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THE POETICAL WORKS OF

JOHN MILTON

English and Latin

EDITED,

WITH A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION,
LIFE OF MILTON, AND AN ANALYSIS OF ADDISON'S
CRITICISM ON PARADISE LOST

BY

JOHN BRADSHAW, M.A., LL.D.

EDITOR OF THE POETICAL WORKS OF GRAY,
CHESTERFIELD'S LETTERS, AND AN ENGLISH ANTHOLOGY

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOL. I

LONDON

GEORGE BELL & SONS, YORK ST., COVENT GARDEN

AND NEW YORK

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CHISWICK PRESS:-C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT,

CHANCERY LANE.

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PREFACE.

THE Aldine' Milton in the original series was edited by the Rev. John Mitford just sixty years ago, in three volumes, with a somewhat lengthy Life, and with a few footnotes to the poems.

The present edition is an entirely new work, and the chief object aimed at has been to give as correct a Text as possible; the poems are arranged in chronological order, and the greatest care has been taken to see that the readings are correct and the punctuation accurate.

Notes have been dispensed with, and the work thereby produced in a more convenient form in two volumes; and a student can go for his notes either to some of the editions referred to in the 'Introduction' or to specially annotated Selections.

English biography has, in recent years, been enriched with Lives of Milton,-by David MASSON (whose name will always be associated with that of Milton, and to whose "Life" all subsequent biographers of the poet must go for their materials), by Stopford BROOKE, by Mark PATTISON, and by Richard GARNETT, each valuable from a different point of view. No edition, therefore, of Milton's Poetical Works need now be burdened with a Memoir as full as before these was thought necessary. The Life written for this edition is mainly

narrative, and includes most of the autobiographical passages from Milton's Prose Works, so that to a great extent he speaks for and of himself.

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The portrait of Milton prefixed to this volume is a copy of the engraving by Faithorne, which was taken in crayons for the frontispiece of Milton's "History of Britain." It represents him as he was at sixty-two; underneath were the words 'Gul. Faithorne ad vivum delin. et sculpsit'; and it is the picture which his daughter Deborah recognized as so like when shown her in 1725 by Vertue. The original pastel drawing is in the possession of W. Baker, Esq,, of Beyfordbury Park, Hertford. "No one," says Professor Masson, can desire a more impressive and authentic portrait of Milton in his later life. The face is such as has been given to no other human being; it was and is uniquely Milton's. Underneath the broad forehead and arched temples there are the great rings of eye-socket, with the blind unblemished eyes in them, drawn straight upon you by your voice, and speculating who and what you are; there is a severe composure in the beautiful oval of the whole countenance, disturbed only by the singular pouting round the rich mouth; and the entire expression is that of English intrepidity mixed with unutterable sorrow."

Booterstown,

1st Dec., 1891.

J. B.

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