Summary
Comus begins with the arrival of the Attendant Spirit in a wooded area. The Spirit announces that his home is in the celestial realm "Before the starry threshold of Jove's court" (1). He explains that this vantage point has allowed him to observe humanity from above, watching as men become too ensnared in their daily life to consider the afterlife that may await them. The Attendant Spirit notes that there are some people, however, who are still virtuous, and it these people he has come to serve in the form of a lowly shepherd, Thyrsis.
The Spirit goes on to explain that the land and the waters were divided by Jove and Neptune after their victory over the Titans, and that this particular tract of earth is under the care of "A noble peer of mickle trust" (31). His children now travel to see their father crowned in his new position. However, the Spirit warns, they must traverse a path laden with danger and threats to their innocence. For this reason, Jove has dispatched the Spirit as a protector.
Continuing, the Spirit notes that the most prevalent threat to the children is the figure Comus. Comus is the offspring of Bacchus, the god of wine and pleasure, and Circe, the famous sorceress who transformed Odysseus's men into swine. Comus has inherited his mother's powers and gleefully offers "to every weary traveller, / His orient liquor in a crystal glass" (64-65). Once they sip from the glass, humans are transformed into beastly creatures of "foul disfigurement" that follow Comus as they "roll with pleasure in a a sensual sty" of debauchery (74-77). Thus, the Spirit has come to earth to protect the children from Comus's charms. As his speech concludes, the Spirit hears the arrival of the dreaded Comus and hides.
Comus and his raucous hoard enter. Comus, excited for the arrival of nightfall, encourages his followers to "welcome joy, and feast, / Midnight shout, and revelry, / Tipsy dance, and jollity" (102-104). As they celebrate, however, Comus announces that he hears chaste footsteps approaching. He perceives that the interloper is a virgin, and vows to use his magic and charms to seduce her into drinking from his cup. Comus quickly takes on the appearance of a villager before the Lady arrives.
The Lady enters, explaining that she followed the noise with hopes of locating her brothers, who separated from her when they went to look for food. Now alone, the Lady worries about how she will make her way through the woods without guidance. But, she assures herself, she carries with her the virtues of Conscience and Chastity, and believes that the supreme deity would send a guardian for her if she truly needed protection.
Analysis
The beginning of Comus provides its audience with contextual information that helps establish its connection to the circumstances in which it was originally performed. Written to celebrate the newly-appointed Lord President of Wales, John Egerton, Comus opens with the Attendant Spirit's explanation that the god Jove has similarly bestowed upon a "noble peer" a new appointment "to guide / An old, and haughty nation proud in arms" (31-33). The Attendant Spirit's exposition is thus largely a description of Egerton's ascent to power and the praise he deserves for having entered this new role. Compounding the masque's relationship to actual events is the fact that Egerton's own daughter, Alice Egerton, played the role of the Lady in the original production.
However, Comus departs from its historical moment by invoking figures from antiquity along with those from the Christian tradition. The Attendant Spirit himself is an ambiguous character; though he explains that he has been sent by the ancient Roman god Jove (Zeus, in the Greek tradition), his task is more akin to that of a guardian angel. The Spirit vows to defend those "that by due steps aspire / To lay their just hands on that golden key / That opes the palace of eternity" (12-14)—in other words, he has been sent to protect the virtuous. By combining both Pagan and Christian context in the very opening of the masque, Milton's text comments on the particularities of early modern English politics and society while at the same time maintaining its distance through its ambiguous setting. This position is especially significant for the genre of the text itself. Masques were often performed at court, and typically involved flattery for a royal patron through representations of courtly life. Comus, by contrast, introduces itself as a story about a battle between the chaste and virtuous Lady and the debauched Comus. Thus, while Comus like most masques is allegorical, the Attendant Spirit's prelude announces that the performance will extend beyond flattery and into the realm of political and social critique.
Comus's introduction is emblematic of the danger he poses to the Lady and her proverbial guardians, Chastity and Conscience. Comus is opportunistic, over-indulgent, and happy to be hidden from "Rigour," "Advice," "Age," and "Severity" by the cover of night (107-109). However, he is also rhetorically gifted, charming, and fun: he encourages his beastly following to "Come, knit hands, and beat the ground, / In a light fantastic round" (143-144). These lines exemplify the danger that Comus presents to the Lady, as they underscore his sinful indulgence at the same time they highlight his rhetorical capabilities. Comus addresses his cronies in trochaic and iambic tetrameter couplets, formulations that associates him with a youthful and song-like mode of speech. When the Lady approaches, however, Comus says, "Break off, break off, I feel the different pace / Of some chaste footing near about this ground" (145-146). The meter shifts from iambic tetrameter to iambic pentameter, as Comus notes that he—quite literally—changes pace. Similarly, the rhyme scheme disappears as he continues in blank verse. Comus's ability to switch easily between metrical modes foreshadows his manipulative qualities that will try the Lady as she encounters him and his charms. In many ways, Comus can be considered an early incarnation of the more notorious antagonist from Milton's oeuvre—Satan in his epic Paradise Lost. Both characters are markedly self-indulgent and vengeful at the same time they are endowed with superb rhetorical ability, rendering them the biggest threat to the virtuous and innocent.
