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Notes
See J. W. Good, Studies in the Milton Tradition (1915); Ants Oras, Milton's Editors and Commentators (1931); R. J. White, Dr. Bentley: A Study in Academic Scarlet (1965); and Marcia R. Pointon, Milton and English Art (1970).
For the sake of brevity I must omit a description of the textual history of Paradise Lost and simply refer the reader to Darbishire's edition and to the second and third volumes of Harris Fletcher's John Milton's Complete Poetical Works (1943-48). I would add that, though Darbishire's list of variants is comprehensive and the reader, for convenience, is therefore referred to it, the list of substantive variants which follow is based on my own collation of the original texts and on a study of how subsequent editors have treated them.
The only interesting question raised by the third edition is why Simmons, who obviously knew the state of the Quarto and Octavo better than anyone, did not restore any authoritative readings. It is too large a question to tackle in this paper.
Simmons sold his rights to Brabazon Aylmer in 1680 and he, in turn, sold them to Tonson. See J. Milton French, The Life Records of John Milton, V (1958), 264.
There are three distinct title-pages for the fourth edition, all bearing the 1688 date and differing only in the imprint. The first carries Tonson's name only; the second the name of Tonson's partner, Richard Bently; and the third carries both names.
The fifth edition exists with two title pages, one dated 1691 and the second dated 1692. There is but one edition, however, the second being simply a re-issue of the 1691 text.
On the title-page to Paradise Lost the title of Hume's commentary is "Explanatory Notes"; on its own separate title-page it is called "Annotations on Each Book of the Paradise Lost." The former is the one most often used today.
Readers will note that in my stemma I have a 1724 edition of Paradise Lost. This is the first non-Tonson edition, by George Grierson of Dublin. It is an unprepossessing duodecimo, based on Tonson's 1720, and adds nothing to our knowledge of the text. After 1730 non-Tonson editions began to appear more frequently.
Mackail, "Bentley's Milton," Proceedings of the British Academy, 11 (1924-25), 56-73; Empson, "Milton and Bentley," in Some Versions of Pastoral (London, 1935), pp. 149-191.
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