[In the following excerpt, Cook analyzes the literary qualities of Judith, including its character portrayals, narrative structure, and use of poetic devices.]

The modes in which the poet's art [in Judith] is displayed may be considered under the four heads of Selection, Arrangement, Amplification, and Invention. To these might be added his mastery of language and skill in the handling of metre.

SELECTION.

The characters are limited to three,—Judith, Holofernes, and Judith's attendant. Hardly worthy to be ranked with these is the warrior who enters Holofernes' tent and announces his violent death. He is merely one of the group of officers, though a little bolder than the rest, and drops out of the action immediately. There is no mention of Achior, none of Ozias, none of Bagoas, none of Nebuchadnezzar. The latter seems to be merged in Holofernes, who is accordingly both general and king. Judith's handmaid serves to enhance the importance of the protagonist, as in the original narrative, though perhaps in a greater degree. Thus not only does she carry the bag, but it is she whom Judith commands to exhibit the head of the slain captain, instead of drawing it forth herself. Judith is continually before us; she inspires, directs, or executes everything. The result is a foregone conclusion, and everything tends irresistibly towards it. At the very beginning of the poetic fragment we are assured that she was defended from the peril that menaced her, though the fulness of the triumph is not foretold. The note of the beginning—“á tó ðám Ælmihtigan”—recurs also at the end.

Yet we are not permitted to overlook the formidable nature of Judith's antagonist, his wickedness and his power. His servants, even the principal warriors and councillors, remain at a distance until he summons them, and fear to awaken him, even amid circumstances of the greatest danger. The epithets applied to him, beginning with those descriptive of his station, soon alternate with such as characterize his evil disposition and purposes; the latter grow relatively more and more numerous, until they culminate in the “heathen hound” of l. 110, a variant of this being repeated in l. 179, where Judith is telling the story of his discomfiture. But his character is not left to be inferred from epithets alone; in ll. 181-3 his hostility and malice are plainly set forth. When the action opens, it is Holofernes who occupies the scene, and he remains in possession of it, glorying in his authority and rejoicing over the banquet, long enough to challenge the attention of the reader, and make him apprehensive lest Judith may succumb in the unequal contest. The peripetia is then introduced with considerable art, being heightened by the prayer of Judith while holding the weapon, by her manipulation of the stupefied chieftain before raising her hand to strike, and by the appreciable interval between the two blows.

There is thus a regular gradation of personages, the handmaid being but a shadow of Judith, and her foil, Holofernes a redoubtable foe, and Judith the triumphant heroine. To invest the latter with all the womanly attributes most reverenced by his countrymen, the poet endows her with virginal purity, and converts her from a Jewess of profound religious conviction to an orthodox Christian and believer in the Trinity.

So far as we can judge, all is frankness and fair dealing on Judith's part. We hear nothing of her requesting permission to go beyond the lines for prayer, and there is no hint of her practising deception or otherwise compromising herself, in the whole course of the poem. She is a heroine sans peur et sans reproche, unless we account her deed in itself as the exploit of a vulgar assassin. Admitting the purity of her intentions, and the essentially righteous character of the blow she inflicted, she remains the unsullied champion and deliverer of her people, as stainless and single-minded as the Maid of Orleans.

The chief actors are thrown into relief upon a background formed by the two armies respectively. Moreover, the remarks of each are addressed to a kind of dumb chorus, in which all distinct individualities are suppressed. Such are the retainers whom Holofernes feasts, and the citizens who surround Judith on her return to Bethulia.

It will be apparent, from what has been said, that the characters have been selected and shaded with reference to maintaining the dramatic unity of impression through a whole series of events, and that it is in the person of the heroine that this dramatic unity centres, as it is about her that all the incidents revolve.

In the selection of these incidents, again, equal soundness of judgment is displayed. The order of events in the latter part of the Biblical narrative is, on the whole, preserved, those of lesser dramatic importance being eliminated. The poet's object is manifestly to depict only the cardinal situations and occurrences, and to impress these upon the mind by the free play of his invention in elaborating scenes and incidents, introducing transitional passages to render the sequence obvious, and otherwise preparing or heightening the effect.

ARRANGEMENT.

The topics of the poem are these:

• a) Divine assistance granted to Judith.
• b) Feast.
• c) Judith brought to Holofernes' tent.
• d) Evil purposes and slaying of Holofernes.
• e) Return to Bethulia.
• f) Account of Holofernes' death and advice to the warriors.
• g) Departure of the Hebrew army.
• h) Surprise of the Assyrians and discovery of Holofernes' dead body.
• i) Flight and defeat of the Assyrians.
• j) Return of the Israelites and taking of spoil.
• k) Recompense of Judith.
• l) Judith's thanksgiving.
• m) Poet's ascription of praise.

