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Works of John Milton: L'Allegro And Il Penseroso

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From: Monarch Notes
Date: 19630101
Author:Milton, John

Milton, John
Monarch Notes
01-01-1963
L'Allegro And Il Penseroso:

The date of this delightful pair of poems is uncertain. E. M. W.
Tillyard has plausibly suggested that they were written in Cambridge c. 1631
for an academic audience. In this case, the opening lines of L'Allegro in
particular, previously puzzling because so bombastic and so different in
style from the rest of the poem, are explained as deliberate parody of the
classical poems which the Cambridge students were obliged to imitate.
"Directly they heard of Melancholy being born of Cerberus and blackest
Midnight-infamous ...

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