Wanton Wiles, Wreathéd Smiles:
Milton's L'Allegro and Roman Love Elegy

Cat L. Wilson (University of Kansas)

L'Allegro and its companion piece Il Penseroso were written ca. 1631 while the poet John Milton studied at Cambridge. Both poems display the poet's general classical scholarship and also the influence classical literature had on him and on his writings.  Paradise Lost is the most obvious (and lengthy) demonstration of this influence, but his shorter works also show classical inheritance.  In particular, a close examination of L'Allegro and Il Penseroso in the context of Roman love elegy demonstrates the specific influence of Roman elegy on these two poems.

Milton's work demonstrates classical influence in several ways.  Though metrical concerns are very different for a poet writing in the seventeenth century in English, Milton's form and meter at times display the influence of Roman elegy, and his use of language suggests a classical, even an elegiac sensibility.  However, it is in his imagery and themes that the greatest resemblance to classical literature can be found.  This is particularly evident in his use of color imagery and mythological allusions and metaphors.  In L’Allegro, there are three direct mythological references in the first ten lines, two of which (Cerberus and the Styx) are often referenced in Roman elegy.  In addition, Tragedy as personified by Milton at lines 8 and 9 of L’Allegro and lines 96-7 and 101-2 of Il Penseroso bears a striking resemblance to the same figure as portrayed by Ovid in Amores 3.1.11-3 and 31-2.  Like the Latin elegists, he uses obscure myths as well as popular ones, and he does not scruple to invent new variations or to embroider traditional themes. 

In addition, L'Allegro resembles in some ways several of the better-known recusatios of Roman love elegy, with one important difference.  Van Nuis argues in “Surprised by Mirth: The Seductive Strategy of L'Allegro” (Medieval and Renaissance Texts & Studies v. 27 (1993), 118-26) that this poem is intended to persuade the reader to see the truth of the opposing viewpoint (represented by Il Penseroso).  I agree, but further believe that Milton also uses elegiac strategies to effect the desired outcome.   My comparison of L'Allegro and Il Penseroso to Latin elegy focuses on Tibullus' more pastoral and oneiric poems such as 1.1 and 1.5, several Propertius elegies including 2.31, 2.32, 3.2, and 3.3, and Ovid's Amores 1.3. 

L'Allegro is not one of Milton's better-known poems, nor has it received the attention that has been paid to works such as Paradise Lost. There is a dearth of recent scholarship on L'Allegro, although slightly more concerning Il Penseroso exists (yet another indication of the success of Milton's “seductive”—or anti-seductive?—strategy).  When scholars discuss these two poems, Roman elegy is not mentioned, although Milton himself states that the work of Latin elegists had a profound effect on him.  When questions of the influence of Roman love elegy do arise, the work of Milton’s that is most often referenced is Lycidas, rather than either of these two poems.  The connection between Roman love elegy and these two poems not only enhances understanding of Milton’s poetry and influences, it also provides classicists with further examples of the rich afterlife of Roman love elegy.