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> 'Hear, hear', as they say across the tables: here.
>
> If I remember right the original print of 'Paradise Lost' was 1000
copies
> two-thirds of which were 'pulped'. I always like to imagine William
Blake
> applying for funding from an Arts Marketing Board.
[other bits snipped]
As a regicide in the restoration, Milton was lucky to be alive; his
reception reflects political temerity about associating with the man
"On evil dayes though fall'n, and evil tongues; / In darkness, and
with dangers compast round" (VII26-27). Everyone who cared about
poetry in 1667 knew that PL was the thing, and the sales were actually
good. The poem was reissued in 1668 and 1669. Johnson in his Life of
Milton first pointed out the self-created myth of PL's slow sales:
"The slow sale and tardy reputation of this poem have been always
mentioned as evidences of neglected merit, and of the uncertainty of
literary fame; and enquiries have been made, and conjectures offered,
about the causes of its long obscurity and late reception. But has the
case been truly stated? Have not lamentation and wonder been lavished
on an evil that was never felt?"Milton himself instigated the Romantic
topoi of seeing popular failure as the imprimatur of good art when he
went on in book seven to ask for "fit audience . . . though few." This
phrase was quoted by practically ever Romantic writer. Certainly
including Blake, who it should be noted was incredibly envious of more
popular engravers.
David Latané
p.s. For those interested, the table of contents of the latest issue
of Stand Magazine is now on the web page, as well as information about
the forthcoming joint issue with the Kenyon Review which will
celebrate the centennial of the Nobel prizes.
http://www.people.vcu.edu/~dlatane/stand.html
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