Accented letters in the Italian poems have
been replaced by the unaccented letter.
been replaced by the unaccented letter.
Milton
?
Project Gutenberg's The Poetical Works of John Milton, by John Milton
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www. gutenberg. org
Title: The Poetical Works of John Milton
Author: John Milton
Release Date: May, 1999 [Etext #1745]
Posting Date: November 10, 2014
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POETICAL WORKS OF JOHN MILTON ***
Produced by Donal O'Danachair
THE POETICAL WORKS OF JOHN MILTON
By John Milton
Transcriber's Notes:
This e-text contains all of Milton's poems in English and Italian. Poems
in Latin have been omitted.
The original spelling, capitalisation and punctuation have been retained
as far as possible. Characters not in the ANSI standard set have been
replaced by their nearest equivalent. The AE & OE digraphs have been
transcribed as two letters. Accented letters in the Italian poems have
been replaced by the unaccented letter.
No italics have been retained.
Footnotes have been moved to the end of the poem to which they refer; in
Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained they have been moved to the end of
the book.
Contents:
PREFACE by the Rev. H. C. Beeching, M. A.
THE STATIONER TO THE READER.
MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
THE PASSION.
ON TIME.
UPON THE CIRCUMCISION.
AT A SOLEMN MUSICK.
AN EPITAPH ON THE MARCHIONESS OF WINCHESTER.
SONG ON MAY MORNING.
ON SHAKESPEAR. 1630.
ANOTHER ON THE SAME.
L'ALLEGRO.
IL PENSEROSO.
SONNETS.
ARCADES.
LYCIDAS.
A MASK PRESENTED At LUDLOW-Castle, 1634. &c.
POEMS ADDED IN THE 1673 EDITION.
ANNO AETATIS 17. ON THE DEATH OF A FAIR INFANT DYING OF A COUGH.
THE FIFTH ODE OF HORACE. LIB. I.
SONNETS.
ON THE NEW FORCERS OF CONSCIENCE UNDER THE LONG PARLIAMENT.
ON THE LORD GEN. FAIRFAX AT THE SEIGE OF COLCHESTER.
TO THE LORD GENERALL CROMWELL MAY 1652.
TO SR HENRY VANE THE YOUNGER.
TO MR. CYRIACK SKINNER UPON HIS BLINDNESS.
PSAL. I. Done into Verse, 1653.
PSAL. II Done Aug. 8. 1653. Terzetti.
PSAL. III. Aug. 9. 1653
PSAL. IV. Aug. 10. 1653.
PSAL. V. Aug. 12. 1653.
PSAL. VI Aug. 13. 1653.
PSAL. VII. Aug. 14. 1653.
PSAL. VIII. Aug. 14. 1653.
APRIL, 1648. J. M. NINE OF THE PSALMS DONE INTO METRE,
PSAL. LXXX.
PSAL. LXXXI.
PSAL. LXXXII.
PSAL. LXXXIV.
PSAL LXXXV.
PSAL. LXXXVI.
PSAL. LXXXVII
PSAL. LXXXVIII
COLLECTION OF PASSAGES TRANSLATED IN THE PROSE WRITINGS.
[From Of Reformation in England, 1641. ]
[From Reason of Church Government, 1641. ]
[From Apology for Smectymnuus, 1642. ]
[From Areopagitica, 1644. ]
[From Tetrachordon, 1645. ]
[From The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, 1649. ]
[From History of Britain, 1670. ]
PARADISE LOST.
ON Paradise Lost.
THE VERSE.
BOOK I.
BOOK II.
BOOK III.
BOOK IV.
BOOK V.
BOOK VI.
BOOK VII.
BOOK VIII.
BOOK IX.
BOOK X.
BOOK XI.
BOOK XII.
PARADISE REGAIN'D.
The First Book.
The Second Book.
The Third Book.
The Fourth Book.
SAMSON AGONISTES
Of that sort of Dramatic Poem which is call'd Tragedy.
The Argument.
APPENDIX.
ON TIME
PREFACE by the Rev. H. C. Beeching, M. A.
This edition of Milton's Poetry is a reprint, as careful as Editor and
Printers have been able to make it, from the earliest printed copies of
the several poems. First the 1645 volume of the Minor Poems has been
printed entire; then follow in order the poems added in the reissue of
1673; the Paradise Lost, from the edition of 1667; and the Paradise
Regain'd and Samson Agonistes from the edition of 1671.
The most interesting portion of the book must be reckoned the first
section of it, which reproduces for the first time the scarce small
octavo of 1645. The only reprint of the Minor Poems in the old
spelling, so far as I know, is the one edited by Mitford, but that
followed the edition of 1673, which is comparatively uninteresting since
it could not have had Milton's oversight as it passed through the press.
