An essay on Milton's use and imitation of the moderns, in his Paradise lost. Things unattempted yet in prose or rhime. Milton
Publisher: Printed for John Payne and J. Bouquet
Published: 1750  [i. e. 1751]
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 208
Description: <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:15.3333px;">8vo. ff. [2], pp. [i]-ii, v-iii, iii-iv, [18], 164, [4]. Quarter calf, gilt spine, marbled boards. Includes head- and tailpieces.</span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:15.3333px;"><br /></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><font face="Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:15.3333px;">First edition, second issue (see Bib# 4173330/Fr# 602 in this collection for the first issue). The preface and postscript to this notoriously forgery-laced essay, in which William Lauder “proves” that Milton had plagiarized large sections of Paradise Lost from various neo-Latin sources, are by Samuel Johnson. Following John Douglas’s exposé in ‘Milton Vindicated’ (see Bib# 4103321/Fr# 612) the publishers issued two unsigned bifolia, the first consisting of their own ‘New Preface’ dated 1 December 1750, declaring that they ‘will have no further intercourse with [Lauder]’ and ‘sell his book only as a curiosity of fraud and interpolation’, and the second containing a ‘New Postscript’ by Johnson (dated 2 January 1751). See J. D. Fleeman, A Bibliography of the Works of Samuel Johnson. Oxford, 2000, 49.12LEM/1b, noting that copies of the ‘Essay’ may contain either the ‘New Preface’ alone or both additions, as in the present copy. See also ESTC, T94352.</span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://catalyst.library.jhu.edu/permalink/01JHU_INST/1lu78g9/alma991039463809707861" rel="nofollow">Click here to view the Johns Hopkins University catalog record.</a></span></span></p>