Samson’s Cords: Imposing Oaths in Milton, Marvell, and Butler

Alex Garganigo

Published by University of Toronto Press 2018

Samson’s Cords

Imposing Oaths in Milton, Marvell, and Butler

Alex Garganigo

https://doi.org/10.3138/9781487512200

Overview
Contents

About this book

Samson’s Cords examines the radically different responses of John Milton, Andrew Marvell, and Samuel Butler to the existential crises caused by an explosion of loyalty oaths in Britain before and after 1660.

Author / Editor information

Garganigo Alex :

Alex Garganigo is an associate professor in the Department of English at Austin College.

Reviews

Megan Matchinske, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill:

"The dialogic nature of Samson’s Cords will make it the go-to book for people interested in any and all issues surrounding the oath: perjury, censorship, cursing, equivocation, casuistry, office, loyalty, promise, and ethics. There is much here as well for early modernists working on Butler, Marvell, and Milton, as Garganigo provides new, innovative, and restorative readings of all three, reminding readers how important literary poetics continues to be within the ethically focused historical scholarship of the last several years."

Jonathan Michael Gray:

"Garganigo’s work certainly increases our understanding of the literature of Milton, Marvell, and Butler, and for those who specialize in their study, Samson’s Cords is well worth a read."

Andrew Hadfield, University of Sussex:

"Samson’s Cords is a sophisticated, learned, and thoughtful book based on wide reading and deep thinking."

Yr Athro John Spurr, Department of History, University of Swansea:

"Samson’s Cords contributes to the scholarly understanding of two major writers of the seventeenth century, Milton and Marvell, to the wider appreciation of British seventeenth-century history and culture, including the writings of Samuel Butler, and to the way we understand oaths and swearing from a theoretical perspective."

Alvin Snider, Department of English, University of Iowa:

"Samson’s Cords mines a rich vein of critical discourse on seventeenth-century texts, and offers many new insights into the politics of oath-making and oath-breaking. The book represents a considerable achievement in its approach to bringing canonical literary works into dialogue with more ephemeral writings of the period."

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xvii
Introduction: Samson’s Cords in Restoration England Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Conjuring Oaths and Identities in Hudibras Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
2. Testing the Tests in The Rehearsal Transpros’d Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
3. An Horatian Oath: The Horatian Ode, Secularism, and Toleration Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
4. Samson’s Cords: Imposing Oaths in Eikonoklastes and Samson Agonistes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
5. Paradise Lost I: God’s Swearing by Himself: Milton’s Troubling Coronation Oath Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
6. Paradise Lost II: Of Apples, Oaths, and Women Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	164
Appendix: A Proposal for Emending One of Marvell’s Letters Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	277
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	321

Language: English
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Audience: College/higher education;Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 352

eBook

Published: April 13, 2018
ISBN: 9781487512200