We know that it was set up from a copy of the 1645 edition, because it
reproduces some pointless eccentricities such as the varying form of the
chorus to Psalm cxxxvi; but while it corrects the errata tabulated in
that edition it commits many more blunders of its own. It is valuable,
however, as the editio princeps of ten of the sonnets and it contains
one important alteration in the Ode on the Nativity. This and all other
alterations will be found noted where they occur. I have not thought it
necessary to note mere differences of spelling between the two editions
but a word may find place here upon their general character. Generally
it may be said that, where the two editions differ, the later spelling
is that now in use. Thus words like goddess, darkness, usually written
in the first edition with one final s, have two, while on the other
hand words like vernall, youthfull, and monosyllables like hugg, farr,
lose their double letter. Many monosyllables, e. g. som, cours, glimps,
wher, vers, aw, els, don, ey, ly, so written in 1645, take on in 1673 an
e mute, while words like harpe, windes, onely, lose it. By a reciprocal
change ayr and cipress become air and cypress; and the vowels in daign,
vail, neer, beleeve, sheild, boosom, eeven, battail, travailer, and many
other words are similarly modernized. On the other hand there are a few
cases where the 1645 edition exhibits the spelling which has succeeded
in fixing itself, as travail (1673, travel) in the sense of labour; and
rob'd, profane, human, flood and bloody, forest, triple, alas, huddling,
are found where the 1673 edition has roab'd, prophane, humane, floud and
bloudy, forrest, tripple, alass and hudling. Indeed the spelling in
this later edition is not untouched by seventeenth century
inconsistency. It retains here and there forms like shameles, cateres,
(where 1645 reads cateress), and occasionally reverts to the
older-fashioned spelling of monosyllables without the mute e. In the
Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester, it reads--' And som flowers
and some bays. ' But undoubtedly the impression on the whole is of a
much more modern text.
In the matter of small or capital letters I have followed the old copy,
except in one or two places where a personification seemed not plainly
enough marked to a modern reader without a capital. Thus in Il
Penseroso, l. 49, I print Leasure, although both editions read leasure;
and in the Vacation Exercise, l. 71, Times for times. Also where the
employment or omission of a capital is plainly due to misprinting, as
too frequently in the 1673 edition, I silently make the correction.
Examples are, notes for Notes in Sonnet xvii. l. 13; Anointed for
anointed in Psalm ii. l. 12.
In regard to punctuation I have followed the old printers except in
obvious misprints, and followed them also, as far as possible, in their
distribution of roman and italic type and in the grouping of words and
lines in the various titles. To follow them exactly was impossible, as
the books are so very different in size.
At this point the candid reader may perhaps ask what advantage is gained
by presenting these poems to modern readers in the dress of a bygone
age. If the question were put to me I should probably evade it by
pointing out that Mr. Frowde is issuing an edition based upon this, in
which the spelling is frankly that of to-day. But if the question were
pressed, I think a sufficient answer might be found. To begin with, I
should point out that even Prof. Masson, who in his excellent edition
argues the point and decides in favour of modern spelling, allows that
there are peculiarities of Milton's spelling which are really
significant, and ought therefore to be noted or preserved. But who is
to determine exactly which words are spelt according to the poet's own
instructions, and which according to the printer's whim? It is
notorious that in Paradise Lost some words were spelt upon a deliberate
system, and it may very well happen that in the volume of minor poems
which the poet saw through the press in 1645, there were spellings no
less systematic. Prof. Masson makes a great point of the fact that
Milton's own spelling, exhibited in the autograph manuscript of some of
the minor poems preserved in Trinity College, Cambridge, does not
correspond with that of the printed copy. [Note: This manuscript,
invaluable to all students of Milton, has lately been facsimiled under
the superintendence of Dr. Aldis Wright, and published at the Cambridge
University press]. This is certainly true, as the reader may see for
himself by comparing the passage from the manuscript given in the
appendix with the corresponding place in the text. Milton's own
spelling revels in redundant e's, while the printer of the 1645 book is
very sparing of them. But in cases where the spelling affects the
metre, we find that the printed text and Milton's manuscript closely
correspond; and it is upon its value in determining the metre, quite as
much as its antiquarian interest, that I should base a justification of
this reprint. Take, for instance, such a line as the eleventh of Comus,
which Prof. Masson gives as:--
Amongst the enthroned gods on sainted seats.
A reader not learned in Miltonic rhythms will certainly read this
Amongst th' enthroned gods
But the 1645 edition reads:
Amongst the enthron'd gods
and so does Milton's manuscript. Again, in line 597, Prof.
Masson reads:
It shall be in eternal restless change
Self-fed and self-consumed. If this fail,
The pillared firmament is rottenness, &c.
But the 1645 text and Milton's manuscript read self-consum'd; after
which word there is to be understood a metrical pause to mark the
violent transition of the thought.
Again in the second line of the Sonnet to a Nightingale Prof. Masson
has:
Warblest at eve when all the woods are still
but the early edition, which probably follows Milton's spelling though
in this case we have no manuscript to compare, reads 'Warbl'st. ' So the
original text of Samson, l. 670, has 'temper'st. '
The retention of the old system of punctuation may be less defensible,
but I have retained it because it may now and then be of use in
determining a point of syntax. The absence of a comma, for example,
after the word hearse in the 58th line of the Epitaph on the Marchioness
of Winchester, printed by Prof. Masson thus:--
And some flowers, and some bays
For thy hearse to strew thy ways,
but in the 1645 edition:--
And som Flowers, and som Bays,
For thy Hears to strew the ways,
goes to prove that for here must be taken as 'fore.
Of the Paradise Lost there were two editions issued during Milton's
lifetime, and while the first has been taken as our text, all the
variants in the second, not being simple misprints, have been recorded
in the notes. In one respect, however, in the distribution of the poem
into twelve books instead of ten, it has seemed best, for the sake of
practical convenience, to follow the second edition. A word may be
allowed here on the famous correction among the Errata prefixed to the
first edition: 'Lib.
Accented letters in the Italian poems have
been replaced by the unaccented letter.
No italics have been retained.
Footnotes have been moved to the end of the poem to which they refer; in
Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained they have been moved to the end of
the book.
