Summary
The Lady, after announcing her separation from her brothers, sings a song to invoke the nymph Echo for guidance. Comus, hearing the Lady's voice, is struck by its beauty and power. He thinks back to times he has heard his mother, Circe, singing among the Sirens that lure men to their death. Their voices are so pleasing that it makes Scylla, the six-headed sea monster, weep openly and Charybdis, the fatal whirlpool, whisper "soft applause" (259). The Lady's song, however, is greater than anything Comus has heard before. He determines, "I'll speak to her / And she shall be my queen" (264-265). Addressing the Lady, he tells her she is too beautiful to have come from the forest.
The Lady replies swiftly to Comus—who is outfitted as a shepherd—by explaining that his praise is lost on her. She tells him that her song was meant simply to awaken Echo for help finding her brothers. In a quick exchange, Comus entreats the Lady to explain how she became lost. She tells him that her brothers went to find water, and describes them as youthful-looking. Comus assures her that he has seen her brothers gathering fruit under a hill. He explains that he mistook them for fairies because of their youth and beauty, but offers to help her find them.
The Lady asks Comus to point her toward "the readiest way" to find her brothers (305). When he tells her she must travel "due west," the Lady replies that even the best navigators would have trouble with such direction at night (306). Comus, seeing his opportunity, assures the Lady that he is familiar with the terrain and that he will know before morning where her brothers are. He offers to take her to a "low / But loyal cottage" where she can wait safely (319-320). The Lady expresses her gratitude and notes that one is more likely to find such courteous behavior "in lowly sheds / With smoky rafters" than in "tap'stry halls, / And courts of princes" (324-326).
Analysis
In this section of the masque, Milton dramatizes the first encounter between its protagonist (the Lady) and its antagonist (Comus). The Lady, who entered the scene by announcing her protectors Conscience and Chastity, intrigues Comus in a way that trumps even the Sirens of antiquity. The texts suggests, however, that Comus is drawn to the Lady for reasons beyond her beauty and her voice. Upon hearing her song, he says, "Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould / Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment? / Sure something holy lodges in that breast" (244-246). Here, Comus associates the Lady's exceptional voice with divinity and godliness, convinced that she is a product of "something holy." His use of the term "ravishment" to describe the Lady's effect on him is ironic, as it is precisely the Lady's chastity—signifying virginity and virtuousness—that captivates him. Thus, Comus's response to the Lady showcases how her travel companions, "strong siding champion Conscience" (212) and "thou unblemished form of Chastity" (215), are not simply proverbial virtues but active players that give Comus pause.
Milton continues to use formal elements to underscore the extent to which the Lady and Comus are evenly matched. He, endowed with magical ability, finds a formidable opponent in the Lady, protected by her own virtue. In their exchange in which Comus prods the Lady for information about why she is wandering alone, each character only speaks one line before the other character responds. This steady but swift alternation between the two disrupts the expectation that the Lady is weak or susceptible to Comus's rhetoric. Instead, she matches his speech patterns by speaking just as frequently and using the same meter, iambic pentameter. Thus, while the Lady ultimately follows Comus to his dwelling, this moment foreshadows the trouble Comus will encounter in attempting to overtake her.
Finally, just before agreeing to follow Comus to the cottage, the Lady praises him for his "honest-offered courtesy" (323). Here, she provides a surprising indictment of the court, claiming such kindness "oft is sooner found in lowly sheds / With smoky rafters, than in tap'stry halls / And courts of princes, where it first was named, / And yet is most pretended" (324-327). Here, the Lady becomes a mouthpiece for political critique for which Milton would become well-known. A critic of the monarchy and a staunch supporter of individual freedom, many of Milton's works feature interrogations of power and meditations on the efficacy of kings. Comus is no exception, as here the Lady argues that courts have become overrun by pretense, corruption, and deception. Ironically, masques were often performed as a means of flattery for royals themselves, and so Milton's inclusion of the Lady's political judgement announces once again his departure from the conventions of the genre.
