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MIKLÓS PÉTI giving dictation. Notwithstanding this scarcity of reference in Miltons career, dictation and written composition were inseparable even beyond the school bench. Appointed in March 1649 to be Secretary for Foreign Tongues, he obviously had to take dictation from his superiors, and, after he became blind in 1652 he himself was to employ amanuenses to dictate to. Further, he famously dictated Paradise Lost (as well as all of his later works), which prompted Richard Bentley (1662-1742) to “attempt a Restoration of the Genuine Milton," and initiated a cult of its own in the work of generations of painters from George Romney (1732-1802) to Mihäly Munkäcsy (1844-1900). Finally, in Milton’s case we should not forget about the cognate expression "dictator," and the author’s ambivalent positions on dictatorship, whether they be related to King Charles, Cromwell, God’s monarchy in heaven, or conversely Satan, whom Milton actually names the “Great Dictator” in Paradise Regained (PR 1.113). There is, thus, a variety of general contexts involving education, authorship, diplomacy, and the legitimate or illegitimate use or abuse of power to interpret the concept of dictation—and Milton, characteristically, has an intellectual stake in all of these. But his choice of word to describe the process of inspiration is also significant in the context of early modern English literature. Researching the Chadwyck-Healey Literature Online database (LION) for the verb “dictate” and its cognate terms (“dictate” as a noun, and “dictator”) within the period between 1471 and 1700, we might find some interesting interpretations and connotations of the word-family. In accordance with the transparent status of dictation as an educational method, very few texts actually refer to pedagogical situations; the most explicit example being probably in Samuel Colvil’s Whiggs Supplication: or The Scotch Hudibras (1681): Sundry Philosophick Asses, By Dictating, Teaching Classes Not taking an account again Making Boys spend their time in vain. (735-738)" Far more common, but—given the import of epistolography in early modern culture—perhaps less surprising, is the reference to dictating letters, especially in dramatic texts (in spite of this, the word, quite incredibly, does not appear 13 BENTLEY, Richard (ed.), Milton’s Paradise Lost. A New Edition, London, 1732, a” For an overview cf. KovAcs, Anna Zséfia, Milton Dictating to His Daughters. Varieties on a Theme from Füssli to Munkäcsy, in G. Ittzes — M. Péti (eds.), Milton Through the Centuries, Budapest, L'Harmattan, 2012, 322-337. 5° Allthe quotations below are taken from LION. + 80 +
