"L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso" by John Milton

PRIMARY SOURCE: "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso" (comp. 1632, pub. 1646)
Context

• Publication: Composed around the time that Milton completed his MA at Cambridge, July 1632.  In 1646. Printed by Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Moseley. EEBO link.
• Scholarship: Scholars are interested in the parallel constructions of both poems, in Milton's reconfiguration of the classics, and in the thought of early Milton.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, the pastoral.

Content

• Form: 
• "L'Allegro." Mixed: first alternating trimeter and pentameter couplets; mostly tetrameter couplets.
• "Il Penseroso." Mixed: first alternating trimeter and pentameter couplets; mostly tetrameter couplets.
• Genre:
• "L'Allegro." Pastoral (alacritous).
• "Il Penseroso." Pastoral (pensive).
• Conceit:
• "L'Allegro." A cheerful man invokes Mirth against Melancholy, a creature regarded as madness. The speaker follows Mirth ("sweet Liberty") as one of her followers. He observes a lark rising, a hunt, and a cock crowing. He observes the country people at work, animals, and shepherds. This observation is entirely speculative, since he observes so many things in one place. The day turns into a rustic holiday characterized by country tales and ale. The cheerful man imagines a tournament at a castled village, a wedding feast, and a performance of comedies by Jonson and Shakespeare. He calls for soft music that would awake Orpheus, and vows to follow Mirth if she can provide that.
• "Il Penseroso." A man walks alone at evening in pensive melancholy. He welcomes the goddess Melancholy, who is both black and bright as a constellation, since she is the daughter of Vesta. We also invites Peace and Quiet, though they are interrupted by a nightingale's song. The speaker would prefer silent walks under the moonlight through the land or by the shore. He takes inspiration and transport from ancient Greek and recent tragedy. The morning comes in clouds and showers. The speaker considers retiring to a cloister and submitting to the music of an organ. He wishes to be a prophetic figure in his study of beauty, and vows to follow Melancholy if she can provide that.
• Other notes: 
• Both poems follow a similar structure. Both speakers begin with a parodic invocation, respond to birdsong, journey abroad, respond to music, and vow to follow their muse.
• There's something in the Neoplatonic response to organ music that connects "Il Penseroso" to "Upon Appleton House," though that may just be the figure of the nightingale.
• Quoted and illustrated by Blake--

"There let Hymen oft appear
In Saffron Robe with Taper clear
With Mask & Antique Pageantry
Such sights as Youthful Poets dream
On Summers Eve by haunted Stream
Then lo the well trod Stage anon
If Johnsons learned Sock be on
Or Sweetest Shakespeare Fancys Child
Warble his native wood notes wild"

(NB: written with notes.)

The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare

PRIMARY SOURCE: The Winter's Tale (prod. 1609-1611, pub. 1623)
Context

• Publication: First produced in 1609. Published in collections: 1623 and 1632. Categorized with "comedies" in the Folio; same as The Tempest. EEBO link.
• Scholarship: Scholars are interested in the early romantic sensibilities of this play: the disruption of Aristotelian unity, the importance of magical intervention, and the plot of coincidences. Scholars are also interested in Shakespeare's modifications of Roland Greene's Pandosto, namely the addition of Paulina and the redemption of Leontes. Consequently, scholars have viewed Winter's Tale as a Christocentric play, newly structured around death, penitence, and resurrection. The passage from Winter to spring roughly matches the Lenten period, though the diptych may also signify a naturalist passage between seasons and ages. Mamilla is also of interest, as Shakespeare augmented his role and named him after the mammary--a sign of the kingdom contingent upon the mother's sustenance.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, formalism, the pastoral, statues, ballads.

