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
... shows , such a reading cannot predominate : David is the biblical man for all seasons . Organizing a special session on the David myth for the 1976 annual meeting of the Modern Language Association , the editors were struck by the ...
... shows , such a reading cannot predominate : David is the biblical man for all seasons . Organizing a special session on the David myth for the 1976 annual meeting of the Modern Language Association , the editors were struck by the ...
Page 1
... had brought the kingdom to . One thing the literary history of the David story shows is that stories can " stretch . " 1 Commenting upon the plethora of David plays in the late Introduction: Transformations of the Myth of David.
... had brought the kingdom to . One thing the literary history of the David story shows is that stories can " stretch . " 1 Commenting upon the plethora of David plays in the late Introduction: Transformations of the Myth of David.
Page 2
... shows how , almost systematically , the earliest readers of David's story averted their eyes from its naked realism to see only moral exempla . ) For the pre - Renaissance world — from the time of the earliest religious interpretations ...
... shows how , almost systematically , the earliest readers of David's story averted their eyes from its naked realism to see only moral exempla . ) For the pre - Renaissance world — from the time of the earliest religious interpretations ...
Page 9
... show quite clearly in the narrative . Related to this are those paradoxes in David's character , mentioned at the opening of this essay , which might easily be interpreted as contradictions , thus suggesting either hypocrisy on his part ...
... show quite clearly in the narrative . Related to this are those paradoxes in David's character , mentioned at the opening of this essay , which might easily be interpreted as contradictions , thus suggesting either hypocrisy on his part ...
Page 10
... show that the retellings go beyond respect- ful variation . The David narrative is classic literature in the sense ... shows as much about the baker as the bread . One : Discriminations against David's Tragedy in Ancient Jewish and 10 ...
... show that the retellings go beyond respect- ful variation . The David narrative is classic literature in the sense ... shows as much about the baker as the bread . One : Discriminations against David's Tragedy in Ancient Jewish and 10 ...
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?