Milton's Comus

Milton, John, 1608-1674Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.2

Word count: 275K words
Chapters: 28

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Milton's Comus by John MiltonAuthor: Milton, John, 1608-1674,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Nov 15, 2006

Editor's review

Comus is a masque text written by Milton in his youth, weaving poetry and dialogue into the story of a young woman who resists temptation in the woods and holds fast to virtue. The English e-book from Project Gutenberg preserves the play as originally written; it is short but serves as an important entry point for understanding Milton's early poetics and moral outlook. Its strengths lie in the musicality of the verse and the elegance of its imagery; the themes of temperance, chastity, and free will run throughout and connect with the concerns of Paradise Lost. Readers can appreciate both the beauty of seventeenth-century English prosody and the convergence of Puritan ethics with Renaissance rhetoric. Suitable as a close-reading text for students of English literature, Milton scholars, and lovers of classical poetry, it is best read alongside annotations and background notes.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Students of English literature and Milton scholars
Readers of classical literature who enjoy seventeenth-century English poetry
Theatre students studying masques and dramatic history
Advanced readers seeking a short introduction to Milton

Not a good fit for

General readers accustomed to modern prose narratives who lack patience for verse dialogue
Beginners with no experience reading English poetry
Readers who want only Milton's biography rather than his works

Reading tips

First learn about the masque as a performance form and the circumstances of its writing, then approach the text with an understanding of the division between dialogue and chorus.
Choose an annotated edition or consult annotation resources; look up mythological allusions and unfamiliar words before reading on.
Read the verse aloud to feel its rhythm and meter, paying particular attention to the choral songs and the lyrical closing passages.
After finishing, revisit key dialogues through the theme of 'temptation and temperance' and trace how the characters' positions shift.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is Comus a play or a poem?

It is a masque, combining dramatic structure with poetic form, including dialogue, choral songs, and staged scenes. Read it as a verse drama, attending both to plot development and to the rhetoric and rhythm of the lines.

Can I understand it without annotations?

With difficulty. The text is dense with mythological allusions, classical rhetoric, and seventeenth-century English expression, which can easily trip up a reader without notes. Use an annotated edition or reliable electronic annotations to clear up allusions and word meanings before reading through.

Does this e-book include production notes?

The Gutenberg edition consists mainly of the play text with limited editorial apparatus. For performance background, textual history, and criticism, consult scholarly editions or related research rather than relying on this e-book alone for textual judgments.

Is it suitable for classroom use?

It works well as a short close-reading text for the Milton unit of an English literature course, being manageable in length and focused in theme. Instructors should supplement background and annotations and design reading-aloud or scene-performance activities to help students enter the context of verse drama.

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About the author

Milton, John, 1608-1674 Author

John Milton (1608–1674) is a major poet and polemical writer in English literary history. Nine of his works are held here, including the long poems Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, the masque Comus, the elegy Lycidas, the shorter poems L'Allegro and Il Penseroso, the prose tract Areopagitica on freedom of the press, and the collections The Poetical Works of John Milton and Milton: Minor Poems. Learned in both classical and Christian traditions, he is known for grand religious themes, stately blank verse and an eloquent style. Paradise Lost, drawing on the biblical creation story, explores free will, obedience and fall, and has deeply influenced later English poetry; Areopagitica offers a classic argument for freedom of speech and publication. Comus and Lycidas display his early gifts in masque and elegy, while the shorter poems show his versatility. Public information on his life dates and nationality is limited and is not speculated upon here.