L’ALLEGRO AND IL PENSEROSO.
The year in which the poems were composed is uncertain. Masson regards 1632 as the probable date.
The exquisite poems to which Milton gave the Italian titles L’Allegro,—the mirthful, or jovial, man,—and Il Penseroso,—the melancholy, or saturnine, man,—should be regarded each as the pendant and complement of the other, and should be read as a single whole. The poet knew both moods, and takes both standpoints with equal grace and heartiness. The essential idea of thus contrasting the mirthful and the melancholy temperament he found ready to his hand. Robert Burton had prefaced his Anatomy of Melancholy, published in 1621, with a series of not unpleasing, though by no means graceful, amœbean stanzas, in which two speakers alternately represent Melancholy, one as sweet and divine, and the other as harsh, sour, and damned. Undoubtedly Milton knew his Burton. But if he got his main idea from this source, he made his poems thoroughly Miltonic by his art of visualizing in delicious pictures the various phases of his abstract theme. The poems are wholly poetical, equally free from obscurity of thought and from obscurity of expression.
Each poem is prefaced with a vigorous exorcism of the spirit to which it is hostile. This is couched in alternate three and five accent iambics, preparing a delicious rhythmic effect when the metre changes, in the invocation, to the octosyllable, with or without anacrusis.
In L’Allegro we accompany the mirthful man through an entire day of his pleasures, from early morning to late evening. The melancholy man moves through a programme less definitely and regularly planned. The scenes of his delights are mostly in the hours of the night: when the sun is up, he hides himself from day’s garish eye.
L’Allegro.
[2. Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born.] Milton follows the example of the ancient poets in announcing the parentage of the principal beings whom he brings upon his stage. Moreover, he uses the ancient freedom in assigning mythical pedigrees, not only adopting no authority as a canon, but allowing his own fancy to invent origins as suits his purpose. He knew the Greek and Latin poets, and assumed for himself the privilege which they exercised of shaping the myths as they pleased. We are not therefore to seek in Milton a reproduction of any system of mythology. Cerberus was the terrible three-headed dog of Pluto. His station was at the entrance to the lower world, or the Stygian cave.
[3.] The Stygian cave is so called from the Styx, the infernal river, “the flood of deadly hate.”
[5. some uncouth cell.] Uncouth may be used here in its original sense of unknown, as in Par. Lost VIII 230.
[10. In dark Cimmerian desert.] The Cimmerians were a people fabled by the ancients to live in perpetual darkness.
[12. yclept] is the participle of the obsolete verb clepe, with the ancient prefix y, as in ychained, [Hymn on the Nativity 155].
[15. two sister Graces more.] Hesiod names, as the three Graces, Euphrosyne, Aglaia, and Thalia, but he makes them the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome.
[18. The frolic wind.] See frolic again as an adjective, [Comus 59].
[24. So buxom, blithe, and debonair.] See Shakespeare’s Pericles, I Gower 23. All these words are interesting to look up for etymologies and changes of meaning.
[25-36.] We readily accept and understand the personification of [Jest, Jollity, Sport, Laughter], and Liberty, but the plurals, [Quips, Cranks, Wiles, Nods, Becks, Smiles], we do not manage quite so easily, especially in view of the couplet 29-30.
[28. Smiles] may be said to be wreathed because they inwreathe the face. See Par. Lost III 361.
[33. trip it, as you go.] So in Shakespeare, “I’ll queen it no inch further; Rather than fool it so; I’ll go brave it at the court, lording it in London streets.”
[41.] With this line begins a series of illustrations of the unreproved pleasures which L’Allegro is going to enjoy during a day of leisure. At first the specified pleasures or occupations are introduced by infinitives, to hear, to come; but the construction soon changes, as we shall see. The first pleasure is To hear the lark, etc. 41-44. L’Allegro begins his day with early morning. Here we must imagine him as having risen and gone forth where he can see the sky and can look about him to see what is going on in the farm-yard.
[45-46. Then to come, in spite of sorrow,]
And at my window bid good-morrow.
It must be L’Allegro himself who comes to the window, and as he is outside, he comes to look in through the shrubbery and bid good morning to the cottage inmates, who are now up and about their work. The pertinency of the phrase, in spite of sorrow, is not intelligible.
[53. Oft listening how the hounds and horn.] This “pleasure” and the next—sometime walking—are introduced with present participles. There is no interruption of grammatical consistency.
[57. Sometime walking, not unseen.] See the counterpart of this line, [Penseroso 65]. Todd quotes the note of Bishop Hurd,—“Happy men love witnesses of their joy: the splenetic love solitude.”
[59. against], i.e. toward.
