Excerpt from L'allegro: Edited, With NotesThis poem and the Penseroso must be studied side by side in order to understand either. In mechanism, to begin with, they are parallel: they have a similar overture, development, climax, and close, which it is easy to follow. Each poem opens with an imprecation, in similar metre, against the patron goddess of the other, and goes on to invoke its own, Mirth for the joyous man, Melancholy for the sad. The parentage of each goddess is given, and each is bidden to come with its own retinue of beautiful abstractions. Then the poet begins his walk the lark salutes his joyous mood, the nightingale his sad ness. Matin sights and sounds fill the sense of the joyous man, the evening moon and curfew sign to the sad man to go in. Both men, or rather both incarnations of the poet's mood, come together at eve over the well-loved stage, only, the Allegro goes to a comedy at the theatre, while the Penseroso sits at home to read Aeschylus, Shakspere, and Chaucer. For each the close is music: thrilling and delightful airs' for the Allegro, for the Penseroso cathedral choir and anthem.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.