Chaste Bodies and Poisonous Desires in Milton's Mask

Abstract

Milton's Mask has traditionally been understood as an argument about chastity's protective force against seductive powers. But the masque conceals a more troubling portrayal of desire in seventeenth-century England. Through a reading of the Seventh International Milton Symposium's production of A Mask and Henry Peacham's 1612 emblem "Crimina gravissima," this essay demonstrates that considering Comus's sexual alterity and the drama's queer proliferation of desire not only lends credence to historicizing the text in light of the Castlehaven scandal but also challenges the standard victorious-virtue interpretation of the ending.

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