Changes: This version of Samson Agonistes, prepared as a teaching text, claims no critical authority. Spelling and typography are updated. Long speeches and Milton’s descriptive “Argument” are divided to readable portions. Ellipses ( . . . ) indicate where a few lines are cut. Instructor’s annotations appear in brackets, with occasional substitutions of modern terms and minimal stage directions. Milton’s meanings are never substantially altered.

John Milton (1608-74): Scholars generally regard Milton as the greatest English poet after Shakespeare (1562-1614). Milton's poetic works supremely combine learning, language, imagination, and spiritual devotion.

Portraits of Milton

Milton in later life

Eugene Delacroix, Milton dictating Paradise Lost to his Daughers (1826)

Reasons of style and history make Milton much less known to the general public and students of literature. Milton didn’t write popular plays like Shakespeare or lyrics about nature and love, like Wordsworth or Keats.

Most of Milton’s poems reprise biblical narratives and spiritual themes, as in the epics Paradise Lost (1667, based on Adam and Eve’s temptation by Satan) and Paradise Regained (1671, on Christ’s resistance to Satan's temptations). As the greatest epic poems in the English language, these poems testify to Milton's commitment to classical learning (every morning he read for hours in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin) and a status as a Christian Humanist along with other leading figures of the European Renaissance.

Milton’s father was a successful lawyer and musician. The younger John Milton showed talent at languages, felt a destiny to become a great poet, finished at Oxford University, and made friends with leading thinkers and artists in Europe.

Milton's life in England coincided with the political and religious movement of Puritanism, whose reputation today is grim, but Puritanism shaped essential elements of Anglo-American culture and politics, particularly middle-class democracy over aristocracy. Milton wrote on divorce, censorship, and representative government, serving as “Secretary of Foreign Tongues” for the Puritan Commonwealth (1642-59) after the English Civil Wars.

Milton was thus part of a crusading religious movement, but he was also a scholar of classical literature who saw no conflict in learning from and extending the benefits of non-Christian traditions. In this regard Milton may be identified with the important tradition of Christian Humanism, which seeks to reconcile the two main streams or souces of Western Civilization.

At 33 Milton married the 16-year-old Mary Powell, who soon returned to her family. She later rejoined Milton, bearing four children before her death in 1642. His infant son died; relations with his daughters were strained. Milton remarried twice, the last time happily. Milton lost his sight to glaucoma in 1654, after which he dictated his prose and verse to assistants including his wives and daughters.

Samson Agonistes, published in 1671, casts a biblical story in the form of a classical tragedy. The story and characters derive from the Old Testament tale of Samson, the Danite strongman of Judges 13-16 who married outside his tribe, lost his divinely endowed strength, and was blinded. At length Samson regained God’s favor and his strength, dying as he destroyed a Philistine temple.

Sources on Samson from Bible & Flavius Josephus

Samson Agonistes was not written for performance on a stage. The genre of a play like this may be called “closet drama”—one meant to be read (in a private room) rather than performed. Other closet dramas include Goethe’s Faust (Part I, 1808; Part II, 1832) and Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound (1819).

Milton's style is somewhat plain yet also highly learned, true to both Puritanism and the classical learning that flowered in England and Europe during the Renaissance and Seventeenth Century.

Plain style: As a tragic or epic poet, the first interest of Milton's language is narrative, plot, or telling the story, yet his lines also occasionally sing with lyric effects.

Learned style: use of allusions, puns (for wit more than humor), intertextuality.

Setting of Samson Agonistes: Gaza

The play takes place during Biblical times in front of the prison of the ancient city of Gaza, when that city was governed by the Philistines, a historic people who contended with the Jews for control of the Holy Land.

Modern Gaza City appears in the map below as part of the Gaza Strip, now part of the State of Palestine adjacent to the state of Israel.

Past research indicated that the Philistines mentioned in the Bible are unrelated to the present-day Palestinians, but further research may be needed.

Milton's preface to Samson Agonistes

[The following excerpts are from Milton's preface to Samson Agonistes. Some bold highlights are comparable to Aristotle’s descriptions of tragedy in Poetics.]

Of that sort of Dramatic Poem which is called Tragedy

Tragedy, as it was anciently composed, hath been ever held the gravest, moralest, and most profitable of all other Poems: therefore said by Aristotle to be of power by raising pity and fear, or terror, to purge the mind of those and such like passions [catharsis], that is to temper and reduce them to just measure with a kind of delight, stirred up by reading or seeing those passions well imitated [mimesis]. Nor is Nature wanting in her own effects to make good his assertion: for so in Physic [medicine] things of melancholic hue and quality are used against melancholy, sour against sour, salt to remove salt humors. [Milton justifies Aristotle's theory by referring to the ancient practice of “homeopathy,” based on the "Law of Similars" or "Like cures like."]

Hence Philosophers and other gravest Writers . . . frequently cite out of Tragic Poets, both to adorn and illustrate their discourse. The Apostle Paul himself thought it not unworthy to insert a verse of Euripides into the Text of Holy Scripture, I Cor. 15.33 . . . . [explanatory link]

Heretofore Men in highest dignity have labored not a little to be thought able to compose a Tragedy. . . . This is mentioned to vindicate Tragedy from the small esteem, or rather infamy, which in the account of many it undergoes at this day with other common Interludes [entertainments]; happening through the Poets’ error of intermixing Comic stuff with Tragic sadness and gravity [as in tragicomedy]; or introducing trivial and vulgar persons [i.e., comic figures of a "lower type"], which by all judicious hath been counted absurd; and brought in without discretion, corruptly to gratify the people. . . . [These comments typify Puritan skepticism toward popular theater. England’s theaters were closed during the Puritan Commonwealth.]

[A] Chorus is here introduced after the Greek manner . . . . Division into Act and Scene referring chiefly to the Stage (to which this work never was intended) is here omitted.

It suffices if . . . the Plot . . . may stand best with verisimilitude [realism] and decorum [dignity]; they only will best judge who are not unacquainted with Æschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the three Tragic Poets unequalled yet by any, and the best rule to all who endeavor to write Tragedy. The circumscription of time wherein the whole Drama begins and ends, is according to ancient rule, and best example, within the space of 24 hours.

Samson Agonistes (1671)

[Instructor's note: “Agonistes” is Greek for “struggler,” “combatant,” “wrestler,” or one who is takes part in a game. The word survives in English agony, protagonist, antagonist, etc.]

THE ARGUMENT          [i. e., Milton’s description of the play’s action]

Samson made Captive, Blind, and now in the Prison at Gaza, there to labor as in a common work-house, on a Festival day,  in the general cessation from labor, comes forth into the open Air, to a [sheltered] place [near] there to sit a while and bemoan his condition.

Where he [Samson] happens at length to be visited

• by certain friends and equals of his tribe, which make the Chorus, who seek to comfort him what they can;
  
• then by his old Father Manoa, who endeavors the like, and withal tells him his purpose to procure his liberty by ransom;
  
• lastly, that this Feast was proclaimed by the Philistines as a day of Thanksgiving for their deliverance from the hands of Samson, which yet more troubles him.

Manoa [Samson’s father] then departs to prosecute his endeavor with the Philistine Lords for Samson's redemption; who in the meanwhile is visited by other persons; and lastly by a public Officer to require his coming to the Feast before the Lords and People, to play or show his strength in their presence;

[Samson] at first refuses, dismissing the public Officer with absolute denial to come; at length persuaded inwardly that this [opportunity] was from God, he yields to go along with him, who came now the second time with great threatenings to fetch him;

the Chorus yet remaining on the place, Manoa returns full of joyful hope, to procure his Son’s deliverance: in the midst of which discourse an Ebrew [a Hebrew or Jew] comes in haste confusedly at first; and afterward more distinctly relating the Catastrophe, what Samson had done to the Philistines, and by accident to himself*; wherewith the Tragedy ends. [*Milton exculpates Samson of suicide]

The Persons. (Characters)

Samson
Manoa the Father of Samson
Dalila [Samson’s[ Wife
Harapha of Gath
Publick Officer
Messenger
Chorus of Danites [tribe of Israel to which Samson belongs]

The Scene: before the Prison in Gaza

Samson: A little onward lend thy guiding hand    [Compare Oedipus at Colonus led by Antigone]
To these dark steps, a little further on;
For yonder bank hath choice of Sun or shade,
There I am wont to sit, when any chance              [wont to = accustomed to]
Relieves me from my task of servile toil,               [servile = slave-like]                       (5)
Daily in the common Prison else enjoined me,    [enjoined me = imposed on me (as a penalty)]
Where I a Prisoner chained, scarce freely draw
The air imprisoned also, close and damp,
Unwholesome draft:
                                  but here I feel amends,       [amends = reparation, restoration]
The breath of Heav'n fresh-blowing, pure and sweet,                                (10)
With day-spring born; here leave me to respire.     [respire = breathe, catch breath]
This day a solemn Feast the people hold
To Dagon their Sea-Idol, and forbid               [Dagon = major god of biblical Philistines]
Laborious works, unwillingly this rest
Their Superstition yields me; hence with leave                                          (15)
Retiring from the popular noise, I seek        ["popular noise" = people partying in honor of Dagon]
This unfrequented place to find some ease,        [unfrequented = uncrowded

Ease to the body some, none to the mind
From restless thoughts, that like a deadly swarm
Of Hornets armed, no sooner found alone,     [cf. "Furies" as conscience in classical tragedy]    (20)
But rush upon me thronging, and present
Times past, what once I was, and what am now.            [tragedy as fall of the great]

O wherefore was my birth from Heaven foretold    [wherefore = why]   [Judges 13]
Twice by an Angel, who at last in sight                           [cf. oracles & prophecy in Gk tragedy]
Of both my Parents all in flames ascended                                                (25)
From off the Altar, where an Offering burned,
As in a fiery column charioting
His Godlike presence, and from some great act
Or benefit revealed to Abraham's race?                             [Abraham's race = the Jews]

Why was my breeding ordered and prescribed    [breeding = birth, training]                 (30)
As of a person separate to God,    ["person . . . God" = Nazarite, see Judges 13.5 + line 316]
Designed for great exploits; if I must die
Betrayed, Captived, and both my Eyes put out,
Made of my Enemies the scorn and gaze;      [scorn and gaze = object of mockery]
To grind in Brazen Fetters under task            [Brazen Fetters = brass chains]   (35)
With this Heaven-gifted strength?
                                                         O glorious strength
Put to the labor of a Beast, debased
Lower than bond-slave! Promise was that I
Should Israel from Philistine yoke deliver;      [yoke = rule, tyranny]

Ask for this great Deliverer now, and find him     [great Deliverer = Samson (irony)]   (40)
Eyeless in Gaza* at the Mill with slaves,
Himself in bonds under Philistine yoke;
Yet stay, let me not rashly call in doubt                                   [stay = pause]      
Divine Prediction; what if all foretold
Had been fulfilled but through mine own default,                                   (45)
Whom have I to complain of but myself?         [prophecy / God’s will / fate vs. free will / human fault ]

[*"Eyeless in Gaza" = later title for 1936 bestselling novel by Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World (1931); also name of 1980s-90s post-punk Brit band]

Who this high gift of strength committed to me,
In what part lodged, how easily bereft me,
Under the Seal of silence could not keep,
But weakly to a woman must reveal it,                 [previews Dalila]             (50)
Overcome with importunity and tears.
O impotence of mind, in body strong!

