Fowler - Milton

LONGMAN ANNOTATED ENGLISH POETS

MILTON

PARADISE LOST

Edited by Alastair Fowler

Praise for previous editions:

This is a very Bible of Milton, and the editors should be upheld forever as the supreme example to all future editors and annotators of English verse.

Selina Hastings, The Daily Telegraph

Those familiar with the complexities and indecisions of Milton scholarship know how formidable a task it is to prepare an adequately annotated edition of the poems. Mr Carey & Mr Fowler have tackled the task with zest and discrimination as well as perseverance. For several years to come their work will be indispensable to both scholars and students.

The Times Literary Supplement

It is true that Milton probably expected his readers to have the first few chapters of the Book of Genesis in their heads, but Paradise Lost carries a load of learning that is strange by the standards of its own day as well as ours. Theology and etymology and mythology combine in single lines. Luckily, we have the notes in Alastair Fowlers Longmans edition of the poem (one of the great scholarly books of modern times) to send us down the side-routes of Miltons imagination.

John Mullan, The Guardian

It would have been difficult to imagine combining so sharp an alertness for irony... and passion for learning.

Earl Miner

For forty years Fowlers magisterial edition of Milton (done in partnership with John Carey) has established the benchmark for erudite commentary in his field.

John Sutherland, The Guardian

This will surely become the standard working edition for student and scholar alike... a formidable task splendidly accomplished.

The Oxford Magazine

LONGMAN ANNOTATED ENGLISH POETS

General Editors: John Barnard and Paul Hammond

Founding Editor: F. W. Bateson

Titles available in paperback:

BLAKE: THE COMPLETE POEMS

(Third Edition)

Edited by W. H. Stevenson

DRYDEN: SELECTED POEMS

Edited by Paul Hammond and David Hopkins

THE POEMS OF ANDREW MARVELL

(Revised Edition)

Edited by Nigel Smith

MILTON: PARADISE LOST

(Second Edition)

Edited by Alastair Fowler

MILTON: COMPLETE SHORTER POEMS

(Second Edition)

Edited by John Carey

SPENSER: THE FAERIE QUEENE

(Revised Second Edition)

Edited by A. C. Hamilton

TENNYSON: A SELECTED EDITION

(Revised Edition)

Edited by Christopher Ricks

JOHN MILTON

PARADISE LOST

EDITED BY

ALASTAIR FOWLER

SECOND EDITION

First published 1968 by Pearson Education Limited

Second edition 1997

Revised second edition published in Great Britain in 2007

Published 2013 by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright 1968, 1971, 1998, 2007, Taylor & Francis.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notices

Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment may become necessary.

Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.

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ISBN 13: 978-1-4058-3278-6 (pbk)

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Milton, John, 16081674.

Paradise lost / John Milton ; edited by Alastair Fowler.2nd ed.

p. cm. (Longman annotated English poets)

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN-13: 9781405832786 (pbk.)

ISBN-10: 1405832789 (pbk.)

1. Bible. O.T. GenesisHistory of Biblical eventsPoetry. 2. Adam (Biblical figure)Poetry. 3. Eve (Biblical figure)Poetry. 4. Fall of manPoetry. I. Fowler, Alastair. II. Title. III. Series.

PR3560 2006

821.4dc22

2006041005

Set by 35

Longman Annotated English Poets was launched in 1965 with the publication of Kenneth Allotts edition of The Poems of Matthew Arnold. F.W. Bateson wrote that the new series is the first designed to provide university students and teachers, and the general reader with complete and fully annotated editions of the major English poets. That remains the aim of the series, and Batesons original vision of its policy remains essentially the same. Its concern is primarily with the meaning of the extant texts in their various contexts. The two other main principles of the series were that the text should be modernized and the poems printed as far as possible in the order in which they were composed.

These broad principles still govern the series. Its primary purpose is to provide an annotated text giving the reader any necessary contextual information. However, flexibility in the detailed application has proved necessary in the light of experience and the needs of a particular case (and each poet is by definition, a particular case).

First, proper glossing of a poets vocabulary has proved essential and not something which can be taken for granted. Second, modernization has presented difficulties, which have been resolved pragmatically, trying to reach a balance between sensitivity to the text in question and attention to the needs of a modern reader. Thus, to modernize Brownings text has a double redundancy: Victorian conventions are very close to modern conventions, and Browning had firm ideas on punctuation. Equally, to impose modern pointing on the ambiguities of Marvell would create a misleading clarity. Third, in the very early days of the series Bateson hoped that editors would be able in many cases to annotate a textus receptus. That has not always been possible, and where no accepted text exists or where the text is controversial, editors have been obliged to go back to the originals and create their own text. The series has taken, and will continue to take, the opportunity not only of providing thorough annotations not available elsewhere, but also of making important scholarly textual contributions where necessary. A case in point is the edition of The Poems of Tennyson by Christopher Ricks, the Second Edition of which (1987) takes into account a full collation of the Trinity College Manuscripts, not previously available for an edition of this kind. Yet the series primary purpose remains annotation.

The requirements of a particular author take precedence over principle. It would make little sense to print Herberts