This essay examines the influence of Petrarchan love poetry on Milton's depiction of Eve's dream sequence in Paradise Lost, exploring how the conventions of courtly love inform Satan's temptation strategy.

Introduction

John Milton's Paradise Lost draws from numerous literary traditions to construct its epic narrative of the Fall. Among these influences, the Petrarchan sonnet tradition plays a particularly significant role in shaping the psychological dynamics of temptation, especially in Eve's prophetic dream in Book V. By examining how Milton adapts the conventions of courtly love poetry—specifically the idealization of the beloved, the lover's pursuit through praise, and the tension between spiritual and physical desire—we can better understand how Satan's seduction operates within familiar literary frameworks that would have been immediately recognizable to Milton's readers.

The Petrarchan Framework

Francesco Petrarch's Canzoniere established many of the conventions that would define European love poetry for centuries. The Petrarchan lover typically positions himself as a humble supplicant before an idealized, often unattainable beloved. This dynamic creates a power structure where the lover must employ rhetoric, praise, and persuasion to win favor. The beloved is elevated to near-divine status, yet this very elevation creates the tension that drives the poetry—the gap between idealization and physical desire.

Milton would have been intimately familiar with this tradition, having written sonnets himself and translated Petrarchan models. More importantly, he understood how the psychological mechanisms of Petrarchan courtship could be adapted to explore spiritual seduction.

Eve's Dream as Petrarchan Seduction

In Book V, Eve recounts her troubling dream to Adam, describing how a voice "smooth and sweet" called to her in the night. The dream-Satan employs classic Petrarchan strategies: he begins with praise of Eve's beauty, elevates her above all creation, and suggests that such beauty deserves a wider audience than the confined space of Eden.

The voice tells Eve: "Fairest resemblance of thy Maker fair, / Thee all things living gaze on, all things thine / By gift, and thy celestial beauty adore." This echoes the Petrarchan convention of cataloguing the beloved's perfections while simultaneously suggesting that such beauty creates an almost moral obligation to be seen and appreciated.

The Rhetoric of Elevation

Satan's strategy mirrors the Petrarchan lover's tendency to elevate the beloved beyond mortal bounds. He suggests that Eve is "meant for Gods" and that consuming the forbidden fruit would make her "a Goddess among Gods." This elevation serves the same function as Petrarchan idealization—it creates desire by suggesting the beloved deserves more than her current state.

However, Milton subverts this convention by revealing its dangerous potential. Where Petrarchan elevation traditionally remained in the realm of metaphor, Satan literalizes it, promising actual divine status. This transformation from poetic device to literal temptation reveals Milton's critique of how earthly love poetry might be corrupted into spiritual seduction.

Conclusion

By framing Satan's temptation within Petrarchan conventions, Milton demonstrates how familiar forms of persuasion can be turned toward destructive ends. Eve's dream operates as a dark mirror of courtly love poetry, where the traditional dynamics of praise, elevation, and desire are employed not to celebrate love but to precipitate humanity's fall. This literary strategy would have been particularly effective for Milton's readers, who would recognize the familiar patterns even as they witnessed their corruption.

The genius of this approach lies in how it makes the temptation psychologically credible. Satan succeeds not through alien or obviously evil rhetoric, but by employing the same persuasive strategies that had been celebrated in centuries of love poetry. In doing so, Milton suggests that the very forms of discourse we use to express our highest aspirations can be turned against us when employed by those who understand their power.