Into the Woods: The Lady's Soliloquy in Comus

Milton, Jerome, and Apocalyptic Virginity

“… 57 The idea that the poem celebrates marriage is widespread, though some critics see this as a gain (because it signals that the Lady and/or Milton have matured past their virginity fixation) and others as a loss (virginity allows the Lady a kind of self-determination that marriage will not). See Kerrigan, 51–61; Halpern; Kim; Shullenberger, 2001; Orgel, 42–44.…”

“… 72 The idea that the Lady's approach toward the music and the fantasies that follow are signs of her own erotic desire has been suggested by several critics, although usually her desire is read as a positive sign, in keeping with readings of the poem that focus on the Lady's sexual agency or maturation. See, for example, Greteman, 428; Kim, 16; Shullenberger, 2001, 36–37; Thomas, 435, 451.…”

Ecocriticism and Vitalism inParadiseLost

“…In addition to the studies discussed below, see Edwards, “Eden” and Milton ; Hiltner, Renaissance Ecology and What Else ; Munroe and Laroche; Fenton; Tigner; and Shullenberger.…”

“Perplex't Paths”: Youth and Authority in Milton'sMask*

“… 40 Milton, 1998, 125 ( Mask , 40). See Shullenberger, 2001, 34, for a description of the wood as a “liminal zone” created to test liminal characters. Shullenberger's psychosexual reading is generative, although his idea of the wood's “overdetermined” symbolic role in the Lady's “initiatory rite” into adulthood seems to me to underestimate the ambiguity of this transformation in the period.…”