Paradise Regain'd. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is added Samson Agonistes. [Regained].

MILTON, John.

Paradise Regain'd. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is added Samson Agonistes. [Regained].

London: J.M. for John Starkey, 1671.

$11,800.00

In Stock Item Number: RRB-152700

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First Edition, First Issue of Milton's Paradise Regain'd, with Samson Agonistes

First edition, first issue, of Milton’s Paradise Regain’d, the sequel to Paradise Lost, together with the first edition of his tragedy Samson Agonistes. Octavo, two parts in one volume, separately paginated, in contemporary panelled calf, retaining the initial licence leaf and the terminal errata leaf. The rare first issue, with “loah” for “loth” on page 67 of the first work. With an early ownership inscription and a repeated monogram ink-stamp to the front free endpaper. Housed in a custom gilt blue morocco slipcase. ESTC R299; Grolier, Wither to Prior 613; Wing M2152.

Published in 1671, this volume contains the first appearance of two of the last and greatest works of John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Regain’d, the four-book sequel to Paradise Lost recounting the temptation of Christ in the wilderness, and the tragedy Samson Agonistes, modelled on the drama of ancient Greece. Both were composed after Milton had gone completely blind and had lived through the collapse of the Puritan republic he had served, and were dictated by the poet in his final years. Paradise Regain’d portrays a Christ who overcomes Satan not by force, as the Son does in the war in heaven of Paradise Lost, but by steadfast wisdom and self-command, and scholars have found in it the imprint of Milton’s later convictions, among them his suspicion of worldly learning and his distrust of the popular multitude, as well as the influence of the Quaker circle at Chalfont St Giles, where he had taken refuge from the plague in 1665. Together the two poems form the crowning achievement of the greatest English poet after Shakespeare.