This variorum edition of the poem, the first part to appear on Paradise Lost, presents a comprehensive and detailed narrative survey of the critical responses to Paradise Lost, book 4, from 1695 through 1970. From notes on individual words or phrases to lengthy essays on the characters, setting, action, and themes of book 4, the variorum reveals the ever-changing and enduring topics of scholarly concern to readers of this book of Paradise Lost for nearly 300 years.

This indispensable reference tool efficiently, conveniently, and succinctly presents the most important commentary of Milton’s earliest editors and critics. It demonstrates the historical development of Milton scholarship as Fresch’s narrative overview relates that recovered critical material to the twentieth century criticism on Paradise Lost, book 4. It traces the rise and fall, and sometimes the endurance, of a variety of approaches to Milton’s text—from source studies to reader-response criticism. Gathering, organizing, and clarifying the criticism from 1695 through 1970, this volume establishes a point of departure, a stepping-off place for future critical inquiries. This critical variorum insists that while much is known, much still remains to be known about the fourth book of Paradise Lost.