William Shullenberger's Lady in the Labyrinth: Milton's "Comus" as Initiation expertly surveys views of Comus and the history of the English masque, aligning his argument with "the ongoing academic project of describing what has been frequently called 'the construction of the early modern subject'" (p. 21). The interest of Shullenberger's study lies elsewhere, in its exploration of the deep mythic understructure of Comus, especially in rites of initiation, fascinatingly illustrated by examples from remote cultures, such as Zambia. Traditionally such rites, threading the initiate through labyrinthine structures of various kinds -- in Comus the wood is called a "leafy labyrinth" (line 277) -- lead through lost directions to a moment of transforming illumination.
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