ABSTRACT
The darkness that surrounds the good occasion shows Jonson's awareness that in this world the virtuous live in a state of seige. Daedalus' chief invention, for the purposes of the masque, is the labyrinth. The labyrinth, which is also a dance, is the masque's central image. The song introducing the third dance, the Labyrinth of Beauty, is more specific. Here, the young men are invited to dance with the ladies. The Magnetic Lady is Jonson's last finished play, and the Induction suggests it will be his final statement, since he is 'now neare the close, or shutting up of his Circle'. The fullest treatment in Jonson's drama of the problems of virtue – its strength and weakness, and the compromises it has to make with reality – is found in the character of Cicero in Catiline.