Contents:
PREFACE by the Rev. H. C. Beeching, M. A.
THE STATIONER TO THE READER.
MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
THE PASSION.
ON TIME.
UPON THE CIRCUMCISION.
AT A SOLEMN MUSICK.
AN EPITAPH ON THE MARCHIONESS OF WINCHESTER.
SONG ON MAY MORNING.
ON SHAKESPEAR. 1630.
ANOTHER ON THE SAME.
L'ALLEGRO.
IL PENSEROSO.
SONNETS.
ARCADES.
LYCIDAS.
A MASK PRESENTED At LUDLOW-Castle, 1634. &c.
POEMS ADDED IN THE 1673 EDITION.
ANNO AETATIS 17. ON THE DEATH OF A FAIR INFANT DYING OF A COUGH.
THE FIFTH ODE OF HORACE. LIB. I.
SONNETS.
ON THE NEW FORCERS OF CONSCIENCE UNDER THE LONG PARLIAMENT.
ON THE LORD GEN. FAIRFAX AT THE SEIGE OF COLCHESTER.
TO THE LORD GENERALL CROMWELL MAY 1652.
TO SR HENRY VANE THE YOUNGER.
TO MR. CYRIACK SKINNER UPON HIS BLINDNESS.
PSAL. I. Done into Verse, 1653.
PSAL. II Done Aug. 8. 1653. Terzetti.
PSAL. III. Aug. 9. 1653
PSAL. IV. Aug. 10. 1653.
PSAL. V. Aug. 12. 1653.
PSAL. VI Aug. 13. 1653.
PSAL. VII. Aug. 14. 1653.
PSAL. VIII. Aug. 14. 1653.
APRIL, 1648. J. M. NINE OF THE PSALMS DONE INTO METRE,
PSAL. LXXX.
PSAL. LXXXI.
PSAL. LXXXII.
PSAL. LXXXIV.
PSAL LXXXV.
PSAL. LXXXVI.
PSAL. LXXXVII
PSAL. LXXXVIII
COLLECTION OF PASSAGES TRANSLATED IN THE PROSE WRITINGS.
[From Of Reformation in England, 1641. ]
[From Reason of Church Government, 1641. ]
[From Apology for Smectymnuus, 1642. ]
[From Areopagitica, 1644. ]
[From Tetrachordon, 1645. ]
[From The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, 1649. ]
[From History of Britain, 1670. ]
PARADISE LOST.
ON Paradise Lost.
THE VERSE.
BOOK I.
BOOK II.
BOOK III.
BOOK IV.
BOOK V.
BOOK VI.
BOOK VII.
BOOK VIII.
BOOK IX.
BOOK X.
BOOK XI.
BOOK XII.
PARADISE REGAIN'D.
The First Book.
The Second Book.
The Third Book.
The Fourth Book.
SAMSON AGONISTES
Of that sort of Dramatic Poem which is call'd Tragedy.
The Argument.
APPENDIX.
ON TIME
PREFACE by the Rev. H. C. Beeching, M. A.
This edition of Milton's Poetry is a reprint, as careful as Editor and
Printers have been able to make it, from the earliest printed copies of
the several poems. First the 1645 volume of the Minor Poems has been
printed entire; then follow in order the poems added in the reissue of
1673; the Paradise Lost, from the edition of 1667; and the Paradise
Regain'd and Samson Agonistes from the edition of 1671.
The most interesting portion of the book must be reckoned the first
section of it, which reproduces for the first time the scarce small
octavo of 1645. The only reprint of the Minor Poems in the old
spelling, so far as I know, is the one edited by Mitford, but that
followed the edition of 1673, which is comparatively uninteresting since
it could not have had Milton's oversight as it passed through the press.
We know that it was set up from a copy of the 1645 edition, because it
reproduces some pointless eccentricities such as the varying form of the
chorus to Psalm cxxxvi; but while it corrects the errata tabulated in
that edition it commits many more blunders of its own. It is valuable,
however, as the editio princeps of ten of the sonnets and it contains
one important alteration in the Ode on the Nativity. This and all other
alterations will be found noted where they occur. I have not thought it
necessary to note mere differences of spelling between the two editions
but a word may find place here upon their general character. Generally
it may be said that, where the two editions differ, the later spelling
is that now in use. Thus words like goddess, darkness, usually written
in the first edition with one final s, have two, while on the other
hand words like vernall, youthfull, and monosyllables like hugg, farr,
lose their double letter. Many monosyllables, e. g. som, cours, glimps,
wher, vers, aw, els, don, ey, ly, so written in 1645, take on in 1673 an
e mute, while words like harpe, windes, onely, lose it. By a reciprocal
change ayr and cipress become air and cypress; and the vowels in daign,
vail, neer, beleeve, sheild, boosom, eeven, battail, travailer, and many
other words are similarly modernized. On the other hand there are a few
cases where the 1645 edition exhibits the spelling which has succeeded
in fixing itself, as travail (1673, travel) in the sense of labour; and
rob'd, profane, human, flood and bloody, forest, triple, alas, huddling,
are found where the 1673 edition has roab'd, prophane, humane, floud and
bloudy, forrest, tripple, alass and hudling. Indeed the spelling in
this later edition is not untouched by seventeenth century
inconsistency. It retains here and there forms like shameles, cateres,
(where 1645 reads cateress), and occasionally reverts to the
older-fashioned spelling of monosyllables without the mute e. In the
Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester, it reads--' And som flowers
and some bays. ' But undoubtedly the impression on the whole is of a
much more modern text.
