LITERATURE 10 “One Of The Greatest, Most Noble And Sublime Poems Which Either This Age Or Nation Has Produced”: First Edition Of Milton’s Paradise Lost First edition of Milton’s poetic masterpiece, his dramatic vision of Satan’s expulsion from Heaven and the temptation of Adam and Eve. This copy with title page identified by Amory as the final title page of the first edition. John Dryden referred to Paradise Lost as “one of the greatest, most noble and sublime poems which either this age or nation has produced.” The troubled printing history of the work is very complex. In April 1667 Milton signed a contract with publisher Samuel Simmons. “It provided for the immediate payment to Milton of five pounds and the future payment of another five pounds when a first edition of 1300 copies had been sold… [the edition] was not to exceed 1500 copies” (William Riley Parker). According to the contract, after the first 1300 copies were sold and Milton paid, the remaining 200 copies, if the printer printed that many, would belong to the printer as remainders. “During the sale of the first edition of no more than 1500 copies, he printed six different title pages, two dated 1667, 1668 and 1669” (Parker). Due to poor sales, Simmons kept experimenting with the book to encourage sales (even eliminating Milton’s name from the title page at one point and using his initials only, in case it was his relationship to Cromwell that made the work unpopular). It is believed that all 1,500 copies of Paradise Lost were printed in 1667, but adding to the bibliographic confusion, “the sheets of the various issues were evidently mixed and made up indiscriminately by the binder, and therefore copies of apparently the same issue will be found to differ from each other in that some will have more of the errors corrected than others” (Wither to Prior). This copy bears the last cancel title page as described in Wickenheiser. Without the four-line “The Printer to the Reader” as usual with copies with this title page. Owner ink signature. Text generally clean and fine, some light rubbing to binding extremities, one spine label chipped. Some leaves toward the rear uncut along lower margin. An exceptionally good, relatively wide-margined copy. 05 MILTON, John. Paradise Lost. A Poem in Ten Books. London, 1669. Small quarto, 20th-century full brown calf. $50,000 “Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit / Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste / Brought death into the World, and all our woe…”
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDg3OTM=