Cold Open

It’s April 27th, 1667, in London, England.

Inside the building that holds his printing press, Samuel Simmons leans over his desk, frowning slightly as he checks the figures in the ledger. Behind him, one of his apprentices quietly tends to the machinery, ensuring that the complex parts continue to operate smoothly.

This is one of the larger printing presses in London. Samuel’s parents built the business up over decades, but since his father died, the 27-year-old Samuel has run the company jointly with his mother. And as she gets older, Samuel is taking on more and more responsibilities.

The office door swings open, and a woman guides an older, pale-faced, blind man into the room.

Samuel recognizes them as the writer John Milton and his daughter. The Simmons family have a long relationship with Milton—Samuel’s father first published one of Milton's essays more than two decades ago. But recently, Milton has fallen on harder times.

Tucking his cane beneath his arm, Milton holds out his hand, and his daughter passes him a neatly wrapped packet of papers. Gripping it tightly, Milton places it on top of Samuel’s ledger. It’s a work Samuel and Milton have discussed before—an epic poem called Paradise Lost. Since losing his eyesight, Milton can no longer write himself. But having to dictate his work to his daughter doesn’t seem to have held him back. This weighty manuscript must be hundreds of pages long.

Milton then says that after their conversation the previous week, he's made the finishing touches to the poem, and it's now time for the two men to agree on a printing contract.

Samuel closes his ledger and takes Milton’s manuscript in his hands. He was impressed with the last draft he read. But he is still conflicted. The political situation in England is volatile, and publishing Milton’s work now could be more trouble than it’s worth.

Samuel looks up at the sound of Milton tapping his cane impatiently on the floor. He wants an answer. Samuel chews his lip. He’s effectively in charge of the family business now. Its success rests on his shoulders. So he has to be bold, like his father and mother were so often in the past. He puts down the manuscript and says he’s ready to make Milton an offer.

After some negotiation, Samuel Simmons and John Milton agree to a deal to publish Paradise Lost. Simmons will pay Milton £5 now and another £5 once the first 1,300 copies have been sold. After they shake hands, Samuel enters Paradise Lost in the Stationers’ Register, formally confirming his role as the publisher of the epic poem. And with these few lines in a record book, one of the greatest works of English literature will begin its journey into the world on April 27th, 1667.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham, and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is April 27th, 1667: The Publication of Paradise Lost.

Act One: Meeting Galileo

It’s late spring in 1638, in the hills above Florence, Italy, 29 years before John Milton finishes Paradise Lost.

Milton walks along a narrow and shady street, his shoes echoing on the cobblestones. His long hair hangs lank against his head. There’s a whisper of a breeze here in the hills, and it makes a welcome change from the cramped heat of the city below.

After a time, Milton comes to the arched door of a white, two-story home. Milton then knocks sharply. For a few moments, everything remains quiet. Milton glances up at the shuttered windows. There’s no sign of life. But then there’s the scrape of metal in the lock, and the heavy door swings open. A brutish-looking guard stares out at him. But in confident Italian, Milton explains who he is and why he’s come. The guard nods his head and gestures for Milton to enter.

John Milton is 30 years old and in the middle of a tour of Italy. When he was younger, he intended to become a church minister. But after he finished his schooling, his political and religious beliefs became increasingly radical, and he abandoned that career path. Instead, he became a writer. And now, he has come to Italy to further his knowledge of literature, the arts, and science. He’s been in Florence for several weeks and has impressed intellectuals in the city so much that it’s been arranged for him to meet with one of the greatest minds of the age.

Milton is shown into the house and up the stairs to a bedroom. Inside, hunched over a table strewn with books and papers, is the astronomer Galileo Galilei. Galileo is 74 years old and blind, but he’s still hard at work on his theories about the stars and planets.

In a soft, low voice, Milton announces himself. Galileo turns his gray eyes to the door and beckons Milton over with a smile. He says he’s heard a lot about him, and Milton is honored—like everyone else in Europe, he knows all about Galileo.

Including, that he has been under house arrest for five years. Through his work, Galileo provided strong evidence for the theory that the Earth revolves around the Sun. But according to Catholic authorities, this contradicted the narrative told in the Bible. So, Galileo was prosecuted for heresy, and though his life was spared, he is now banned from public life.

He can still occasionally receive visitors, though, and is glad to welcome John Milton today. In some ways, he and Milton could not be more different. One is a young and idealistic poet, and the other an elderly scientist. But both share a determination to defy censorship and defend free speech.

Milton himself has not been locked up by the authorities. But he has been deeply dismayed by England’s turn to autocracy under its king, Charles I, and some of his own writings have been blocked by the government. So, he finds the meeting with Galileo inspiring. And as the men finally part after a long discussion, Milton promises that he will do everything in his power as a writer to bring down tyranny—whether it stems from the church or the crown.

After his meeting with Galileo, Milton continues his tour of Italy. He only returns to England a year later, in the summer of 1639. And by then, the atmosphere in the country is tense. The relationship between Parliament and King Charles I grows more strained each day. There’s even talk of civil war.

But Milton finds the political tension invigorating. He writes essays criticizing the Church of England, and in others, he argues for divorce reforms, changes to education, or explores more philosophical ideas like free will and civil liberty.

And when civil war does break out in 1642, he backs Parliament over the King. But that support is not unconditional. After the Parliamentary authorities introduce a new form of press censorship the following year, Milton takes up his pen once again. Areopagitica is a scorching defense of free speech that is widely praised. But it is not enough to convince the legislators to change their minds. The laws on censorship are left in place.

