Samson's Cords : Imposing Oaths in Milton, Marvell, and Butler / Alex Garganigo.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Garganigo, Alex, 1969- Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Milton, John, 1608-1674--Criticism and interpretation.

Milton, John.

Marvell, Andrew, 1621-1678--Criticism and interpretation.

Marvell, Andrew.

Butler, Samuel, 1612-1680--Criticism and interpretation.

Butler, Samuel.

English literature--17th century--History and criticism.

English literature.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (351 pages)

Place of Publication:

Toronto : University of Toronto Press, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

"In seventeenth-century Britain every debate about loyalty oaths invoked the biblical Samson. Samson's Cords argues that these loyalty tests became an unprecedentedly pervasive feature of life in Restoration England and that writers of satire and epic had no choice but to respond. Alex Garganigo examines the radically different responses of John Milton, Andrew Marvell, and Samuel Butler to the existential crises caused by this explosion of loyalty oaths. After early support, all three developed serious reservations, confronting the irony that while oaths often exclude and destroy, they also include and create. Tackling issues such as performance, ritual, religion, secularization, gender, swearing, republicanism, and citizenship, Garganigo offers original readings of Paradise Lost, Samson Agonistes, An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland, The Rehearsal Transpros'd, and Hudibras."-- Provided by publisher

Contents:

Introduction : Samson's cords in Restoration England

1. Conjuring oaths and identities in Hudibras

2. Testing the tests in The Rehearsal Transpros'd

3. An Horatian oath : the Horatian Ode, secularism, and toleration

4. Samson's cords : imposing oaths in Eikonoklastes and Samson Agonistes

5. Paradise Lost I : God's swearing by Himself : Milton's troubling coronation oath

6. Paradise Lost II : of apples, oaths, and women

Appendix : A proposal for emending one of Marvell's letters.

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 06. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9781487512217

148751221X

9781487512200

1487512201

OCLC:

1083623304