! First lecture, RECOVERED, from 9/7/10 on Absalom and Achitophel

Published: Sept. 29, 2010, 7:08 p.m.

b"This is the first lecture on Absalom and Achitophel, given on September 7.\\xa0 I just managed to recover it.\\xa0 It's largely about the meaning of and the political views evidenced by Dryden's claim that history repeats itself -- first in Biblical days, then in the late seventeenth century.\\xa0 Some context for the poem is given.\\xa0 We spend a fair amount of time exploring the anti-perfectibilian implications of historical repetition."