Despite this disappointment, Milton remains loyal to the Parliament during the Civil War. And when Parliamentary forces overthrow King Charles and declare England a republic, Milton secures a position in the new government. As the Secretary of Foreign Tongues, his job is to translate official correspondence into Latin and other languages and to promote the English Republic to skeptics abroad.

But the radical new English government won’t last long. Just eleven years after the execution of King Charles I, his son will be invited back to England to reclaim the crown. And with the restoration of the monarchy, the future of prominent Republicans like Milton will seem bleak. He will be arrested and held in the dreaded Tower of London. But his imprisonment won’t be the beginning of the end for John Milton. Instead, it will be the catalyst for his finest work—the greatest epic poem ever written in the English language.

Act Two: Imprisonment

It’s December 15th, 1660, at the Tower of London, seven months after the restoration of the English Monarchy.

John Milton tilts his head toward the tiny window of his cell. He is now 52 years old and blind, but he can smell and hear a bonfire burning in the courtyard outside. Above the crackle of the flames, Tower guards are talking and laughing. They’re burning banned books, and Milton is certain that his own writings will be among them—his role as a prominent advocate for both the Republic and the execution of King Charles I has made him a marked man. And the new king, Charles II, has ordered his works to be destroyed.

And Milton doesn’t yet know whether he will suffer the same fate as his books. After Charles II returned from exile, Milton briefly went into hiding, but he was soon arrested and taken to the Tower of London. King Charles has declared a general amnesty that pardons acts committed during the long years of civil war and uncertainty in England. But it doesn’t apply to everyone. Some of the most senior officials from the Republic have been sentenced to death, and Milton still fears he may soon be added to that list.

Still, even though Milton is at his lowest point, he cannot help thinking about his work. During the final years of the Republic, he has begun composing a new epic poem he calls Paradise Lost. Written in unrhymed blank verse, the poem tells the story of Satan’s rebellion against God, along with the creation, fall, and eventual redemption of Adam and Eve. He’s been planning to write an epic poem ever since he was a young man, and he’s toyed with different ideas for decades. He’s familiar, of course, with the epics of the Ancient World like Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid. But he wants to create something distinctly English and Christian.

And now, in his cell at the Tower, he has all the time he needs to think about it. So, for hour after silent hour, he composes the poem in his head—the one place where his work is safe from the bonfire.

But the creaking of a door down the hallway interrupts Milton’s thoughts. Footsteps approach, and for a horrible moment, Milton despairs, thinking that the guards are coming to take him to his death. But then he hears a familiar voice.

The man standing outside his cell is Andrew Marvell. He’s a 39-year-old politician and fellow poet. When Milton served as the Republic’s Secretary of Foreign Tongues, Marvell took dictation for him, and the two became close friends.

But Marvell kept a lower profile than Milton, and since the return of the king, he’s managed to avoid punishment for his role in the Republic’s government. Instead, he’s skillfully built up connections with the restored royal court. And now, smiling broadly, he tells Milton that he’s used that influence to convince Charles II himself that Milton is not a threat. King Charles has agreed that Milton should go free.

Milton gets to his feet, his hands suddenly trembling. He can hardly believe what he is hearing. He is going to leave the Tower of London alive and finally get the chance to complete the poem that has filled his thoughts for months.

For the next six years, John Milton works tirelessly on Paradise Lost. Dictating the story line by line to his daughters and friends, the poem slowly takes shape. It’s not a simple story of good versus evil. Milton combines his deep understanding of theology, literature, and politics to create a nuanced and complex work of art. His main character, Satan, may be beyond salvation, but he’s also depicted as charming and persuasive, and it’s his actions that drive the story forward.

Finally, in the spring of 1667, Milton believes his poem is ready. He sells the printing rights for Paradise Lost to the publisher Samuel Simmons for £5, with the promise of an additional £5 after the first print run.

But it will be years before John Milton sees that money—the world will be slow to recognize the genius of Paradise Lost and its creator. But one day they will. And then Milton’s legacy will be secured as one of the greatest writers of all time.

Act Three: Milton’s Death and Legacy

It’s November 9th, 1674, at a cemetery just outside London, seven years after John Milton published Paradise Lost.

The poet and politician Andrew Marvell closes his eyes as he prepares to say a few words at the graveside of his dear friend John Milton. Milton died yesterday at the age of 65, and only a handful of people have ventured out on this chilly morning to attend his funeral—his three daughters, his widow, his nephews, and a few fellow poets.

In the years after Paradise Lost was entered into the Stationers’ Register, all 1,500 copies of the original edition were sold. Shortly before his death, Milton approved a second edition which reorganized the poem into 12 books, instead of ten. But despite the order for a second print run, the poem had not been a great success. At the time of his passing, not many people outside literary circles were even aware of Milton or his poem. Still, Andrew Marvell believes in the significance of both. In his eyes, Paradise Lost is a masterpiece, and John Milton was a genius. So as he opens his eyes, he smiles and begins to tell those gathered in the cold cemetery of the man he had the privilege to know.

In time, the rest of the world will come to see things the same way as Marvell. Although Paradise Lost will still be censored in some countries and even banned outright by the Catholic Church, eventually the power of Milton’s masterpiece will be recognized by all. Its themes of redemption and free will, and its exploration of marriage and authority in heaven and on earth, will continue to be relevant for centuries to come. And its influence will still be felt in the art, literature, politics, and theological debate of the 21st century, almost four hundred years after Paradise Lost was entered into the Stationers’ Register in London on April 27th, 1667.

Outro

Next on History Daily. April 28th, 1881. The condemned outlaw Billy the Kid makes a daring escape from jail.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Mollie Baack.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Arjun Kumar.

Edited by William Simpson.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.