Show ORIGINAL OF PARADISE LOST manuscript to be auctioned in eng land in march one of the most valuable literary relics in england Is to be auctioned off at rotheby s in march unless it can be secured during the interval toi foy either the british museum or the library this is the original manuscript of the first book of mil ton a paradise lost in m eighteen small quarto leases leanes As the poet had been blind tor for fourteen years when the epic was completed for the printer not a stroke from these closely writ ten pages was from his hand and the familiar ta tradition that he dictated the poem to one of his daughters Is not confirmed by the penmanship which Is masculine in character the alter native theory that the amanuensis was milton s nephew edward phil lips Is hardly tenable since the tact fact is not mentioned in the little volume of memoirs published by him in 1694 if phillips had taken down the poem line by line he would probably have claimed the credit for it as well as for suggesting alterations where the verses needed mending while the identity of the amanuensis Is a mys tery it lt cannot be doubted that this is the original copy filed at stationers hall in 1667 and assigned to samuel simmons or symonds in consider aaion of the sum of 95 5 in hand paid another payment of xa 5 was made for a second edition and milton s widow assigned all her rights after his death for an additional sum of xa 8 the copyright was sold by the printer to brabazon aylmer a bookseller who subsequently transferred it to jacob tonson and three generations genei rations of printed numerous editions of paradise lost and were enabled by profits in trade to buy an estate in Hertford shire the manuscript was arese prese preserved ved in the tonson family as the proof of their right to publish as many editions of the poem as they pleased and it Is now in the posses slon sion of william robert baker a great grandson of mary tonson |