As a drama it is deficient. The action is not probable. A mask, in
those parts where supernatural intervention is admitted, must indeed
be given up to all the freaks of imagination, but so far as the
action is merely human, it ought to be reasonable, which can hardly
be said of the conduct of the two brothers; who, when their sister
sinks with fatigue in a pathless wilderness, wander both away
together in search of berries too far to find their way back, and
leave a helpless lady to all the sadness and danger of solitude.
This, however, is a defect over-balanced by its convenience.

What deserves more reprehension is, that the prologue spoken in the
wild wood by the attendant Spirit is addressed to the audience; a
mode of communication so contrary to the nature of dramatic
representation, that no precedents can support it.

The discourse of the Spirit is too long; an objection that may be
made to almost all the following speeches; they have not the
sprightliness of a dialogue animated by reciprocal contention, but
seem rather declamations deliberately composed, and formally
repeated, on a moral question. The auditor therefore listens as to
a lecture, without passion, without anxiety.

The song of Comus has airiness and jollity; but, what may recommend
Milton's morals as well as his poetry, the invitations to pleasure
are so general, that they excite no distinct images of corrupt
enjoyment, and take no dangerous hold on the fancy.

The following soliloquies of Comus and the Lady are elegant but
tedious. The song must owe much to the voice if it ever can
delight. At last the Brothers enter with too much tranquillity;