THE MILTON COLLECTION

Turnbull Library Record, Volume XIV, 1 March 1960, Page 12

THE MILTON COLLECTION

The span of Alexander Turnbull’s active collecting life was relatively short, for only after the death of his father were adequate funds at his disposal. Thus the years from 1900-1918 saw the greatest development of his library, though the four war years impeded his programme considerably. Nevertheless, his collection grew to such size that cataloguing became a formidable task even in the nineties, for he had been buying steadily since at least 1887.

It was early in the century that he decided to make a special collection of Milton, and not only did he ask Bernard Quaritch to offer him anything to this end, but he also bought freely from catalogues of the antiquarian book trade. He soon realised that such a project led into other and wider fields.

He aimed first at securing the original and all subsequent significant editions of Milton's writings. Even fifty years ago, first editions of Milton were not common, and it is not altogether remarkable that he was unable to secure several of the minor pamphlets—a lack that has been partly remedied since.

But surprisingly voluminious as are the published works of Milton, they are dwarfed by the number of edited versions of the individual or gathered works. These are less difficult, and a full range of the many texts, climaxed by the great "Columbia Milton”, are in the shelves, followed by the critical assessments, the analyses, the tracing of origins, the studies of style, the seeking of parallels and the hosts of other exercises of literary devotees.

So too with the biographical material, from the earliest "Lives” to the mighty seven-volume work of David Masson, and on to the many that have drawn upon it since.

As one contemplates the collection as a whole, its natural division into three parts becomes apparent, reflecting the periods of Milton’s life. Until 1640 he was the poet and scholar publishing "Comus” and "Lycidas”, but the fever of the next ten years that so disrupted all English life could not but infect so active a mind. In 1640 and 1641 he published pamphlets on Church administration, but his personal problems supervened, evoking "The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce” (1643), from which he sped on to the cause of freedom of the press, with "Areopagitica” (1644).

The schoolmaster in him turned for a moment to education, but the rare “Tractate" of 1644 is a serious lack in the Library's range. He paused, however, to publish his first collection of poems in 1645, in the same year with “Tetrachordon" and “Colasterion".

But one tends to be amazed at the next turn of Milton's career. Immediately after the execution of Charles I in January 1649, he published a forthright justification, “The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates", whereupon he became the official apologist for Cromwell's Government, with the title of Latin Secretary. It fell to him to reply to the fastselling royalist work “Eikon Basilike", purporting to be from the pen of Charles himself. Anon he is pitted in controversy with the royalist champion Claude de Saumaise, in an acrimonious exchange of publications.

At this time he worked on the “History of Britain", and “History of Moscovie” which, however, did not appear till 1670 and 1682 respectively. But the sands are running out: blindness has overtaken him, and he retired to private life and the preliminary working on “Paradise Lost”, which appeared in 1667.

The enigma of the seven different title pages of this first edition has never been resolved, but five of the series are to be seen in the long run of “Paradise Lost" here. It was followed in his last years by “Paradise Regained” 1671, and by the last revision of his poems in 1674, a few months before his death.

The implications of “Paradise Lost" are almost infinite, but to look at a few of them will show what this means to the collection. Before we consider origins, the reminder of James Holly Hanford, one of the leading Milton scholars, is salutary : “when the labours of the source hunters are done, Paradise Lost remains one of the most original works in English or any literature." Milton naturally drew on many writings in using so universal a theme.

The most likely models, however, were the “Adamus Exul” (1601) of Hugo Grotius and the "Adamo” (1613) of Giovanni Battista Andreini. This latter exists in only two examples, and the Library perforce holds a photostat copy. They are similar in concept, construction and treatment, and were recent works in Milton’s youth. The case for the Dutch Poet, Vondel's “Lucifer", published in 1654, is not so strong, apart from the fact that Milton was then blind, and his knowledge of Dutch but slight. In 1664 Vondel published “Adam in Banishment" but probably too late to

affect Milton’s plans, for he was three years off publication of “Paradise Lost". The interest of Vondel led us to acquire a definitive set of the works of this greatest of Dutch poets a year or so ago. Some other works used by Milton are Joshua Sylvester’s “Du Bartas, his divine weeks and works” 1613, Aristoto's “Orlando Furioso" 1591 and Tasso’s “Recovery of Jerusalem” 1600.

It is well known that he was much influenced by the writing of Spenser, of which the 1611 “Faerie Queen" is the representative here. The works of Giles and Phineas Fletcher, especially the latter's “Apollyonists” are further influences that are readily recognised, discussed fully by the nineteenth-century editor Alexander Grosart.

When Turnbull acquired the second folio (1632) of Shakespeare, it is likely that he sought the volume for Milton’s first appearance in print, with his tribute to Shakespeare. It seems to be no more than an association, however, that led to the acquisition of "The History of the Evangelical Churches of Piemont . . . with a relation of the late bloudy massacre" (1658) for it records the same persecutions as Milton’s sonnet: "Avenge O Lord thy slaughtered saints Whose bones lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold ...”

Newspapers of the period are rare, so it was good fortune that brought to the collection a full file of "Mercurius Politicus” from 1650-1660. It is one of three known: Milton had a slight association with this journal, and a penetrating study was made on the subject in "Studies in Philology" in 1936.

It is this type of material that has been steadily appearing in learned journals for the past sixty years or more. Turnbull in his day and we in ours, have built up sets of these journals, largely for their richness in Miltonic studies. The following are some of the more important:

Review of English Studies English Literary History Journal of English and Germanic Philology Publications of the Modern Language Association of America Studies in Philology Modern Language Review Philological Quarterly Modern Language Notes The Library

The Times Literary Supplement University of Toronto Quarterly Huntington Library Quarterly The Nineteenth Century

One particular intellectual relationship has been studied considerably of recent years the influence of Jacob Boehme. The relationship has been the subject of several books and articles, and Boehme and his philosophy has been studied in as many again, most of which are in the collections.

Until 1904 the authorship of “Novae Solymae” 1649 was commonly attributed to Milton, and a copy of the work finds place here. It was translated into English by Walter Begley in 1902, and Begley’s manuscript stands beside his book. Another manuscript association is the edition of Milton's prose works 1809 with notes and markings by Elizabeth Browning.

Two years ago the Library purchased a composite volume including primarily a study on Adreini and Milton by Norman Douglas, with a number of letters on the subject, and ancillary material. It can be stated here, perhaps, that, good as the collection is, there is no MS. by Milton himself.

Much of our satisfaction in having on microfilm the bulk of English books printed before 1640, arises from the fact that the Library thus holds almost everything that Milton would have read in English and much in Latin within this period.

The foregoing notes are no more than sporadic comment upon this collection. It is indeed a fact that limitations of space preclude a fuller survey, but when it is realised that every facet of Milton’s life and work that has been written on is almost certainly in the Turnbull Library, it will be apparent how strong is the collection for its purpose.