abstinence dishonors God’s creation and thus God himself.

In a similar vein, Comus distorts the biblical idea of humanity’s stewardship over nature. Comus goes on to argue that if humans did not use nature, it would keep growing, and this “waste fertility” (Line 729), or unused abundance, would overwhelm the earth and the air. Herds of sheep and cattle would grow unmanageable, the sea would swell up, and diamonds would continue to grow and create such light that even the inhabitants of the underworld would be able to see it (it was thought during Milton’s time that some minerals reproduced themselves). Once again, the effect is to frame indulgence as a duty.

Finally (Lines 737-55), Comus extends this argument to sexuality, arguing that a woman’s beauty is part of nature and must therefore also be used and enjoyed rather than hoarded. There must be “mutual and partaken bliss” (Line 741). Otherwise, beauty will be overtaken by time and will wither. Comus speaks here like many a lover in Renaissance literature. In Christopher Marlowe’s poem Hero and Leander (1598), for example, Leander tries to seduce Hero with a similar argument, and he has as little success with it as Comus does here. 

In a long speech, the Lady expresses her defiance of everything Comus has said, including the fact that he tries to present them in “reason’s garb” (Line 759), thus perverting one of God’s gifts. In rejecting his claim that the abundance of nature would be harmful or “riotous” (Line 763) if unused, she also makes what amounts to a political argument for greater equality in society: If every righteous man was to receive even a moderate share of nature’s abundance, instead of the present situation, in which a few men live in “pampered luxury” (Line 770), nature’s blessings would not build up an unused excess. That would be a way of thanking God for abundance, which those who indulge in “swinish gluttony” (Line 776)—another association of sensual appetite with nonhuman animals, as well as an allusion to the practices of Circe, Comus’s mother—never think of doing. Her argument marks the intersection of Milton’s religious and political thought, challenging the traditional view that monarchs and aristocrats derived their authority from God to suggest instead that such social stratification is un-Christian. 

As for Comus’s comments about chastity and virginity, she emphatically declares that she has nothing to say to him about it since he would be incapable of understanding. This largely proves true. Comus is impressed by her words and demeanor and fears that she is inspired by “some superior power” (Line 801), briefly intuiting the strength that faith gives her. However, he quickly dismisses such thoughts and doubles down on his mission, offering her the magical cup once again and telling her that it will bring “delight / Beyond the bliss of dreams” (Lines 812-13). His actions clarify that he is too committed to his sinful ways to be redeemed, as he deceives even himself.