Early Milton set to Music or Renaissance “Jerusalem Delivered” and Renaissance Castrati

Whereas Händel’s music set up a dialectics by introducing the figure of Il Moderato to Milton’s dialogical twin poems, eons ago as well, Milton’s Lycidas served as third term in a Master’s Thesis!

Alexander Pope dying; from the title page to William Mason’s Musæus: a monody to the memory of Mr. Pope, in imitation of Milton’s Lycidas (1747). by Wikipedia. Licensed under Public domain

On the same hand,

“The sacred armies, and the godly knight,
That the great sepulchre of Christ did free,
I sing;”

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/392/pg392-images.html

“Let me weep

Let me weep over my cruel fate,
And that I long for freedom!
And that I long, and that I long for freedom!
Let me weep over my cruel fate,
And that I long for freedom!

Let me weep over my cruel fate,
And that I long for freedom!
And that I long, and that I long for freedom!
Let me weep over my cruel fate,
And that I long for freedom”

RINALDO by G. F. Handel – the opera guide and synopsis

“Castrati first appeared in Italy in the mid-16th century, though at first the terms describing them were not always clear. The phrase soprano maschio (male soprano), which could also mean falsettist, occurs in the Due Dialoghi della Musica (Two dialogues upon music) of Luigi Dentice, an Oratorian priest, published in Rome in 1553. On 9 November 1555 Cardinal Ippolito II d’Este (famed as the builder of the Villa d’Este at Tivoli), wrote to Guglielmo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua (1538–1587), that he has heard that the Duke was interested in his cantoretti (little singers) and offered to send him two, so that he could choose one for his own service. This is a rare term but probably does equate to castrato. The Cardinal’s nephew, Alfonso II d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, was another early enthusiast, inquiring about castrati in 1556. There were certainly castrati in the Sistine Chapel choir in 1558, although not described as such …” (Wikipedia)