Content

• Form: Mixed verse. Five acts.
• Genre: Romance, tragicomedy, comedy (Folio attribution). 
• Conceit: Polixenes (King of Bohemia) visits his boyhood friend, Leontes (King of Sicilia). When Polixenes tries to leave, Leontes sends his wife, Hermione to persuade him to stay. Unlike his normal response, Bohemia yields to Hermione. Leontes concludes that Polixenes has cuckholded him. Leontes doubts the legitimacy of his son, Mamillus, and orders the counselor Camillo to poison Polixenes  Camillo resists, but agrees to poison Polixenes on the condition that Leontes should trust and reconcile with Hermione. Polixenes asks Camillo about Leontes s change in spirit, and Camillo reveals the plot. Together, they flee for Bohemia. Leontes learns that they have fled and suspects more than ever that Polixenes is the father of Hermione's current pregnancy. Against his servants' protests, Leontes publicly accuses Hermione and orders her to be imprisoned. In prison, Hermione births Paulina. She takes Paulina to the Leontes, but Leontes orders Antigonus to abandon the baby on the shore. Leontes orders a messengers to the Oracle at Delphi to confirm Hermione's guilt, but they return with a scroll stating that Hermione is innocent, Leontes is a tyrant, and that he will live without an heir until that which is lost is found. Leontes ignores that and rails against Hermione. Suddenly, a servant tells him that Mamillus died overnight of anxiety for Hermione. Hermione swoons and dies in her chambers. Leontes realizes that the oracle was right, and vows penance.
  Antigonus takes Paulina to the shore, but lays a bag of gold with her, alongside instructions to call the baby Perdita (from his dream). Antigonus is killed by a bear, and his ship and crew are wrecked by a storm. A shepherd sees all of this, and finds Perdita.
  Time itself appears and explains the passage of 16 years. While the grown shepherdess Perdita allures Prince Florizel, heir to Bohemia, Leontes grieves alone in the palace. Polixenes and Camillo follow Florizel to a sheep-shearing festival, all in disguise. Polixenes recognizes the noble bearing of Perdita when she dances with Florizel, but forbids Florizel's marriage. Florizel plans to elope with Perdita. Camillo advises them to go to Sicilia as a goodwill ambassador from Bohemia, and so supplies them with letters of introduction. Camillo wants Polixenes to pursue them into Sicilia, so Camillo can retutrn home. The shepherd-father tells Polixenes how he found Perdita, but he is captured by Autolycus and taken away to Sicilia.
  Florizel and Perdita arrive in Sicilia, pursued by Polixenes and Camillo. The shepherd hears of Leontes' lost daughter, and describes Perdita's origin. Leontes is reunited with Perdita/Paulina, and Polixenes blesses her marriage to Florizel. Still, Leontes mourns Hermione.
  Paulina visits a statue of Hermione in Leontes' memorial chapel. All gather to view the statue, hear soft music, and marvel at the statue. The statue is in fact Hermione, who lived in the wilderness awaiting news of Paulina. The family is united, as are the friends. All celebrate the marriage of Florizel and Perdita.
• Other notes: Autolycus' ballad-selling is an interesting moment of economic ambiguity. The character is a masterless man, but he bases the authority of his ballads on the testimony of judges. Also, the shepherds buy these "true" tunes on the strength of the signed testimonies of other common people. The ballad market is represented as a self-sustaining system of myths, maintained by a con man's textual claim to authority.
  The statue scene is more fascinating. This seems like Renaissance move to secularize the power of the Resurrection, rather than represent it, because Hermione is (a) a transgressive female in Christ's role, and (b) not otherwise endowed with any sanctified qualities of Christ.
• Mneumonic: Pol(ixenes) Her(mione) Le(ontes) Mam(illus) Cam(illo) Ant(igonus) Pau(lina) Per(dita) Flo(rizel) Aut(olycus)
• Politicians and hermits, leaders and mamillists come anticipating polity, perish flourishing autonymy.

(NB: written with notes.)
Atchity, Kenneth John. "The Winter’S Tale." Masterplots, Fourth Edition(2010): 1-4. Literary Reference Center. Web. 6 Feb. 2013.

Shakespeare, William, Stephen J. Greenblatt, and Andrew Gurr. The Norton Shakespeare. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997. Print.

The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser

PRIMARY SOURCE: The Faerie Queene (pub. 1590-6)
Context

• Publication: The Faerie Queene was written in Ireland, first, during the employ of Lord Grey of Wilson, then, in Kilcolman castle in Munster; partially published (three books) in 1590; rewarded with a pension from the Queen of fifty pounds per year; more fully published (six books with the Mutability Cantos) in 1596; ultimately published (seven books) in a 1609 edition (Greenblatt and Abrams 706). EEBO link 1, 2, and 3,
• Scholarship: Scholars read the poem for the complexity of its allegory, for the tension between its prophetic message and political production, for the formal inspiration taken from the Tasso and Ariosto, for the representation of Ireland and imperialism.
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, book history, formalism, tapestries, and ekphrasis.

Content

• Form: 
• Spenserian stanza: eight lines iambic pentameter with an alexandrine, rhymed ababbcbcc. 
• Forty-eight stanzas per canto (432 lines per canto [12^2 x 3 = 4^2 x 3^3]), twelve cantos per book (5184 lines per book [72^2], 576 stanzas per book), and twelve announced books. 
• Genre: Epic. Moral allegory.
• Conceit: Six private virtues, six public virtues. Private virtues: Holiness, Temperance, Chastity, Friendship, Justice, Courtesy (mneumonic: Horses Try Chewing Fake Jello Carrots). Knights: Redcrosse, Guyon, Britomart, Campbell & Triamond, Artegall, and Calidore (mneumonic: Rudolf Gently Bathes Conneticut Army Captains).
• Other notes: 

Knight	Maid	Quest	Enemy	Squire / Ally
Redcrosse, of Holiness	Una (truth)	Free Una's parents from the dragon	Archimago & Duessa (idolatry & false faith)	Arthur (Britain is the ally of Holiness)
Guyon, of Temperance	Medina (moderation)	Destroy Acrasia's Bower of Bliss	Cymochles & Pyrochles (indecision & temper)	Palmer (trustworthy pilgrim)
Britomart, of Chastity	Artegall (like Arthur)	Return Amoretta to Scudamore	Malbecco, Busirane (jealousy, the captor of hearts)	Glauce (elderly woman)
Campbell & Triamond, of Friendship	Canacee & Cambina (healing & concord)	Aid the honor of Canacee & Cambina	Blandamour, Paridell, Duessa, & Ate (jealous friends, false faith & strife)	Each other
Artegall, of Justice	Eirene (peace)	Rescue Eirene from Grantorto	Grantorto (great wrong is the enemy of justice)	Talus (iron justice)
Calidore, of Courtesy	Pastorella (shepherdess courtier)	Slay the Blatant Beast	The Blatant Beast (slander)	Tristram (noble lineage)

(NB: Written with anthology notes.)
Greenblatt, Stephen, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2012. Print.

