Milton Studies, Band 33

This extraordinary volume of Milton Studies assembles essays by eight major Miltonists on Samson Agonistes, the dramatic poem that present-day commentators perceive as the most vexed and vexing work in the author's canon. The contributors identify and engage the major controversial issues surrounding this work - whether the godhead is present in or absent from Samson Agonistes; the appropriation and adaptation of biblical analogues, prosody and versification; the secret of Samson's strength; the interrelation of Milton's dramatic poem and Restoration drama; the bearing of mid-17th-century radicalism on the ethos of Samson Agonistes; and ways and means of misreading Milton's dramatic poem. Undoubtedly, this volume should be profoundly influential, frequently cited and often debated.