ABSTRACT

Considered in the light of its occasion and performance, Milton's A Mask at Ludlow is a family drama about conflict among three age groups: children, adolescents, and adults. The adolescents—Lady Alice and “the Spirit of Youth,” Comus—are distinguished from children and adults by their immediate concern with the problems of erotic love. For the children, Eros is primarily a subject for fantasy; and for the adults, it is a threat to morality and family unity. Lady Alice, age fifteen, sings to Echo and seeks an escape from the perplexing, sensuous world in which she is lost. But, in confronting Comus, she must face the demands of erotic love directly as a true, wayfaring Christian, and accept the trial which can transform her to adulthood. Milton resolves Alice's trial, however, at the expense of Eros and in favor of family unity, thus meeting the demands of the Mask's occasion. The children and adults combine forces not to resolve, but to suppress the erotic dilemma of adolescence. They overcome Comus, and the Lady is released from her own emotions and the trial of growing up. Nature grants her no liberty, but the kind of apotheosis she had earlier wished for from Echo—a return to father and family. Her victory is qualified as the names of Parthenope and Ligea, figures of erotic frustration and introversion, are invoked.

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