As You Like It by William Shakespeare

PRIMARY SOURCE: As You Like It (perf. 1598-1600)
Context

• Publication: Published in 1623 Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies folio by Blount, Edward; Smethwick, John; Jaggard, Isaac; Aspley, William. "This edition exists in three distinct states: the first does not contain Troilus and Cressida; the second contains Troilus and Cressida but without its prologue and with a redundant final page of Romeo and Juliet crossed out by the printer; the third contains Troilus and Cressida with its prologue, which replaces the redundant page of Romeo and Juliet" (DEEP). EEBO link.
  • Aug 4, 1600(?): "as yow like yt: / a booke ... to be staied".
  • Nov 8, 1623: Entered to Edward Blount and Isaac Jaggard: "Comedyes. ... As you like it".
  • Jun 19(?), 1627: Transferred from the widow of Isaac Jaggard to Thomas Cotes and Richard Cotes: "her parte in Shackspheere playes."
  • Nov 16, 1630: Transferred from Edward Blount to Robert Allott, by a note of 26 June: "As you like it."
  • Jul 1, 1637: Transferred from the widow of Robert Allott to John Legat (2) and Andrew Crooke (1) (by order of a court): "saluo Iure cuiuscunque ... Shakespeares workes their Part."
• Scholarship: The scholarship addresses the treatment of the pastoral, both critiquing the court and affirming just power; the treatment of the forest as allusive to social injustice, by way of Robin Hood; Petrarchan love; cross-dressing, and the implications for essentialist philosophies. 
• Why I'm reading it: The Canon, the court, the pastoral.

Content

• Form: Five acts and an epilogue. Soliloquies in blank verse.
• Genre: Comedy; performed by the Chamberlain's Men.
• Plot: The Banished Duke lives a pastoral life in the Forest, while his daughter Rosalind stays at court under the protection of Celia, daughter of the usurping brother Frederick. Frederick tries to embarrass Orlando through a wrestling match with his champion, but Orlando wins and impresses Rosalind. Frederick banishes Rosalind, who leaves with Celia and Touchstone the jester. Rosalind takes the identity Ganymede, and Celia, Aliena. Orlando flees from his brother with his servant Adam. Orlando attacks the Banished Duke in desperation, but the Duke instead provides hospitality to Orlando and Adam. Orlando writes poems to Rosalind on trees, but Ganymede discovers them, meets Orlando, and instructs him in how to woo Rosalind. Touchstone shows his wit in response to Orlando's poems, and then woos Audrey. Silvius falls in love with Phebe, who falls in love with Ganymede. Orlando travels to visit Ganymede, but along the way saves sleeping Oliver from a snake and a lioness, ready to strike. Oliver and Orlando are reconciled. Orlando is wounded by the lioness and sends Oliver with a bloody handkerchief to Ganymede. Ganymede feints, and Aliena falls for now-compassionate Oliver. They agree to be married, inspiring Orlando to marry Rosalind. Ganymede promises to produce Rosalind for Orlando. Frederick marches into the forest to capture and kill the Banished Duke and his followers, but is dissuaded by an old hermit. Rosalind exposes herself as Ganymede and engineers four marriages for the same day: Orlando and Rosalind; Oliver and Celia; Silvius and Phebe; Touchstone and Audrey. Frederick takes religious orders and returns the dukedom to the Banished Duke.
• Other notes:
• Notable characters: The Banished Duke, brother of Frederick; Frederick, instigator against Orlando; Orlando, son of Rowland de Boys, brother of Oliver, and lover of Rosalind; Rowland de Boys, ardent supporter of the banished duke; Oliver, oldest son of Rowland but negligent guardian of Orlando; Rosalind, daughter of the Banished Duke, Celia, daughter of Frederick; Touchstone the jester, champion of courtly wit; Silvius;  shepherd; Phebe, shepherdess.
• The forest can be treated as both an idyllic space and the space of poverty and vagrancy. 
• Touchstone can be both aggressive and compassionate. 
• Rosalind produces all of the crucial plot points.
• Touchstone and Rosalind critique the Petrarchan traditions of Orlando's poetry and performance.

(NB: Written with anthology notes.)
Shakespeare, William, Stephen J. Greenblatt, and Andrew Gurr. The Norton Shakespeare. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997. Print.

DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks. Ed. Alan B. Farmer and Zachary Lesser. Created 2007. Accessed18 January 2013. <http://deep.sas.upenn.edu>.