Read The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems Online
Authors: John Milton,Burton Raffel
Tags: #Fiction, #General, #Literary Collections, #Poetry, #Classics, #English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, #English poetry
The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems
CONTENTS
ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST’S NATIVITY
AN EPITAPH ON THE MARCHIONESS OF WINCHESTER
THE FIFTH ODE OF HORACE, BOOK ONE
ON THE NEW FORCERS OF CONSCIENCE
Suggestions for Further Reading
Ask your Bookseller for these Bantam Classics
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, |
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 |
1669 | | Accidence Commenced Grammar |
1670 | | History of Britain |
1671 | | Paradise Regained |
1672 | | Joannis Miltoni Angli, Artis Logicae Plenior Institutio |
1673 | | Minor Poems |
1674 | | Paradise Lost, 8 November, Milton’s death, in London |
PREFACE
T
HE 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.
