John Milton sells the copyright to Paradise Lost for £10 - April 27th, 1667

On this day in 1667, English poet John Milton entered into an agreement to publish his epic poem Paradise Lost.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class,
the show that flips through the pages of history to
deliver old news in a new way. I'm Gay Bluesier
and in this episode, we're looking at one of the
best bargains in literary history, the day when the publishing

(00:22):
rights to a seminal work were sold for a mere
ten pounds. The day was April sixteen sixty seven. English
poet John Milton entered into an agreement to publish his

(00:42):
epic poem Paradise Lost. The contract was made with a
printer named Samuel Simmons. He paid Milton five pounds for
the manuscript and the copyright, with a further five pounds
to be paid once copies of the poem had been sold.
In the mid seventeenth century, ten pounds had the purchasing

(01:03):
power of about sixteen hundred pounds or roughly two thousand
dollars today. It wasn't the greatest deal for Milton, especially
when you consider how popular his work became, but as
an impoverished poet, he didn't have much choice. Within a
few decades of its publication, Paradise Lost would be heralded

(01:24):
as a masterpiece, and John Milton would become the most
respected English author since William Shakespeare. Unfortunately, as often happens,
the author didn't live long enough to enjoy that success himself.
If you've never read it before, Paradise Lost is an
epic poem split into ten books or segments, and consisting

(01:46):
of more than ten thousand lines. The sprawling poem as
a regular meter iambic pentameter and is an example of
blank verse, meaning that the lines are unrhymed. The main
subject of the poem is the biblical story of the
fall of man, the temptation of Adam and Eve, and
their subsequent expulsion from Paradise a k a. The Garden

(02:09):
of Eden, set to the very dawn of human history.
The poem also provides a dramatic account of the creation
of the universe and of a heavenly rebellion led by Lucifer,
the soon to be fallen angel who would later be
known as Satan. Milton's unorthodox portrayal of Lucifer is one
of the most memorable and compelling aspects of the poem,

(02:32):
serving almost as a protagonist for the story. Lucifer is
depicted as a sympathetic, tragic figure, charismatic, persuasive, and ultimately
doomed to fail. In one of the book's most famous lines,
the Fallen Angel declares that it's quote better to reign
in hell than serve in heaven. It's a vain, stubborn

(02:54):
sentiment that many humans can relate to, for better or worse.
Nearly as an impressive as the poem's scope and content
is the way in which it was written. Milton had
gone completely blind in his early forties and began working
on Paradise Lost four years later, in sixty eight. He
reportedly composed the verses in his head both at night

(03:17):
and in the early morning, and then dictated them line
by line to an assistant who would dutifully copy them down.
This process went on for five years, with roughly forty
lines being transcribed each day. As you might expect, it
wasn't a perfect system. Sometimes Milton would wake up with

(03:38):
verses in his head but no one there to copy
them down for him. On mornings like that, or when
his aid was running late, Milton was said to mope
around his house complaining, quote, I want to be milked.
I want to be milked. Writing the poem was clearly
a great feat on Milton's part, but let's also give

(03:58):
some credit to that long suffering assistant, the one who
had to do all that milking. When Paradise Lost was
finally finished, John Milton sold the manuscript and the publishing
rights to Samuel Simmons at a relatively low price. Due
to his blindness, Milton had an assistant signed the document
on his behalf, and it's actually the earliest known example

(04:20):
of a contract between an English author and a publisher.
Today that original contract is held in the British Library,
where it's frequently displayed alongside a first edition of Paradise Lost.
According to the contract, Milton was entitled to an additional
ten pounds once two further editions of copies each had

(04:42):
been sold. Sadly, the author never got the chance to
cash in on that deal, as he died in sixteen
seventy four, shortly after the book's second edition was published.
With Paradise Lost, John Milton left behind one of the
most revered works of the English language, but like Shakespeare
before him, he also made plenty of notable contributions to

(05:04):
the language itself. In Paradise Lost alone, the author coined
hundreds of new words and phrases, including un original, terrific, sensuous,
and pandemonium. The poem is also credited with the first
use of the word space in reference to outer space
or the cosmos. A lot has changed since Paradise Lost

(05:29):
was first published, and many of the classical and biblical
references it contains are less familiar than they once were. However,
there's still plenty there for modern readers to connect with.
At its heart, the poem is about coming to terms
with imperfection, claiming responsibility for our shortcomings, and finding ways

(05:49):
to move forward despite them. In that sense, even with
all the angels and demons, Paradise Lost is a deeply
human story that still resonates today. It's proven to be
an enduring addition to humanity's literary canon, and at just
ten pounds, it was a real steel as well. Thanks Milton,

(06:11):
I'm Gabe Lousier and hopefully you now know a little
more about history today than he did yesterday. You can
learn even more about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at t d i HC Show, and if
you have any comments or suggestions, you can always send
them my way at this day at i heeart media

(06:33):
dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show,
and thank you for listening. I'll see you back here
again tomorrow for another day in history class