Stock #: ST11046d           $750
PJP Catalog 58.292

     MILTON JOHN.
PARADISE REGAIN'D. A POEM IN FOUR BOOKS. TO WHICH IS ADDED SAMSON AGONISTES: AND POEMS UPON SEVERAL OCCASIONS. (London: Printed for F. and R. Tonson and S. Draper et al.  1753)   200 x 127 mm. (7 7/8 x 5").    Two volumes. Second Newton Variorum Edition.    EXCELLENT MODERN DARK BLUE MOROCCO GILT covers framed with double gilt rules raised bands spine compartments formed by double gilt rules and containing a lozenge in the center intricate gilt foliage pattern on turn-ins top edges gilt.    With six engraved plates (including a frontispiece portrait of Milton in youth) designed by Francis Hayman and engraved by Charles Grignion.       Two quires at the end of the second volume somewhat foxed a hint of foxing and browning elsewhere otherwise A FINE COPY the bindings bright and unworn and the leaves fresh and clean.

In addition to "Paradise Regain'd" our volumes contain "Samson Agonistes" "Poems on Several Occasions" (including "Comus" "Il Penseroso" and "L'Allegro") and a selection of sonnets and Psalms. Milton credited his Quaker friend Thomas Ellwood with the suggestion that he write a sequel to balance "Paradise Lost." The much briefer more spare and neoclassical "Paradise Regained" tells the story of Christ's temptation by the devil in the wilderness. Although Satan triumphed over Adam and Eve Christ withstands the infernal blandishments including the enticing offer of pagan classical knowledge and returns unscathed to his mother's home. First printed in 1671 (along with "Paradise Regained") "Samson Agonistes" is Milton's version of a Greek tragedy. When the verse drama opens Samson has already succumbed to Delilah and been blinded and imprisoned. He accepts the punishment the Lord has meted out for his weakness indignantly rejects Delilah and topples the Philistine temple of Dagan dying as its ruins crash about him.

Coleridge 196.