CONTENTS
Title Page
Chronology
Preface
Introduction
A PARAPHRASE ON PSALM 114
PSALM 136
ON THE DEATH OF A FAIR INFANT
AT A VACATION EXERCISE
ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST’S NATIVITY
THE PASSION
SONG: ON MAY MORNING
ENGLISH SONNETS
No. 1 O nightingale
No. 7 How soon hath time
No. 8 Captain or colonel
No. 9 Lady, that in the prime
No. 10 Daughter to that good earl
No. 11 I did but prompt the age
No. 12 A book was writ, of late
No. 13 Harry, whose tuneful
No. 14 When faith and love
No. 15 Fairfax, whose name in arms
No. 16 Cromwell, our chief of men
No. 17 Vane, young in years
No. 18 Avenge, O Lord
No. 19 When I consider
No. 20 Lawrence, of virtuous father
No. 21 Cyriack! Whose grandsire
No. 22 Cyriack, this three years day
No. 23 Methought I saw
ON SHAKESPEARE
ON THE UNIVERSITY CARRIER
ANOTHER ON THE SAME
AN EPITAPH ON THE MARCHIONESS OF WINCHESTER
L’ALLEGRO
IL PENSEROSO
ARCADES
COMUS: A MASQUE
ON TIME
UPON THE CIRCUMCISION
AT A SOLEMN MUSIC
LYCIDAS
THE FIFTH ODE OF HORACE, BOOK ONE
ON THE NEW FORCERS OF CONSCIENCE
PSALMS 1–8:
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
PARADISE LOST
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 REGAINED
Book I
Book II
Book III
Book IV
SAMSON AGONISTES
Suggestions for Further Reading
Ask your Bookseller for these Bantam Classics
About the Author
Copyright
CHRONOLOGY
1608
Milton born, 9 December, in London
1618?–20?
tutored by Thomas Young
1615?
1620?–25
St. Paul’s School
1625
begins at Cambridge University, enrolled in Christ’s College
1629
March, B.A. degree
1632
March, M.A. degree
1632–38
residence at his father’s house
1634
September, Comus performed at Ludlow
1637
3 April, death of Milton’s mother
1638–39
European tour: France, Italy, Switzerland
1640
schoolteacher, in London
1641
Of Reformation in England
Of Prelatical Episcopacy
Animadversions upon the Remonstrant’s Defense
1642
May/June, married Mary Powell
The Reason of Church Government
An Apology for Smectymnuus
October, Civil War begins
1643
The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce
April, Milton’s father comes to live with him
1644
Of Education
The Judgment of Martin Bucer Concerning Divorce
Areopagitica
Milton’s sight begins to fail
1645
Tetrachordon
Colasterion
1646
Poems
29 July, daughter Anne born
1647
March, death of Milton’s father
1648
25 October, daughter Mary born
1649
30 January, Charles I executed
The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates
March, appointed Secretary for Foreign Tongues, Council of State
1650
left eye fails
1651
Defensio pro Populo Anglicano
16 March, son John born
1652
February/March, complete blindness
2 May, daughter Deborah born
May, Mary Powell Milton’s death
16 June, death of son, John
1654
Defensio Secunda
1655
Pro Se Defensio
1656
November, married Katherine Woodcock
1657
19 October, daughter Katherine born
1658
February, death of Katherine Woodcock Milton
17 March, death of daughter Katherine
3 September, Oliver Cromwell’s death
1659
A Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes
Likeliest Means to Remove Hirelings out of the Church
1660
The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth
May, Charles II restored to the throne
Milton arrested, released
1663
February, married Elizabeth Minshull
1665
resided at Chalfont St. Giles during plague
1667
February, ten-book edition of Paradise Lost
1669
Accidence Commenced Grammar
1670
History of Britain
1671
Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes
1672
Joannis Miltoni Angli, Artis Logicae Plenior Institutio
1673
Minor Poems (enlarged edition)
Of True Religion, Heresy, Schism, Toleration
1674
Paradise Lost, twelve-book edition
8 November, Milton’s death, in London
PREFACE
THE FIRST version of what would become this book was written into the pages of another editor’s deservedly famous edition of Milton. Principally lexical and syntactic commentary, these early annotations stemmed directly from an extremely common quandary, namely, a teacher fundamentally (though by no means completely) dissatisfied with the textbook from which, for lack of anything better suited to his classroom, he goes on teaching. That sort of dissatisfaction can be lived with; it can finally be put to the side; or it can lead, as mine has, to a completely new book.
