Absalom and Achitophel advice of the double agent Hushai over the good advice of Achitophel. Achitophel, realising that the rebellion is doomed to failure, goes home and hangs himself. Absalom is killed (against David's explicit commands) after getting caught by his hair in the thick branches of a great oak tree: "His head caught fast in the oak, and he was left hanging between heaven and earth, while the mule that was under him went on" (NRSV 2 Sam. 18:9). The death of his son, Absalom, causes David enormous personal grief. A second allegory in the poem, beginning on line 425, is the
Caught in a Free State a Free State" are based on actual events and persons. The anachronistic reference to "Free State" is deliberate as the Irish Free State had been superseded by the new Constitution of Ireland of 1937, which is a recurring theme. Both Günther Schütz and Dan Bryan were still alive during the filming (in 1983), hence the change of names. It was also broadcast in the United Kingdom on Channel 4 in April 1984, and was repeated in July 1986. Caught in a Free State Caught in a Free State was a dramatised television series made by RTÉ in 1983. This four-part