[62. The clouds in thousand liveries dight.] Dight is the participle of the verb to dight, meaning to adorn. It is still used as an archaism.
[67. And every shepherd tells his tale.] This undoubtedly means counts the number of his flock. In Shakespeare we find, to tell money, years, steps, a hundred. So tale often means an enumeration, a number. L’Allegro finds the shepherds in the morning counting their sheep, not telling stories.
[68.] With this line ends the long, loose sentence that began with line 37. We now come to a full stop, and with line 69 begin a new sentence.
[70. the landskip.] A word of late origin in English, of unsettled spelling in Milton’s day.
[71. Russet lawns.] In Milton, lawn means field or pasture. See [Lycidas 25].
[77.] In this line the subject, mine eye, is resumed.
[80. The cynosure of neighboring eyes.] In the constellation Cynosure, usually called the Lesser Bear, is the pole-star, to which very many eyes are directed.
[81.] A new “pleasure” is introduced, with a new grammatical subject.
[83. Where Corydon and Thyrsis met.] The proper names in lines 83-88 add to the poem a pleasing touch of pastoral simplicity and cheerfulness. They are taken from the common stock of names, which, originally devised by the Greek idyllists for their shepherds and shepherdesses, have by the pastoral poets of all subsequent ages been appropriated to their special use. Corydon and Thyrsis stand for farm-laborers, Phyllis and Thestylis for their wives or housekeepers. The day of L’Allegro has now advanced to dinner-time. Phyllis has been preparing the frugal meal, as we could surmise from the smoking chimney. As soon as the dinner is over the women go out to work with the men in the harvest field.
[87. bower] means simply dwelling.
[90.] In the tanned haycock we see the hay dried and browned by the sun.
[91.] The scene changes and brings yet another “pleasure.” secure delight is delight without care, sine cura. See Samson Agonistes 55.
[96. in the chequered shade.] They danced under trees through whose foliage the sunlight filtered.
[99.] Evening comes on, and a new pleasure succeeds. Story-telling is now in order.
[102.] Sufficient information about Faery Mab can be got from Romeo and Juliet I 4 53-95.
[103-104. She], i.e. one of the maids; And he,—one of the youths. The Friar’s lantern is the ignis fatuus, or will-o’-the-wisp, fabled to lead men into dangerous marshes.
[105.] A connective is lacking to make the syntax sound: the subject of tells must be he. the drudging goblin. This is Robin Goodfellow, known to readers of fairy tales. Ben Jonson makes him a character in his Court Masque, Love Restored, where he is made to recount many of his pranks, and says, among other things, “I am the honest plain country spirit, and harmless, Robin Goodfellow, he that sweeps the hearth and the house clean, riddles for the country maids, and does all their other drudgery.”
[109. could not end.] Dr. Murray gives this among other quotations as an instance of the verb end meaning to put into the barn, to get in. So in Coriolanus V 6 87.
[110. the lubber fiend.] This goblin is loutish in shape and fiendish-looking, though so good to those who treat him well.
[115. Thus done the tales.] An absolute construction, imitating the Latin ablative absolute.
[117.] The country folk having gone early to bed, tired with their day’s labor, L’Allegro hastes to the city, where the pleasures of life are prolonged further into the night.
[120. In weeds of peace, high triumphs hold.] This must mean such things as masques and revelries among the upper classes.
[122. Rain influence.] See [note on Hymn on the Nativity 71].
[124.] What is the antecedent of whom?
[125.] What ceremony is here introduced?
[128.] Do not misunderstand the word mask. Its meaning becomes plain from the context.
[131.] To what pleasure does L’Allegro now betake himself?
[132.] Among the dramatists of the Jacobean time Ben Jonson had especially the repute of scholarship. The sock symbolizes comedy, as the buskin does tragedy. Compare [Il Penseroso 102].
[133-134. Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy’s child,]
Warble his native wood-notes wild.
The couplet seems intended to convey the idea of a counterpart or contrast to the learned sock of Jonson. So considered, it is by no means an unhappy characterization.
[135.] The last of the “unreproved pleasures” that L’Allegro wishes he may enjoy, seems not so much planned to follow the rest in sequence of time as to accompany them and be diffused through them all. Observe the ever in this line. The eating cares are a reminiscence of Horace’s curas edaces, Ode II 11 18.
[136. Lap me in soft Lydian airs.] The three chief modes, or moods, of Greek music were the Lydian, which was soft and pathetic; the Dorian, especially adapted to war (see Par. Lost 550); and the Phrygian, which was bold and vehement.
[138. the meeting soul.] The soul, in its eagerness, goes forth to meet and welcome the music.
