ABSTRACT
Richard Halpern analyses Milton's Mask in terms of a Marxist or cultural materialist account of history. Milton's ideological project in A Mask, the author traces the line that leads from virginity to married chastity. Along with his ideological theme, Milton inherits a field of literary instruments: specifically, a mythopoesis that tends to congeal into Neoplatonic and Christian allegory. Comus's lineage sets him in stark contrast to Milton's virginal, temperate Lady and indicates the grotesque animalism that awaits her if she falls prey to his wiles. 'Licence they mean when they cry liberty', writes Milton in his twelfth sonnet, attacking those who misunderstood his divorce tracts. Milton's language recalls the conflict between the Lady and Comus in his masque. The Dionysian mythology of Milton's masque illustrates this intersection between class and gender struggles, for Dionysus plays the same ambiguous role in class conflict that he does in gender conflict.
