The Lady in Milton's 'Comus'

Joseph Wright of Derby painted The Lady in Milton's 'Comus' around 1785, depicting the heroine of Milton's masque — a young woman separated from her brothers in a forest, approached by the enchanter Comus — in a moonlit forest setting that gave Wright opportunity for his characteristic exploration of nocturnal natural light. The literary subject combined the period's enthusiasm for Milton's poetry with Wright's personal interest in nocturnal landscape and the female figure isolated in a threatening natural environment. The composition anticipates aspects of the Romantic landscape tradition that would develop with Fuseli's dreamscape imagery and ultimately with John Martin's sublime landscape visions.

Wright employs his signature contrast of light and darkness to dramatize the Lady's predicament, with the enchanted setting providing opportunities for complex illumination effects. The theatrical lighting enhances the moral drama of the scene.