"AFTER SHAKESPEARE AND CHAUCER, JOHN MILTON IS THE MOST EMINENT POET IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE": 1673 EDITION OF MILTON'S POEMS, ISSUED ONLY ONE YEAR BEFORE HIS DEATH, WITH FIRST PRINTING OF HIS SONNET ON BLINDNESS, IN A BEAUTIFUL ROGER DE COVERLY BINDING

MILTON, John. Poems, &c. Upon Several Occasions. Both English and Latin, &c. Composed at Several Times. With a Small Tractate of Education to Mr. Hartlib. London: Printed for Tho. Dring at the Blew Anchor, 1673. Small octavo (4-1/2 by 6-1/2 inches), 19th-century dark purple crushed levant morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated boards and spine, raised bands, watered silk and marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Housed in a custom half red morocco clamshell box. $8500.

First expanded edition of Milton's Poems, initially printed in 1645, this second edition published only one year before his death and "doubtless authorized by Milton" (Pforzheimer), with over 40 poems "printed here for the first time," including the first printing of Sonnet XVI, the first sonnet to refer to Milton's blindness, especially memorable for its oft-quoted final line—"They also serve who only stand and waite"; the Chevalier copy, handsomely bound by Roger de Coverly & Sons.

"After Shakespeare and Chaucer, John Milton is the most eminent poet in the English language… No other great poet, not even Dante, began with so clear and systematic an intention to devote himself entirely to poetry" (Bloom, John Milton, 1). This edition of Milton's poetry, published only one year before his death and "doubtless authorized by Milton," is the first expanded edition of the earlier collection titled Poems of Mr. John Milton (1645). Containing all the works therein, including L'Allegro, Il Penseroso and Of Education, this scarce volume also includes "a number of poems here printed for the first time… 'On the Death of a fair Infant dying of a Cough,' ten sonnets, numbered X to XIX inclusive, 'The 5th. Ode to Horace,' 'At a Vacation Exercise in the Colledge,' 'On the new forcers of Conscience under the Long Parliament' and seventeen Psalms, numbered 1-8 and 80-88 inclusive (in Latin and Greek), 'Apologus de Rustico & Hero,' 'In Effigiei Ejus Sculptorem' and 'Ad Joannem Rousium Oxoniensis Academiae Bibliothecarium'" (Wither to Prior 573). Notably, this edition features the first printing of Sonnet XVI, the first published sonnet to refer to Milton's blindness and especially memorable for its final line—"They also serve who only stand and waite." With Pforzheimer's second state title page containing "Blew Anchor" in its imprint; publisher Dring moved from the "White Lion," as it appears on the first state title page, to the "Blew Anchor," as it appears here. "The title is otherwise from the same setting as the [first state] and the alteration was evidently made while the first sheet was still in the press" (Pforzheimer). With publisher's catalogue at rear; also with separate title page in Latin and separate pagination of Londinensis Poemata, first published separately in 1645. Text in English and Latin. Wing 2161A. Pforzheimer 724. ESTC R42174. Lowndes, 1563. See Pforzheimer 722, 723; Wing 2159-2161; ESTC R202162. Bookplates of notable collectors Templeton Crocker and Paul Edward Chevalier; small modern "SCM" label.

Contents overall clean, faint waterstaining to a few upper outer corners. A stunning, finely bound copy.