The ancient Greeks believed that creativity was this divine attendant spirit that came to human beings from some distant and unknowable source, for distant and unknowable reasons.
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Meanwhile, her brothers, searching for her, come across the Attendant Spirit, an angelic figure sent to aid them, who takes the form of a shepherd and tells them how to defeat Comus. As the Lady continues to assert her freedom of mind and to exercise her free will by resistance and even defiance, she is rescued by the Attendant Spirit along with her brothers, who chase off Comus. The Lady remains magically bound to her chair. With a song, the Spirit conjures the water nymph Sabrina who frees the Lady on account of her steadfast virtue.
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The word eudaimon in Greek means having a good attendant spirit, and consequently being happy. It is composed of the words εὖ eu, which means "well" or "good" and δαίμων daimon, which means "divinity, spirit, divine power, fate, or god."Prior, William J. (1990); p 150.Guiley, Rosemary E. (2008); p 94.
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The original vocal music (the dance music is not extant), in a baroque style, was composed by Henry Lawes, who also played the part of The Attendant Spirit. Generally, masques were not dramas; they could be viewed as pre-figuring the recitative of opera. In 1745 George Frideric Handel composed three songs and a trio as part of a private arrangement of the masque which was first performed, in June 1745, also at Ludlow Castle. Scenes from Comus for vocal soloists and orchestra is one of the best-known works of composer Hugh Wood (1932– ).
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Rather than praising an aristocrat, the famous concluding lines of the masque, recited by the Attendant Spirit, urge Comus was influenced by a prior masque, Aurelian Townshend's Tempe Restored, which had been staged at Whitehall Palace in London in February 1632. Both Henry Lawes and Alice Egerton, the Earl's daughter who played the Lady, had performed in Townshend's masque.John G. Demaray, "Milton's Comus: the Sequel to a Masque of Circe", Huntington Library Quarterly 29 (1966), pp. 245–54. Milton's title for the masque was not Comus (this was imposed later by scholars), but A Mask, Presented at Ludlow Castle.
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According to Biographia Dramatica, Hull first appeared at the Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin; and then moved on to Bath, Somerset, where he managed the theatre for John Palmer. His first recorded appearance was, however, at Covent Garden Theatre, 5 October 1759, as Elder Wou'dbe in George Farquhar's Twin Rivals.In the course of the season he played Charles in Colley Cibber's Nonjuror, the attendant spirit in Comus, and, for his benefit, Manly in John Vanburgh and Cibber's The Provoked Husband. The following season saw him as Juan in Rule a Wife and have a Wife, Lord Morelove in Cibber's Careless Husband, Friar Lawrence, and Springlove in A Jovial Crew.
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