In the matter of small or capital letters I have followed the old copy,
except in one or two places where a personification seemed not plainly
enough marked to a modern reader without a capital. Thus in Il
Penseroso, l. 49, I print Leasure, although both editions read leasure;
and in the Vacation Exercise, l. 71, Times for times. Also where the
employment or omission of a capital is plainly due to misprinting, as
too frequently in the 1673 edition, I silently make the correction.
Examples are, notes for Notes in Sonnet xvii. l. 13; Anointed for
anointed in Psalm ii. l. 12.
In regard to punctuation I have followed the old printers except in
obvious misprints, and followed them also, as far as possible, in their
distribution of roman and italic type and in the grouping of words and
lines in the various titles. To follow them exactly was impossible, as
the books are so very different in size.
At this point the candid reader may perhaps ask what advantage is gained
by presenting these poems to modern readers in the dress of a bygone
age. If the question were put to me I should probably evade it by
pointing out that Mr. Frowde is issuing an edition based upon this, in
which the spelling is frankly that of to-day. But if the question were
pressed, I think a sufficient answer might be found. To begin with, I
should point out that even Prof. Masson, who in his excellent edition
argues the point and decides in favour of modern spelling, allows that
there are peculiarities of Milton's spelling which are really
significant, and ought therefore to be noted or preserved. But who is
to determine exactly which words are spelt according to the poet's own
instructions, and which according to the printer's whim? It is
notorious that in Paradise Lost some words were spelt upon a deliberate
system, and it may very well happen that in the volume of minor poems
which the poet saw through the press in 1645, there were spellings no
less systematic. Prof. Masson makes a great point of the fact that
Milton's own spelling, exhibited in the autograph manuscript of some of
the minor poems preserved in Trinity College, Cambridge, does not
correspond with that of the printed copy. [Note: This manuscript,
invaluable to all students of Milton, has lately been facsimiled under
the superintendence of Dr. Aldis Wright, and published at the Cambridge
University press]. This is certainly true, as the reader may see for
himself by comparing the passage from the manuscript given in the
appendix with the corresponding place in the text. Milton's own
spelling revels in redundant e's, while the printer of the 1645 book is
very sparing of them. But in cases where the spelling affects the
metre, we find that the printed text and Milton's manuscript closely
correspond; and it is upon its value in determining the metre, quite as
much as its antiquarian interest, that I should base a justification of
this reprint. Take, for instance, such a line as the eleventh of Comus,
which Prof. Masson gives as:--
Amongst the enthroned gods on sainted seats.
A reader not learned in Miltonic rhythms will certainly read this
Amongst th' enthroned gods
But the 1645 edition reads:
Amongst the enthron'd gods
and so does Milton's manuscript. Again, in line 597, Prof.
Masson reads:
It shall be in eternal restless change
Self-fed and self-consumed. If this fail,
The pillared firmament is rottenness, &c.
But the 1645 text and Milton's manuscript read self-consum'd; after
which word there is to be understood a metrical pause to mark the
violent transition of the thought.
Again in the second line of the Sonnet to a Nightingale Prof. Masson
has:
Warblest at eve when all the woods are still
but the early edition, which probably follows Milton's spelling though
in this case we have no manuscript to compare, reads 'Warbl'st. ' So the
original text of Samson, l. 670, has 'temper'st. '
The retention of the old system of punctuation may be less defensible,
but I have retained it because it may now and then be of use in
determining a point of syntax. The absence of a comma, for example,
after the word hearse in the 58th line of the Epitaph on the Marchioness
of Winchester, printed by Prof. Masson thus:--
And some flowers, and some bays
For thy hearse to strew thy ways,
but in the 1645 edition:--
And som Flowers, and som Bays,
For thy Hears to strew the ways,
goes to prove that for here must be taken as 'fore.
Of the Paradise Lost there were two editions issued during Milton's
lifetime, and while the first has been taken as our text, all the
variants in the second, not being simple misprints, have been recorded
in the notes. In one respect, however, in the distribution of the poem
into twelve books instead of ten, it has seemed best, for the sake of
practical convenience, to follow the second edition. A word may be
allowed here on the famous correction among the Errata prefixed to the
first edition: 'Lib. 2. v. 414, for we read wee. ' This correction
shows not only that Milton had theories about spelling, but also that he
found means, though his sight was gone, to ascertain whether his rules
had been carried out by his printer; and in itself this fact justifies a
facsimile reprint. What the principle in the use of the double vowel
exactly was (and it is found to affect the other monosyllabic pronouns)
it is not so easy to discover, though roughly it is clear the
reduplication was intended to mark emphasis. For example, in the speech
of the Divine Son after the battle in heaven (vi. 810-817) the pronouns
which the voice would naturally emphasize are spelt with the double
vowel:
Stand onely and behold
Gods indignation on these Godless pourd
By mee; not you but mee they have despis'd,
Yet envied; against mee is all thir rage,
Because the Father, t'whom in Heav'n supream
Kingdom and Power and Glorie appertains,
Hath honourd me according to his will.
Therefore to mee thir doom he hath assign'd.
In the Son's speech offering himself as Redeemer (iii. 227-249) where
the pronoun all through is markedly emphasized, it is printed mee the
first four times, and afterwards me; but it is noticeable that these
first four times the emphatic word does not stand in the stressed place
of the verse, so that a careless reader might not emphasize it, unless
his attention were specially led by some such sign:
Behold mee then, mee for him, life for life
I offer, on mee let thine anger fall;
Account mee man.
