Oldal 80 [80]
MIKLÓS PÉTI
to observe, furthermore, that Milton uses the language of education in his poetic
self-presentation, most conspicuously in the several invocations, or proems, of
the epic. In Book 1 the epic narrator asks the Spirit, to "Instruct" him (PL 1.19);
in Book 3 he confesses to be “Taught by the heav’nly Muse to venture down / Ihe
dark descent, and up to reascend” (PL 3.19-20); and in Book 7 he invokes Urania
(the heavenly Muse) to “govern” his song (PL 7.30). The vocabulary of instruction
is also present, albeit indirectly, in the invocation to Book 9 where the narrator
pleads to obtain
answerable style [...]
Of my Celestial Patroness, who deignes
Her nightly visitation unimplor’d,
And dictates to me slumbring, or inspires
Easie my unpremeditated Verse (PL 9.20-24)
These last lines seem to present a paradoxical situation. Ihe OED’s pertaining
definition of the verb “dictate” (which actually quotes Milton’s lines for illustra¬
tion), i.e. “[t]o state or express in the form of words which are to be written down;
to say or read aloud (matter which is to be transcribed)” (OED sw. “dictate” la) and
“{t]lo speak or read in this way; to give dictation” (OED sv. “dictate” 1b), implies a
conscious receiver in the communication process, whereas the verb “slumber” de¬
notes a state of mind inert, and a subject neither in profound sleep nor fully awake
(OED sw. “slumber” la). Were we to take the described situation literally, we would
imagine the poet as a drowsy student dozing off — or even unwilling to emerge
from a nap — to the drone of the Muse’s voice. We should, however, remember, that
“such formulations are conventional,” even appropriate to Milton’s prophetic self;°
and the strange situation may well be interpreted in the context of the allegorical
dream visions of medieval literature.’ Indeed, Milton himself seems to insist that
we take these “nightly visitations” seriously: in the invocation to Book 7 he also
mentions how Urania visits his “slumbers Nightly” (PL 7.29), and sets his “Celestial
Patroness” (PL 9.21) explicitly against the traditional, classically-inspired figure of
the Muse: “For thou art Heav’nlie, shee an empty dreame” (PL 7.39).
Thus, while it has been suggested as an explanation for the passage under
discussion that Milton thought he was possessed,® “slumbring” might actu¬
Surprised by Sin. The Reader in Paradise Lost, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1967, (2"¢
ed.) 1997.
5 Cf. NITCHIE, George W., Milton and his Muses, Journal of English Literary History, 44 (1977), 77.
7 Cf. Fowter, Alastair, Milton: Paradise Lost, Harlow, Longman, 2007, Rev. 2" ed., 469n.
8 Ibid.
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