# Is "Paradise Regain'd ... to which is added Samson Agonistes" by John Milton a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Paradise Regain'd ... to which is added Samson Agonistes by John Milton (Printed by J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey, London, 1671) is identified by: London, 1671, octavo; the imprint reads "Printed by J. The 1671 London octavo is the only edition published in Milton's lifetime and is the true first of both poems — Samson Agonistes has no separate prior edition, appearing here for the first time.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- London, 1671, octavo; the imprint reads "Printed by J. M. for John Starkey at the Mitre in Fleetstreet, near Temple Bar" — J. M. is the printer John Macock, Starkey the bookseller-publisher
- Wing M2152
- The first issue carries the misprint "loah" for "loth" on page 67 (signature F2), line 2; the reading was corrected to "loth" in the later state, so "loah" is the decisive earliest-state point
- A complete copy has the licence (imprimatur) leaf at the front and, at the end, the "Omissa" leaf and the errata leaf — the Omissa supplies ten lines inadvertently left out of Samson Agonistes, printed as an appended leaf rather than in place
- Collation [4], 111, [1], 101, [3]; Samson Agonistes has its own title page dated 1671 and its own pagination, but the register is continuous with Paradise Regain'd, so the two were issued together and a Samson offered as a separate book is a broken volume
- Leaves measure roughly 175 x 111 mm untrimmed
- Publisher imprint reads Printed by J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey, London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | John Milton |
| Publisher | Printed by J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey, London |
| Year | 1671 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | London, 1671, octavo; the imprint reads "Printed by J. M. for John Starkey at the Mitre in Fleetstreet, near Temple Bar" — J. M. is the… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
London, 1671, octavo; the imprint reads "Printed by J. M. for John Starkey at the Mitre in Fleetstreet, near Temple Bar" — J. M. is the printer John Macock, Starkey the bookseller-publisher. Wing M2152. The first issue carries the misprint "loah" for "loth" on page 67 (signature F2), line 2; the reading was corrected to "loth" in the later state, so "loah" is the decisive earliest-state point. A complete copy has the licence (imprimatur) leaf at the front and, at the end, the "Omissa" leaf and the errata leaf — the Omissa supplies ten lines inadvertently left out of Samson Agonistes, printed as an appended leaf rather than in place. Collation [4], 111, [1], 101, [3]; Samson Agonistes has its own title page dated 1671 and its own pagination, but the register is continuous with Paradise Regain'd, so the two were issued together and a Samson offered as a separate book is a broken volume. Leaves measure roughly 175 x 111 mm untrimmed. As a seventeenth-century book there is no dust jacket; copies were issued in contemporary calf or sheep and most collected copies have been rebound.

## Is this the true first?
The 1671 London octavo is the only edition published in Milton's lifetime and is the true first of both poems — Samson Agonistes has no separate prior edition, appearing here for the first time. The census claim is confirmed. There is no earlier or competing continental or original-language edition; Milton wrote in English and the book was published in London. It is habitually collected alongside the 1667 Paradise Lost (London, printed for Peter Parker and others), which is a separate high spot with its own celebrated sequence of title-page states, and the two should never be conflated: neither is an issue of the other.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club question arises for a 1671 book. The governing later-edition tell is the Omissa: in the 1680 second edition the ten omitted lines are printed in their correct place within the text of Samson Agonistes rather than appended on a separate leaf at the end, so a copy with those lines set in place is not the 1671 first. Copies of the 1671 lacking the licence leaf, the Omissa leaf or the errata leaf are incomplete rather than a distinct earlier state, and the "loth" reading on page 67 marks the corrected later state of the first edition. Nineteenth- and twentieth-century reprints and facsimiles are numerous and are identified by their own imprints.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Paradise Regain'd ... to which is added Samson Agonistes* by John Milton a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/paradise-regaind-to-which-is-added-samson-agonistes
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.