ABSTRACT
This chapter develops a comparative reading of Samson Agonistes and Joost van den Vondel’s Samson, of Heilige Wraak, bringing into view the political stakes behind the diverse treatments of the Samson narrative in the period. Milton’s Samson Agonistes has elsewhere been compared to other contemporary Dutch biblical adaptations alongside reflections on their political context. Samson was never regarded as one of Vondel’s masterpieces, and was only performed three times in his lifetime. Perhaps relatedly, there is not a great deal of literary scholarship about it, a lack recently mourned by Yasco Horsman in his psycho-analytic reading of the play. The (political) ambiguity of Samson Agonistes has not gone unnoticed in Milton scholarship. This has led some to conclude that it ought not be read as a political allegory at all.
