“As One Who Pray’d”

The discussion in this chapter also centres on expression rather than intention. The Messenger's words, "as one who pray'd, / Or some great matter in his mind revolv'd", suggest that Samson's posture before the destruction of the Temple is readily identifiable as one of petition or meditation. The chapter, explores the ideas relating to Milton's anxiety about embodied and disembodied expression, set and extempore Iconoclastic prayers, and active participation as opposed to passive spectatorship, all meet in his closet tragedy, Samson Agonistes. It aims to replace revisionist and regenerationist readings by proposing that Milton's tragedy succeeds in creating a fully-embodied and passionate model of devotion in which prayer is conceptualized as violence. The chapter adopts an approach more consistent with critics such as Elizabeth Sauer and Dennis Kezar who have resisted the temptation to pick sides and have offered new contexts for studying Milton's drama.