This illustration is a beautiful example of Jessie Marion King’s distinctive style of ‘outline illustration’. Accompanying John Milton’s (1608-1674) maske, Comus, in George Routledge’s September 1906 edition, this illustration, much like its maske tells the story of two brothers and their sister, ‘The Lady’, who get separated. ‘The Lady’ is captured and seduced (to no avail) by Comus, the god of festivity, and nocturnal dalliances, and aims to teach the importance of female chastity. Marion King’s illustration lies opposite the lines,
'Elder Brother: My sister…
… she has a hidden strength,
[...]
Which …
’Tis chastity, my brother, chastity:
She that has that is clad in cómplete steel'
Marion King’s upbringing, much like Milton's, was religious, and she was often reprimanded for her love of art and drawing. Milton here becomes a fitting subject and muse; his own religious flux and political derision situates his literary style and biography at a similar crossroad to Marion King. Marion King’s illustration stridently steps into Milton’s infamous mingling of religiosity, with crude, and often erotic physicality, and gets behind Comus’ hard didactism and a more curious female admiration. The illustration both adheres to more traditional Pre-Raphaelite ideals of female beauty; it adopts the floral motifs, flowing hair, and rouged lips that we see in other Pre-Raphaelite works in this sale (lots 144-145) - inferring a sense of passivity and traditional values towards women - meanwhile, her subject’s facial expression, concentrating and preoccupied with internal thought, promotes a sense of composure, and personal agency. In this way Marion King suggests that ‘The Lady’ far from having her chastity imposed and expected from her, is a personal choice - the connection with the bird in hand, the ethereal stars and flowers that swirl around her, as well as the intimated halo that circles her head, become reflections of her internal, and self-assured, state. So much so, even the nymphs, centre left and bottom right, adopt calm countenances that mirror ‘The Lady’s’ own. As such, Marion King’s economy of line, her light touch, and curving figurations render her subject at one with her surroundings, she blends into the plants at her feet, flowers drape off her dress and hair in a protective stance. Marion King inflects Milton’s physical questions of chastity, through psychological ones; transforming Milton’s ‘complete steel’ into an arrangement of natural and thought-provoking imagery. Marion King’s illustration makes beautiful, and more child-friendly, Milton’s more caustic and admonishing maske.