Re: Rép. : Re: [Milton-L] Samson as suicidebomber

[JD Fleming]

I confess, shamefacedly, that I did not see the pun. Pity. (All the more so given the almost unbelievable ones that dot _SA_.) 

On the issue of the hair, though, my point is that _SA_ doesn't seem to work along the (conventional, intelligible) lines that you suggest. Quite the contrary -- though the idea of "magical" qualities, perhaps, is not apposite. JDF


----- Original Message -----
From: "James Rovira" <jamesrovira at gmail.com>
To: "John Milton Discussion List" <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
Sent: Friday, May 15, 2009 9:01:40 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Re: Rép. : Re: [Milton-L] Samson as suicidebomber

I very much appreciate these plugs, and I'll try to avoid a pun
uniting "hair" and "plugs."

I would like to add that I don't think anyone here, at least, believes
Samson's hair has magical qualities.  It is simply the most
significant sign of his faithfulness to the Nazirite vow.  His
faithfulness to that vow is the basis of the Divine source of his
strength.

Jim R

On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 11:55 AM, JD Fleming <jfleming at sfu.ca> wrote:
> In point of fact, it is clear throughout SA that the hero's strength has returned with his hair. Thus turning the millstone, offering to fight Harapha -- declined, H says, because S is blind, not because he is an unworthy opponent -- numerous comments by Manoa and Chorus, and, above all, S performing feats of strength in the theatre, "none daring approach." Other Renaissance and Baroque Samson plays (see Kirconnell) follow an intentionalist logic such that S's strength departs when he breaks his congenital vow, and does not return until God's favor is renewed, hair or no hair ("just" a symbol). So they have S, for example, performing for the Philistines in drag, beaten by small boys, etc.  What makes SA striking and odd is precisely that it does not work that way. On all these points (if I can be forgiven a plug) I have a fair bit to say in chapters two and three of my recent book.
> JD Fleming

_______________________________________________
Milton-L mailing list
Milton-L at lists.richmond.edu
Manage your list membership and access list archives at http://lists.richmond.edu/mailman/listinfo/milton-l

Milton-L web site: http://johnmilton.org/

-- 
James Dougal Fleming
Associate Professor
Department of English
Simon Fraser University

"das Fragwuerdige zu sehen"