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Comus
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London SE1
4/5
“MILTON thou shouldst be living at this hour.” But the author of the 1634 Comus, a “masque in honour of chastity,” might not agree with William Wordsworth’s encomium if he could see Lucy Bailey’s treatment of his 1,000-line dramatised lyrical poem, originally presented to celebrate the appointment of the Earl of Bridgewater as Lord President of Wales.
Masques, largely court entertainments distanced from the rough and tumble of the theatre world of the time, were certainly not noted for their comic potential. That’s not the case here.
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