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course of printing, and that the pressman in replacing the scattered letters often made slight variations.

From Clavel's catalogue of the books issued between 1666 and 1674, we know that 'Paradise Lost' was published at three shillings. The sale, therefore, of at least 1300 copies, subject only to a payment to the author of £10, must have shown a considerable profit. Simmons, however, waited till 1674 before producing a second edition. In this the original ten books were increased to twelve, by dividing books vii. and x. into two books each, three new lines being added at the beginning of Book viii. and five at the beginning of Book xii. The Arguments were similarly changed, and were now placed at the head of the books to which they referred. In 1678 a third edition was printed, and in December 1680 Milton's widow accepted a final sum of eight pounds. (making 18 in all) in satisfaction of her right title or interest' in the poem.

Milton's last volume of new poetry appeared with the date 1671, and the title :

Paradise Regain'd. A Poem. In IV. Books. To which is added Samson Agonistes. The Author John Milton. London, Printed by J. M. for John Starkey at the Mitre in Fleetstreet, near TempleBar. MDCLXXI.

The two poems were separately paged, though the signatures of the sheets run on continuously. 'Samson Agonistes' has a separate title-page, which will be found printed in this edition before the poem, the imprint being the same as on the general title. The date of the licensing of the book was July 2nd, 1670, that of its registration at Stationers' Hall, September 10th, of the same year. Though it is dated 1671 on its title-pages it must have been issued shortly after being registered,

as it is duly entered in the Michaelmas Term Catalogue of November 22nd, 1670. 'Price, bound, 4s.' The publisher's trick of post-dating it has thus caused all literary historians to assign its issue to the wrong year.

For a very full statement of the principles on which Professor Masson formed the text here reprinted the reader must be referred to the elaborate introduction to his library edition in three volumes. All editors of Milton are now agreed with him in upholding absolute fidelity to the original text, and the Professor's retention of a few archaic or distinctive spellings, while modernizing those of no interest, has also been generally followed. In seeing the book through the press I have ventured to make a few changes in the use of capitals, for the sake of greater consistency, and to abandon the occasional use of italics for emphasis, where not sanctioned by Milton himselt. In the belief also that Professor Masson, had he been revising the text himself, would have taken the same course, I have printed 'shewn' instead of 'shew' in Paradise Regained,' III. 350, the last letter being quite distinct in the British Museum copy, though in some others it is badly printed; I have also, on the authority of the Milton autographs at Cambridge, as reported by Mr. Aldis Wright, adopted the readings 'he well knew' for 'he knew,' in Lycidas,' line 10, and 'lend' instead of 'send' in Sonnet XIII., line 9. With these exceptions, though I have constantly referred to the original editions I have not been tempted to make any alterations worth noting in a text which has now stood the test of thirty years.

ALFRED W. POLLARD.

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