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17 - Milton

from LITERARY CANONS

By
Joad Raymond
Edited by
John Barnard  and
D. F. McKenzie
With
Maureen Bell
Joad Raymond
Affiliation:
University of East Anglia
John Barnard
Affiliation:
University of Leeds
D. F. McKenzie
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Maureen Bell
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
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Summary

… it is the love I have to our own Language that hath made me diligent to collect, and set forth such Peeces both in Prose and Vers, as may renew the wonted honour and esteem of our English tongue.

In his Poems of 1645 John Milton, with the assistance of the bookseller Humphrey Moseley, whose words these are, presented himself as a man of letters, an Englishman hailing his native tongue. Not only the verse but the volume spoke these ambitions. Milton was no naive and cosseted scholar, unconcerned with the commercial pathways that carried his works into the hands of readers, but a canny author, attuned to the making and selling of books and pamphlets. His relationship with the book trade suggests that he was neither a coterie author, precious of his reputation and keen to identify and maintain his connection with socially elevated circles; nor was he a prototype of the professional author, viewing his readers as a source of income; rather, he occupied the intermediary sphere of a remunerated writer who chose the marketplace as the most effective means of addressing a broad public.

Milton’s earliest publications and performances appeared in contexts supported by a traditional, perhaps ‘courtly’, emphasis on interpersonal relations. His Latin prolusions were delivered before an audience at Cambridge University; his two epitaphs on Hobson, the University Carrier, modestly circulated in manuscript. His first printed work appears to have been some academic verses written c. 1628 on behalf of another student; his second, the poem ‘On Shakespeare’, appeared anonymously in the second folio of 1632.4 ‘Epitaphium Damonis’, which survives in a single copy, was probably printed in 1639, for circulation among select friends.

Keywords

John MiltonMarshallbook tradeinterpersonal relationsRacovian CatechismWilliam Faithorne
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain
, pp. 376 - 387
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2002

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  • Milton
  • Edited by John Barnard, University of Leeds, D. F. McKenzie, University of Oxford
  • With Maureen Bell, University of Birmingham
  • Book: The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain
  • Online publication: 28 March 2008
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521661829.019
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Milton
  • Edited by John Barnard, University of Leeds, D. F. McKenzie, University of Oxford
  • With Maureen Bell, University of Birmingham
  • Book: The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain
  • Online publication: 28 March 2008
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521661829.019
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Milton
  • Edited by John Barnard, University of Leeds, D. F. McKenzie, University of Oxford
  • With Maureen Bell, University of Birmingham
  • Book: The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain
  • Online publication: 28 March 2008
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521661829.019
Available formats
×