But what is strength without a double share
Of wisdom, vast, unwieldy, burdensome,
Proudly secure, yet liable to fall                                                              (55)
By weakest subtleties, not made to rule,
But to subserve where wisdom bears command.
God, when he gave me strength, to show withal
How slight the gift was, hung it in my Hair.                      [slight = fragile]

But peace, I must not quarrel with the will                                             (60)
Of highest dispensation, which herein
Happily had ends above my reach to know:         [expression of Puritan / Calvinistic predestination]
Suffices that to me strength is my bane,
And proves the source of all my miseries;
So many, and so huge, that each apart                                                 (65)
Would ask a life to wail,
                                        but chief of all,
O loss of sight, of thee I most complain!
Blind among enemies, O worse than chains,
Dungeon, or beggary, or decrepit age!
Light the prime work of God to me is extinct,                  [Genesis 1.3]        (70)
And all her various objects of delight
Annulled, which might in part my grief have eased,    [annulled =  ended, extinguished]
Inferior to the vilest now become
Of man or worm; the vilest here excel me,
They creep, yet see,
                                   I dark in light exposed                                           (75)
To daily fraud, contempt, abuse and wrong,
Within doors, or without, still as a fool,
In power of others, never in my own;
Scarce half I seem to live, dead more than half.

O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon,                                      (80)
Irrecoverably dark, total Eclipse
Without all hope of day!
O first created Beam, and thou great Word,         [Beam: i.e., of light; in Genesis 1.3 God first made light]       
Let there be light, and light was over all;
Why am I thus bereaved thy prime decree?                                                (85)
The Sun to me is dark
And silent as the Moon,
When she deserts the night
Hid in her vacant interlunar cave.             [ancient theory of the new moon’s darkness]       

Since light so necessary is to life,                                                                (90)
And almost life itself, if it be true
That light is in the Soul,
She all in every part; why was the sight
To such a tender ball as the eye confined?
So obvious and so easy to be quenched,                                                   (95)
And not as feeling through all parts diffused,
That she might look at will through every pore?
Then had I not been thus exiled from light;
As in the land of darkness yet in light,
To live a life half dead, a living death,                                                        (100)
And buried;
                    but O yet more miserable!
My self, my Sepulcher, a moving Grave,                                [compare l. 156]       
Buried, yet not exempt
By privilege of death and burial
From worst of other evils, pains and wrongs,                                            (105)
But made hereby obnoxious more
To all the miseries of life,
Life in captivity
Among inhuman foes.

But who are these? for with joint pace I hear    ["who are these?": built-in stage direction signals arrival of Chorus]  (110)
The tread of many feet steering this way;
Perhaps my enemies who come to stare
At my affliction, and perhaps to insult,
Their daily practice to afflict me more.

Chorus: This, this is he; softly a while,     [Chorus = members of Danite tribe of Israel to which Samson belongs]   (115)
Let us not break in upon him;
O change beyond report, thought, or belief!
See how he lies at random, carelessly diffused,
With languished head unpropped,
As one past hope, abandoned,                                                                     (120)
And by himself given over;
In slavish habit, ill-fitted weeds   [weeds = clothes; cf. Oedipus’s rags in Oedipus at Colonus]
Overworn and soiled;
Or do my eyes misrepresent?

                                                Can this be he,                               [Recognition scene?]
That Heroic, that Renowned,                                                                  (125)
Irresistible Samson? whom unarmed
No strength of man, or fiercest wild beast could withstand;
Who tore the Lion, as the Lion tears the Kid,                    [Judges 14.5-6; kid = lamb]
Ran on embattled Armies clad in Iron,                            
And weaponless himself,                                                                             (130)
Made Arms ridiculous, useless the forgery       [arms = weapons; ridiculous = useless; forgery = manufacture]
Of brazen shield and spear, the hammered Cuirass,    [cuirass = armored breastplate]
Chalybean tempered steel, and frock of mail               [Chalybes=ancient ironworkers; frock of mail = suit of armor]
Adamantine Proof; . . .                                                [adamantine = impenetrably hard]

Then with what trivial weapon came to hand,
The Jaw of a dead Ass, his sword of bone,                                 [ass = donkey]
A thousand fore-skins fell, the flower of Palestine* [fore-skins=uncircumcised, non-Jewish men; Judges 15.15]
In Ramath-lechi famous to this day:                                                           (145)
Then by main force pulled up, and on his shoulders bore               [Judges 16.3]       
The Gates of Azza, Post, and massive Bar                                    [Azza = Gaza]       
Up to the Hill by Hebron, seat of Giants old,
No journey of a Sabbath day, and loaded so;
Like whom the Gentiles feign to bear up Heaven.                     [i. e., Atlas; Gentiles = Greeks]   (150)

[*Palestine refers here to the geographical region b/w the Mediterranean Sea & the Jordan River, also called Canaan, the Land of Israel, Zion, & the Holy Land by various peoples at different times in history.]

Which shall I first bewail,
Thy Bondage or lost Sight,
Prison within Prison
Inseparably dark?
Thou art become (O worst imprisonment!)                                          (155)
The Dungeon of thy self; thy Soul . . .                                 [compare line 102]       
Imprisoned now indeed,
In real darkness of the body dwells,
Shut up from outward light                                                                       (160)
To incorporate with gloomy night;
For inward light alas
Puts forth no visual beam.
O mirror of our fickle state,                       [mirror = mimesis]
Since man on earth unparalleled!                                                           (165)
The rarer thy example stands,
By how much from the top of wondrous glory,
Strongest of mortal men,
To lowest pitch of abject fortune thou art fallen.       [exemplum of tragic condition or narrative]

For him I reckon not in high estate                                                              (170)
Whom long descent of birth
Or the sphere of fortune raises;
But thee whose strength, while virtue was her mate
Might have subdued the Earth,
Universally crowned with highest praises.                                                  (175)

[Instructor's note: In lines 170-175, Milton—who in the English Civil War (1642-46) was associated politically with the forces of Parliament against the Royalists—dissociates greatness from "birth" or inherited fortune, associating it instead with individual virtue and achievement; cf. meritocracy]

Samson: I hear the sound of words, their sense the air
Dissolves unjointed ere it reach my ear.

Chorus: He speaks, let us draw nigh. Matchless in might,   ["let us draw night": built-in stage direction]
The glory late of Israel, now the grief;
We come thy friends and neighbors not unknown                                      (180)
From Eshtaol and Zora's fruitful Vale
To visit or bewail thee, or if better,
Counsel or Consolation we may bring,
Salve to thy Sores, apt words have power to assuage              [assuage = relieve]        
The tumors of a troubled mind,                                                                   (185)
And are as Balm to festered wounds.

Samson: Your coming, Friends, revives me, for I learn
Now of my own experience, not by talk,
How counterfeit a coin they are who friends
Bear in their Superscription (of the most      [superscription = markings or face (as on a coin)]  (190)
I would be understood) in prosperous days
They swarm, but in adverse withdraw their head
Not to be found, though sought.
                                                             Ye see, O friends,
How many evils have enclosed me round;
Yet that which was the worst now least afflicts me,                                     (195)
Blindness, for had I sight, confused with shame,
How could I once look up, or heave the head,
Who like a foolish Pilot have shipwrecked,
My Vessel trusted to me from above,
Gloriously rigged; and for a word, a tear,                                                      (200)
Fool, have divulged the secret gift of God
To a deceitful Woman:
                                        tell me Friends,
Am I not sung and proverbed for a Fool
In every street, do they not say, how well
Are come upon him his deserts? yet why?                                                   (205)
Immeasurable strength they might behold
In me, of wisdom nothing more than mean;          [wisdom nothing more than mean = no more sense than the smallest] 
This with the other should, at least, have paired,
These two proportioned ill drove me transverse.       [two proportioned ill = physical strength unbalanced by spiritual wisdom] 

Chorus: Tax not divine disposal, wisest Men     [Tax not divine disposal = Don't question divine will]  (210)
Have erred, and by bad Women been deceived;
And shall again, pretend they never so wise.
Deject not so overmuch thy self,                           [Don't be too down on yourself]
Who hast of sorrow thy full load besides;

Yet truth to say, I oft have heard men wonder                                              (215)
Why thou shouldst wed Philistine women rather
Than of thine own Tribe fairer, or as fair,
At least of thy own Nation, and as noble.

