Milton’s Comus and Spenser’s False Genius

MILTON'S COMUS AND SPENSER'S FALSE GENIUS A. KENT HIEAIT It now seems possible to say, on the basis of some additions made here to a set of known antecedents for Milton's Comus in Spenser's poetry, that during the gestation of that work Milton had in detail before his mind's eye an interlocking series of mythical patterns formulated by his predecessor in Books II and III of The Faerie Queene. The mind seen in action here startles us nearly as much by its economical deployment of resources as by its independence and confidence. It is generally recognized that the confrontation of virtue and temptation in Comus stands in a close relationship to Guyon's invasion of the Circean Bower of Bliss in Faerie Queene 2. 12.' It does not seem to have been pointed out, however, that for Comus himself the chief constitutive figure in Milton's imagination was apparently the False Genius in that Bower. Further, the complementary tradition of the true Genius seems to have coloured Milton's thinking to a considerable degree in his so-called masque. As B. Rajan has most recently shown in these pages,' the borrowing from Spenser's Garden of Adonis (Faerie Queene 3. 6) at the conclusion of Comus may properly be thought of as the answer to the animadversions of Comus himself against chastity: contrary to what Comus says, Youth and Joy are the offspring of the heavenly Cupid and Psyche; the chastity which the lady supports against his arguments is the guarantor of bliss, not its destroyer, and Comus himself is ultimately life-denying. Surely this is the right pattern, but in addition it is likely that the thought here finds a very interesting counterpart in the apparently life-enhancing but in reality inimical character of Spenser's false Genius as against the true Genius of his Garden of Adonis. This false Genius is described by Spenser as sitting within the porch of the gate leading into the Bower of Bliss. The Bower, as we know, is the main feature of a Circean island where men are turned to beasts by sensualiry. The false Genius is A comely personage of stature tal!, And semblaunee pleasing, more than natural!, Volume XXXVIU, Number 4, July 1969 314 A. KENT HIEATT That trauellers to him seemd to entize; His loser garments to the ground did fall, And Sew about his heeles in wanton wize, Not 6t for speedy pace, or manly exercize. (2. 12. 46. 4-9.)3 His departure from the principle of Nature is already announced in the second line above. In the Bower he is called Genius, but he is not the real Genius, to whom properly pertains "the care/Of life, and generation of alii That liues ..... (St. 47). The so-called Genius here is, rather, "The foe of life" (St. 48); he has the "gouernall" of the Bower and "Pleasures porter was deuized to bee" (St. 48). The suggestion is, apparently, that he is Acrasia's chief aide as, traditionally, the true Genius is of Nature. Further, he holds in one hand a staff - with which he performs enchantments - ( St. 48), and at his side is set a "Mazer bowIe of wine." He offers this to all visitors. He does so to Guyon; Guyon overthrows it disdainfully (St. 49). A moment later, Guyon also throws to the ground, so that it shatters, a cup in which (with her left hand) the loose damsel Excess has offered him "wine" from the unnatural vine nearby (St. 56). Correspondingly, Milton's Comus is the son of Circe (as the false Genius is the helper of a Circe-figure), and Comus himself turns men to beasts through their sensuality (as the false Genius helps to do). Comus first appears 'With a Charming Rod in one hand, his Glass in the other" (following I. 92)4_as the false Genius had borne a staff for enchantment and had a drinking vessel of wine at his side, and was immediately succeeded by an associate figure bearing a goblet of wine. Comus attempts to persuade the lady to drink from his glass (following I. 658)as the false Genius had attempted to...