It is usual for critics to find evidence of Platonic influence on Milton mainly in his early poetry, notably in Comus (1634), where I too will start. Here Milton seems to use a ‘dualist’ view of nature, in which spirit, which is good, is contaminated by matter, which is bad. Although I will argue that he discards this view in Paradise Lost (written about 1658-63), I will show that he replaces it not by an orthodox Christian view of nature, but by another kind of Platonism, the ‘emanationist’ view associated with Plotinus, and that this vivifies his understanding of nature and of man. Though both uses of Platonism can be set in the context of the actual seventeenth-century debates about the relationship between the mind and the body, we should see Milton's use of them as largely metaphoric, ways of approaching the mysteries of nature and man, rather than offering philosophical explanations. For as Madsen reminds us: ‘The only relevant question is what function do these ideas have in the poem itself’.

COMUS

Plato's dualism is easy enough to find. The Phaedo, the Republic, and the Timaeus (all of which Milton knew), describe the soul as being imprisoned in a body driven by its own imperfect passions, and which must be rejected if the reason and intellect inherent in the soul are to survive.The body cannot help its imperfection, because it is made of matter which is ultimately subject to an ‘Errant Cause’ outside Go's control. Following the lead given by critics such as Jayne, we can use these philosophical tenets to explain the symbolism of Comus.