Catherine Gimelli Martin
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198769774
- eISBN:
- 9780191822605
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198769774.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Milton Studies, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
This chapter questions why John Dennis, the first literary critic to associate Milton with the poetic sublime, refuses to apply this term to Samson Agonistes or even publicly to discuss the drama. ...
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This chapter questions why John Dennis, the first literary critic to associate Milton with the poetic sublime, refuses to apply this term to Samson Agonistes or even publicly to discuss the drama. This omission is particularly problematic given that Dennis regards Milton’s sublimity as the product of his religious passion and defends the portrayal of tragic heroes who share much the same flaws as his Samson. The answer to the problem explored here is that while Dennis generally shared Milton’s politics, after the Restoration the political resistance theory implicit in his drama is far more radical than John Locke’s theory in the Second Treatise on Government, which Dennis explicitly approved. The post-Restoration implications of these differences are thoroughly discussed, along with the probable influence of George Buchanan’s Jephtes (1554) on Samson Agonistes.Less
This chapter questions why John Dennis, the first literary critic to associate Milton with the poetic sublime, refuses to apply this term to Samson Agonistes or even publicly to discuss the drama. This omission is particularly problematic given that Dennis regards Milton’s sublimity as the product of his religious passion and defends the portrayal of tragic heroes who share much the same flaws as his Samson. The answer to the problem explored here is that while Dennis generally shared Milton’s politics, after the Restoration the political resistance theory implicit in his drama is far more radical than John Locke’s theory in the Second Treatise on Government, which Dennis explicitly approved. The post-Restoration implications of these differences are thoroughly discussed, along with the probable influence of George Buchanan’s Jephtes (1554) on Samson Agonistes.
