Comus - John Milton

Unknown, John Milton, Arthur Rackham

Category: Literature

Tags: Literature

Sometime in the 17C, after a series of political, social, commercial, and above all intellectual revolutions, men became acutely conscious their mental universe had altered as if the discharge of an arquebus had scattered the ghosts and fairies., Ascendant was a disenchanting rationalism, and passing away was a world possessed by magical and religious forces., The two most significant expressions of the world we have lost are A Midsummer Nights Dream and John Miltons Masque of Comus, both written when their authors were at a similar stage of their poetic careers. (Comus further, is striking for its Shakespearian reminiscences), A masque is a genre located somewhere between drama and that type of opera that has been disparaged as an exotic and irrational entertainment. Besides drama there is song, dance and spectacle. The general theme typically is Reasons control of the passions and the containment of misrule. As an ideal image of the State, it culminates in the form of a vision inviti