Part ff. 26–7 - Copy of an agreement between (A) John Milton and (B) Samuel Simmons for Milton’s Paradise Lost, 27 Apr. 1667;

2 single sheets

In consideration of £5 A assigns to B the copyright in a poem entitled Paradise Lost (or by whatever other name it shall be called), lately licensed to be printed, and, in consideration of £5 to be paid by B at the end of each of the first three impressions A agrees not to print or sell this or any similar book without B’s consent. (Each impression shall be accounted to be ended when 1300 copies have been sold to ‘particular reading Customers’, and none of them is to exceed 1500 copies.) B shall be ready to make oath at A’s request before a Master in Chancery regarding the selling of the books by retail, whereby A is to be entitled to his money from time to time on every reasonable request, or shall pay the full £5 payable on the completion of each impression as if it were due.

Two sheets, each pasted to a guard in Crewe MS 21 (ff. 26–7).

The original is in the British Library (Add. MS 18861). It was printed in the Museum of Foreign Literature and Science, xi (1827), 118. See also CELM, MnJ 111.