{"title":"The First Annotator of Paradise Lost and the Makings of English Literary Criticism","authors":"David A. Harper","doi":"10.1353/SEL.2019.0023","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The 321 dense folio pages of commentary on Paradise Lost attributed only to \"P. H.\" and published by Jacob Tonson in 1695 initiated founding moves of vernacular English literary scholarship. Their accomplishment has been obscured since their publication by the anonymity of the author, traditionally identified as \"Patrick Hume,\" a Scottish schoolmaster. Using bibliographic and textual evidence, this article contends that \"P. H.\" was Peter Hume, a Nonconformist servant in the Restoration Royal Household from 1668 until his death in 1707, and explores the implications of his identity upon our understanding of this foundational work of English literary scholarship.","PeriodicalId":45835,"journal":{"name":"STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 1500-1900","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2019-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 1500-1900","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/SEL.2019.0023","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"Arts and Humanities","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 2
Abstract
Abstract:The 321 dense folio pages of commentary on Paradise Lost attributed only to "P. H." and published by Jacob Tonson in 1695 initiated founding moves of vernacular English literary scholarship. Their accomplishment has been obscured since their publication by the anonymity of the author, traditionally identified as "Patrick Hume," a Scottish schoolmaster. Using bibliographic and textual evidence, this article contends that "P. H." was Peter Hume, a Nonconformist servant in the Restoration Royal Household from 1668 until his death in 1707, and explores the implications of his identity upon our understanding of this foundational work of English literary scholarship.
期刊介绍:
SEL focuses on four fields of British literature in rotating, quarterly issues: English Renaissance, Tudor and Stuart Drama, Restoration and Eighteenth Century, and Nineteenth Century. The editors select learned, readable papers that contribute significantly to the understanding of British literature from 1500 to 1900. SEL is well known for thecommissioned omnibus review of recent studies in the field that is included in each issue. In a single volume, readers might find an argument for attributing a previously unknown work to Shakespeare or de-attributing a famous work from Milton, a study ofthe connections between class and genre in the Restoration Theater.