Samson: The first I saw at Timna, and she pleased     [first=Samson’s 1st Philistine wife]
Me, not my Parents, that I sought to wed,                        [Judges 14.3]           (220)
The daughter of an Infidel: they knew not                  [infidel = unbeliever]
That what I motioned was of God; I knew                       [motioned = did; Judges 14.4]   
From intimate impulse, and therefore urged
The Marriage on; that by occasion hence      [by occasion hence = as a result of this marriage]
I might begin Israel's Deliverance,                                                          (225)
The work to which I was divinely called;

She proving false, the next I took to Wife
(O that I never had! fond wish too late.)
Was in the Vale of Sorec, Dalila,
That specious Monster, my accomplished snare.                                    (230)
I thought it lawful from my former act,
And the same end; still watching to oppress
Israel's oppressors:
                                   of what now I suffer
She was not the prime cause, but I myself,
Who vanquished with a peal of words (O weakness!)              [peal = volley]  (235)
Gave up my fort of silence to a Woman.

Chorus: In seeking just occasion to provoke
The Philistine, thy Country’s Enemy,                [Philistines = enemies of Jews in much of Old Testament]
Thou never wast remiss, I bear thee witness:
Yet Israel still serves with all his Sons.                                                         (240)

Samson: That fault I take not on me, but transfer
On Israel's Governors, and Heads of Tribes,
Who seeing those great acts which God had done
Singly by me against their Conquerors
Acknowledged not, or not at all considered                                                 (245)
Deliverance offered:                                      [Jewish leaders didn't honor Samson's works]
                                     I on the other side
Used no ambition to commend my deeds,
The deeds themselves, though mute, spoke loud the doer;
But they persisted deaf, and would not seem             [they = Israel's Governors, Heads of Tribes]
To count them things worth notice,
                                                               till at length                                    (250)
Their Lords the Philistines with gathered powers
Entered Judea seeking me, who then
Safe to the rock of Etham was retired,
Not flying, but forecasting in what place                                           [flying = fleeing]
To set upon them, what advantaged best;                                                   (255)

Meanwhile the men of Judah to prevent
The harass of their Land, beset me round;      [harass = harassment, threat to]
I willingly on some conditions came
Into their hands, and they as gladly yield me     [Jewish men turn Samson over to Philistines]
To the uncircumcised a welcome prey,              [uncircumcised = Philistines]    (260)
Bound with two cords; but cords to me were threads
Touched with the flame:                                                                 [Judges 15.14]
                                         on their whole Host I flew                    [host = army]
Unarmed, and with a trivial weapon felled                       [trivial weapon = a donkey's jawbone]
Their choicest youth; they only lived who fled.

Had Judah that day joined, or one whole Tribe,                                         (265)
They had by this possessed the Towers of Gath,             [Gath = Philistine city]
And lorded over them whom now they serve;
But what more oft in Nations grown corrupt,
And by their vices brought to servitude,
Than to love Bondage more than Liberty*,                                                   (270)
Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty;
And to despise, or envy, or suspect
Whom God hath of his special Favor raised
As their Deliverer; if he aught begin,
How frequent to desert him, and at last                                                      (275)
To heap ingratitude on worthiest deeds?

[*"love Bondage more than Liberty": Milton may be commenting on the English people's abandonment of the Puritan Commonwealth and restoration of monarchy in the decade before he wrote Samson Agonistes]

Chorus: Thy words to my remembrance bring . . .

[Instructor's note: In omitted lines, the chorus recalls other misjudged heroes of Israel.]

Samson: Of such examples add me to the rule,                                       (290)
Me easily indeed mine may neglect,
But God’s proposed deliverance not so.

[Instructor's note: Samson says, I may have disobeyed the rules, but my bad example doesn't mean my people should disobey God.]

Chorus: Just are the ways of God,
And justifiable to Men;                 [Paradise Lost, l. 26: “And justify the ways of God to men.”]
Unless there be who think not God at all,                                                  (295)
If any be, they walk obscure;
For of such Doctrine never was there School,
But the heart of the Fool,
And no man therein Doctor but himself.

Yet more there be who doubt his ways not just . . . .                                      (300)
But never find self-satisfying solution.

As if they would confine the interminable,
And tie him to his own prescript,
Who made our Laws to bind us, not himself,
And hath full right to exempt                                                                          (310)
Whom so it pleases him by choice
From National obstriction, without taint                                    [obstriction = obligation]
Of sin, or legal debt;
For with his own Laws he can best dispense.

[Instructor's note: Lines 307-14 again exemplify the Puritan-Calvinist concept of God's sovereignty and purposes being beyond human comprehension.]

He would not else . . .                                                                                  (315)
Have prompted this heroic Nazarite,    [Nazarite=a person set apart for God; here, Samson]
Against his vow of strictest purity,
To seek in marriage that fallacious Bride,    [fallacious = deceitful; Bride = Dalila]   (320)
Unclean, unchaste.                                  [“unclean” as all Gentiles would be to Jews]

Down Reason then, at least vain reasonings down,
Though Reason here aver
That moral verdict quits her of unclean:
Unchaste was subsequent, her stain not his.                                           (325)

But see here comes thy reverend Sire                      [built-in stage direction]
With careful step, locks white as down,                 [locks = hair; down = feathers]
Old Manoa: advise                                                 [Manoa = Samson’s father]
Forthwith how thou ought to receive him.

Samson: Ay me, another inward grief awaked,                                         (330)
With mention of that name renews the assault.

Manoa [Samson's father]: Brethren and men of Dan, for such ye seem,    [men of Dan = Danite tribe]
Though in this uncouth place; if old respect,            [uncouth = unfamiliar, distasteful]
As I suppose, towards your once gloried friend,
My Son now Captive, hither hath informed                                       (335)
Your younger feet, while mine cast back with age
Came lagging after; say if he be here.                                  [he = Samson]

Chorus: As signal now in low dejected state,             [signal = notable, conspicuous, striking]
As erst in highest, behold him where he lies.              [erst = before, formerly]

Manoa: O miserable change! is this the man,       [recognition?]    (340)
That invincible Samson, far renowned,
The dread of Israel's foes, who with a strength
Equivalent to Angels walked their streets,
None offering fight; who single combatant          [previews confrontation with Herapha below]
Dueled their Armies ranked in proud array,                                                    (345)
Himself an Army, now unequal match
To save himself against a coward armed
At one spear’s length. O ever failing trust
In mortal strength! and oh what not in man
Deceivable and vain!                                        [cf. Ecclesiastes 1.2 in Bible: "All is vanity."]

                                      Nay, what thing good                                                (350)
Prayed for, but often proves our woe, our bane?   [classic expression of tragic condition]
I prayed for Children, and thought barrenness     [Judges 13]
In wedlock a reproach; I gained a Son,
And such a Son as all Men hailed me happy;
Who would be now a Father in my stead?                                                    (355)
O wherefore did God grant me my request,             [wherefore? = why?]
And as a blessing with such pomp adorned?
Why are his gifts desirable, to tempt                                          [his = God's]
Our earnest Prayers, then given with solemn hand
As Graces, draw a Scorpion’s tail behind?                                                   (360)

For this did the Angel twice descend? for this                                     [Judges 13]
Ordained thy nurture holy, as of a Plant;
Select, and Sacred, Glorious for a while,
The miracle of men: then in an hour
Ensnared, assaulted, overcome, led bound,                                                (365)
Thy Foe’s derision, Captive, Poor, and Blind
Into a Dungeon thrust, to work with Slaves?

Alas methinks whom God hath chosen once
To worthiest deeds, if he through frailty err,
He should not so overwhelm, and as a thrall                                                (370)
Subject him to so foul indignities,
Be it but for honor’s sake of former deeds.

Samson: Appoint not heavenly disposition, Father,  [appoint not= do not quarrel with]
Nothing of all these evils hath befallen me
But justly; I myself have brought them on,                                                    (375)
Sole Author I, sole cause: if aught seem vile,       [free will over fate or God's will]
As vile hath been my folly, who have profaned
The mystery of God given me under pledge
Of vow, and have betrayed it to a woman,                         [betrayed = revealed]
A Canaanite, my faithless enemy.                       [Canaanite = Philistine]          (380)
This well I knew, nor was at all surprised,
But warned by oft experience: did not she
Of Timna first betray me, and reveal                     [Judges 14.11-18; first wife gave answer to riddle]
The secret wrested from me in her height
Of Nuptial Love professed, carrying it straight                                                 (385)
To them who had corrupted her, my Spies,                  [them = Philistine enemies]
And Rivals? . . .

Thrice she assayed with flattering prayers and sighs,  [thrice = three times; assayed = tried, attempted]
And amorous reproaches to win from me
My capital secret, in what part my strength                  [capital = pun on "capital" as "head"]
Lay stored, in what part summed, that she might know:                                 (395)
Thrice I deluded her, and turned to sport
Her importunity, each time perceiving           [importunity = persistent inquiry]
How openly, and with what impudence         [impudence = shamelessness, effrontery]
She purposed to betray me, and (which was worse
Than undissembled hate) with what contempt                                                (400)
She sought to make me Traitor to my self;
Yet the fourth time, when mustering all her wiles,
With blandished parleys, feminine assaults,
Tongue-batteries, she surceased not day nor night  [tongue-batteries = verbal assaults; surceased = desisted, ended, ceased]
To storm me over-watched, and wearied out.                                                 (405)

At times when men seek most repose and rest,
I yielded, and unlocked her all my heart,      [yielded = surrendered]
Who with a grain of manhood well resolved
Might easily have shook off all her snares:
But foul effeminacy held me yoked                                                                  (410)
Her Bond-slave; O indignity, O blot
To Honor and Religion! servile mind
Rewarded well with servile punishment!             [Milton sounds like Nietzsche]
The base degree to which I now am fallen,
These rags, this grinding, is not yet so base                                                   (415)
As was my former servitude, ignoble,
Unmanly, ignominious, infamous,
True slavery, and that blindness worse than this,
That saw not how degenerately I served.