In the main, as has been said, the order is that of the Apocryphal book, but two remarkable transpositions must be observed.

In the poem, Judith is brought in after the conclusion of the banquet; in the original, while the feast is still in progress. The poet is thus left free to emphasize the license and clamor of the feasters, since Judith is not present, and therefore has no part in their eating and drinking. By this means, too, a direct motive is provided for Judith's conduct in the slaying, Holofernes' evil desires and intentions being referred to the moment of his entry into the pavilion, which immediately precedes his drunken stupor and his death.

The other transposition has the air of an invention, but it may be, as indicated in the Sources, only a skilful employment of the hint furnished by the original in the twofold division of the attacking forces. I refer to the actual engagement with the Assyrian army, or its vanguard, described so powerfully in ll. 216^b-235. This would be the natural sequel, to the Teutonic mind, of the array and hostile sally of the Hebrew troops, though we are expressly told that no actual conflict then took place, but merely a hostile demonstration. The rage and terror of the Assyrian leaders are accentuated by means of this change, a moment of suspense, charged with ever increasing agony of apprehension, is introduced, and the despair which precedes the rout and final overthrow is rendered complete and overwhelming. Nearer and nearer approaches the noise of battle, until the leaders can no longer endure the responsibility and the dread, and one of their number, breaking through the ceremonial restrictions which surround with inviolability the person of an Oriental despot, is brought face to face with the reality which eclipses all previous disaster. Besides, the poet's audience would demand a conflict and not merely a pursuit. To gratify such a demand, the battle proper must be introduced before the climax of consternation is reached, and the actual panic has begun. On these grounds the new arrangement is amply justified. Flight and combat are aptly interwoven in the description of the Assyrians' panic: they flee, they are cut down; still flee, and are still cut down; finally, after a list of the spoils is given, the fulness of the patriots' triumph is again rehearsed.

AMPLIFICATION.

It is somewhat difficult to effect a clear severance of invention from amplification, nor indeed is such analytic painfulness necessary beyond certain obvious limits.

The poet dwells with especial fondness on feasting and war. This is a national trait, and should be considered without prejudice to the controlling art visible in every part of his production. Amplification rises to the dignity of invention in the lines which describe the wolf, the raven, and the eagle, haunters of the battle-field. But the continuation also abounds in powerful strokes, which reveal a master of this species of poetry. The spoils are enumerated with a profusion of descriptive epithets. The impression of a vast concourse of joyful and expectant people is admirably communicated. Something like a lyric element is introduced into Judith's prayer, and into her speech before the people, with its dramatic accompaniments. The feast is a drunken orgy, with the shadow of death hanging over it. Of minor interest, but still worthy of mention, are the escorting of Judith to the tent, the description of the canopy and its use, and the account of the journey from the Assyrian camp to Bethulia.

INVENTION.

Here, as elsewhere in Old English poetry, the bard occasionally marks his satisfaction or prevision by passages of reflective comment. Thus he anticipates the doom of Holofernes and affirms its justice, dwells upon the Divine assistance vouchsafed to Judith, as to every believing mortal, and ends the poem with a doxology of his own. Akin to these are resumptive paragraph … which are introduced at the beginning of a fit or canto, to effect a transition. Sometimes such a comment is merely retrospective, and not transitional, and is intended to bind the work more firmly together, as well as to exalt the heroine. A prediction may be put into the mouth of a subordinate personage. From a result a previous action may be inferred, and expanded into a brief episode; thus Holofernes is depicted in the act of falling (67^b-69^a), and the watchmen in that of holding guard (141^b-146^a). Similarly, it is a consequence of the transfer of Judith from the banquet-hall to the bed-chamber, that the warriors who had accompanied Holofernes immediately depart; this retinue may be compared with that of Hrothgar. The preparations for the slaying of Holofernes are multiplied, partly to increase the suspense, and partly for the purpose of rendering the narrative more graphic and lively. Thus Judith devises her plan while Holofernes sleeps, unsheathes his sword with her right hand, and places him in such wise as is most convenient for her. Not only does the officer who discovers Holofernes dead rend his garments and cry, but he falls to the earth and tears his hair. Finally, the poet consigns Holofernes to the abode of darkness, the hall of torturing serpents, with evident satisfaction at the retribution which is there meted out to him.