I teach Milton as an English poet, one of the very greatest, most influential, important, and deeply challenging the language has ever known. Although I firmly believe, like most scholars, that the more we know about any writer the more we can understand and also appreciate the resonating excellences and profundities of his or her work, I also believe that some of the things we can know are more useful than are others. Milton’s English poetry seems to me so overwhelmingly primary to both appreciation and understanding of his place in English literature that his Latin poetry shrinks to tertiary significance, and his profusely vigorous prose to secondary significance. Accordingly, this edition of Milton contains none of the Latin (or the Italian) poems, either in the original language(s) or in translation. It contains none of Milton’s
prose.
The text of the English poems, however, is not only complete, but has been conservatively modernized and edited for maximum accessibility. Nothing has been done to interfere in any way whatever with the prosody of these poems. The vexing problem of syllabified versus unsyllabified vowels has been preempted by (1) the use of spelling to indicate each prosodically suppressed vowel (usually by means of an apostrophe, sometimes by such spellings as “shouldst” or “didst”), and (2) the addition of an accent mark each time a vowel is syllabified (“wingèd,” “blessèd”). My prosodic markings are consistent throughout this book. When, therefore, a word such as “winged” is mono-rather than bisyllabic, I have added neither an apostrophe nor an accent mark; the reader can assume that any word without one of those marks does not in my judgment require one.
Rather too much has been made of Milton’s spelling, much of which is conventional and, though appropriate to his time, without significance in ours. His punctuation is in general (though not universally) a reliable guide to verse movement. I have punctuated, and capitalized, as conservatively as possible. But I have not hesitated to interpret Milton’s use of semicolons and colons as requiring, in our time, a sentence-ending period. Nor have I hesitated to add reader-friendly paragraphing.
I would have been happier had my annotations been able to be placed alongside the line they refer to. The economics of publishing makes this impossible. But since I do not believe that lexical annotations consisting only of a single word are truly satisfactory, I have often given three or four or even more words in each gloss. Placing all annotations at the bottom of the page does, therefore, have at least the advantage of clearly separating annotations one from the other.
Most of my lexical annotations are to words rather than to phrases, clauses, or sentences. As a teacher, I have found that students need to know what the components mean, just as much as they need to know the meaning of the finished product. Indeed, understanding syntax becomes a good deal easier when the components are clearly understood—and many of my annotations are syntactic as well as lexical. All syntactic material is placed in square brackets: [verb]. If, as is usually the case, annotations are both lexical and syntactic, the lexical portion always precedes the syntactic.
I have tried to annotate everything a student—any student, all students—might need to know. Not being able to predict on which page a student might first come upon material opaque to him or her, I have annotated repeatedly, tirelessly, and for some readers surely excessively. But I would much rather be safe than sorry.
Translations of the original (and it is striking how often Milton, though writing in a form of English, requires something very like translation) are always set in quotation marks. Renderings of anything more than a single word, however, are signaled first by a repetition of the words being annotated, and second by an equal sign placed immediately after that repetition:
evil store = an abundance of evil
those in servitude: servants
When the annotation is more commentary than rendering, the colon is replaced by an equal sign:
due time = in the time that, properly, it should take
When there are multiple meanings (and Milton is enormously fond of layered meaning, as also he is far fonder of wordplay, including puns, than his reputation would suggest) that are sufficiently distinct from one another, I have grouped them under numbered headings:
(1) perilous, rash, risky, (2) enterprising
Lexical glosses involving more than one word, but not involving semantic layering, simply employ commas: common, ordinary, uneducated
The slash is used to indicate that one of the words or phrases in a multiword annotative definition has distinct alternative possibilities:
having no material being/body
care for/prediction of the future
Note that the slash places in the alternative only the word immediately before it. Thus the first example above should be understood as “having no material being or body,” and the second as “care for or prediction of the future.” One additional example may make this clearer:
not maternal/the mother of
This should be understood, accordingly, as “not maternal, not the mother of.”
