“Justina. Thought is not in my power, but action is. 
    I will not move my foot to follow thee.

      Demon. But a far mightier wisdom than thine own
    Exerts itself within thee, with such power
    Compelling thee to that which it inclines
    That it shall force thy step; how wilt thou then
    Resist, Justina?

      Justina. By my free will.

      Demon. I
    Must force thy will.

      Justina. It is invincible. 
    It were not free if thou had’st power upon it.”

It must be admitted that where the Spaniard and the Englishman come directly into competition the former excels.  The dispute between the Lady and Comus may be, as Johnson says it is, “the most animating and affecting scene in the drama;” but, tried by the dramatic test which Calderon bears so well, it is below the exigencies and the possibilities of the subject.  Nor does the poetry here, quite so abundantly as in the other scenes in this unrivalled “suite of speeches,” atone for the deficiencies of the play.

It is a just remark of Pattison’s that “in a mind of the consistent texture of Milton’s, motives are secretly influential before they emerge in consciousness.”  In September, 1637, Milton had complained to Diodati of his cramped situation in the country, and talked of taking chambers in London.  Within a few months we find this vague project matured into a settled scheme of foreign travel.  One tie to home had been severed by the death of his mother in the preceding April; and his father was to find another prop of his old age in his second son, Christopher, about to marry and reside with him.  “Lycidas” had appeared meanwhile, or was to appear, and its bold denunciation of the Romanizing clergy might well offend the ruling powers.  The atmosphere at home was, at all events, difficult breathing for an impotent patriot; and Milton may have come to see what we so clearly see in “Comus,” that his asperities and limitations needed contact with the world.  Why speak of the charms of Italy, in themselves sufficient allurement to a poet and scholar?  His father, trustful and unselfish as of old, found the considerable sum requisite for a prolonged foreign tour; and in April, 1638, Milton, provided with excellent introductions from Sir Henry Wootton and others, seeks the enrichment and renovation of his genius in Italy:—­

   “And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore
    Flames in the forehead of the morning sky.”

CHAPTER III.