Prithee, why so mute?
Quite, quit, for shame! this will not move,
This cannot take her;
If of herself she will not love,
Nothing can make her:
The devil take her!
John Milton, second only to Shakespeare in all literature, is not usually looked upon as a humorist.
A wise commentator (of more wisdom than wit), has said, of Milton, “Few great poets are so utterly without humor; alone among the greatest poets he has not sung of love.”
We take objection to both these statements, though with the second we are not now concerned.
But surely no humorless pen could have indited L’Allegro, and as to less subtle humor, we give in evidence the well known Epitaph on the Carrier.