‘Canst thou draw out Leviathan with an hook?’: Job 41 in Hobbes’ Masterpiece
Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook, or press down its tongue with a cord? Can you put a rope in its nose, or pierce its jaw with a hook? Will it make many supplications to you? Will it speak soft words to you? Will it make a covenant with you to be taken as your servant forever?[1] * The rich symbolic inner workings of Hobbes’ Leviathan have been much commented on in the centuries since its publication, with most attention being given to its incomparable frontispiece. But fewer...