Manoa: I cannot praise thy Marriage choices, Son,      [good mimesis of dad-talk]                                 (420)
Rather approved them not; but thou didst plead
Divine impulsion prompting how thou might
Find some occasion to infest our Foes.    [marriage to Philistine would resemble spy mission]
I state not that; this I am sure; our Foes                             [state = confirm]
Found soon occasion thereby to make thee                                                   (425)
Their Captive, and their triumph; thou the sooner
Temptation found, or over-potent charms
To violate the sacred trust of silence
Deposited within thee;
                                         which to have kept
Tacit, was in thy power; true; and thou bearest      [tacit = unspoken]                (430)
Enough, and more the burden of that fault;
Bitterly hast thou paid, and still art paying
That rigid score.
                             A worse thing yet remains,
This day the Philistines a popular Feast
Here celebrate in Gaza; and proclaim                            (435)
Great Pomp, and Sacrifice, and Praises loud
To Dagon, as their God who hath delivered             [Dagon = major god of biblical Philistines]
Thee Samson bound and blind into their hands,
Them out of thine, who slew them many a slain.                              [Judges 16.23]
So Dagon shall be magnified, and God,                               (440)
Besides whom is no God, compared with Idols,
Disglorified, blasphemed, and had in scorn
By the Idolatrous rout amidst their wine;                      [rout = mob]
Which to have come to pass by means of thee,
Samson, of all thy sufferings think the heaviest,                        (445)
Of all reproach the most with shame that ever
Could have befallen thee and thy Father’s house.

Samson: Father, I do acknowledge and confess
That I this honor, I this pomp have brought
To Dagon, and advanced his praises high   [Dagon = major god of biblical Philistines]  (450)
Among the Heathen round; to God have brought
Dishonor, obloquy, and [opened] the mouths                    [obloquy = scorn]
Of Idolists, and Atheists; have brought scandal
To Israel, diffidence of God, and doubt
In feeble hearts, propense enough before    [propense = willing]           (455)
To waver, or fall off and join with Idols;

Which is my chief affliction, shame and sorrow,
The anguish of my Soul, that suffers not    [suffers = allows]
Mine eye to harbor sleep, or thoughts to rest.

This only hope relieves me, that the strife                                                     (460)
With me hath end; all the contest is now
Twixt God and Dagon; Dagon hath presumed,
Me overthrown, to enter lists with God,                      [enter lists = join in combat]
His Deity comparing and preferring
Before the God of Abraham. He, be sure,  [He = God of Abraham, here Yahweh / Jehovah]  (465)
Will not connive, or linger, thus provoked,
But will arise and his great name assert:
Dagon must stoop, and shall ere long receive
Such a discomfit, as shall quite despoil him                          [discomfit = overthrow]
Of all these boasted Trophies won on me,         [Trophies = victory memorials]     (470)
And with confusion blank his Worshippers.         [blank = disconcert, frustrate]

Manoa: With cause this hope relieves thee, and these words
I as a Prophecy receive: for God,
Nothing more certain, will not long defer
To vindicate the glory of his name                                                                   (475)
Against all competition, nor will long
Endure it, doubtful whether God be Lord,
Or Dagon.
                   But for thee what shall be done?
Thou must not in the meanwhile here forgot
Lie in this miserable loathsome plight                                                             (480)
Neglected. I already have made way      [made way to = entered negotiations with]
To some Philistine Lords, with whom to treat         [treat = discuss, bargain]
About thy ransomI: well they may by this
Have satisfied their utmost of revenge
By pains and slaveries, worse than death inflicted                                         (485)
On thee, who now no more canst do them harm.

[*"thy ransom": Samson’s father Manoa seeks to bargain with the Philistines for Samson’s release.]

Samson: Spare that proposal, Father, spare the trouble
Of that solicitation; let me here,
As I deserve, pay on my punishment;
And expiate, if possible, my crime,           [expiate = make amends for]                (490)
Shameful garrulity. To have revealed        [garrulity = talkativeness]     
Secrets of men, the secrets of a friend,
How heinous had the fact been, how deserving
Contempt, and scorn of all, to be excluded
All friendship, and avoided as a blab,                                                             (495)
The mark of fool set on his front?
But I God’s counsel have not kept, his holy secret
Presumptuously have published, impiously,
Weakly at least, and shamefully: A sin
That Gentiles in their Parables condemn           [Gentiles = non-Jews]               (500)
To their abyss and horrid pains confined.

[Lines 500-501: Samson refers to the “Gentile” or Greek legend of Tantalus, who for betraying the secrets of the gods and was forever tormented in the “abyss” or underworld. Such incorporation of a non-Biblical tradition for religious purposes is characteristic of Christian Humanism.]

Manoa: Be penitent and for thy fault contrite,
But act not in thy own affliction, Son,    [warning against suicide or self-martyrdom]
Repent the sin, but if the punishment
Thou canst avoid, self-preservation bids;                                                     (505)
Or the execution leave to high disposal,
And let another hand, not thine, exact
Thy penal forfeit from thy self; perhaps
God will relent, and quit thee all his debt;
Who evermore approves and more accepts                                                 (510)
(Best pleased with humble and filial submission)
Him who imploring mercy sues for life,
Than who self-rigorous chooses death as due . . . .

Reject not then what offered means, who knows    [what offered means=any available way]
But God hath set before us, to return thee
Home to thy country and his sacred house,
Where thou mayest bring thy offerings, to avert
His further ire, with prayers and vows renewed. [His further ire = God’s further anger] (520)

Samson: His pardon I implore; but as for life,
To what end should I seek it? when in strength
All mortals I excelled, and great in hopes
With youthful courage and magnanimous thoughts
Of birth from Heaven foretold and high exploits,                                         (525)
Full of divine instinct, after some proof
Of acts indeed heroic, far beyond
The sons of Anak*, famous now and blazed,                   [blazed=proclaimed]
Fearless of danger, like a petty God
I walked about admired of all and dreaded                                                 (530)
On hostile ground, none daring my affront.

[*sons of Anak = biblical giants (Numbers 13.33)]

Then swollen with pride into the snare I fell  [Samson here exemplifies tragic hubris or pride]
Of fair fallacious looks, venereal trains,               [venereal trains = alluring dress]
Softened with pleasure and voluptuous life;            [voluptuous = sensual]
At length to lay my head and hallowed pledge                                            (535)
Of all my strength in the lascivious lap                     [lascivious = lewd, lustful]
Of a deceitful Concubine who shore me      [concubine=mistress; shore= sheared, clipped]
Like a tame Weather, all my precious fleece,      [Weather = bellwether = compliant sheep]
Then turned me out ridiculous, despoiled,
Shaven, and disarmed among my enemies.                            (540)

[In passage above Samson tells of losing his strength through the secret of his hair being cut in an extended metaphor of a sheep being shorn and left unprotected.]

Chorus: Desire of wine and all delicious drinks,
Which many a famous Warrior overturns,
Thou could'st repress, nor did the dancing Ruby                          [Ruby = red wine]
Sparkling, outpoured, the flavor, or the smell,
Or taste that cheers the heart of Gods and men,                                          (545)
Allure thee from the cool Crystalline stream.    [Nazarites drank not wine but water]

Samson: Wherever fountain or fresh current flowed
Against the Eastern ray, translucent, pure,
With touch ethereal of Heaven’s fiery rod
I drank, from the clear milky juice allaying                                                      (550)
Thirst, and refreshed; nor envied them the grape                           [the grape = wine]
Whose heads that turbulent liquor fills with fumes.

[These proclamations of Samson's sobriety are true to the vows of a Nazarite and also to Puritan discipline. Milton may intend to contrast his characterizations of the Philistines, who in line 443 are described as an "Idolatrous rout amidst their wine." Historically the Philistines were noted for their fermentation of wine and week-long drinking festivals.]

Chorus: O madness, to think use of strongest wines
And strongest drinks our chief support of health,         [Milton contra Dionysus]
When God with these forbidden made choice to rear                                     (555)
His mighty Champion, strong above compare,
Whose drink was only from the liquid brook.        [liquid brook = water]

Samson: But what availed this temperance, not complete
Against another object more enticing?
What boots it at one gate to make defense,    [boots = gains]                           (560)
And at another to let in the foe
Effeminately vanquished? by which means,
Now blind, disheartened, shamed, dishonored, quelled,           [quelled = put down]
To what can I be useful, wherein serve
My Nation, and the work from Heaven imposed,                                            (565)
But to sit idle on the household hearth,
A burdenous drone; to visitants a gaze,
Or pitied object, these redundant locks    [redundant = superfluous; locks = Samson’s new hair]
Robustious to no purpose clustering down,              [Robustious = plentiful]
Vain monument of strength; till length of years                                             (570)
And sedentary numbness craze my limbs        [craze my limbs = disable my arms and legs]
To a contemptible old age obscure.
Here rather let me drudge and earn my bread,     [drudge = work, labor, toil]
Till vermin or the draff of servile food   [vermin = disgusting animals or insects; draff = offal, filth]
Consume me, and oft-invocated death       [oft-invocated = often called-for]          (575)
Hasten the welcome end of all my pains. 

Manoa: Wilt thou then serve the Philistines with that gift      [that gift = physical strength]
Which was expressly given thee to annoy them?
Better at home lie bed-rid, not only idle,
Inglorious, unemployed, with age out-worn.                                                 (580)
But God who caused a fountain at thy prayer                                     [Judges 15.19]
From the dry ground to spring, thy thirst to allay
After the brunt of battle, can as easy
Cause light again within thy eyes to spring,
Wherewith to serve him better than thou hast;                                           (585)
And I persuade me so; why else this strength
Miraculous yet remaining in those locks?
His might continues in thee not for naught,
Nor shall his wondrous gifts be frustrate thus.

Samson: All otherwise to me my thoughts portend,    [portend = predict, foretell]       (590)
That these dark orbs no more shall treat with light,                          [orbs = eyes]
Nor the other light of life continue long,
But yield to double darkness nigh at hand:
So much I feel my genial spirits droop,
My hopes all flat, nature within me seems                             (595)
In all her functions weary of her self;
My race of glory run, and race of shame,
And I shall shortly be with them that rest.

