IL Penseroso - J. Milton

113 IL Penseroso
The one-hundred and thirteenth poem in the collection. (* additional details below; after my initial, un-schooled, interpretation)

NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK:
Poems 112&113.

L'Allegro and Il Penseroso. It is a striking proof of Milton's astonishing power, that these, the earliest pure Descriptive Lyrics in our language, should still remain the best in a style which so many great poets have since attempted. The Bright and the Thoughtful aspects of Nature are their subjects: but each is preceded by a mythological introduction in a mixed Classical and Italian manner. The meaning of the first is that Gaiety is the child of Nature; of the second, that Pensiveness is the daughter of Sorrow and Genius.

113: bestead: avail.

starr'd Ethiop queen: Cassiopeia, the legendary Queen of Ethiopia, and thence translated amongst the constellations.

Cynthia: the Moon: her chariot is drawn by dragons in ancient representations.

Hermes: called Trismegistus, a mystical writer of the Neo-Platonist school; Thebes, etc.: subjects of Athenian Tragedy; Buskin'd: tragic; Musaeus: a poet in Mythology.

him that left half told: Chaucer, in his incomplete "Squire's Tale."

great bards: Ariosto, Tasso, and Spenser, are here intended.

frounced: curled; The Attic Boy: Cephalus.