[Milton-L] Dictating Paradise Lost

[FLANNAGAN, ROY]

In response to Diane McColley's query about punctuation and spelling in PL.
 

For an accurate assessment, one should re-examine the MS of Book I, but my memory is of very few corrections on the MS itself-to the spelling--that would indicate Milton's revision of the MS as it was being produced.  I don't recall any correction to punctuation as occurring on the MS itself.  We know that the MS was used for the first printing, because it was marked off by the printer for the various gatherings, but, as I recall, we don't know whether it was from dictation or a fair copy made from the dictated copy.  Even though attempts have been made (notably by Darbishire) to make the rest of PL agree to the style of the MS, and attempts have been made (notably by Shawcross) to retrofit a spelling system from M's holograph material on his published material, there is some evidence that Milton was ordinarily happy with his printer's house-style punctuation and spelling, though there may have been some conflicts between author and printer over words like "voutsafe," "ammiral" or "parlament."  The manuscript of "Lycidas" is so lightly punctuated that it wouldn't have done to print it as Milton wrote it.

 

Since I am doing this from memory, I reserve the right to be wrong and welcome corrections.

 

Roy Flannagan

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/ms-tnef
Size: 4092 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.richmond.edu/pipermail/milton-l/attachments/20080313/397ec8c7/attachment.bin