| dc.description.abstract | The plot of John Milton’s (1608-1674) only masque, Comus (1634, first published as A Masque Presented at Ludlow Castle), revolves around power and sex. The titular character tempts travelers into participating in his nightly revels and orgies, but no amount of conniving or convincing can seduce the chaste Lady. She seems not only uninterested in but entirely unconcerned with sex. It is not that she feels but chooses to resist desire—she does not desire at all, in a manner consistent with modern definitions of asexuality. Reading Comus asexually reveals a new approach to the construction of power in the masque, suggesting that Comus gains power from the bodily desires of his followers, something the asexual Lady disrupts. Such a reading also provides the Lady with more authority than might otherwise be suspected of a character who spends so much time in captivity. This essay examines how her asexual rhetoric overwhelms Comus and hints at a stronger power toward which she can aspire. It also explains why the Attendant Spirit, a guardian angel of chastity, plays such a small role—arguably none at all—in defending the Lady from Comus’s advances. Finally, it explores how the Lady’s asexuality provides a new explanation for the peculiar ending in which she needs to be rescued from Comus’s magical chair despite having refused his temptations. Even though in recent years, both gender and sexuality studies and early modern studies have given more attention to asexuality, this is the first asexual reading of Comus. | |