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www. gutenberg. org
Title: The Poetical Works of John Milton
Author: John Milton
Release Date: May, 1999 [Etext #1745]
Posting Date: November 10, 2014
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POETICAL WORKS OF JOHN MILTON ***
Produced by Donal O'Danachair
THE POETICAL WORKS OF JOHN MILTON
By John Milton
Transcriber's Notes:
This e-text contains all of Milton's poems in English and Italian. Poems
in Latin have been omitted.
The original spelling, capitalisation and punctuation have been retained
as far as possible. Characters not in the ANSI standard set have been
replaced by their nearest equivalent. The AE & OE digraphs have been
transcribed as two letters. Accented letters in the Italian poems have
been replaced by the unaccented letter.
No italics have been retained.
Footnotes have been moved to the end of the poem to which they refer; in
Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained they have been moved to the end of
the book.
Contents:
PREFACE by the Rev. H. C. Beeching, M. A.
THE STATIONER TO THE READER.
MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
THE PASSION.
ON TIME.
UPON THE CIRCUMCISION.
AT A SOLEMN MUSICK.
AN EPITAPH ON THE MARCHIONESS OF WINCHESTER.
SONG ON MAY MORNING.
ON SHAKESPEAR. 1630.
ANOTHER ON THE SAME.
L'ALLEGRO.
IL PENSEROSO.
SONNETS.
ARCADES.
LYCIDAS.
A MASK PRESENTED At LUDLOW-Castle, 1634. &c.
POEMS ADDED IN THE 1673 EDITION.
ANNO AETATIS 17. ON THE DEATH OF A FAIR INFANT DYING OF A COUGH.
THE FIFTH ODE OF HORACE. LIB. I.
SONNETS.
ON THE NEW FORCERS OF CONSCIENCE UNDER THE LONG PARLIAMENT.
ON THE LORD GEN. FAIRFAX AT THE SEIGE OF COLCHESTER.
TO THE LORD GENERALL CROMWELL MAY 1652.
TO SR HENRY VANE THE YOUNGER.
TO MR. CYRIACK SKINNER UPON HIS BLINDNESS.
PSAL. I. Done into Verse, 1653.
PSAL. II Done Aug. 8. 1653. Terzetti.
PSAL. III. Aug. 9. 1653
PSAL. IV. Aug. 10. 1653.
PSAL. V. Aug. 12. 1653.
PSAL. VI Aug. 13. 1653.
PSAL. VII. Aug. 14. 1653.
PSAL. VIII. Aug. 14. 1653.
APRIL, 1648. J. M. NINE OF THE PSALMS DONE INTO METRE,
PSAL. LXXX.
PSAL. LXXXI.
PSAL. LXXXII.
PSAL. LXXXIV.
PSAL LXXXV.
PSAL. LXXXVI.
PSAL. LXXXVII
PSAL. LXXXVIII
COLLECTION OF PASSAGES TRANSLATED IN THE PROSE WRITINGS.
[From Of Reformation in England, 1641. ]
[From Reason of Church Government, 1641. ]
[From Apology for Smectymnuus, 1642. ]
[From Areopagitica, 1644. ]
[From Tetrachordon, 1645. ]
[From The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, 1649. ]
[From History of Britain, 1670. ]
PARADISE LOST.
ON Paradise Lost.
THE VERSE.
BOOK I.
BOOK II.
BOOK III.
BOOK IV.
BOOK V.
BOOK VI.
BOOK VII.
BOOK VIII.
BOOK IX.
BOOK X.
BOOK XI.
BOOK XII.
PARADISE REGAIN'D.
The First Book.
The Second Book.
The Third Book.
The Fourth Book.
SAMSON AGONISTES
Of that sort of Dramatic Poem which is call'd Tragedy.
The Argument.
APPENDIX.
ON TIME
PREFACE by the Rev. H. C. Beeching, M. A.
This edition of Milton's Poetry is a reprint, as careful as Editor and
Printers have been able to make it, from the earliest printed copies of
the several poems. First the 1645 volume of the Minor Poems has been
printed entire; then follow in order the poems added in the reissue of
1673; the Paradise Lost, from the edition of 1667; and the Paradise
Regain'd and Samson Agonistes from the edition of 1671.
The most interesting portion of the book must be reckoned the first
section of it, which reproduces for the first time the scarce small
octavo of 1645. The only reprint of the Minor Poems in the old
spelling, so far as I know, is the one edited by Mitford, but that
followed the edition of 1673, which is comparatively uninteresting since
it could not have had Milton's oversight as it passed through the press.
