This study examines the interplay of Latin and English in a selection of John Milton's neo-Latin writings. It argues that this interplay is indicative of an inherent bilingualism that proceeds hand-in-hand with a self-fashioning that is bicultural in essence. Interlingual flexibility ultimately proved central to the poet of Paradise Lost, an epic uniquely characterized by its Latinate vernacular and its...

This study examines the interplay of Latin and English in a selection of John Milton's neo-Latin writings. It argues that this interplay is indicative of an inherent bilingualism that proceeds hand-in-hand with a self-fashioning that is bicultural in essence. Interlingual flexibility ultimately proved central to the poet of Paradise Lost, an epic uniquely characterized by its Latinate vernacular and its vernacular Latinitas. Author Estelle Haan (Sheehan) is Professor of English and Neo-Latin Studies at The Queen's University of Belfast. She is a well-known and well-respected Neo-Latinist who has published several volumes with the American Philosophical Soc. and has recently edited Milton's Latin and Greek poetry for Oxford University Press.