Referential (informational) annotations use both the colon and, somewhat differently, the equal sign:
a Titan, daughter of Gaia (earth) by Zeus: goddess of justice
Horeb = Sinai, in Exodus and Deuteronomy
Nimrod (“hunter”) : see Genesis 10:8–10
When I do not know with reasonable certainty what Milton is referring to or saying, I have said so, using a simple question mark:
not specified: the basic nature of the Godhead?
face (defiantly) ? await?
Although commentary, in the usual scholarly meaning, has been almost completely avoided in these annotations, it has sometimes been unavoidable. I have kept it as brief as possible, and have usually introduced it by the signal “i.e.”:
i.e., the act of building, not the structure being built
The pronunciation of Greek names and, on occasion, of certain other words, often requires elucidation, which I have kept as minimal as possible:
Calliope [4 syllables, 2nd and 4th accented]
Hecate [trisyllabic], ghost-world goddess
One early reader commented that users of this book might sometimes find themselves dizzy, forced constantly to look up and down the page, from text to footnotes and back, on and on and on. Depending on the opacity of Milton’s vocabulary, the turgidity of his syntax, and the frequency and insistence of his allusions, these pages necessarily vary enormously in their density of annotation. Lexically confident readers are advised to ignore as many of my annotations as they can. But it would be much appreciated if lexically well informed readers, and indeed anyone who finds any of the errors, omissions, and unclarities I have struggled to eliminate, would send me corrections.
INTRODUCTION
UNDERSTANDING AND appreciating John Milton—Milton, that is, as an English poet—depends less on a knowledge of Christian doctrine or the rise and then the decline and fall of Puritanism as a governing force in British life, less on a wide-ranging familiarity with classical poetry and medieval and Renaissance European scholarship (including but certainly not limited to alchemy, astronomy, and astrology), and less on an awareness of the intellectual currents of seventeenth-century Europe than on the ability to understand why poetry such as the following—not by Milton, but written nearly a hundred years before the publication of Paradise Lost—maintained a continuing and sometimes worshipful readership well into the twentieth century:
Lo I the man, whose Muse whilom did mask,
As time her taught, in lowly Shepherd’s weeds,
Am now enforced a far unfitter task,
For trumpets stern to change mine oaten reeds,
And sing of Knights’ and Ladies’ gentle deeds;
Whose praises having slept in silence long,
Me, all too mean, the sacred Muse areeds
[advises, teaches]
To blazon broad amongst her learnèd throng:
Fierce wars and faithful loves shall moralize my song.
Help then, O holy Virgin, chief of nine,
Thy weaker Novice to perform thy will,
Lay forth out of thine everlasting scryne [chest for books/documents]
The antique rolls which there lie hidden still,
Of Faery knights and fairest Tanaquil [wife of Tarquinius; here Queen Elizabeth]
Whom that most noble Briton Prince so long
Sought through the world, and suffered so much ill,
That I must rue his undeservèd wrong:
O help thou my weak wit, and sharpen my dull tongue.
The scholarly (but not necessarily merely literate) reader will immediately recognize these lines, and their author, and will know the massive and so long beloved English epic from which they come, Edmund Spenser’s The Fairie Queene. And any reader a
t all, after a quarter of an hour’s exposure to Paradise Lost in particular, will have at least some sense of the similarities of Milton’s work to that of Spenser. These include:
• insistently lofty, elevated diction, expressive of the urgent conviction that poet and reader are engaged not in some casual, friendly dialogue or in mere entertainment, but in an activity at once both serious and highly moral; note that in line 7 the Muse is called “sacred”
• constant, even fundamental reference to past persons and events, including regular allusions to past intellectual belief structures (and note, please, the use of the plural; we here meet classical Muses and shepherds along with medieval knights, Roman along with British history, pagan along with Christian religion, and so on)
The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems Page 1
