Hannibal Hamlin, English, presents: "Tobit's Dog: Reading and Writing the Bible in Renaissance England" as part of the 2014-2015 Arts and Humanities Inaugural Lecture Series.
Though not widely known today, the apocryphal (for Protestants) Book of Tobit was one of the most popular biblical texts in the 16th and 17th centuries. The bizarre story involves a pious old man blinded by sparrow's dung, the archangel Raphael disguised as a hired servant, a woman beloved by a demon who strangles her first seven husbands, a monstrous fish with a magic liver and the only domestic pet -- a dog -- in the Bible. In this talk Hamlin will explore the story's reception history in the writing of English men and women of all sorts, including poets and playwrights, preachers and prophetesses, many of whom seem to have been particularly fascinated by the loyal but curiously irrelevant dog.
RSVP here for the lecture.
A reception will accompany each lecture. Free and open to all.
For more information, visit the Arts and Humanities Inagural Lectures website.
