ABSTRACT
Comus transcends all other masques in its artistry and in the permanence of its moral fable. The treatment of landscape contributes both to Milton's artistic integration of traditional masque elements and to the philosophical content of Comus. There are three planes of landscape in Milton's masque. The Wood functions symbolically as a metaphor for earthly existence. Neptune and Sabrina inhabit mythological landscapes possessing both symbolic and realistic qualities. Most complex in function is the natural, realistic landscape, the plane on which the story unfolds. While conventional masque scenery “discovered” the masquers in a purely mechanical way, Milton gives to his natural setting an intensified reality that illuminates theme and discovers identity in a deeper sense. The characters reveal themselves through their reactions to the landscape, and these responses support and clarify the masque's central concerns of temperance, the power of virtue, and the proper attitude toward nature. The “happy climes” of the epilogue transfigure the vistas of earth and climax the movement of physical and mental expansion precipitated by the triumph of virtue in the Wood. In Comus, Milton gives to landscape a degree of prominence and a richness of meaning surpassed only by the landscapes of Paradise Lost.
