John Milton

Brought up in the Cheapside of Shakespeare and Jonson, John Milton (1608-74) endured the traumas of civil war and premature blindness to become one of England's greatest poets.This edition offers in chronological order all Milton's English and Italian poetry, including Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, and most of his Latin and Greek verse. In addition there is a generous sampling of his prose, including the complete texts of Areopagitica, Of Education, The Tenure ofKings and Magistrates, The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, The Ready and Easy Way, and selections from the Second Defence of the English People, An Apology for Smectymnuus and Christian Doctrine. The freshly edited text has been modernized and annotated to clarify difficulties in syntax andvocabulary and identify historical, classical, and biblical allusions, while the Introduction traces both Milton's changing conception of his vocation and the critical fortunes of his work over the past three centuries.