Manoa: Believe not these suggestions which proceed
From anguish of the mind and humors black,   [humors black = dark moods]   (600)
That mingle with thy fancy. I however             [fancy = imagination]
Must not omit a father’s timely care
To prosecute the means of thy deliverance
By ransom or how else: meanwhile be calm,
And healing words from these thy friends admit.       [Manoa exits]               (605)

Samson: O that torment should not be confined
To the body’s wounds and sores
With maladies innumerable                                      [maladies = ailments]
In heart, head, breast, and reins;                             [reins = kidneys (as in renal)]
But must secret passage find                                                                        (610)
To the inmost mind,
There exercise all his fierce accidents,
And on her purest spirits prey,                                  [her = the mind’s]
As on entrails, joints, and limbs,
With answerable pains, but more intense,  [Robustious = plentiful]     (615)
Though void of corporal sense.            [corporal = physical, bodily]

My griefs not only pain me
As a lingering disease,
But finding no redress, ferment and rage,
Nor less than wounds immedicable      [immedicable = untreatable]              (620)
Rankle, and fester, and gangrene,
To black mortification.

Thoughts my Tormenters armed with deadly stings   [cf. Furies in classical tragedy, updated to conscience & depression]
Mangle my apprehensive tenderest parts,
Exasperate, exulcerate, and raise                                   [exulcerate = irritate]  (625)
Dire inflammation which no cooling herb
Or medicinal liquor can assuage,
Nor breath of Vernal Air from snowy Alp.                                         [Alp = mountain]
Sleep hath forsook and given me over
To death’s benumbing Opium as my only cure.                                            (630)
Thence faintings, swoonings of despair,
And sense of Heaven’s desertion.

I was his nursling once and choice delight*,    [his = God’s; nursling = child; cf. Oedipus the King l. 1299]
His destined from the womb,
Promised by Heavenly message twice descending.           [Judges 13.3-21]    (635)
Under his special eye
Abstemious I grew up and thrived amain;         [abstemious = sober; amain = generally]
He led me on to mightiest deeds                             [He = God]
Above the nerve of mortal arm                              [nerve = power]
Against the uncircumcised, our enemies.  [the uncircumcised = the Philistines]      (640)

But now hath cast me off as never known,
And to those cruel enemies,
Whom I by his appointment had provoked,
Left me all helpless with the irreparable loss
Of sight, reserved alive to be repeated                                                         (645)
The subject of their cruelty, or scorn.
Nor am I in the list of them that hope;      [list = rank, company]
Hopeless are all my evils, all remediless;
This one prayer yet remains, might I be heard,
No long petition, speedy death,                                                                   (650)
The close of all my miseries, and the balm.

Chorus: Many are the sayings of the wise
In ancient and in modern books enrolled;     [example of Milton’s Christian humanism]
Extolling Patience as the truest fortitude;
And to the bearing well of all calamities,                                                       (655)
All chances incident to man’s frail life
Consolatories writ                             [consolatories = consolations, reassurances]
With studied argument, and much persuasion sought
Lenient of grief and anxious thought,
But with the afflicted in his pangs their sound                                                (660)
Little prevails, or rather seems a tune,
Harsh, and of dissonant mood from his complaint,
Unless he feel within
Some source of consolation from above;
Secret refreshings, that repair his strength,                                                  (665)
And fainting spirits uphold.

God of our Fathers, what is man!   [cf. Antigone’s “Ode to Man,” Hamlet’s “What a piece of work is a man?”]
That thou towards him with hand so various,
Or might I say contrarious,                                    [contrarious = contradictory, ambiguous]
Tempers thy providence through his short course,                                      (670)
Not evenly, as thou rulest
The Angelic orders and inferior creatures mute,
Irrational and brute.
Nor do I name of men the common rout,                               [rout = mob, crowd]
That wandering loose about                                                                         (675)
Grow up and perish, as the summer fly,                       [summer fly = ephemeral insect]
Heads without name no more remembered,
But such as thou hast solemnly elected,               [elected = selected, chosen]
With gifts and graces eminently adorned
To some great work, thy glory,                                                                (680)
And people’s safety, which in part they effect:

Yet toward these thus dignified, thou oft                             [these = God’s elect]
Amidst their height of noon,                                  [height of noon = height of glory]
Changest thy countenance, and thy hand with no regard
Of highest favors past                                                                            (685)
From thee on them, or them to thee of service.

Nor only dost degrade them, or remit
To life obscured, which were a fair dismission,
But throwest them lower than thou didst exalt them high,
Unseemly falls in human eye,                                                                  (690)
Too grievous for the trespass or omission,
Oft leavest them to the hostile sword
Of Heathen and profane, their carcasses
To dogs and fowls a prey, or else captived:                      [cf. Polyneices in Antigone]
Or to the unjust tribunals, under change of times,    [tribunals = judgments]   (695)
And condemnation of the ungrateful multitude.
If these they escape, perhaps in poverty
With sickness and disease thou bowest them down,
Painful diseases and deformed,
In crude old age;                                                                                      (700)
Though not disordinate, yet causeless suffering    [disordinate = unusual, out of order]
The punishment of dissolute days, in fine,
Just or unjust, alike seem miserable,
For oft alike, both come to evil end.

So deal not with this once thy glorious Champion,                                    (705)
The Image of thy strength, and mighty minister.
What do I beg? how hast thou dealt already?      [beg = pray for]
Behold him in this state calamitous, and turn                 [him = Samson]
His labors, for thou canst, to peaceful end.

But who is this, what thing of Sea or Land?                  (710)

[Dalila approaches]   

Female of sex it seems,
That so bedecked, ornate, and gay,
Comes this way sailing
Like a stately Ship
Of Tarsus, bound for the Isles [Tarsus= wealthy city in Turkey, later birthplace of St. Paul] (715)
Of Javan or Gadier                 [Javan = Greece; Gadier = Cadiz, city & port of Spain]
With all her bravery on, and tackle trim,               [bravery = fine dress; tackle = outfit]
Sails filled, and streamers waving,
Courted by all the winds that hold them play,
An Amber scent of odorous perfume                                        (720)
Her harbinger, a damsel train behind;
Some rich Philistine Matron she may seem,
And now at nearer view, no other certain
Than Dalila thy wife.

Samson: My Wife, my Traitoress, let her not come near me.                        (725)

Chorus: Yet on she moves, now stands and eyes thee fixed, [Chorus gives stage directions]
About to have spoke, but now, with head declined
Like a fair flower surcharged with dew, she weeps
And words addressed seem into tears dissolved,
Wetting the borders of her silken veil:                                                             (730)
But now again she makes address to speak.        [makes address = prepares]

Dalila: With doubtful feet and wavering resolution
I came, still dreading thy displeasure, Samson,
Which to have merited, without excuse,
I cannot but acknowledge;

                                           yet if tears                                                            (735)
May expiate (though the fact more evil drew
In the perverse event than I foresaw)  [i.e. everything turned out worse than Dalila anticipated]
My penance hath not slackened, though my pardon         [penance = self-abasement]
No way assured. But conjugal affection
Prevailing over fear, and timorous doubt                       [timorous = nervous]     (740)
Hath led me on desirous to behold
Once more thy face, and know of thy estate.

If aught in my ability may serve
To lighten what thou sufferest, and appease
Thy mind with what amends is in my power,                                                 (745)
Though late, yet in some part to recompense              [recompense = compensate for]
My rash but more unfortunate misdeed.

Samson: Out, out Hyena; these are thy wonted arts,
And arts of every woman false like thee,
To break all faith, all vows, deceive, betray,                                                 (750)
Then as repentant to submit, beseech,
And reconcilement move with feigned remorse,
Confess, and promise wonders in her change,

Not truly penitent, but chief to try                                   [chief to try = mainly to test]
Her husband, how far urged his patience bears,                                          (755)
His virtue or weakness which way to assail:                                  [assail = assault]
Then with more cautious and instructed skill
Again transgresses, and again submits;
That wisest and best men full oft beguiled
With goodness principled not to reject                                                          (760)
The penitent, but ever to forgive,
Are drawn to wear out miserable days,
Entangled with a poisonous bosom snake,
If not quick destruction soon cut off
As I by thee, to Ages an example.                                                                  (765)

Dalila: Yet hear me, Samson; not that I endeavor
To lessen or extenuate my offence,
But that on the other side if it be weighed
By itself, with aggravations not surcharged,                                      
Or else with just allowance counterpoised*                                              (770)
I may, if possible, thy pardon find
The easier towards me, or thy hatred less.
First granting, as I do, it was a weakness
In me, but incident to all our sex,**         
Curiosity, inquisitive, importune   [importune = importunate, overly persistent]  (775)
Of secrets, then with like infirmity
To publish them, both common female faults:

[*with just allowance counterpoised = with mitigating circumstances factored or balanced]

[**a weakness / In me, but incident to all our sex: Milton's attitudes towards women in his life and works were progressive for his time but complicated by religious tradition; in his defense, he gives Dalila considerable opportunity to speak and defend herself.]  

Was it not weakness also to make known
For importunity, that is for naught,                 [importunity = troublesome solicitation]
Wherein consisted all thy strength and safety?                                       (780)
To what I did thou showedst me first the way.
But I to enemies revealed, and should not.
Nor shouldst thou have trusted that to woman’s frailty
Ere I to thee, thou to thyself wast cruel.

Let weakness then with weakness come to parl         [parl = parley, dialogue]    (785)
So near related, or the same of kind,
Thine forgive mine; that men may censure thine  [Forgive me > others may forgive you]
The gentler, if severely thou exact not
More strength from me, than in thyself was found.

