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Walter Porter

ENGL 4214

Katherine Cleland

15 February 2013

John Milton’s Faith in Human Reason: Man’s Greatest Mental Defense Mechanism

When the great creator laid out all the blueprints for man, we were given something that made us vastly distinctive from the rest of creation – reason. Rationality offers man a shrewd sense of perception that grants them the ability to approach whatever occasion logically. Although the individual is exposed to perversions and ulterior motives conceived by wicked men, John Milton believed that reason is a steadfast quality that God bequeathed onto mankind to reject whatever iniquities they might be subjected to. Milton’s prose-tract,

Areopagitica, refutes the need for censorship to protect people from nefarious works of literature. In his anti-masque Comus, Milton sets the stage for a classic tale of unholy temptation; although it isn’t a companion piece, it presents concepts that coincide with notions that Milton raised in Areopagitica. Comus and Areopagitica are composed of different content, but the ideas found within them harmonize to support Milton’s vehement praise of human rationality and sensibility as an abiding influence to distinguish what is good and what is bad.

When Parliament proposed the Licensing Order of 1634, threatening the free expression of writers, John Milton immediately rose to the occasion to dispel its necessity. Among the plethora of arguments that Milton poses, he explains how utilizing censorship as preventative measure to discourage secular temperaments is rather impractical. A wise, truly Christian man will deny whatever temptation, therefore strengthening his will. Milton writes, “’To the pure all Porter 2 things are pure’ . . . all kind of knowledge, whether of good or evil: the knowledge cannot defile

. . . if the will and conscience be not defiled.” (Areopagitica, 246). This is one of the main questions raised in Comus: can the human conscience work on its own accord, using intelligence to prevail over that which hopes to spoil it? This question is addressed by the Lady whose curiosity is piqued by a secular revelry in the forest hosted by Comus. At his mercy, the

Lady is offered a drink of his “Orient liquor in a crystal glass” (Comus, 65) which turns a person’s

“human countenance, / The express resemblance of the gods” (Comus, 68-69) “Into some brutish form . . . ” (Comus, 70). Despite her initial intrigue, the Lady’s virtue and hearty will prevails above Comus’s silver-tongued persuasions. Wary of Comus’s deceit and false providence, the Lady rejects his tonic and asserts her moderation:

I would not taste thy treasonous offer; none

But such as are good men can give good things,

And that which is not good, is not delicious

To a well-governed and wise appetite. (Comus, 702-705)

When the Lady first meets Comus, her eyes are deceived when she meets him in his shepherd’s garb. Her superficial judgment inclines her to trust Comus initially, but she quickly becomes wary of his true intentions. Intelligence and reason are quick to identify treachery, regardless of how cunning its disguise may be. Milton reinforces this belief, stating that whoever is subjected to vice and virtue “and yet abstain, and yet distinguish, and yet prefer that which is truly better

. . . is the true warfaring Christian” (Areopagitica, 247). Milton writes that we as humans “boast Porter 3 our light, but if we do not look wisely on the sun itself, it smites us into darkness” (Areopagitica,

264), and continues on to say that “The light which we have gained was given us . . . to discover onward things more remote from our knowledge” (Areopagitica, 264). Milton suggests that we must approach all of life’s trials and tribulations with the sharp criticism that God gifted man.

Comus is about the struggle mankind has upholding vice over virtue. The story has three main influencing characters: Comus, the proto-satanic figure of vice; the Lady, who serves as man’s ability to reason; and the Attendant Spirit, a god-like figure who embodies virtue. The masque sets the stage with the Attendant Spirit looking from his heavenly abode to earth. Wary of mankind’s nature, he holds the general perception that humans are “Unmindful of the crown that virtue gives / After this mortal change…” (Comus, 9-10). The Attendant Spirit descends to earth to liberate the Lady from Comus’s grasps, similarly to Parliament’s desire to enact censorship to protect people from secular ideas. Despite the Attendant Spirit’s good intentions, his interference in human affairs is in vain. Milton writes that man’s actions needn’t be so closely monitored because God “trusts him with the gift of reason” (Areopagitica, 247).

Comus’s enticing ways could be interpreted as books detailed in Areopagitica which have the ability to corrupt. Milton does not deny some books’ ill intentions; he speaks for God, writing that man can pick up any piece of literature with the ability to reject those ill intentions, “for

[man is] sufficient both to judge aright and to examine each manner” (Areopagitica, 246). The

Lady functions allegorically as people – which Milton speaks so often of in Areopagitica – with the intelligence to oppose vice. The Attendant Sprit, Comus, and the Lady in cohesion all function as a perfect allegory for God’s great faith in his creation’s perseverance of virtue in face of the most inducing vices. Porter 4

Milton realistically admits that wicked things will never be lifted from the earth. In fact,

Milton says that “Good and evil . . . grow up together almost inseparably; and the knowledge of good is so involved in and interwoven with the knowledge of evil” (Areopagitica, 247) that it becomes difficult to differentiate the two. Using Areopagitica as a lens to view Comus serves as an aid to contextualize Milton’s adamant belief in man’s ability to keep to his virtuous ways by use of his God-given reason. Without reason, the Lady in Comus would have been too blinded with naivety and fleshly curiosity to reject Comus’s seduction. It is with the grand blessing of logical attentiveness that humans are able to peer through the thick veil of deception to discover the truth.