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ANNOTATIONS ON MILTON'S PARADISE LOST. WHEREIN THE TEXTS OF SACRED WRIT, RELATING TO THE POEM, ARE QUOTED; THE PARALLEL PLACES AND IMITATIONS OF THE MOST EXCELLENT HOMER AND VIRGIL, CITED AND COMPARED; ALL THE OBSCURE PARTS RENDER'D IN PHRASES MORE FAMILIAR; THE OLD AND OBSOLETE WORDS, WITH THEIR ORIGINALS, EXPLAIN'D AND MADE EASIE TO THE ENGLISH READER.
(London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, 1695). 360 x 225 mm. (14 x 8 7/8"). 1 p.l. (title), 321, [1] (blank) pp. FIRST EDITION.
Not unattractive modern smooth half calf and marbled boards, raised bands, gilt titling (hinges reinforced and corners repaired). With engraved frontispiece portrait of Milton. A Large Paper Copy. Bookplate of the Fox Pointe Collection laid in at front. Wing H-3663; ESTC R12702. ◆Paper boards a bit chafed, but the restored binding solid, with a lustrous spine. Title page and margins of frontispiece a little soiled, minor browning (more pronounced, though never severe, in a couple of quires), vague wrinkling to final few leaves, but a very agreeable copy, generally clean and definitely fresh internally, with extremely ample margins.
Published by Tonson alongside his sixth edition of "Paradise Lost," this is the first printing of the first exhaustive commentary on that poem, a line-by-line textual analysis that is still valued today. According to DNB, "It is the work of an extremely well-educated scholar who can put a solid knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, Italian, Dutch, and Anglo-Saxon to the task of analysing scripture sources, classical allusions, and etymological implications. Alongside this erudition, Hume offers accessible and enthusiastic paraphrases and expansions of Milton's sense, sometimes in verse." Hume took the biblical commentaries of the 17th century as a model, and his work in turn influenced the methods and style of later commentators on secular literature. Generations of Milton scholars benefited from his work, including Joseph Callander, who plagiarized great portions for his 1750 edition, and Dr. Thomas Newton, whose 1749 edition was considered definitive and who observed that Hume was both the first and "the most copious annotator." Hume (fl. 1695) has but one other known work, "A Poem Dedicated to the Immortal Memory of Her Late Majesty the Most Incomparable Q. Mary," published the same year as the present volume. He may have been related to the family of Scottish poet and courtier Sir Patrick Hume of Polwarth (ca. 1550 - 1609), but nothing further is known of him. Our copy was in the distinguished collection of early English books amassed by Howard and Linda Knohl for their library at Fox Pointe Manor. While occasionally appearing on the market as part of the 1695 edition of the "Works," this first printing of these first substantial remarks about Milton's epic is very rarely seen as a stand-alone volume. (ST17520)
Price: $2,600.00