European Painting Highlights (Old Dead White Males)

Museum of Fine Art (MFA) in Boston ^ | 2018 | MFA staff

[Albion Wilde]

"Lips That Have Been Kissed"

Due to Mardi Gras this week, and New Orlean's "Comus Ball" as part of its celebrations, I happened upon the manuscript of Milton's play, Comus, and was struck by a passage in which the vile Comus, a woodland god of revelry, attempts to drug and seduce a fair virgin lady. Milton's homage to Beauty within the play reminded me of our discussion of the painting that opens this thread.

Comus was written in 1654. Milton's poetry is dense and leans backwards towards Middle English; but it is delightful, especially if one takes the time to look up many of the obscure words. Being a lover of poetry, I have taken the liberty of translating the selection below (lines 737 – 755] into slightly more contemporary language. This passage follows one in which he extols many of the finest beauties produced by nature, including silk. Enjoy:

Listen, Lady, be not coy, and be not fooled by that much vaunted name "virginity"—beauty is nature's coin, must not be hoarded, but be in circulation; the good thereof is mutually partaken bliss, delightfully unsavory in itself.

If you let time slip, like a neglected rose it withers on the stalk with languished head.

Beauty is natures brag, and must be shown in courts, at feasts, and high solemnities where men may wonder at the workmanship; it is for homely features to stay home (they earned their label thence)—complexions coarse and sorry textured cheeks will serve to do the sewing and to spin the housewife's wool.

What need a ruby-tinted lip for that, love-darting eyes, or tresses like the Morn?

There was another meaning in these gifts. Think what; and be advised, you're not young long.