And what if Love, which thou interpret [as] hate,                                       (790)
The jealousy of Love, powerful of sway
In human hearts, nor less in mine towards thee,
Caused what I did? I saw thee mutable                          [mutable = changeable]
Of fancy, feared lest one day thou wouldst leave me
As her at Timna, sought by all means therefore   [her = Samson’s first wife]  (795)
How to endear, and hold thee to me firmest:
No better way I saw than by importuning   [importuning = persistently asking questions]
To learn thy secrets, get into my power
Thy key of strength and safety:

                                                        thou wilt say,
Why then revealed? I was assured by those                                            (800)
Who tempted me, that nothing was designed
Against thee but safe custody, and hold:   [hold = arrest; compare Judges 16.5]
That made for me, I knew that liberty
Would draw thee forth to perilous enterprises,
While I at home sat full of cares and fears                                                     (805)
Wailing thy absence in my widowed bed;
Here I should still enjoy thee day and night
Mine and Love’s prisoner, not the Philistines,
Whole to my self, unhazarded abroad,
Fearless at home of partners in my love.                      [partners in = rivals to]    (810)

These reasons in Love’s law have passed for good,
Though fond and reasonless to some perhaps;
And Love hath oft, well meaning, wrought much woe,
Yet always pity or pardon hath obtained.
Be not unlike all others, not austere                                                               (815)
As thou art strong, inflexible as steel.
If thou in strength all mortals dost exceed,
In uncompassionate anger do not so.

[In speech above, Dalila may warn Samson against the familiar tragic flaw of becoming hard or unreceptive to learning.]

Samson: How cunningly the sorceress displays
Her own transgressions, to upbraid me mine?                     [upbraid = criticize] (820)
That malice not repentance brought thee hither,
By this appears: I gave, thou sayest, the example,
I led the way; bitter reproach, but true,
I to myself was false ere thou to me,
Such pardon therefore as I give my folly,                                                       (825)
Take to thy wicked deed: which when thou seest
Impartial, self-severe, inexorable,
Thou wilt renounce thy seeking, and much rather
Confess it feigned, weakness is thy excuse,
And I believe it, weakness to resist                                                                (830)
Philistine gold:   [cf. Oedipus's suspicions of bribery in Oedipus the King and Creon’s similar suspicions in Antigone]

                           if weakness may excuse,
What Murderer, what Traitor, Parricide,     [parricide = parent-murderer]
Incestuous, Sacrilegious, but may plead it?
All wickedness is weakness: that plea therefore
With God or Man will gain thee no remission.                                               (835)

But Love constrained thee; call it furious rage
To satisfy thy lust: Love seeks to have Love;
My love how couldst thou hope, who tookst the way
To raise in me inexpiable hate,
Knowing, as needs I must, by thee betrayed?                                              (840)
In vain thou strivest to cover shame with shame,
Or by evasions thy crime uncoverest more.

Dalila: Since thou determine weakness for no plea
In man or woman, though to thy own condemning,
Hear what assaults I had, what snares besides,                                            (845)
What sieges girt me round, ere I consented;             [girt me round = surrounded me]
Which might have awed the best resolved of men,
The constantest to have yielded without blame.

It was not gold, as to my charge thou layest,
That wrought with me: thou knowest the Magistrates    [wrought with = worked on] (850)
And Princes of my country came in person,
Solicited, commanded, threatened, urged,
Adjured by all the bonds of civil Duty                 [adjure = entreat or charge, as by a vow]
And of Religion, pressed how just it was,
How honorable, how glorious to entrap                                                         (855)
A common enemy, who had destroyed
Such numbers of our Nation:

                                                and the Priest
Was not behind, but ever at my ear,
Preaching how meritorious with the gods
It would be to ensnare an irreligious                                                              (860)
Dishonorer of Dagon: what had I
To oppose against such powerful arguments?   [anticipates line 903 below] 

Only my love of thee held long debate;
And combated in silence all these reasons
With hard contest: at length that grounded maxim  [grounded maxim = well-established proverb, motto]  (865)
So rife and celebrated in the mouths
Of wisest men; that to the public good
Private respects must yield; with grave authority
Took full possession of me and prevailed;
Virtue, as I thought, truth, duty so enjoining.                                                  (870)

Samson: I thought where all thy circling wiles would end;
In feigned Religion, smooth hypocrisy.
But had thy love, still odiously pretended,
Been, as it ought, sincere, it would have taught thee
Far other reasonings, brought forth other deeds.                                            (875)

I before all the daughters of my Tribe
And of my Nation chose thee from among
My enemies, loved thee, as too well thou knewest,
Too well, unbosomed all my secrets to thee,     [unbosomed = confessed, got off chest]
Not out of levity, but over-powered                                                                  (880)
By thy request, who could deny thee nothing;
Yet now am judged an enemy.

                                                        Why then
Didst thou at first receive me for thy husband?
Then, as since then, thy country’s foe professed:
Being once a wife, for me thou wast to leave                                                (885)
Parents and country; nor was I their subject,
Nor under their protection but my own,
Thou mine, not theirs: if aught against my life
Thy country sought of thee, it sought unjustly,
Against the law of nature, law of nations,                                                      (890)
No more thy country, but an impious crew
Of men conspiring to uphold their state    [conspiracy theory]
By worse than hostile deeds, violating the ends
For which our country is a name so dear;
Not therefore to be obeyed.

                                                 But zeal moved thee;                                    (895)
To please thy gods thou didst it; gods unable
To acquit themselves and prosecute their foes
But by ungodly deeds, the contradiction
Of their own deity, Gods cannot be:
Less therefore to be pleased, obeyed, or feared,                                           (900)
These false pretexts and varnished colors failing,
Bare in thy guilt how foul must thou appear?

Dalila: In argument with men a woman ever
Goes by the worse, whatever be her cause.    [compare line 862 above; sympathetic mimesis of woman's plight in arguing with men, whether Philistine or Jew] 

Samson: For want of words no doubt, or lack of breath,                               (905)
Witness when I was worried with thy peals. [with thy peals = by your persistent questioning]

Dalila: I was a fool, too rash, and quite mistaken
In what I thought would have succeeded best.
Let me obtain forgiveness of thee, Samson,
Afford me place to show what recompense                                             (910)
Towards thee I intend for what I have misdone,
Misguided: only what remains past cure
Bear not too sensibly, nor still insist
To afflict thy self in vain: though sight be lost,
Life yet hath many solaces, enjoyed                                                             (915)
Where other senses want not their delights
At home in leisure and domestic ease,    [i.e., Dalila wants Samson back]
Exempt from many a care and chance to which
Eye-sight exposes daily men abroad.
I to the Lords will intercede, not doubting    [the Lords = Philistine leaders] (920)
Their favorable ear, that I may fetch thee
From forth this loathsome prison-house, to abide
With me, where my redoubled love and care
With nursing diligence, to me glad office,
May ever tend about thee to old age                                                              (925)
With all things grateful cheered, and so supplied,
That what by me thou hast lost thou least shalt miss.

Samson: No, no, of my condition take no care;
It fits not; thou and I long since are twain;    [twain = two, not one; separated]
Nor think me so unwary or accursed                                                              (930)
To bring my feet again into the snare
Where once I have been caught; I know thy trains       [trains = allures]
Though dearly to my cost, thy gins, and toils;     [gins & toils = traps and mazes]

Thy fair enchanted cup, and warbling charms
No more on me have power, their force is nulled,    [nulled = nullified]       (935)
So much of adder’s wisdom I have learned             [adder = snake]
To fence my ear against thy sorceries.                    [fence = protect]

If in my flower of youth and strength, when all men
Loved, honored, feared me, thou alone could hate me
Thy Husband, slight me, sell me, and forgo me;              [forgo = do without]     (940)
How wouldst thou use me now, blind, and thereby
Deceivable, in most things as a child
Helpless, thence easily contemned, and scorned,         [contemn = treat with contempt]
And last neglected? How wouldst thou insult
When I must live uxorious to thy will           [uxorious = submissive to one’s wife]    (945)
In perfect thralldom, how again betray me,               [thralldom = fascination, captivity]
Bearing my words and doings to the Lords
To gloss upon, and censuring, frown or smile?               [gloss upon = falsely interpret]
This gaol I count the house of Liberty                            [gaol = jail]
To thine whose doors my feet shall never enter.            [thine = Dalila’s house]   (950)

Dalila: Let me approach at least, and touch thy hand.

Samson: Not for thy life, lest fierce remembrance wake
My sudden rage to tear thee joint by joint.                                   [cf. Judges 14.6]
At distance I forgive thee, go with that;
Bewail thy falsehood, and the pious works                                                     (955)
It hath brought forth to make thee memorable
Among illustrious women, faithful wives:
Cherish thy hastened widowhood with the gold
Of Matrimonial treason: so farewell.

Dalila: I see thou art implacable, more deaf                                                 (960)
To prayers, than winds and seas, yet winds to seas
Are reconciled at length, and Sea to Shore:
Thy anger, unappeasable, still rages,
Eternal tempest never to be calmed.

Why do I humble thus myself, and suing    [suing = making concessions for]     (965)
For peace, reap nothing but repulse and hate?
Bid go with evil omen and the brand
Of infamy upon my name denounced?
To mix with thy concernments I desist       [I will no longer busy myself with your affairs]
Henceforth, nor too much disapprove my own.                                             (970)

Fame if not double-faced is double-mouthed,
And with contrary blast proclaims most deeds,
On both his wings, one black, the other white,
Bears greatest names in his wild aerie flight.
My name perhaps among the Circumcised    [the Circumcised = the Jews]           (975)
In Dan, in Judah, and the bordering Tribes,
To all posterity may stand defamed,
With malediction mentioned, and the blot
Of falsehood most unconjugal traduced.   [unconjugal = unfaithful; traduce = defame]
But in my country where I most desire,                                                           (980)
In Ecron, Gaza, Asdod, and in Gath
I shall be named among the famousest
Of Women, sung at solemn festivals,
Living and dead recorded, who to save
Her country from a fierce destroyer, chose                                                     (985)
Above the faith of wedlock-bands, my tomb
With odors visited and annual flowers.                      [odors: e. g., incense]
Not less renowned than in Mount Ephraim,
Jael*, who with inhospitable guile
Smote Sisera sleeping through the Temples* nailed.                                       (990)
[*Judges 4.15-21:Jael comforted a hostile chieftain in her tent before killing him by using a hammer to drive a tent nail into the "temples" of his skull.]  