We know that it was set up from a copy of the 1645 edition, because it
reproduces some pointless eccentricities such as the varying form of the
chorus to Psalm cxxxvi; but while it corrects the errata tabulated in
that edition it commits many more blunders of its own. It is valuable,
however, as the editio princeps of ten of the sonnets and it contains
one important alteration in the Ode on the Nativity. This and all other
alterations will be found noted where they occur. I have not thought it
necessary to note mere differences of spelling between the two editions
but a word may find place here upon their general character. Generally
it may be said that, where the two editions differ, the later spelling
is that now in use. Thus words like goddess, darkness, usually written
in the first edition with one final s, have two, while on the other
hand words like vernall, youthfull, and monosyllables like hugg, farr,
lose their double letter. Many monosyllables, e. g. som, cours, glimps,
wher, vers, aw, els, don, ey, ly, so written in 1645, take on in 1673 an
e mute, while words like harpe, windes, onely, lose it. By a reciprocal
change ayr and cipress become air and cypress; and the vowels in daign,
vail, neer, beleeve, sheild, boosom, eeven, battail, travailer, and many
other words are similarly modernized. On the other hand there are a few
cases where the 1645 edition exhibits the spelling which has succeeded
in fixing itself, as travail (1673, travel) in the sense of labour; and
rob'd, profane, human, flood and bloody, forest, triple, alas, huddling,
are found where the 1673 edition has roab'd, prophane, humane, floud and
bloudy, forrest, tripple, alass and hudling. Indeed the spelling in
this later edition is not untouched by seventeenth century
inconsistency. It retains here and there forms like shameles, cateres,
(where 1645 reads cateress), and occasionally reverts to the
older-fashioned spelling of monosyllables without the mute e. In the
Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester, it reads--' And som flowers
and some bays. ' But undoubtedly the impression on the whole is of a
much more modern text.
In the matter of small or capital letters I have followed the old copy,
except in one or two places where a personification seemed not plainly
enough marked to a modern reader without a capital. Thus in Il
Penseroso, l. 49, I print Leasure, although both editions read leasure;
and in the Vacation Exercise, l. 71, Times for times. Also where the
employment or omission of a capital is plainly due to misprinting, as
too frequently in the 1673 edition, I silently make the correction.
Examples are, notes for Notes in Sonnet xvii. l. 13; Anointed for
anointed in Psalm ii. l. 12.
In regard to punctuation I have followed the old printers except in
obvious misprints, and followed them also, as far as possible, in their
distribution of roman and italic type and in the grouping of words and
lines in the various titles. To follow them exactly was impossible, as
the books are so very different in size.
At this point the candid reader may perhaps ask what advantage is gained
by presenting these poems to modern readers in the dress of a bygone
age. If the question were put to me I should probably evade it by
pointing out that Mr. Frowde is issuing an edition based upon this, in
which the spelling is frankly that of to-day. But if the question were
pressed, I think a sufficient answer might be found. To begin with, I
should point out that even Prof. Masson, who in his excellent edition
argues the point and decides in favour of modern spelling, allows that
there are peculiarities of Milton's spelling which are really
significant, and ought therefore to be noted or preserved. But who is
to determine exactly which words are spelt according to the poet's own
instructions, and which according to the printer's whim? It is
notorious that in Paradise Lost some words were spelt upon a deliberate
system, and it may very well happen that in the volume of minor poems
which the poet saw through the press in 1645, there were spellings no
less systematic. Prof. Masson makes a great point of the fact that
Milton's own spelling, exhibited in the autograph manuscript of some of
the minor poems preserved in Trinity College, Cambridge, does not
correspond with that of the printed copy. [Note: This manuscript,
invaluable to all students of Milton, has lately been facsimiled under
the superintendence of Dr. Aldis Wright, and published at the Cambridge
University press]. This is certainly true, as the reader may see for
himself by comparing the passage from the manuscript given in the
appendix with the corresponding place in the text. Milton's own
spelling revels in redundant e's, while the printer of the 1645 book is
very sparing of them. But in cases where the spelling affects the
metre, we find that the printed text and Milton's manuscript closely
correspond; and it is upon its value in determining the metre, quite as
much as its antiquarian interest, that I should base a justification of
this reprint. Take, for instance, such a line as the eleventh of Comus,
which Prof. Masson gives as:--
Amongst the enthroned gods on sainted seats.
A reader not learned in Miltonic rhythms will certainly read this
Amongst th' enthroned gods
But the 1645 edition reads:
Amongst the enthron'd gods
and so does Milton's manuscript. Again, in line 597, Prof.
Masson reads:
It shall be in eternal restless change
Self-fed and self-consumed. If this fail,
The pillared firmament is rottenness, &c.
But the 1645 text and Milton's manuscript read self-consum'd; after
which word there is to be understood a metrical pause to mark the
violent transition of the thought.
Again in the second line of the Sonnet to a Nightingale Prof. Masson
has:
Warblest at eve when all the woods are still
but the early edition, which probably follows Milton's spelling though
in this case we have no manuscript to compare, reads 'Warbl'st. ' So the
original text of Samson, l. 670, has 'temper'st. '
The retention of the old system of punctuation may be less defensible,
but I have retained it because it may now and then be of use in
determining a point of syntax. The absence of a comma, for example,
after the word hearse in the 58th line of the Epitaph on the Marchioness
of Winchester, printed by Prof. Masson thus:--
And some flowers, and some bays
For thy hearse to strew thy ways,
but in the 1645 edition:--
And som Flowers, and som Bays,
For thy Hears to strew the ways,
goes to prove that for here must be taken as 'fore.
Of the Paradise Lost there were two editions issued during Milton's
lifetime, and while the first has been taken as our text, all the
variants in the second, not being simple misprints, have been recorded
in the notes. In one respect, however, in the distribution of the poem
into twelve books instead of ten, it has seemed best, for the sake of
practical convenience, to follow the second edition. A word may be
allowed here on the famous correction among the Errata prefixed to the
first edition: 'Lib.
Accented letters in the Italian poems have
been replaced by the unaccented letter.
No italics have been retained.
Footnotes have been moved to the end of the poem to which they refer; in
Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained they have been moved to the end of
the book.
Contents:
PREFACE by the Rev. H. C. Beeching, M. A.