[139.] The word bout seems to point at a piece of music somewhat in the nature of a round, or catch.
[145. That Orpheus’ self may heave his head.] Even Orpheus, who in his life “drew trees, stones, and floods” by the power of his music, and who now reposes in Elysium, would lift his head to listen to the strains that L’Allegro would fain hear.
[149.] Orpheus, with his music, had succeeded in obtaining from Pluto only a conditional release of his wife Eurydice. He was not to look back upon her till he was quite clear of Pluto’s domains. He failed to make good the condition, and so again lost his Eurydice.
Il Penseroso.
[3. How little you bested.] The verb bested means to avail, to be of service. It is not the same word that we find in Isaiah VIII 21, “hardly bestead and hungry.”
[6. fond] here has its primitive meaning, foolish. Understand possess in the sense in which it is used in the Bible,—“possessed with devils.”
[10.] Make two syllables of Morpheus.
[12.] Note that while he invoked Mirth in L’Allegro under her Greek name Euphrosyne, the poet finds no corresponding Greek designation for Melancholy. To us Melancholy seems a name unhappily chosen. But see how Milton applies it in [line 62 below], and in [Comus 546]. To him the word evidently connotes pensive meditation rather than gloomy depression.
[14. To hit the sense of human sight:] to be gazed at by human eyes.
[18. Prince Memnon] was a fabled Ethiopian prince, black, and celebrated for his beauty. Recall Virgil’s nigri Memnonis arma.
[19. that starred Ethiop queen.] Cassiopeia, wife of the Ethiopian king Cepheus, boasted that she was more beautiful than the Nereids, for which act of presumption she was translated to the skies, where she became the beautiful constellation which we know by her name.
[23. bright-haired Vesta.] Vesta—in Greek, Hestia—“was the goddess of the home, the guardian of family life. Her spotless purity fitted her peculiarly to be the guardian of virgin modesty.”
[30. Whilst yet there was no fear of Jove], i.e. before Saturn was dethroned by Jupiter.
[33. All in a robe of darkest grain.] In Par. Lost V 285, the third pair of Raphael’s wings have the color of sky-tinctured grain; and XI 242, his vest is of purple livelier than “the grain of Sarra,” or Tyrian purple. This would leave us to infer that the robe of Melancholy is of a deep rich color, so dark as to be almost black. Dr. Murray quotes from Southey’s Thalaba, “The ebony ... with darkness feeds its boughs of raven grain.” What objection is there to making the grain in Milton’s passage black?
[35. And sable stole of cypress lawn.] Dr. Murray thus defines cypress lawn, “A light transparent material resembling cobweb lawn or crape; like the latter it was, when black, much used for habiliments of mourning.”
[37. Come; but keep thy wonted state.] Compare with this passage, L’Allegro 33.
[40. Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes.] In Cymbeline I 6 51 we find the present tense of the verb of which rapt is the participle: “What, dear Sir, thus raps you?” Do not confound this word with rap, meaning to strike.
[42. Forget thyself to marble.] With this compare [On Shakespeare 14].
[43. With a sad leaden downward cast.] So in Love’s Labor’s Lost IV 3 321, “In leaden contemplation;” Othello III 4 177, “I have this while with leaden thoughts been pressed.” So also Gray in the Hymn to Adversity, “With leaden eye that loves the ground.”
[45-55.] Compare the company which Il Penseroso entreats Melancholy to bring along with her with that which L’Allegro wishes to see attending Mirth.
[46. Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet.] Only the rigid ascetic has a spiritual ear so finely trained that he hears the celestial music.
[48. Aye], as their rhymes show, is always pronounced by the poets with the vowel sound in day.
[53. the fiery-wheeled throne.] See Daniel VII 9.
[54. The Cherub Contemplation.] Pronounce contemplation with five syllables. It is difficult to form a distinct conception of the nature and office of the cherub of the Scriptures. Milton in many passages of Par. Lost follows, with regard to the heavenly beings, the account given by Dionysius the Areopagite in his Celestial Hierarchy. According to Dionysius there were nine orders or ranks of beings in heaven, namely,—seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, virtues, powers, principalities, archangels, angels. The cherubim have the special attribute of knowledge and contemplation of divine things.
[55. hist], primarily an interjection commanding silence, becomes here a verb.
[56.] With the introduction of the nightingale comes the first intimation of the time of day at which Il Penseroso conceives the course of his satisfactions to begin.
[57.] Everywhere else in Milton plight is used with its modern connotations.
[59.] The moon stops to hear the nightingale’s song.
[65.] Remember L’Allegro’s [not unseen].
[77.] Up to this point Il Penseroso has been walking in the open air.
