Milton’s poetic ability and placement today in the English literary canon is undeniable. The result was an epic of astounding complexity, one that was lofty and Latinate in style, didactic in its theology about goodness and evil, reflective of English Protestantism, and featuring a deeply complex Satan figure-a rebellious, diabolical, persuasive, contradictory, and mesmerizing antagonist who has captivated centuries of readers. Setting out to “justifie the wayes of God to men” (1.26), Milton tells the story “of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit of that forbidden tree, / whose mortal taste brought death into the world, and all our woe” (1.1-2). The scope of the project was enormous: if ancient Graeco-Roman poets looked to Classical heroes to craft their “national epic,” Milton went even further back in time-to a Biblical age that preceded human history itself, back to a time when Satan rebelled against God, and Adam and Eve lost Paradise. Trained rigorously in the Classics, Milton sought to create a poem of national stature that could rival or even surpass the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid. Milton spent several decades of his early career as a civil servant to the Commonwealth and had composed numerous verses, tracts, and translations, but it was Paradise Lost-published when he was in his late fifties after the Restoration-that secured his legacy. This seems to be the case with John Milton, whose rise as one of the most prominent writers of the English language began rather modestly and can be documented in the print history of the early editions of Paradise Lost. Saint Louis University’s early editions of Paradise LostĪn examination of print history suggests that great poets are not born they are made-made by the tremendous efforts of printers, booksellers, editors, critics, illustrators, scholars, and even readers, whose wrangling and “behind-the-scenes” assistance plays a large part in catapulting the author’s name into the public domain.
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