L'ALLEGRO


The sock represents the stage, in L'Allegro, for comedy, and the
buskin, in Il Penseroso, for tragedy. Milton seems to think the
comic drama in England needs no apology, but he hesitates at the
tragic. The poet of King Lear is named for his sweetness and his
wood-notes wild.


IL PENSEROSO


It is too late to protest against Milton's display of weak Italian.
Pensieroso is, of course, what he should have written.


LYCIDAS


Most of the allusions in Lycidas need no explaining to readers of
poetry. The geography is that of the western coasts from furthest
north to Cornwall. Deva is the Dee; "the great vision" means the
apparition of the Archangel, St. Michael, at St. Michael's Mount;
Namancos and Bayona face the mount from the continental coast;
Bellerus stands for Belerium, the Land's End.

Arethusa and Mincius--Sicilian and Italian streams--represent the
pastoral poetry of Theocritus and Virgil.