Platonism in English poetry of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries — Plato — John Shaqi
Platonism in English poetry of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
Plato · en
The statement of this theory of chastity is explained in “Comus,” and
its quickening influence is felt in the very manner in which Milton
refers to it. Before the Elder Brother recounts the effect of lust upon
the soul he explains the hidden power of chastity.
“So dear to Heaven is saintly chastity
That, when a soul is found sincerely so,
A thousand liveried angels lackey her,
Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt,
And in clear dream and solemn vision
Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear;
Till oft converse with heavenly habitants
Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape,
The unpolluted temple of the mind,
And turns it by degrees to the soul’s essence,
Till all be made immortal.”
(ll. 453–463.)
This is the “abstracted sublimity” which The Lady refers to when she
addresses Comus. It is a notion, a mystery, which he, standing for the
purely sensual instincts of man, cannot apprehend. She tells him:
“Thou hast nor ear, nor soul, to apprehend
The sublime notion and high mystery
That must be uttered to unfold the sage
And serious doctrine of Virginity;
And thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know
More happiness than this thy present lot.”
(ll. 784–789.)
So powerfully, indeed, has the vision of beauty described in the
“Phædrus” and the “Symposium” affected Milton’s own imagination that he
visualizes chastity much as Plato does an idea; it is an idea not only
known to the mind, but thrilling the imagination with its beauty. When
The Lady is at first conscious of the power of Comus’s magic to disturb
her mind with foreboding fancies, she invokes faith, hope, and chastity.
The first two are seen as personages, but chastity only as a pure,
unblemished form.
“O, welcome, pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope,
Thou hovering angel girt with golden wings,
And thou unblemished form of Chastity!
I see ye visibly.”
(ll. 213–216.)
The directness of this vision is like that of the soul in the “Phædrus”
when it sees the flashing beauty of the beloved, “which,” says Plato,
“when the charioteer [the soul] sees, his memory is carried to the true
beauty, whom he beholds in company with Modesty like an image placed
upon a holy pedestal.” (“Phædrus,” 254.)