[Milton-L] L'Allegro and Il Penseroso

[Harold Skulsky]

I'm afraid my recent comment on L'Allegro and Il Penseroso was
unhelpfully cryptic. Unfortunately, I'm pushed for time and will have to
settle for converting my original owlish queries into flatout claims to
be defended if ever I have a chance:

I believe it can be shown  

(1) that  the definite description "l'Allegro" and "il Penseroso" name
different stages in the development of a single ideal person,

(2) that the stage on view in the first poem is a necessary preparation
for (and merges into) the stage on view in the second,

(3) that, in particular, a disposition to be *allegro* is entirely
compatible with a disposition to be *penseroso* even though one can't
fully realize both dispositions at once (the Italian terms aren't
antonyms),

(4) that the appearance of a clash of programs or ideals is an artifact
of the (mistaken) assumption that what is getting banished in the first
poem is getting summoned in the second — and vice versa,

(5) that both poems are practical applications of a single (classical)
theory of what gets chosen when one makes a choice of life.