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“DICTATES TO ME SLUMBRING” — DICTATION AND INSPIRATION IN PARADISE LOST
ally be a traditional motif. But what about the use of the verb “dictate”? Is the
reference to “dictation” by the Muse peculiar to Paradise Lost, or is it also a
traditional theme reaching back to Milton’s classical and/or mediaeval and
early modern European predecessors? In what sense may “instruction” by the
heavenly Muse be described as dictation? And does Milton provide mutually
exclusive alternatives when he says that Urania dictates or inspires, or is this
merely a list of different choices to describe the same process?
Although the lines under discussion are among the most well-known sections
of the epic, criticism has rarely addressed these questions. My purpose in this
paper, therefore, is to consider some ways in which the word “dictate” and the
notion of dictation might be interpreted in the different historical and cultural
contexts of Milton’s epic project. A thorough consideration of Milton’s special
view of inspiration should naturally account for the various, e.g. epistemological,
ethical, didactic, and even theological, aspects of the motif of dictation; within
the confines of this paper I can only attempt some preliminary and tentative
answers to the question above focusing mostly on how reference to dictation by
the Muse contributes to Milton’s self-presentation as an epic poet.
It is a commonplace that dictation functions as an intermediary between
oral and written discourses, and has always been associated with a wide range
of scenarios and methods of written composition, from the simplest didactic
exchange between a master and a pupil, to more complex interactions between
authors and scribes, officers and secretaries, or even more recently, nominal
writers and their so-called ghosts.’ Even among the ancients opinion had been
divided over whether dictation helps or hinders the creative process — Dio
Chrysostom and Quintilian represent the extreme differences in this question”
— but its use was widespread in any written composition.'! From antiquity to
Milton’s time (and well beyond), however, dictation and the asymmetric power
relation it involves between master and scribe were simply taken for granted. In
Milton’s Of Education, for example, we find a complete humanist curriculum
largely inspired by Milton’s early schooldays at St. Paul’s in London (where
dictating was a basic, well-documented method), but among the frequent
references to the students writing and reading no mention is made of taking or
See HONEYCUTT, Lee, Literacy and the Writing Voice: The Intersection of Culture and Technology
in Dictation, Journal of Business and Technical Communication 18 (2004), 294-327.
10 See, Dio Chrysostom 18.18 (for) and Quintillian 10.3.31 (against).
1° Cf. PARK, Yoon-Man, Mark's Memory Resources and the Controversy Stories (Mark 2:1-3:6): An
Application ofthe Frame Theory of Cognitive Science to the Markan Oral-Aural Narrative, Leiden,
Brill, 2010, 46-48.
2 Cf. STRYPE, John, A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, Vol. 1, London, 1603, 25,
164. / https://www.hrionline.ac.uk/strype/ accessed 22 September 2016.
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