In
1652 he lost his sight in consequence of overwork. At the age of
twenty-nine, Milton had decided to make an epic poem his life work, and
had noted many historical subjects. By 1641 he had decided on a Biblical
subject. He had probably conceived Paradise Lost at the age of thirty-two,
although the poem was not composed until he was over fifty. It was written
after his blindness and dictated in small portions to various persons, the
work being collected and revised by Milton and Aubrey Phillips. It was
completed, according to the authority of Phillips, in 1663, but on account
of the Plague and the Great Fire, it was not published until 1667.
Paradise Lost is divided into twelve books and is written, to use Milton's
own words, "In English heroic verse without rhyme, as that of Homer in
Greek and of Virgil in Latin, rhyme being no necessary adjunct or true
ornament of poem or good verse."
Paradise Lost was neglected until the time of the Whig supremacy in
England. In 1688 Lord Somers, the Whig leader, published an _edition de
luxe_ of the poem; Addison's papers on it, in 1712, increased its
popularity, and through the influence of the Whigs a bust of the poet was
placed in Westminster Abbey in 1737.
There is no better proof of the greatness of Paradise Lost than the way in
which it has survived hostile criticism.
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