THE STATIONER TO THE READER.
MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
THE PASSION.
ON TIME.
UPON THE CIRCUMCISION.
AT A SOLEMN MUSICK.
AN EPITAPH ON THE MARCHIONESS OF WINCHESTER.
SONG ON MAY MORNING.
ON SHAKESPEAR. 1630.
ANOTHER ON THE SAME.
L'ALLEGRO.
IL PENSEROSO.
SONNETS.
ARCADES.
LYCIDAS.
A MASK PRESENTED At LUDLOW-Castle, 1634. &c.
POEMS ADDED IN THE 1673 EDITION.
ANNO AETATIS 17. ON THE DEATH OF A FAIR INFANT DYING OF A COUGH.
THE FIFTH ODE OF HORACE. LIB. I.
SONNETS.
ON THE NEW FORCERS OF CONSCIENCE UNDER THE LONG PARLIAMENT.
ON THE LORD GEN. FAIRFAX AT THE SEIGE OF COLCHESTER.
TO THE LORD GENERALL CROMWELL MAY 1652.
TO SR HENRY VANE THE YOUNGER.
TO MR. CYRIACK SKINNER UPON HIS BLINDNESS.
PSAL. I. Done into Verse, 1653.
PSAL. II Done Aug. 8. 1653. Terzetti.
PSAL. III. Aug. 9. 1653
PSAL. IV. Aug. 10. 1653.
PSAL. V. Aug. 12. 1653.
PSAL. VI Aug. 13. 1653.
PSAL. VII. Aug. 14. 1653.
PSAL. VIII. Aug. 14. 1653.
APRIL, 1648. J. M. NINE OF THE PSALMS DONE INTO METRE,
PSAL. LXXX.
PSAL. LXXXI.
PSAL. LXXXII.
PSAL. LXXXIV.
PSAL LXXXV.
PSAL. LXXXVI.
PSAL. LXXXVII
PSAL. LXXXVIII
COLLECTION OF PASSAGES TRANSLATED IN THE PROSE WRITINGS.
[From Of Reformation in England, 1641. ]
[From Reason of Church Government, 1641. ]
[From Apology for Smectymnuus, 1642. ]
[From Areopagitica, 1644. ]
[From Tetrachordon, 1645. ]
[From The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, 1649. ]
[From History of Britain, 1670. ]
PARADISE LOST.
ON Paradise Lost.
THE VERSE.
BOOK I.
BOOK II.
BOOK III.
BOOK IV.
BOOK V.
BOOK VI.
BOOK VII.
BOOK VIII.
BOOK IX.
BOOK X.
BOOK XI.
BOOK XII.
PARADISE REGAIN'D.
The First Book.
The Second Book.
The Third Book.
The Fourth Book.
SAMSON AGONISTES
Of that sort of Dramatic Poem which is call'd Tragedy.
The Argument.
APPENDIX.
ON TIME
PREFACE by the Rev. H. C. Beeching, M. A.
This edition of Milton's Poetry is a reprint, as careful as Editor and
Printers have been able to make it, from the earliest printed copies of
the several poems. First the 1645 volume of the Minor Poems has been
printed entire; then follow in order the poems added in the reissue of
1673; the Paradise Lost, from the edition of 1667; and the Paradise
Regain'd and Samson Agonistes from the edition of 1671.
The most interesting portion of the book must be reckoned the first
section of it, which reproduces for the first time the scarce small
octavo of 1645. The only reprint of the Minor Poems in the old
spelling, so far as I know, is the one edited by Mitford, but that
followed the edition of 1673, which is comparatively uninteresting since
it could not have had Milton's oversight as it passed through the press.
We know that it was set up from a copy of the 1645 edition, because it
reproduces some pointless eccentricities such as the varying form of the
chorus to Psalm cxxxvi; but while it corrects the errata tabulated in
that edition it commits many more blunders of its own. It is valuable,
however, as the editio princeps of ten of the sonnets and it contains
one important alteration in the Ode on the Nativity. This and all other
alterations will be found noted where they occur. I have not thought it
necessary to note mere differences of spelling between the two editions
but a word may find place here upon their general character. Generally
it may be said that, where the two editions differ, the later spelling
is that now in use. Thus words like goddess, darkness, usually written
in the first edition with one final s, have two, while on the other
hand words like vernall, youthfull, and monosyllables like hugg, farr,
lose their double letter. Many monosyllables, e. g. som, cours, glimps,
wher, vers, aw, els, don, ey, ly, so written in 1645, take on in 1673 an
e mute, while words like harpe, windes, onely, lose it. By a reciprocal
change ayr and cipress become air and cypress; and the vowels in daign,
vail, neer, beleeve, sheild, boosom, eeven, battail, travailer, and many
other words are similarly modernized. On the other hand there are a few
cases where the 1645 edition exhibits the spelling which has succeeded
in fixing itself, as travail (1673, travel) in the sense of labour; and
rob'd, profane, human, flood and bloody, forest, triple, alas, huddling,
are found where the 1673 edition has roab'd, prophane, humane, floud and
bloudy, forrest, tripple, alass and hudling. Indeed the spelling in
this later edition is not untouched by seventeenth century
inconsistency. It retains here and there forms like shameles, cateres,
(where 1645 reads cateress), and occasionally reverts to the
older-fashioned spelling of monosyllables without the mute e. In the
Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester, it reads--' And som flowers
and some bays. ' But undoubtedly the impression on the whole is of a
much more modern text.
