La Judit (1574) is an epic poem by the French Protestant poet Guillaume Salluste Du Bartas (1544-1590) that borrows its subject from the deuterocanonical Book of Judith. It recounts the widow Judith’s successful assassination of Nebuchadnezzar’s viceroy Holofernes, an act which delivers the people of her town Bethulia from Holofernes’ army.
La Judit is comprised of six books written in
alexandrine verse. The first book describes the decision of the
Bethulians to resist Holofernes’ invasion and their preparations
for his attack. In the second book, Holofernes informs himself
about his enemy, learning the story of the Israelites from a local
Ammonite leader (who seems so impressed as he tells …
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