|
|
 |
|
English
329
Milton
Wendy Furman-Adams
A Mask at Ludlow Castle: Form and Meanings
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
As we have seen,
the Nativity Ode is a poem about the interaction
of two realms: the realm of nature (guilty,
fallen but yearning, redeemable, and worth
redeeming) and that of grace; time (chronos) and
eternity (kairos, or the "fullness of time").
The poem can be read on multiple levels (typical
of Christian Humanist thinking from the time of
Augustine):
1. Literal--birth of the Christ-child and the
re-orientation of history toward the final
judgment, a new heaven and a new earth (a
teleological, even millenarian perspective).
2. Moral (or psychological)--"birth" of the poet
and the re-orientation of his love toward God's
ends (a personal sense of purpose and providence
as seen in "How Soon Hath Time").
3. Spiritual--the (potential and to some extent
actual) renewal of the cosmos and of history by
grace.
4. Anagogical--"Wisest fate says no"--for now.
But finally, "then at last our bliss full and
perfect is": the perfection of history in the
New Jerusalem.
A Mask is also about these two realms of nature
and grace (although constructed in a less
explicitly Christian context). It is also Milton's first dramatic rendering (at 26) of the
"true wayfaring Christian" faced with a choice
between good and evil.
This theme will recur in all his major works: in
Of Education, the Areopagitica, Paradise Lost,
Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes.
Some characters will succeed in the test; some
will fail. But for Milton these wayfarers embody
the challenge we all face as physical, moral,
spiritual, and ultimately immortal beings.
Genre:
To appreciate Milton's poetry, it's essential
always to understand its purpose (and its
genre).
The Nativity Ode--a solemn hymn/ode for a great
occasion:
"public" (soon to be private) Christmas
private-public self-consecration of a Christian
poet to a life of service.
Poem offered to the Christ-child; poetry offered
to Christ.
A Mask--a courtly entertainment written (with
music by the famous Henry Lawes) for the
occasion of the Earl of Bridgewater's
installation as Lord President of Wales. (See
ll. 17-33).
A masque entails:
1. Lots of fun and play--self-reflexive humor
(see l. 200; 322; 338 etc.)
2. Lots of visual and musical display (like the
Nativity Ode but literally acted out and sung).
a virtuoso performance
genre at its peak; James I and Charles I both
great patrons.
this is eight years before the Civil Wars break
out.
3. A highly stylized and abstract form:
personified virtues and vices, pastoral setting,
allegory all traditional.
4. Levels of Allegory
Literal--an adventure/romance.
Moral--an allegory of virtue, strength of
character, chastity, temperance.
Spiritual--an allegory of the assistance of
grace to those who prove faithful. (See
Sabrina's entrance, l. 860 ff. and the last
lines of the poem, p. 171.)
Anagogical--an allegory of the state of the
Blessed, the New Jerusalem as the Garden of
Adonis (cf.
the end of "Lycidas.")
In that context, what is the importance of
virginity?
Literal--Lady Alice Edgerton is fifteen (and
Margery Evans had been recently raped).
Moral--an allegory of virtue itself (all
virtues) in feminine character. (Later: Eve,
Christ, Samson)
Interesting: Milton's Cambridge nickname "the
Lady of Christ's."
Anagogical--an allegory of marriage at the
highest levels: Venus and Adonis, Cupid and
Psyche.
Related to art works such as Titian's Sacred and
Profane Love and Botticelli's Primavera and
Birth of Venus.
Above all, the Lady is Milton's first "true
wayfaring Christian"
See Areopagitica, p. 1006.
Form of the Mask:
Think about the two settings: the forest and the
stately palace. What do they suggest about the
arenas in which we must struggle in the world.
Think about the characters and the ways they are
paired:
two "shepherds"--the Attendant Spirit (Thyrsis)
and Comus.
two brothers (and two outlooks on life).
The Lady and Sabrina.
Think about the language each character speaks.
Notice when the verse is iambic pentameter blank
verse and when it is in octasyllabic couplets.
Big question: what are the views of nature in
this work?
Comus' (nature divorced from its transcendent
source and thus demonic)
the Lady's (unspoiled nature in a state of
grace).
Another: what holds the lady in the chair
(literally, morally, spiritually)? Why does she
need Sabrina in order to be freed?
What about the vision at the end of the poem?
What does it have to do with chastity? Does it
reject the Lady's highest value--or fulfill it?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
