Caring for Chastity in Milton’s Mask

ABSTRACT

John Milton’s Mask dramatizes a story of three young siblings, a sister and her two brothers, who find themselves lost in a magical forest. While they initially stick together, the brothers accidentally lose their sister, who is then pursued sexually by the sinister figure of Comus. Her brothers try in vain to rescue her, but instead she must be liberated from literal bondage by a benevolent goddess. Though her virginity triumphs, the solution is inherently messy and improvisational, raising questions about what caring for chastity really means in a social world of shared vulnerability. Scholars have long overlooked the importance of the sibling collective to the Mask’s representation of chastity, which is regarded, I think wrongly, as a private virtue. Rather this article reads chastity not as a theory, or a monastic self-practice, but as a strangely communal practice of care. I ask: why do the brothers lose their sister, and what is the nature of their obligation towards her? Are they to blame when they are not yet legal adults? What is their duty of care, and how does chastity test the limits of collective practice?

KEYWORDS:

• Milton
• chastity
• care
• sexuality

Acknowledgement

With deepest thanks to James Kuzner, Sharon Achinstein, and Alex Lewis, for their time and attention to this essay.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflicts of interest are reported by the authors(s).

Notes

^1. All references to John Milton’s Mask are, hereafter, cited parenthetically from A Mask at Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634, The John Milton Reading Room: The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Milton, with Introductions, Research Guides, and Hyperlinked Annotations, edited by Thomas Luxon. Dartmouth College.

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Notes on contributors

Connie Scozzaro

Connie Scozzaro is assistant professor of English at Brown University. She specializes in Renaissance literature and culture, with a focus on the history of sexuality, law, feminist studies, and queer studies. Her work has appeared, or is forthcoming in, in Shakespeare Quarterly and Modern Language Quarterly.