It ’s a well - acknowledge literary fact thatWilliam Shakespearehad an tremendous influence on " Paradise Lost " poet John Milton , and new evidence suggests that super fan Milton — who even wrote a verse form call " On Shakespeare"—might have have his idol’sfirst pagination .
The folio , which contains 36 of Shakespeare ’s looseness , was write in 1623 — seven years after the Bard ’s death . An estimated 750 first folios were print , with only 233 of them have sex to have survived , including one with annotations compose throughout it . As it turns out , those scrawl might be Milton ’s .
grant toThe Guardian , Cambridge University fellow Jason Scott - Warren consider that Milton compose those important annotation . Scott - Warren record an clause about an anonymous annotator write by Pennsylvania State University English prof Claire Bourne . The Folio copy in doubtfulness has been stored in the Free Library of Philadelphia since 1944 , and Bourne was able to date the annotator back to the mid-1600s . ( Milton died in 1674 . ) It was Scott - Warren who comment that thehandwritten noteslooked similar to Milton ’s script .
" It shows you the firsthand confrontation between two dandy author , which you do n’t often get to see , especially in this period , ” Scott - Warren toldThe Guardian . “ A pile of that variety of evidence is lost , so that ’s really exciting . ”
If the writing does indeed belong to Milton , it ’s not the first time the poet has left notes on another writer ’s body of work ; he purportedly mark up his copy of Giovanni Boccaccio’sLife of Danteas well . Scott - Warren and Bourne plan to pair up to find out if Milton leave annotations on any other famous works .
" It was , until a few days ago , simply too much to hope that Milton ’s own copy of Shakespeare might have survived — and yet the grounds here so far is persuasive , ” Dr. Will Poole , a dude and tutor at Oxford ’s New College say . " This may be one of the most important literary discoveries of innovative meter . "