Nor shall I count it heinous to enjoy                                          [heinous = disgraceful]
The public marks of honor and reward
Conferred upon me, for the piety
Which to my country I was judged to have shown.
At this whoever envies or repines                                                                (995)
I leave him to his lot, and like my own.                                               [Dalila exits]

Chorus: She's gone, a manifest Serpent by her sting         [manifest = obvious]
Discovered in the end, till now concealed.

Samson: So let her go, God sent her to debase me,
And aggravate my folly who committed                                                     (1000)
To such a viper his most sacred trust              [viper = snake, serpent]
Of secrecy, my safety, and my life.

Chorus: Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange power,
After offence returning, to regain
Love once possessed, nor can be easily                                                       (1005)
Repulsed, without much inward passion felt
And secret sting of amorous remorse.

Samson: Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end,
Not wedlock-treachery endangering life.

Chorus: It is not virtue, wisdom, valor, wit,                                            (1010)
Strength, comeliness of shape, or amplest merit
That woman’s love can win or long inherit;
But what it is, hard is to say,
Harder to hit,
(Which way soever men refer it)                                                                    (1015)
Much like thy riddle, Samson, in one day                                        [Judges 14.12-19]
Or seven, though one should musing sit;

If any of these or all, the Timnian bride                                         [Samson’s first wife]
Had not so soon preferred
Thy paranymph, worthless to thee compared, [Paranymph=best man, groomsman] (1020)
Successor in thy bed,                     [both: the Timnian bride and Dalila]
Nor both so loosely disallied           [disallied their nuptials = broke off their marriage]
Their nuptials, nor this last so treacherously
Had shorn the fatal harvest of thy head.

[If Samson hadn’t casually dropped his first wife, he wouldn’t have had his troubles with Dalila]

Is it for that such outward ornament                                              (1025)
Was lavished on their Sex, that inward gifts
Were left for haste unfinished, judgment scant,
Capacity not raised to apprehend
Or value what is best
In choice, but oftest to affect the wrong?                                      (1030)
Or was too much of self-love mixed,
Of constancy no root infixed,
That either they love nothing, or not long?

Whatever it be, to wisest men and best
Seeming at first all heavenly under virgin veil,                             (1035)
Soft, modest, meek, demure,
Once joined, the contrary she proves, a thorn
Intestine, far within defensive arms                  [intestine = internal, domestic]
A cleaving mischief, in his way to virtue
Adverse and turbulent, or by her charms                                       (1040)
Draws him awry enslaved                                                [awry = off-track]
With dotage, and his sense depraved                              [dotage = old age]
To folly and shameful deeds which ruin ends.
What Pilot so expert but needs must wreck
Embarked with such a Steers-mate at the Helm?                           (1045)

Favored of Heaven who finds
One virtuous rarely found,
That in domestic good combines:
Happy that house! his way to peace is smooth:
But virtue which breaks through all opposition,                               (1050)
And all temptation can remove,
Most shines and most is acceptable above.

Therefore God’s universal Law
Gave to the man despotic power
Over his female in due awe,                                                         (1055)
Nor from that right to part an hour,
Smile she or lower:                                                                [lower = frown]
So shall he least confusion draw
On his whole life, not swayed
By female usurpation, nor dismayed.                                            (1060)

But had we best retire, I see a storm? [Chorus indicates stage direction: Harapha the giant is coming!]

Samson: Fair days have oft contracted wind and rain.

Chorus: But this another kind of tempest brings.

Samson: Be less abstruse, my riddling days are past.

Chorus: Look now for no enchanting voice, nor fear                                (1065)
The bait of honeyed words; a rougher tongue
Draws hitherward, I know him by his stride,
The Giant Harapha of Gath, his look
Haughty as is his pile high-built and proud.                                 [pile = physical build]
Comes he in peace? what wind hath blown him hither                             (1070)
I less conjecture than when first I saw
The sumptuous Dalila floating this way:
His habit carries peace, his brow defiance.      [habit carries peace: he's not armed for battle]

Samson: Or peace or not, alike to me he comes. [Or peace or not = whether peace or war]

Chorus: His fraught we soon shall know, he now arrives. [fraught = freight, cargo] (1075)

Harapha: I come not, Samson, to condole thy chance,  [condole thy chance = sympathize w/ bad luck]
As these perhaps, yet wish it had not been,
Though for no friendly intent. I am of Gath,
Men call me Harapha, of stock renowned       [stock = family, lineage]
As Og or Anak and the Emims old              [biblical giants]                            (1080)
That Kiriathaim held, thou knowest me now     [Kiriathaim or Kirjathaim: see 1 Chronicles 6.76]
If thou at all art known.

                                      Much I have heard
Of thy prodigious might and feats performed
Incredible to me, in this displeased,
That I was never present on the place                                                     (1085)
Of those encounters, where we might have tried
Each other’s force in camp or listed field:
And now am come to see of whom such noise
Hath walked about, and each limb to survey,
If thy appearance answer loud report.                                                     (1090)

Samson: The way to know were not to see but taste. [Samson basically says, "You want some of this?"]

Harapha: Dost thou already single me; I thought   [single = challenge to single combat]
Gyves and the Mill had tam'd thee; O that fortune                  [gyves = chains, fetters]
Had brought me to the field where thou art famed
To have wrought such wonders with an Ass’s Jaw;      [Judges 15.15]        (1095)
I should have forced thee soon with other arms,
Or left thy carcass where the Ass lay thrown:
So had the glory of prowess been recovered
To Palestine, won by a Philistine*
From the unforeskinned race, of whom thou bearest  [unforeskinned race=Jews] (1100)
The highest name for valiant Acts, that honor
Certain to have won by mortal duel from thee,
I lose, prevented by thy eyes put out.

[*Harapha boasts that if he had been at that battle, Samson would have lost]

Samson: Boast not of what thou wouldst have done, but do
What then thou would'st, thou seest it in thy hand.                                      (1105)

Harapha: To combat with a blind man I disdain,
And thou hast need much washing to be touched.

Samson: Such usage as your honorable Lords
Afford me assassinated* and betrayed,
Who durst not with their whole united powers  [durst = dare]                          (1110)
In fight withstand me single and unarmed,
Nor in the house with chamber Ambushes      [chamber Ambushes: see Judges 16]
Close-banded durst attack me, no not sleeping,
Till they had hired a woman with their gold
Breaking her Marriage Faith to circumvent me.                                           (1115)

[*"assassinated" here means "character assassination."]

Therefore without feigned shifts let be assigned    [feigned shifts = dishonest dodging]
Some narrow place enclosed, where sight may give thee,
Or rather flight, no great advantage on me;
Then put on all thy gorgeous arms, thy Helmet  [brigandine = body armor of scales & plates]
And Brigandine of brass, thy broad Habergeon,  [habergeon = armor jacket]    (1120)
Vant-brace and greaves, and gauntlet, add thy spear       [pieces of armor]
A weaver’s beam, and seven-times-folded shield,   [weaver’s beam: see 1 Samuel 17.7]
I only with an Oaken staff will meet thee,
And raise such outcries on thy clattered Iron,
Which long shall not withhold me from thy head,                                        (1125)
That in a little time while breath remains thee,
Thou oft shalt wish thy self at Gath to boast
Again in safety what thou wouldst have done
To Samson, but shalt never see Gath more.

Harapha: Thou durst not thus disparage glorious arms  [disparage = mock]  (1130)
Which greatest Heroes have in battle worn,
Their ornament and safety, had not spells
And black enchantments, some Magician’s Art                          [cf. line 15]
Armed thee or charmed thee strong, which thou from Heaven
Feignedst at thy birth was given thee in thy hair,                                         (1135)
Where strength can least abide, though all thy hairs
Were bristles ranged like those that ridge the back
Of chafed wild Boars, or ruffled Porcupines.

Samson: I know no Spells, use no forbidden Arts;
My trust is in the living God who gave me                [cf. line 15]                  (1140)
At my nativity this strength, diffused
No less through all my sinews, joints and bones,
Than thine, while I preserved these locks unshorn,        [locks = hair]   
The pledge of my unviolated vow.
For proof hereof, if Dagon be thy god,                                                       (1145)
Go to his Temple, invocate his aid
With solemnest devotion, spread before him
How highly it concerns his glory now
To frustrate and dissolve these Magic spells,
Which I to be the power of Israel's God                                                     (1150)
Avow, and challenge Dagon to the test,
Offering to combat thee his Champion bold,
With th' utmost of his Godhead seconded:
Then thou shalt see, or rather to thy sorrow
Soon feel, whose God is strongest, thine or mine.                                    (1155)

Harapha: Presume not on thy God, whatever he be,
Thee he regards not, owns not, hath cut off
Quite from his people, and delivered up
Into thy enemy’s hand, permitted them
To put out both thine eyes, and fettered send thee                                   (1160)
Into the common prison, there to grind
Among the slaves and asses thy comrades,
As good for nothing else, no better service
With those thy boisterous locks, no worthy match
For valor to assail, nor by the sword                                                            (1165)
Of noble warrior, so to stain his honor,
But by the barber’s razor best subdued.

Samson: All these indignities, for such they are
From thine, these evils I deserve and more,
Acknowledge them from God inflicted on me                                              (1170)
Justly, yet despair not of his final pardon
Whose ear is ever open; and his eye
Gracious to re-admit the suppliant;
In confidence whereof I once again
Defy thee to the trial of mortal fight,                                                            (1175)
By combat to decide whose god is god,
Thine or whom I with Israel's sons adore.

