The David Myth in Western LiteratureRaymond-Jean Frontain, Jan Wojcik Purdue University Press, 1980 - 212 pages This collection of eleven original essays each by a different scholar outlines the rich body of imaginative and devotional literature which has the biblical poet-warrior-king as its subject or primary focus, showing David to have as strong an imaginative appeal for Western writers as such better-known mythic heroes as Orpheus, Oedipus, Samson, and Ulysses. The introduction to the volume surveys the development of the David myth particularly in British and American literature. The essays represent a variety of critical approaches to the myth as literature, treating in detail such works as Shakespeare's Hamlet, Cowley's Davideis, Christopher Smart's A Song to David, and Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! and examining the complex uses made of David in the Midrash, Talmud, and Patristic writings; medieval sermons and Reformation devotional treatises; and American Puritan sermons. |
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Page 7
... follow ; M. L. Lewan- dowska examines how the popular belief that David is the author of the Psalms has affected one modern poet's work . ) The modern age has found the David story as broad and various as the Renaissance did ; its uses ...
... follow ; M. L. Lewan- dowska examines how the popular belief that David is the author of the Psalms has affected one modern poet's work . ) The modern age has found the David story as broad and various as the Renaissance did ; its uses ...
Page 10
... follows the course of the deviation to catch its sense . The studies that follow show that the retellings go beyond respect- ful variation . The David narrative is classic literature in the sense Frank Kermode gives to the term . Each ...
... follows the course of the deviation to catch its sense . The studies that follow show that the retellings go beyond respect- ful variation . The David narrative is classic literature in the sense Frank Kermode gives to the term . Each ...
Page 13
... follow.1 Han- nah , one of the two wives of Elkanah , is said to be without child at an advanced age ; her husband , who loves her , must honor her less because his other wife has produced . The other wife ridicules Hannah ; stricken ...
... follow.1 Han- nah , one of the two wives of Elkanah , is said to be without child at an advanced age ; her husband , who loves her , must honor her less because his other wife has produced . The other wife ridicules Hannah ; stricken ...
Page 15
... follows : the greatest king , David , has an army in the field while he seduces the wife of one of his warriors . Throughout the history which follows , kings are so absorbed with battles , even against themselves and other tribes of ...
... follows : the greatest king , David , has an army in the field while he seduces the wife of one of his warriors . Throughout the history which follows , kings are so absorbed with battles , even against themselves and other tribes of ...
Page 19
... follows his father's example in his lusting , not so precisely in his taking a woman who is forbidden him , but in his irremediable maniacal fixation . When Tamar tells him later that all he has to do to be given her is to ask David for ...
... follows his father's example in his lusting , not so precisely in his taking a woman who is forbidden him , but in his irremediable maniacal fixation . When Tamar tells him later that all he has to do to be given her is to ask David for ...
Contents
12 | |
Frail Grass and Firm Tree | 38 |
Two Views of the Evangelical David | 56 |
Wait upon the Lord | 70 |
David as Epic Hero | 86 |
Cowleys Davideis and the 96 | 96 |
David the Military Exemplum | 106 |
Blest Light | 120 |
Faulkners Absalom Absalom | 136 |
The Words of Their Roaring | 156 |
Saul and David in the Early Poetry | 170 |
Notes | 179 |
Contributors 209 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Absalom Amichai Amnon anointed Augustine Bathsheba Beza Beza's Bible biblical books of Samuel brother character Christ Christian Christopher Smart commentary Cowley Cowley's d'Etaples David and Jonathan David story Davideis death Deuteronomists divine drama Drayton enemy England epic episode Eucherius example faith father Faulkner friendship God's Goliath Hamlet Hebrew Henry hero heroic Holy II Samuel interpretation Israel Jesus Josephus King David King Saul Lefèvre Lefèvre d'Etaples legend literature London Lord Lyra medieval Midrash Migne military moral myth of David narrative Nathan Neoplatonic Old Testament penitence Philistine play poem poet poetic poetry Praise prayer prophet Psalms Psalter Psalterium punishment Quentin reader religious Renaissance repentance revenge Roethke Roethke's role Samuel Saul's says scene Scripture sequence sermon sins Smart soldiers spirit stanza Sutpen Talmud thee Theodore Beza Thomas Sutpen thou tion tradition tragedy tragic trans University Press Uriah verse vols words Yehuda Amichai
Popular passages
Page 116 - My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust ; who subdueth my people under me.
Page 165 - I WAITED patiently for the Lord ; And he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
Page 193 - COMMIT thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. AND he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.
Page 82 - tis not to come ; if it be not to come, it will be now ; if it be not now, yet it will come : the readiness is all.
Page 194 - FOR yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place and it shall not be. BUT the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
Page 43 - Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.
Page 193 - Fret not thyself because of evildoers, Neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, And wither as the green herb.
Page 164 - Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink : let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters. 15 Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.
Page 88 - But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty : from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.
Page 77 - And it came to pass when David had made an end of speaking these words unto Saul, that Saul said, Is this thy voice, my son David?