[78. removed],—remote, retired.
[87.] As the Bear never sets, to outwatch him must mean to sit up all night.
[88. With thrice great Hermes.] “Hermes Trismegistos—Hermes thrice-greatest—is the name given by the Neo-Platonists and the devotees of mysticism and alchemy to the Egyptian god Thoth, regarded as more or less identified with the Grecian Hermes, and as the author of all mysterious doctrines, and especially of the secrets of alchemy.” (The New Eng. Dicty.) To such studies the serious mediæval scholars devoted themselves. To unsphere the spirit of Plato is to call him from the sphere in which he abides in the other world, or, simply, to take in hand for study his writings on immortality.
[93-96.] On the four classes of demons,—Salamanders, Sylphs, Nymphs, Gnomes,—see Pope’s Rape of the Lock. These demons are in complicity with the planets and other heavenly bodies to influence mortals.
[97-102. Thebes, Pelops’ line], and the tale of Troy are the staple subjects of the great Attic tragedians. It seems strange that the poet finds no occasion to name Shakespeare here, as well as in L’Allegro.
[104-105. Musæus and Orpheus] are semi-mythical bards, to whom is ascribed a greatness proportioned to their obscurity.
[105-108.] See [note on L’Allegro, 149].
[109-115. Or call up him that left half-told.] This refers to Chaucer and to his Squieres Tale in the Canterbury Tales. It is left unfinished. Note that Milton changes not only the spelling but the accent of the chief character’s name. Chaucer writes, “This noble king was cleped Cambinskan.”
[120.] Stories in which more is meant than meets the ear refer to allegories, like the Fairy Queen.
[121.] Having thus filled the night with the occupations that he loves, Il Penseroso now greets the morning, which he hopes to find stormy with wind and rain.
[122. civil-suited Morn:] i.e. Morn in the everyday habiliments of business.
[123-124.] Eos—Aurora, the Dawn—carried off several youths distinguished for their beauty. the Attic boy is probably Cephalus, whom she stole from his wife Procris.
[125. kerchieft in a comely cloud.] Kerchief is here used in its original and proper sense. Look up its origin.
[126.] The winds may be called rocking because they visibly rock the trees, or because they shake houses.
[127. Or ushered with a shower still.] The shower falls gently, without wind.
[130. With minute-drops from off the eaves.] After the rain has ceased, and while the thatch is draining, the drops fall at regular intervals for a time,—as it were, a drop every minute. Il Penseroso listens with contentment to the wind, the rustling rain-fall on the leaves, and the monotonous patter of the drops when the rain is over.
[131.] The shower is past, and the sun appears, but Il Penseroso finds its beams flaring and distasteful. He seeks covert in the dense groves.
[134. Sylvan] is the god of the woods.
[135.] The monumental oak is so called from its great age and size.
[140.] Consciously nursing his melancholy, Il Penseroso deems the wood that hides him a sacred place, and resents intrusion as a profanation.
[141. Hide me from day’s garish eye.] See Richard III. IV 4 89, Romeo and Juliet III 2 25.
[142. While the bee with honeyed thigh.] Is this good apiology?
[146. Entice the dewy-feathered Sleep.] Note that sleep is represented as having feathers. These feathers, in their soft, gentle movement and in their refreshing effect are likened to dew. The figure is a common one with the poets. In Par. Lost IX 1044, Milton has,—“till dewy sleep oppressed them.” Cowper, Iliad II, 41, has,—“Awaking from thy dewy slumbers.”
[148. his] refers to the dewy-feathered sleep. Il Penseroso asks that a strange, mysterious dream, hovering close by the wings of sleep, and lightly pictured in a succession of vivid forms, may be laid on his eye-lids.
[155-166.] The word studious in line 156 determines that the passage refers to college life and not to church attendance. The old English colleges have their cloisters, and these have much the same architectural features as do churches.
[157. embowed] means vaulted, or bent like a bow.
[158. massy-proof:] massive and proof against all failure to support their load.
[159. And storied windows richly dight.] Compare [L’Allegro, 62].
[170.] The best possible comment on this use of the verb spell is Milton’s own language, Par. Regained IV 382, where Satan, addressing the Son of God, thus speaks:—
Now, contrary, if I read aught in Heaven,
Or Heaven write aught of fate, by what the stars
Voluminous, or single characters
In their conjunction met, give me to spell,
Sorrows and labors, opposition, hate,
Attends thee; scorns, reproaches, injuries,
Violence and stripes, and, lastly, cruel death.
Il Penseroso’s aspiration is that as an astrologer he may learn the influence of every star and that he may come to know the virtue of every herb.