Comus

After the unrhymed iambic pentameters of blank verse spoken by the Spirit come the rhymed iambic and trochaic tetrameters of Comus; the former suggests dignity, while the latter are seductive in their rhythms. Milton allocates 76 lines to Comus to speak uninterrupted and thus convey his character and intentions. 

Further developing the text’s light and dark imagery, Comus welcomes the coming of night, which finds him and his monstrous, unruly followers ready for their activities: “Meanwhile, welcome joy and feast, / midnight shout and revelry, / Tipsy dance and jollity” (Lines 102-04). All restraint (“sour Severity” [Line 109]) is to be cast aside by those who revel in their sensual nature and keep company with “pert fairies and the dapper elves” (Line 118) and “wood-nymphs” (Line 120), folkloric figures associated with mischief and, in some cases, malevolence. “What hath night to do with sleep?” (Line 122), asks Comus, a question that undermines the measured, orderly life, with its rhythms of waking and sleeping at predictable and appropriate hours, that God laid down for humankind, according to Christian teaching. Instead, Comus plays on the double meaning of Venus—the goddess of love as well as the evening star—to suggest that the night is for lovemaking. “’Tis only daylight that makes sin” (Line 126), says Comus. In other words, their activities can only be condemned as sinful when they are readily visible—a remark that twists both the established associations of light and darkness and the concept of absolute morality itself. He also hails Cotytto, an ancient Thracian goddess whose followers celebrated her by indulging in nighttime orgies and revelry. Comus asks that Cotytto befriend him and his coterie, who are “[her] vowed priests” (Line 136). Comus further mentions Hecate, a nocturnal goddess of the Underworld, often appearing with torches and hellhounds in the night. Comus thus emerges as the embodiment of a particular kind of evil: one associated with chaos, sensuality, and trickery (including in his wordplay).

As Comus senses the presence of the Lady, the drama is ready to move to its next stage: the conflict between good and evil, chastity and sensual indulgence, virtue and vice. Making use of his “dazzling spells” (Line 154), Comus transforms himself into the appearance of a harmless villager to achieve his ends. He thus shows his power to create illusions and practice deceit. Nothing about him now reveals his true nature, and the Lady is about to walk innocently into a trap.