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MILTON's

PARADISE LOST.

A Poem, in Twelve Books.

WITH

PREFATORY CHARACTERS of the feveral
Pieces; and the LIFE of MILTON.

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Printed by A. DONALDSON, and fold at his
Shops in London and Edinburgh.

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THE EDITOR'S PREFACE.

M

TILTON is reprefented to have been a great genius, endued with an uncommon ftrength of fancy and extent of imagination; an incomparable poet, mafter of moft languages, and thoroughly verfed in the feveral branches of learning. He is ftyled the Prince of English poets. His poetical writings are admired by the ingenious of all perfuafions; and men of the greatest eminence in the republic of letters have been employed in illuftrating his beauties. His PARADISE LOST is faid to be the flower of epic poefy, one of the greateft efforts of genius, and to be equal at leaft, if not fuperior to the nobleft productions of antiquity. Thefe are the declared fentiments of men of the first rank in criticifm: So that for us to fay any thing of his poetical character, is unneceffary, nay would be improper. Our province is to give a correct edition of his poems; and fuch, we flatter ourfelves, the reader will find in these two volumes.

Of the feveral editions of MILTON's poetical works, that published by Dr. Thomas Newton is generally allowed to be the best and most correct, As we have made that edition our standard, it may not be improper to give an account of the method he ufed in conduding it..

As to the PARADISE LOST, Dr. Newton obferves, that the editors of MILTON have a confiderable advantage over the editors of Shakespeare. "For" (fays he) the first editions of Shakespeare's works being "printed from the incorrect copies of the players, "there is more room left for conjectures and emen

dations; and as, according to the old proverb, Be"ne qui conficiet, vatem hunc perhibebo optimum, the "best gueffer was the beft diviner; fo he may be faid "in some measure too to be the best editor of ShakeSpeare; as Mr. Warburton hath proved himself by "variety of conjectures, and many of them very happy ones, upon the most difficult pallages. But we who undertake to publifh MILTON'S PARADISE "LOST,

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LOST, are not reduced to that uncertainty: We "are not left floating in the wide ocean of conjecture, "but have a chart and compafs to fteer by; we have "an authentic copy to follow in the two editions

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printed in his own lifetime, and have only to cor"rect what may be fuppofed to be the errors of the "prefs, or mistakes occafioned by the author's blind. "nefs. These two editions then, the first in ten "books printed in a fmall 4to [in 1667], and the se"cond in twelve books printed in a fmall octavo [in 1674], are propofed as our standard.

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alterations indeed are neceffary to be made in con"fequence of the late improvements in printing, with"regard to the ufe of capital letters, Italic charac"ters, and the fpelling of fome words. Milton's. "own pointing we generally obferve, because it is. "generally right. In a word, we approve of the two firft editions in the main, though we can-"not think that they ought to be followed (as fome: have advised) letter for letter, and point for point. "We defire to tranfcribe all their excellencies, but have no notion of perpetuating their faults and.era*rors."

As to the poems in the fecond volume; Newton: fays, "Of the Paradife Regain'd and Samfon Agonistes, "there was only one edition in Milton's lifetime, in "the year 1671; and this we have made our stan"dard, correcting. only what the author himself "would have corrected. Dr. Bentley pronounces it "to be without faults: But there is a large table of "errata at the end, which, instead of being emended, "have rather been augmented in the following edi

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tions, and were never corrected in any edition that "I have feen before the prefent. Of the other poems "there were two editions in Milton's lifetime; the "first in 1645, before he was blind; and the other, "with fome additions, in 1673. Of the Mafque there "was likewife an edition published by Mr. Henry

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Lawes, in 1637: And of the Mafque and feveral "other poems there are extant copies in Milton's own "hand writing, preferved in the library of Trinity

"college

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