His work, Paradise Lost, is considered one of the greatest poems in the English language.
But John Milton was quick to judge the efforts of others to write, according to a new discovery.
Experts have unearthed rare handwritten notes by the famous English poet, including an example of ‘prudish censorship’.
The notes were identified in a copy of Raphael Holinshed’s ‘Chronicles’, which was published about twenty years before his birth and was a vast account of English, Irish and Scottish history.
In it he crosses out a lewd anecdote and dismisses it as inappropriate.
Experts have unearthed rare handwritten notes from the famous English poet, including an example of ‘prudish censorship’
His work, Paradise Lost, is considered one of the greatest poems in the English language. But John Milton was quick to judge the efforts of others to write, according to a new discovery
The discovery, made in a library in Phoenix, Arizona, makes this one of only three known books in which Milton’s handwritten reading notes have been preserved.
The anecdote in question refers to William the Conqueror’s mother, Arlete.
While he was dancing by Robert I of Normandy, and called to his bed, Arlete refused to let him lift her keel.
Instead, she tore it from top to bottom herself, explaining that it would be indecent for her “dependent” garments to “hang” from her sovereign’s mouth – meaning she did not want her clothes to rise up or in would be in the way of her lover’s mouth. .
In the margins, Milton dismisses this anecdote as inappropriate and is told in the style of a peddler selling merchandise on the street.
In Milton’s exact words it was: ‘an unbecom(ing) / tale for a hist(ory) / and as pedlerl(y) / expresst’.
Professor Jason Scott-Warren, of Cambridge University’s English faculty, was consulted to confirm that the handwriting was Milton’s.
The discovery, made in a library in Phoenix, Arizona, makes this one of only three known books to contain Milton’s handwritten reading notes
He said: ‘The adverb ‘venterly’ was quite rare in writing at the time, so we see Milton really stretching the language to express his disdain.
‘Milton is known as an enemy of press censorship, but here we see that he was not immune to prudishness.’
The notes were identified in a copy of Raphael Holinshed’s ‘Chronicles’, which was published about twenty years before his birth and was a vast account of English, Irish and Scottish history. In it he crosses out a lewd anecdote and dismisses it as inappropriate
Milton had gone down the obscene corridor with a single, slight diagonal line, leaving the words below completely legible.
Dr. Aaron Pratt, curator of early books and manuscripts at the University of Texas, was also among the researchers involved in the study.
While analyzing the book, he noticed that a recognizable ‘e’ was used in the annotations.
“I thought, this can’t possibly be true, but it’s like this stupid way Milton spells ‘e,'” he said.
Further analysis revealed that the brackets used in the margins were also very similar to those in one of the two other known books containing Milton’s handwriting.
Other giveaways included hooks and curls on certain letters and a characteristic unevenness in the formation of the letter ‘s’.
Raphael Holinshed’s comprehensive account of English, Irish, and Scottish history from ancient times to the reign of Elizabeth I was an important source for the history of Shakespeare and other plays, including Macbeth.
Milton himself is known to have quoted Holinshed repeatedly in a number of his other works.
The discovery was published in the Times Literary Supplement.