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
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Page 13
... scene in the Books of the Kingdom , as the Septuagint trans- lators called the four sequential , closely related books which are now known as I and II Samuel and I and II Kings , establishes the ambiguous narrative perspective on the ...
... scene in the Books of the Kingdom , as the Septuagint trans- lators called the four sequential , closely related books which are now known as I and II Samuel and I and II Kings , establishes the ambiguous narrative perspective on the ...
Page 14
... scene at once begins the " history " that the four Books of the Kingdom review . Hannah's son Samuel will anoint the kings Saul and David , who begin the development of the tribe of Israel into a rich and feared kingdom and whose ...
... scene at once begins the " history " that the four Books of the Kingdom review . Hannah's son Samuel will anoint the kings Saul and David , who begin the development of the tribe of Israel into a rich and feared kingdom and whose ...
Page 15
... scene that 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 ...
... scene that 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 ...
Page 17
... scene begins ( II Samuel ll : 2ff . ) with David walking about on the roof of the palace , from where he " sees " a woman bathing . He sees nothing but her beauty — no moral prohibitions against taking her , nor her conjugal ...
... scene begins ( II Samuel ll : 2ff . ) with David walking about on the roof of the palace , from where he " sees " a woman bathing . He sees nothing but her beauty — no moral prohibitions against taking her , nor her conjugal ...
Page 18
... scene from previous scenes , and from it into the rest of the story . David's character has had him fixing his energies and gazing on particular tasks all through his story . He could spot Goliath's weakness and Saul's jealousy ; he ...
... scene from previous scenes , and from it into the rest of the story . David's character has had him fixing his energies and gazing on particular tasks all through his story . He could spot Goliath's weakness and Saul's jealousy ; he ...
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?