LI Milton's Comus and the Comus of Erycius Puteanus

Ralph H. Singleton

doi:10.2307/458920

LI Milton's Comus and the Comus of Erycius Puteanus

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020

Ralph H. Singleton

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Ralph H. Singleton*: Affiliation:
Oberlin College

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The neo-Latin Cornus of Erycius Puteanus (Hendrik van der Putten) has been much neglected as a source of Milton's masque, in which Comus, the post-classical god of revelry, appears as the central figure. As early as 1790, Sir John Hawkins, in a note on Johnson's Life of Milton suggested Puteanus's fantasy as a source of Milton's fiction. To date, however, no serious attempt has been made to trace Milton's debt to this curious extravaganza, although its probable influence upon Milton has been universally recognized.

Type: Research Article
Information: PMLA , Volume 58 , Issue 4_1 , December 1943 , pp. 949 - 957

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/458920 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1943

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^{page 949 note 1} Van der Putten (1574–1646), Professor of Eloquence and Classical Literature at Louvain, was a man of considerable erudition and a prolific writer of small books. Comus, sive Phagesiposia Cimmeria: Somnium, a prose fantasy with occasional verse, was first published at Louvain in 1608. It was translated into both Flemish and French, reprinted in 1611, 1613, 1615, and at Oxford in 1634, the year Milton wrote his masque. The Oxford reprint was bound with his Historia Insubricae.

^{page 949 note 2} It is rather taken from the Comus of Erycius Puteanus, in which, under the fiction of a dream, the characters of Comus and his attendants are delineated, and the delights of sensualists exposed and reprobated. See The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, vol. 1 (London: T. Longman), p. 134.

^{page 949 note 3} Hanford, for example, in the latest edition of his Milton Handbook (Crofts, 1939, pp. 161–162), calls the resemblances “too striking to be the result of accident.” For specific parallels between the two works, however, he refers back to Todd's variorem edition of Milton (1801).

^{page 949 note 4} Second Defence.

^{page 949 note 5} Comus reflects clearly Milton's current literary enthusiasms. His indebtedness to Spenser is marked throughout the masque, and specifically acknowledged as his source for the Sabrina legend. See J. F. Bense, “‘Meliboeus old’ in Milton's Comus,” Neophilologus, i (1916), 62–64. His indebtedness to A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest is also marked, and reflects his delight in Shakespeare's “native wood-notes wild” (L'Allegro, 133–134). His indebtedness to Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess coincides with the revival of this masque-like pastoral for presentation at court on Twelfth Night 1633/4, its subsequent revival in the months following at the Black Friars theater in London, and its third quarto reprint at the same time.

^{page 950 note 6} In his dedication (editions 1615 and 1634) Van der Putten writes: The religion of pleasure has been established as an evil of almost all races and ages; it has increased with extravagance and wantonness. Everywhere its deities are given over to vices, so that whoever is wise is considered an impious man, whoever would teach virtue, an evil man. Because in truth, neither Bacchus nor Venus nor other influences convey the insanity of revelry and conviviality except among the Greeks, Comus had his inception, and thus the kingdom of the belly was spread about, so that it was not enclosed within the boundaries of any land. I have dared to profane these mysteries; I have described them; and as if I cherished some part of wisdom, I have been blasphemous toward extravagance and wantonness. (Voluptatis religio omnium paene aetatum genliúmque scelere constituía est, luxu lasciviáque cremt. Sua ubique vitiis Numina data sunt, ut impius esset, quisquís sapiens; ut malus, quiscuis virtutem inculcarci. Quia verò non Bacchus, no Venus, no alia potentia insaniam Conviviorus & Commessationum im plebant, coli apud Graecos Comus coepit adeoque diffusum est Veniris regnum, ut nec terrarium finibus clauderetur. Haec sacra profanare ausus sum: descripsi, & quasi aliquam Sapientiae partem colerem, impius in Luxum Lasciviamque fui.)

^{page 950 note 7} Comus appears briefly as a character in Ben Jonson's Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue (1619). Milton is generally credited with knowing Jonson's masque, although it was not published until 1640. But Jonson's Comus bears little resemblance in conception or appearance to Milton's. He is simply the “Bouncing Belly,” a gross figure with an enormous pauch, drawn upon the stage in a gilded chariot.

^{page 951 note 8} Puteanus proceeds to give a fair Latin translation of Philostratus. (See pp. 31–32, edition of 1634.)

^{page 952 note 9} Cf. Milton's stage directions following l. 92: Comus enters, with a charming rod in one hand, his glass in the other.

^{page 952 note 10} Coma incirros cincinnósque digesta, odoribus perfusa, auram quoque imbuerat (p. 8).

Cf. Milton, l. 608:

Or drag him by the curls to a foul death.

