Editing Paradise Lost (section)

==Composition==
[[File:Milton Dictating to His Daughter, Henry Fuseli 1794.jpg|thumb|''Milton Dictating to His Daughter'', [[Henry Fuseli]] (1794)]]

It is uncertain when Milton composed ''Paradise Lost''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Labriola |first=Albert |date=15 November 2004 |title=Paradise Lost |url=https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2924 |access-date=2024-01-20 |website=Literary Encyclopedia |language=en}}</ref> [[John Aubrey]] (1626–1697), Milton's contemporary and biographer, says that it was written between 1658 and 1663.{{sfn|Leonard|2000|p=xii}} However, parts of the poem had likely been in development since Milton was young.{{sfn|Leonard|2000|p=xii}} Having gone blind in 1652, Milton wrote ''Paradise Lost'' entirely through [[Dictation (exercise)|dictation]] with the help of [[Amanuensis|amanuenses]] and friends. He was often ill, suffering from [[gout]], and suffering emotionally after the early death of his second wife, Katherine Woodcock, in 1658, and their infant daughter.<ref>Abrahm, M.&nbsp;H., Stephen Greenblatt, eds. ''[[The Norton Anthology of English Literature]]''. New York: Norton, 2000.</ref> The image of Milton dictating the poem to his daughters became a popular subject for paintings, especially in the [[Romanticism|Romantic]] period.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Herman |first=Peter C. |date=2009-01-01 |title=Composing Paradise Lost: blindness and the feminine |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&issn=00711357&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA208640010&sid=googleScholar&linkaccess=abs |journal=Essays and Studies |language=English |volume=62 |pages=129–146}}</ref>

The Milton scholar John Leonard also notes that Milton "did not at first plan to write a biblical epic".{{sfn|Leonard|2000|p=xii}} Since epics were typically written about heroic kings and queens (and with pagan gods), Milton originally envisioned his epic to be based on a legendary [[Saxons|Saxon]] or [[Celtic Britons|British]] king like the legend of [[King Arthur]].{{sfn|Leonard|2000|p=xiii}}{{sfn|Broadbent|1972|p=54}} Leonard speculates that the [[English Civil War]] interrupted Milton's earliest attempts to start his "epic [poem] that would encompass all space and time".{{sfn|Leonard|2000|p=xii}}

===Publication===
In the 1667 version of ''Paradise Lost'', the poem was divided into ten books. However, in the 1674 edition, the text was reorganized into twelve books.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Forsythe |first1=Neil |title=The Satanic Epic |date=2002 |publisher=Princeton University}}</ref> In later printing, "Arguments" (brief summaries) were inserted at the beginning of each book.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Teskey |first=Gordon |url=https://archive.org/details/paradiselostauth00milt_0/page/ |title=Paradise Lost: A Norton Critical Edition |publisher=Norton |year=2005 |isbn=978-0393924282 |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/paradiselostauth00milt_0/page/ xxvii–xxviii] |chapter=Introduction}}</ref> Milton's previous work had been printed by [[Matthew Simmons (printer)|Matthew Simmons]] who was favoured by radical writers. However he died in 1654 and the business was then run by [[Mary Simmons]]. Milton had not published work with the Simmons printing business for twenty years. Mary was increasingly relying on her son Samuel to help her manage the business and the first book that [[Samuel Simmons (printer)|Samuel Simmons]] registered for publication in his name was ''Paradise Lost'' in 1667.<ref>{{Cite ODNB |title=Matthew Simmons (et al) |date=2004-09-23 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/69230 |editor-last=Matthew |editor-first=H. C. G. |access-date=2023-07-27 |place=Oxford |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/69230 |editor2-last=Harrison |editor2-first=B.}}</ref>