Samson on the Yard: Teaching Milton’s Samson Agonistes in an Arizona Prison

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 167-183
Author(s):  
David Hawkes ◽  
Joe Lockard
Keyword(s):  
Samson Agonistes

Samson Agonistes 1665-6.

1906 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 78
Author(s):  
Albert S. Cook
Keyword(s):  
Samson Agonistes

Aristotle's Approach to Poetry

1981 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-39
Author(s):  
B. R. Rees
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Major Part ◽  
Structural Pattern ◽  
Classical Text ◽  
Samson Agonistes ◽  
Tom Jones ◽  
Artistic Representation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Western European ◽  
First Time

These are the opening words of Aristotle's Poetics, generally recognized as the most influential work in the history of Western European drama and poetic theory since the Renaissance. The initial statement of the scope of the inquiry is a formidable one; but a reader coming to it for the first time might well be forgiven for concluding that it promises far more than it achieves. Is it possible, he might ask, that all this is contained in a slim volume occupying no more than 47 pages in the Oxford Classical Text and 45 in the Penguin translation? Reading further, he might become even more disillusioned: what he discovers is that, after a very brief and perfunctory introduction on poetry as a form of mimesis or artistic representation, Aristotle limits himself to a discussion of tragedy, a cursory treatment of epic, and a few passing references to comedy, and that, even in the case of tragedy, by far the major part of the argument is devoted to an examination of plot. Can this really be the work which excited scholars in the Renaissance, inspired Milton to write Samson Agonistes, an Aristotelian drama if there ever was one, provided the structural pattern and dramatic conventions for the plays of Racine and Corneille, gave Fielding the principles on which he based his Tom Jones, influenced Goethe and Lessing and, through Lessing, Coleridge, and has won the attention and admiration of critics writing in English from James Harris at the end of the eighteenth century to Richard MacKeon in the second half of the twentieth? And, if so, why?

Altering Eyes: New Perspectives on Samson Agonistes

2004 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-326
Author(s):  
N. McDowell
Keyword(s):  
Samson Agonistes

Samson Agonistes and the “Tragedy” of the Apocalypse

PMLA ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 85 (5) ◽  
pp. 1050-1062 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara K. Lewalski
Keyword(s):  
Book Of Revelation ◽  
Samson Agonistes ◽  
End Of History ◽  
God's People ◽  
The World ◽  
The End Of History ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Wrath Of God ◽  
Church Government

Milton's references in the preface to Samson Agonistes and in The Reason of Church Government to the Book of Revelation as tragedy have great significance for his drama. His cited authority, David Pareus, and several other Protestant commentators identified the Book of Revelation as tragedy on the basis of form (the alternation of dramatic episodes and Choruses) and subject—the spiritual combat of the Elect with Antichrist and their torment and suffering at his hands throughout all time, reversed only at the end of history when they share Christ's Apocalyptic victory over him. Protestant exegates often linked the Samson story typologically with the Book of Revelation, presenting Samson as type of the suffering Elect and the exercise of Samson's vocation as Judge (deliverer of God's people and executor of the wrath of God upon His enemies) as type of the Elect judging the world with Christ at the last day. This context assists the interpretation of Milton's Samson, bringing into focus its treatment of Samson's judgeship. The Samson Apocalypse link also brings a new perspective to certain moot questions: the date of the play, the interpretation of Samson's character, the presence of contemporary political reference, the nature of the drama's tragic effect.

scholarly journals The Neo-Christian Bias and Its Discontents: Milton Studies and the Case of Samson Agonistes

2001 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 157-170
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Sauer
Keyword(s):  
Samson Agonistes ◽  
Il Y A

Les études miltoniennes ont été dominées par ce que John Rumrich qualifie de «Milton inventé», personnage caractérisé par son didactisme et son orthodoxie d’après le «préjugé néo-chrétien» de la critique. Rumrich emprunte cette dernière expression à William Empson, qui, il y a des décennies, mit en cause la tendance à imposer sur Milton la cohérence et l’orthodoxie religieuse. Dans cette exercice d’analyse, l’auteur examine l’engagement de Milton avec l’hétérodoxie et l’hérésie dans Samson Agonistes, poème dont la réception a été déterminée par les «piétés régénératrices» des spécialistes ayant pris un parti conservateur.

The Chronology of Milton's Major Poems

PMLA ◽  
1961 ◽  
Vol 76 (4-Part1) ◽  
pp. 345-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
John T. Shawcross
Keyword(s):  
Paradise Lost ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
Samson Agonistes ◽  
Paradise Regained ◽  
Important Study

The conclusion of Ants Oras as to the chronology of Milton's major poems, based on his important study of the blank vejse, is, I believe, in serious error. Examining strong pauses, both terminal and medial, the distribution of medial pauses over the pentameter line, run-on lines, feminine and masculine pauses, the distribution of polysyllables over the verse line, feminine endings, rhythmical expressions creating shifted stresses, syllabized “-ed” endings, and pyrrhic verse endings, Oras concludes that the traditional chronology for Paradise Lost (from Book I through Book XII), Paradise Regained (from Book I through Book IV), and Samson Agonistes is correct. As a prosodical study, the statistical data presented lead us to a greater understanding of the aforementioned verse techniques as used by Milton than we have heretofore known. Professor Oras' inferences of dated practice are, however, another matter.

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