In his translation of PL, William Hog uses the original ten-book version with the arguments printed together preceding the poem; Hog's translations of PL, PR, and SA are the first Latin translations of Milton's three major poems. It was this work that William Lauder used so extensively in his notorious attempt to prove Milton a plagiarist. (See Lauder and commentary there with Eighteenth-century Miltoniana.) This is the first William Hog translation. [Wickenheiser]

Octavo, xxxvi, 510 pages. In Very Good condition. Bound in full polished brown calf with paneled spine bearing a red label and gilt lettering, with a gilt date on tail of spine. Light scuff marks to binding. Title page soiled, frayed at outer blank edges, neatly backed, with upper fore corner missing; this slightly impacts double-ruled border, but all text on title page intact. Leaves A3, A4, A5 frayed on edges.

This is probably one of the few Thick paper copies, as it is 1/4 inch taller than regular copies in contemporary calf, and the sheets bulk slightly over 1/4 inch thicker than regular paper copies.

Collation: A2-A8, a8, b2, B-Z8, Aa-Kk8, lacking first blank.

"Paradisum amissum", "Paradisum recuperatum", and "Samsonem Agonisten" each have separately dated title pages. Pagination and register are continuous.

Wickenheiser 1759; Wing H2362, M2158; Coleridge 184; not in Kohler. JG Consignment. Shelved in Case 0.