Summary
Just as Comus raises the glass to the Lady's mouth, the two brothers rush in with swords drawn. They destroy the glass, but Comus and his followers escape. The Attendant Spirit reminds the brothers that they were supposed to capture Comus and bind him so that his magic could be reversed. Now, the Spirit says, there is no way to free the Lady from Comus's immobilization charm. Then, the Spirit remembers that nearby lives a nymph named Sabrina. She is a virgin and a river-goddess who cherishes maidenhood. The Spirit thinks that Sabrina will be able to free the Lady.
The Spirit sings a song to invoke Sabrina. She appears, along with a group of water nymphs, and sings back to the Spirit asking why he has summoned her. The Spirit explains that they seek Sabrina's help freeing the Lady from Comus's charms. Sabrina assures them that it is her "office best / To help ensnared chastity," and she sprinkles droplets from her fountain all over the Lady's body (908-909). The Lady is freed, and the Spirit ushers her and her brothers away from the woods to avoid further temptation from Comus.
As the masque concludes, the Spirit presents the Lady and her brothers to their mother and father at Ludlow town. He praises the three children for their victory "O'er sensual folly, and intemperance" before announcing that he must depart and return to his godly abode (975). He speaks of the idyllic world that lies beyond earth, and entreats all people who wish to go there to "Love Virtue" because "she alone is free" and is all one needs to ascend to Heaven (1019).
Analysis
In the final section of the masque, Milton once again invokes the dichotomy between masculine and feminine to underscore the importance of virtue. The two brothers, meaning well but blinded by their anger, fail to heed the Attendant Spirit's advice for how to conquer Comus. Instead, they approach him with violence, relying on their swords rather than the magic flower the Spirit provided them. Comus escapes, suggesting that traditional modes of power are ineffective; the masculine penchant for violence is replaced, by contrast, with the delicate power of a virginal river goddess. That Sabrina is the one to free the lady underscores, once again, the mobilization of chastity as an effective "weapon." Sabrina also plays a role in Milton's political commentary: as a local goddess with dominion over certain lakes and rivers, Sabrina represents an alternative form of governance that departs from the paradigm of absolute power. In the masque, the ability to govern is instead dispersed among a number of local players, a structure reminiscent of the "moderate and beseeming share" for which the Lady advocates earlier in the performance (769). Sabrina, therefore, is a symbol by which Milton can critique the notion of absolute or divine monarchical rule.
In the final scene of the masque, the children are reunited with their parents in a celebratory dance of shepherds and townsfolk. Before the Attendant Spirit departs, he provides the audience with an elaborate description of the home to which he is returning. This celestial realm has "gardens fair," "golden tree," "Elysian dew," and "beds of hyacinth, and roses, / Where young Adonis oft reposes" (981-999). As the Spirit sings, Milton employs shorter lines of iambic and trochaic tetrameter as well as alternating end rhymes, usually in couplets. This metrical form is strikingly similar to Comus's original song about mirth amidst the darkness. However, the Spirit's song paints a portrait of a world humans can only access if they heed his advice to "Love Virtue" above all else (1019). By mirroring the speech patterns of Comus and the Spirit, the masque suggests that despite temptations from earthly pleasures, only the word of God is the true avenue by which one my attain eternal bliss.
