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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 36
Page
... relation to individual works or in full - length studies of the traditions themselves . Comparatively little has been done on David . The reason for this is implied throughout the following essays : of all these biblical heroes , the ...
... relation to individual works or in full - length studies of the traditions themselves . Comparatively little has been done on David . The reason for this is implied throughout the following essays : of all these biblical heroes , the ...
Page 1
... relation between personal virtue and tragedy , and the pulls of secularization against piety when a religious culture tries to become a more practical one . It has allowed poets to talk about poetry , religious teachers to sermonize on ...
... relation between personal virtue and tragedy , and the pulls of secularization against piety when a religious culture tries to become a more practical one . It has allowed poets to talk about poetry , religious teachers to sermonize on ...
Page 2
... relation to men , and are characterized by a psychological realism unparalleled in either testament . Yet one of the ... relations in their stories to dramatize the dichotomy between what the Christian Saint Augustine centuries later ...
... relation to men , and are characterized by a psychological realism unparalleled in either testament . Yet one of the ... relations in their stories to dramatize the dichotomy between what the Christian Saint Augustine centuries later ...
Page 5
... relationship with Jonathan was vaunted by such writers as the Christian humanists in their handbooks on education and ... relation to Yahweh or to Christ . However , to imply that with the Renaissance David was entirely secularized , is ...
... relationship with Jonathan was vaunted by such writers as the Christian humanists in their handbooks on education and ... relation to Yahweh or to Christ . However , to imply that with the Renaissance David was entirely secularized , is ...
Page 6
... relation of the bibli- cal David to the best - known revenge hero in English drama , Shake- speare's Hamlet . ) And in the aftermath of the bloody civil wars , new uses were found for the political David : Andrew Marvell sought to ...
... relation of the bibli- cal David to the best - known revenge hero in English drama , Shake- speare's Hamlet . ) And in the aftermath of the bloody civil wars , new uses were found for the political David : Andrew Marvell sought to ...
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 | |
Other editions - View all
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?