Cf., also, ll. 104–105:

Braid your locks with rosy twine,

Dropping odours, dropping wine.

^{page 953 note 11} Cf. Milton's personifications, ll. 102–104:

Meanwhile, welcome Joy and Feast,

Midnight Shout and Revelry,

Tipsy Dance and Jollity.

^{page 953 note 12} Quos homines putas lupi sunt, &e Daunia, Getuliáve monstra' mor su infesta (pp. 25–26). Cf. Comus's rabble, described by the stage directions following l. 92: a rout of monsters, headed like sundry sorts of wild beasts, but otherwise like men, and women. In ll. 70–71 the beasts are named as:

wolf, or bear,

Or ounce, or tiger, hog, or bearded goat.

^{page 953 note 13} In densissimum paenè antrum delatus sum, cui vestibulum naturalis arborum series fecerat: limen quoq; religiosae frondes inumbrarant (p. 4). Cf. Milton's description of Comus's haunts, ll. 37, 61, 181, 520, and especially 536:

In their obscured haunts of inmost bowers

Cf., also, Puteanus's phrase, tectum augustum (p. 15), with Milton's “A stately palace” (stage directions following l. 658).

^{page 953 note 14} Cf. Milton, ll. 77, 122–144, etc. Note that Milton follows Puteanus in describing a luxurious banquet in progress in Comus's palace.

^{page 953 note 15} Milton's Comus tells the Lady (ll. 668–669):

See, here be all the pleasures

That fancy can beget on youthful thoughts.

^{page 953 note 16} Milton's Comus makes his initial temptation with wine. Cf. ll. 64–65, 524–526, and his temptation of the Lady, 672–678.

^{page 953 note 17} Quae mortalium sine voluptate vita poena est ... Quern in finem benigna te Natura produxerit cogita: non ut miserum dura virtute crucies animum, & è felicitatis contubernio proturbes; sed ut mollitie bees, ut suavitalibus lubentiisque omnibus irriges (pp. 12–13). Cf. Comus's temptation of the Lady (ll. 666–690, 706–755). Note especially:

Why should you be so cruel to yourself,

And to those dainty limbs, which Nature lent

For gentle usage and soft delicacy?

^{page 954 note 18} Ego tarn profani sermonis audaciam nulla patientia digerens, infauslum numen, velut portentum detestabar. Fuga in mente erat, sed alae in votis (p. 13). Cf. the Lady's reaction to Comus and her attempt to escape his presence (stage directions following l. 658).

^{page 954 note 19} Comus iste vitiorum somes est; deliciis capii ánimos, ut enervet ... Quicquid in homine ingenue, exlinguit (p. 40). Cf. the Attendant Spirit's delineation of Comus (ll. 66–77, 524–530). Note, especially:

Soon as the potion works, their human countenance,

The express resemblance of the gods, is changed

Into some brutish form of wolf, or bear ...

To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty.

^{page 954 note 20} Incautos ficta humanitas deludet (p. 41). Cf. Comus's deception of the Lady, and his practice in general (ll. 160–164):

I, under fair pretence of friendly ends,

And well-placed words of glozing courtesy,

Baited with reasons not unplausible,

Wind me into the easy-hearted man,

And hug him into snares.

^{page 954 note 21} Nihil in robustam Sapientia mentem Sirènes omnes posse (p. 40). Cf. the Lady's retort to Comus (ll. 662–664):

Fool, do not boast:

Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind

With all thy charms

^{page 954 note 22} Cf. the Lady's answer to Comus (ll. 756 ff.), in the same vein, with much the same arguments.

^{page 955 note 23} Noctis aura quid nigrae

Potest, quid umbris obsitae formidines;

Si liberam potente virtus asserit

Meutern manu, si candor atque puritas,

Viraginisque dogmata Sapientia? (p. 17)

^{page 955 note 24} Ll. 205–210.

^{page 955 note 25} Puteanus, pp. 47–50; Milton, ll. 93–144.

^{page 955 note 26} Condiscat ille molli

Ditare melle guttur,

Dotare pectus udo

Mitis lepore Bacchi:

Condiscat ille fractu

Terram gradu pavire

^{page 956 note 27} Licebit & venusto

Rorantium impedire

Serto caput rosarum

^{page 956 note 28} Delere fas severae

Naevosnotdsque mentis,

Naevosnotdsque frontis ...

Tristes abite curae

^{page 956 note 29} Et tu veni Dione,

Veni, veni Dione,

Risum, Jocumque prome

Vrentis & furentis

Duces salelitesque

Cupidinis procaces.

^{page 956 note 30} Nil turpe, nilque factu

Foedum pulet: latere

Caliginis sub atrae

Velopotest opaco,

Quod turpe, quodque foedum.

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