THE POETICAL WORKS OF MR. JOHN MILTON. Containing, PARADISE LOST, PARADISE REGAIN'D, SAMSON AGONISTES, and his POEMS ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS. Together With Explanatory NOTES ON ON EACH BOOK OF THE PARADISE LOST, and a TABLE never before Printed.

London: Printed for Jacob Tonson at the Judge’s-Head near the Inner-Temple-Gate...by Tho. Hodgkin et. al., 1695 [but 1688 and 1695]. Very Rare LARGE PAPER COPY of The First “Collected” Edition. A sammelband of the poems of Milton. This copy comprised of the sheets of the large paper 1688 printing of the first illustrated edition of PARADISE LOST. A POEM IN TWELVE BOOKS with a 1695 reissued title-page for this edition; PARADISE REGAIN’D. A POEM. IN IV BOOKS. To whiich is added SAMSON AGONISTES, A DRAMATICK POEM.. [these with the 1688 Title-Pages included, Printed by R.E....MDLXXXVIII and for Randal Taylor....MDCLXXXVIII ] and with the large paper issuance of the first printing of the NOTES [by Patrick Hume]as well as the additional “POEMS”. Engraved portrait frontispiece and the 12 copperplate engravings by Burg after Medina used in the first illustrated edition of 1688. Folio, very fine full early calf Farquhar, the covers decorated with double gilt fillet and stippled lines and corner tools and elaborately tooled gilt turnovers, the spine sometime restored and very handsomely decorated incorporating fine tooling and strapwork in gilt and with a morocco lettering label gilt. (5ff.), 343, an original sheet listing some subscribers to the original 1688 edition, [3] the table, 321 [the notes], 66, 60. A fine, crisp and clean copy throughout, the binding in excellent condition, the refurbished spine panel beautifully restored expertly and sympathetically. RARE LARGE PAPER COPY OF THIS EXCEEDINGLY IMPORTANT EDITION, THE FIRST OF THE COLLECTED WORKS WITH ORIGINAL 1688 LARGE PAPER SHEETS INCLUDED. Edward Hodnett considered this to be the "earliest serious effort to illustrate an important work of English poetry" (Five Centuries of English Book Illustration, 1988, p. 63), and the copperplate engravings have a dramatic power that was only matched 200 years later by John Martin.
We rarely encounter a collection of the three principal poems. This collection which includes the POEMS ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS and the NOTES ON MILTON’S PARADISE LOST, can be truly classified as the first collected edition and a wonderful sammelband preserved through time by highly appreciative collectors. Such collections are rare. This collected edition is augmented by the inclusion of the highly important NOTES ON MILTON’S PARADISE LOST, POEMS ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS and additional poems as well.
In PARADISE LOST, PARADISE REGAINED and SAMSON AGONISTES Milton revived the heroic verse of Homer and Virgil to frame the tale of Satan and Paradise that has become the best-known epic poem written in English. He had difficulty in finding a publisher because of the plague of 1665, which killed many pressmen, and the Great Fire of the following year, which destroyed many printing houses—and those publishers who were still operating were wary of the project because of Milton's anti-Restoration sympathies.
Simmons, to whom he finally came, drove a hard bargain, and according to the agreement reached and the number of copies sold Milton was paid a total of Ł15. Milton’s work survives and is revered to this day as amongst the most significant poetry and prose ever penned and additionally important, at a defining moment in the development of the English language. A truly towering figure, Milton remains one of the most celebrated and analyzed poets in English literature. Dryden described ‘Paradise Lost’ as ‘one of the greatest, most noble and sublime poems which either this age or nation has produced,’ while Blake, keying in on the poem’s heretical implications, described Milton as ‘a true Poet, and of the Devil’s party without knowing it.’