“L'Allegro” and “Il Penseroso”: Classical Tradition and Renaissance Mythography

Abstract

Although critics have remarked on the connection of “L'Allegro” and “Il Penseroso” with classical ode and hymn and have identified Mirth as one of the Graces, they have usually approached these poems as re-creative pieces and overlooked the way in which their classical form and the presence of patron goddesses influence their development and meaning. Both poems, however, follow the formula of classical ode and hymn in which a patron deity is invoked and asked for gifts proper for that deity to confer. Because Mirth is the Grace Euphrosyne and Melancholy, as I argue, is the Muse Urania, goddesses associated in antiquity and in the Renaissance with poetical inspiration, Allegro and Penseroso ask their respective goddesses for power to compose poetry. The poems unfold in turn as though the goddesses were infusing their power, Mirth inspiring a light comic vision and Melancholy an epic and tragic mood.