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

This is the first lecture on Absalom and Achitophel, given on September 7.  I just managed to recover it.  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.  Some context for the poem is given.  We spend a fair amount of time exploring the anti-perfectibilian implications of historical repetition.