ation to rescue the victim in spite of himself.
Another of our great poets has caught up the same story and varied it after his own noble fancy, still adapting it to a moral purpose. Comus, according to Milton, is son or Circe and, like his mother, delights to tempt belated travelers into his abode in "an ominous wood" in Wales.
And in thick shelter of black shades embowered
In this description, clearly based on Homer's tale and subsequent allegories, we can see one or two further refinements of thought. The men are not turned bodily into beasts; it is their face which is transformed. Fancy is here in harmony with sad fact. Next the men are doubly deceived; being degraded into beasts they know it not but still think they are fairer than before. We have got very far away from Homer's conception now, but Milton has remoulded the ancient tale into fancies not less beautiful although they carry a more serious meaning to the thoughtful reader. Having seen the various modifications which have been made by poets in writing of the tale of Circe, we can now understand the further import of this picture which I undertook to make clear. It is an expression of this fact -- that sensuality is not only sin, but a contemptible mistake. In studying a great picture it is a real pleasure to commit to memory those passages in the poets which explain the painter's design.
Typed by Kristina, Sept 2015
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