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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. + 79 +