In the matter of small or capital letters I have followed the old copy,
except in one or two places where a personification seemed not plainly
enough marked to a modern reader without a capital. Thus in Il
Penseroso, l. 49, I print Leasure, although both editions read leasure;
and in the Vacation Exercise, l. 71, Times for times. Also where the
employment or omission of a capital is plainly due to misprinting, as
too frequently in the 1673 edition, I silently make the correction.
Examples are, notes for Notes in Sonnet xvii. l. 13; Anointed for
anointed in Psalm ii. l. 12.
In regard to punctuation I have followed the old printers except in
obvious misprints, and followed them also, as far as possible, in their
distribution of roman and italic type and in the grouping of words and
lines in the various titles. To follow them exactly was impossible, as
the books are so very different in size.
At this point the candid reader may perhaps ask what advantage is gained
by presenting these poems to modern readers in the dress of a bygone
age. If the question were put to me I should probably evade it by
pointing out that Mr. Frowde is issuing an edition based upon this, in
which the spelling is frankly that of to-day. But if the question were
pressed, I think a sufficient answer might be found. To begin with, I
should point out that even Prof. Masson, who in his excellent edition
argues the point and decides in favour of modern spelling, allows that
there are peculiarities of Milton's spelling which are really
significant, and ought therefore to be noted or preserved. But who is
to determine exactly which words are spelt according to the poet's own
instructions, and which according to the printer's whim? It is
notorious that in Paradise Lost some words were spelt upon a deliberate
system, and it may very well happen that in the volume of minor poems
which the poet saw through the press in 1645, there were spellings no
less systematic. Prof. Masson makes a great point of the fact that
Milton's own spelling, exhibited in the autograph manuscript of some of
the minor poems preserved in Trinity College, Cambridge, does not
correspond with that of the printed copy. [Note: This manuscript,
invaluable to all students of Milton, has lately been facsimiled under
the superintendence of Dr. Aldis Wright, and published at the Cambridge
University press]. This is certainly true, as the reader may see for
himself by comparing the passage from the manuscript given in the
appendix with the corresponding place in the text. Milton's own
spelling revels in redundant e's, while the printer of the 1645 book is
very sparing of them. But in cases where the spelling affects the
metre, we find that the printed text and Milton's manuscript closely
correspond; and it is upon its value in determining the metre, quite as
much as its antiquarian interest, that I should base a justification of
this reprint. Take, for instance, such a line as the eleventh of Comus,
which Prof. Masson gives as:--
Amongst the enthroned gods on sainted seats.
A reader not learned in Miltonic rhythms will certainly read this
Amongst th' enthroned gods
But the 1645 edition reads:
Amongst the enthron'd gods
and so does Milton's manuscript. Again, in line 597, Prof.
Masson reads:
It shall be in eternal restless change
Self-fed and self-consumed. If this fail,
The pillared firmament is rottenness, &c.
But the 1645 text and Milton's manuscript read self-consum'd; after
which word there is to be understood a metrical pause to mark the
violent transition of the thought.
Again in the second line of the Sonnet to a Nightingale Prof. Masson
has:
Warblest at eve when all the woods are still
but the early edition, which probably follows Milton's spelling though
in this case we have no manuscript to compare, reads 'Warbl'st. ' So the
original text of Samson, l. 670, has 'temper'st. '
The retention of the old system of punctuation may be less defensible,
but I have retained it because it may now and then be of use in
determining a point of syntax. The absence of a comma, for example,
after the word hearse in the 58th line of the Epitaph on the Marchioness
of Winchester, printed by Prof. Masson thus:--
And some flowers, and some bays
For thy hearse to strew thy ways,
but in the 1645 edition:--
And som Flowers, and som Bays,
For thy Hears to strew the ways,
goes to prove that for here must be taken as 'fore.
Of the Paradise Lost there were two editions issued during Milton's
lifetime, and while the first has been taken as our text, all the
variants in the second, not being simple misprints, have been recorded
in the notes. In one respect, however, in the distribution of the poem
into twelve books instead of ten, it has seemed best, for the sake of
practical convenience, to follow the second edition. A word may be
allowed here on the famous correction among the Errata prefixed to the
first edition: 'Lib. 2. v. 414, for we read wee. ' This correction
shows not only that Milton had theories about spelling, but also that he
found means, though his sight was gone, to ascertain whether his rules
had been carried out by his printer; and in itself this fact justifies a
facsimile reprint. What the principle in the use of the double vowel
exactly was (and it is found to affect the other monosyllabic pronouns)
it is not so easy to discover, though roughly it is clear the
reduplication was intended to mark emphasis. For example, in the speech
of the Divine Son after the battle in heaven (vi. 810-817) the pronouns
which the voice would naturally emphasize are spelt with the double
vowel:
Stand onely and behold
Gods indignation on these Godless pourd
By mee; not you but mee they have despis'd,
Yet envied; against mee is all thir rage,
Because the Father, t'whom in Heav'n supream
Kingdom and Power and Glorie appertains,
Hath honourd me according to his will.
Therefore to mee thir doom he hath assign'd.
In the Son's speech offering himself as Redeemer (iii. 227-249) where
the pronoun all through is markedly emphasized, it is printed mee the
first four times, and afterwards me; but it is noticeable that these
first four times the emphatic word does not stand in the stressed place
of the verse, so that a careless reader might not emphasize it, unless
his attention were specially led by some such sign:
Behold mee then, mee for him, life for life
I offer, on mee let thine anger fall;
Account mee man.
