[ChocMontePy]

I had the strange experience of reading all of Paradise Lost and finding it very understandable, but having the opposite experience with Aeropagetica, where I had to give up because I couldn't understand what he was saying. Prose should normally be more comprehensible than poetry, but something about the organization of Milton's prose sentences made it very difficult for me to follow.

[eszed]

I agree. The difficulty (in my opinion) is largely because he's writing in direct response to particular critics, and without necessarily giving a precis of their arguments. (The occasional vituperative barb - and he could be mean - is only slight relief.) He also feels compelled to drive into the ground every. single. last. objection. that anyone might have. A good critical edition can help with the former problem (and with his penchant for including long, long untranslated quotations in the many, many languages he knew), but nothing can help with the latter. Contemporaries found him hard to read, too.