Paradise Lost

Composition

Milton Dictating to His Daughter, Henry Fuseli (1794)

It is uncertain when Milton composed Paradise Lost.[4] John Aubrey (1626–1697), Milton's contemporary and biographer, says that it was written between 1658 and 1663.[5] However, parts of the poem had likely been in development since Milton was young.[5] Having gone blind in 1652, Milton wrote Paradise Lost entirely through dictation with the help of amanuenses and friends. He was often ill, suffering from gout, and suffering emotionally after the early death of his second wife, Katherine Woodcock, in 1658, and their infant daughter.[6] The image of Milton dictating the poem to his daughters became a popular subject for paintings, especially in the Romantic period.[7]

The Milton scholar John Leonard also notes that Milton "did not at first plan to write a biblical epic".[5] Since epics were typically written about heroic kings and queens (and with pagan gods), Milton originally envisioned his epic to be based on a legendary Saxon or British king like the legend of King Arthur.[8][9] Leonard speculates that the English Civil War interrupted Milton's earliest attempts to start his "epic [poem] that would encompass all space and time".[5]

Publication

In the 1667 version of Paradise Lost, the poem was divided into ten books. However, in the 1674 edition, the text was reorganized into twelve books.[10] In later printing, "Arguments" (brief summaries) were inserted at the beginning of each book.[11] Milton's previous work had been printed by Matthew Simmons who was favoured by radical writers. However he died in 1654 and the business was then run by Mary Simmons. Milton had not published work with the Simmons printing business for twenty years. Mary was increasingly relying on her son Samuel to help her manage the business and the first book that Samuel Simmons registered for publication in his name was Paradise Lost in 1667.[12]


This content is from Wikipedia. GradeSaver is providing this content as a courtesy until we can offer a professionally written study guide by one of our staff editors. We do not consider this content professional or citable. Please use your discretion when relying on it.