Harapha: Fair honor that thou dost thy God, in trusting
He will accept thee to defend his cause,
A murderer, a revolter, and a robber.                                                          (1180)

Samson: Tongue-doughty Giant, how dost thou prove me these?  [doughty = brave; prove me these = back up your insults]

Harapha: Is not thy nation subject to our lords?            [our lords = Philistine leaders]
Their magistrates confessed it, when they took thee
As a league-breaker and delivered bound   ["league-breaker": Samson threatened peace b/w Jews and Philistines]
Into our hands: for hadst thou not committed                                               (1185)
Notorious murder on those thirty men                                                 [Judges 14.19]
At Askalon, who never did thee harm,
Then like a robber stripped them of their robes?
The Philistines, when thou hadst broke the league,  ["broke the league" = violated peace agreements]
Went up with armed powers thee only seeking,                                           (1190)
To others did no violence nor spoil.

Samson: Among the daughters of the Philistines
I chose a wife, which argued me no foe;
And in your city held my nuptial feast:
But your ill-meaning politician lords,                                                              (1195)
Under pretence of bridal friends and guests,
Appointed to await me thirty spies,
Who threatening cruel death constrained the bride
To wring from me and tell to them my secret,
That solved the riddle which I had proposed.                                               (1200)

When I perceived all set on enmity,                                              [enmity = hostility]
As on my enemies, wherever chanced,
I used hostility, and took their spoil
To pay my underminers in their coin.
My nation was subjected to your lords.                                                   (1205)
It was the force of conquest; force with force
Is well ejected when the conquered can.
But I a private person, whom my Country
As a league-breaker gave up bound, presumed
Single Rebellion and did Hostile Acts.                                                    (1210)

I was no private but a person raised
With strength sufficient and command from Heaven
To free my Country; if their servile minds
Me their Deliverer sent would not receive,
But to their Masters gave me up for nought,                                          (1215)
The unworthier they; whence to this day they serve.
I was to do my part from Heaven assigned,
And had performed it if my known offence
Had not disabled me, not all your force:
These shifts refuted, answer thy appellant [thy appellant = Samson as interrogator] (1220)
Though by his blindness maimed for high attempts,
Who now defies thee thrice to single fight,
As a petty enterprise of small enforce.

Harapha: With thee a Man condemned, a Slave enrolled,
Due by the Law to capital punishment?                                                  (1225)
To fight with thee no man of arms will deign.   [deign = think worthy]

Samson: Camest thou for this, vain boaster, to survey me,
To descant on my strength, and give thy verdict? [descant =sing, warble; discourse at length]
Come nearer, part not hence so slight inform'd;
But take good heed my hand survey not thee.                                        (1230)

Harapha: O Beelzebub! can my ears unused   [Beelzebub = sun-god of Philistines]
Hear these dishonors, and not render death?

Samson: No man with-holds thee, nothing from thy hand
Fear I incurable; bring up thy van,                      [van = carriage, equipment]   
My heels are fettered, but my fist is free*.                                       (1235)

[*Samson's mobility is limited, but he can still punch.]

Harapha: This insolence other kind of answer fits.

Samson: Go baffled coward, lest I run upon thee,
Though in these chains, bulk without spirit vast,
And with one buffet lay thy structure low,    [buffet = a strike or blow with the hand]   
Or swing thee in the air, then dash thee down                             (1240)
To the hazard of thy brains and shattered sides.

Harapha: By Astaroth, ere long thou shalt lament    [Astaroth = a prince of hell]   
These braveries in Irons loaden on thee.                                           

[Harapha exits]

Chorus: His Giantship is gone somewhat crestfallen,
Stalking with less unconscionable strides, [unconscionable = excessive]     (1245)
And lower looks, but in a sultry chafe.               [chafe = irritation]   

Samson: I dread him not, nor all his Giant-brood,
Though fame divulge him father of five sons
All of gigantic size, Goliah chief.                 [Goliah = Goliath—see 2 Samuel 21]

Chorus: He will directly to the lords, I fear,                                                 (1250)
And with malicious counsel stir them up
Some way or other yet further to afflict thee.

Samson: He must allege some cause, and offered fight
Will not dare mention, lest a question rise
Whether he durst accept the offer or not,          [durst = dared]                      (1255)
And that he durst not plain enough appeared.     [durst = dared]
Much more affliction than already felt
They cannot well impose, nor I sustain;
If they intend advantage of my labors
The work of many hands, which earns my keeping                                    (1260)
With no small profit daily to my owners.

But come what will, my deadliest foe will prove
My speediest friend, by death to rid me hence,
The worst that he can give, to me the best.
Yet so it may fall out, because their end                                              (1265)
Is hate, not help to me, it may with mine
Draw their own ruin who attempt the deed.

Chorus: Oh how comely it is and how reviving
To the spirits of just men long oppressed!
When God into the hands of their deliverer                                     (1270)
Puts invincible might
To quell the mighty of the Earth, the oppressor,
The brute and boisterous force of violent men
Hardy and industrious to support
Tyrannic power, but raging to pursue                                                      (1275)
The righteous and all such as honor Truth;
He all their Ammunition
And feats of War defeats
With plain Heroic magnitude of mind                             [sublime of great scale]
And celestial vigor armed                                                                         (1280)
Their armories and magazines contemns,  [armories, magazines=weapons depots; contemns=scorns]   
Renders them useless, while
With winged expedition
Swift as the lightning glance he executes
His errand on the wicked, who surprised                                                      (1285)
Lose their defense distracted and amazed.

But patience is more oft the exercise
Of saints, the trial of their fortitude,
Making them each his own deliverer,
And victor over all                                                                                         (1290)
That tyranny or fortune can inflict,
Either of these is in thy lot,
Samson, with might endowed
Above the sons of men; but sight bereaved
May chance to number thee with those                                                       (1295)
Whom patience finally must crown.
This idol’s day hath been to thee no day of rest,

Laboring thy mind
More than the working day thy hands,
And yet perhaps more trouble is behind.                                                      (1300)
For I descry this way                                                               [descry = catch sight of]   
Some other tending, in his hand
A scepter or quaint staff he bears,                               [scepter = symbol of state power]
Comes on amain, speed in his look.
By his habit I discern him now                                                                     (1305)
A public officer, and now at hand.
His message will be short and voluble. [voluble = glib, fluent]    

[Public Officer enters]

Officer: Ebrews, the prisoner Samson here I seek.        [Ebrews = Hebrews or Jews]

Chorus: His manacles remark him, there he sits.

Officer: Samson, to thee our Lords thus bid me say;                                  (1310)
This day to Dagon is a solemn feast,
With sacrifices, triumph, pomp, and games;
Thy strength they know surpassing human rate,
And now some public proof thereof require
To honor this great feast, and great assembly;                                    (1315)
Rise therefore with all speed and come along,
Where I will see thee heartened and fresh clad
To appear as fits before the illustrious lords.

Samson: Thou knowest I am an Ebrew, therefore tell them, [Ebrew = Hebrew or Jew]
Our law forbids at their religious rites                                                           (1320)
My presence; for that cause I cannot come.

Officer: This answer, be assured, will not content them.               [content = satisfy]

Samson: Have they not sword-players, and every sort
Of gymnic artists, wrestlers, riders, runners,
Jugglers and dancers, antics, mummers, mimics,                                       (1325)
But they must pick me out with shackles tired,
And over-labored at their public mill,
To make them sport with blind activity?
Do they not seek occasion of new quarrels
On my refusal to distress me more,                                                            (1330)
Or make a game of my calamities?
Return the way thou camest, I will not come.

Officer: Regard thyself, this will offend them highly.

Samson: Myself? my conscience and internal peace.
Can they think me so broken, so debased                                            (1335)
With corporal servitude, that my mind ever
Will condescend to such absurd commands?
Although their drudge, to be their fool or jester,
And in my midst of sorrow and heart-grief
To show them feats and play before their god,                                             (1340)
The worst of all indignities, yet on me
Joined with extreme contempt? I will not come.

Officer: My message was imposed on me with speed,
Brooks no delay: is this thy resolution?                                        [brooks = permits, allows]

Samson: So take it with what speed thy message needs.                          (1345)

Officer: I am sorry what this stoutness will produce.     [worried what Samson's resistance will lead to]

Samson: Perhaps thou shalt have cause to sorrow indeed.               [Officer exits]

Chorus: Consider, Samson; matters now are strained
Up to the height, whether to hold or break;                                         [dramatic tension? sublime?]
He's gone, and who knows how he may report                                            (1350)
Thy words by adding fuel to the flame?
Expect another message more imperious,
More Lordly thundering than thou well wilt bear.

Samson: Shall I abuse this consecrated gift
Of strength, again returning with my hair                [cf. Judges 16.22]            (1355)
After my great transgression, so requite
Favor renewed, and add a greater sin
By prostituting holy things to Idols;
A Nazarite in place abominable                               [Nazarite = chosen devotee of God]
Vaunting my strength in honor to their Dagon?                                            (1360)
Besides, how vile, contemptible, ridiculous,
What act more execrably unclean, profane?

Chorus: Yet with this strength thou servest the Philistines,
Idolatrous, uncircumcised, unclean.

Samson: Not in their Idol-worship, but by labor                                          (1365)
Honest and lawful to deserve my food
Of those who have me in their civil power.

Chorus: Where the heart joins not, outward acts defile not.

Samson:  Where outward force constrains, the sentence holds;
But who constrains me to the Temple of Dagon,                                        (1370)
Not dragging? the Philistine lords command.
Commands are no constraints. If I obey them,
I do it freely; venturing to displease
God for the fear of man, and man prefer,
Set God behind: which in his jealousy                                                          (1375)
Shall never, unrepented, find forgiveness.
Yet that he may dispense with me or thee
Present in temples at idolatrous rites
For some important cause, thou needst not doubt.

Chorus: How thou wilt here come off surmounts my reach.                        (1380)

Samson: Be of good courage, I begin to feel
Some rousing motions in me which dispose
To something extraordinary my thoughts.
I with this messenger will go along,
Nothing to do, be sure, that may dishonor                                                   (1385)
Our law, or stain my vow of Nazarite.                      [Nazarite = chosen devotee of God]
If there be aught of presage in the mind,  [aught of presage = anything of foreknowledge or prophecy]
This day will be remarkable in my life
By some great act, or of my days the last.

Chorus: In time thou hast resolved, the man returns.     [the man = Public Officer]   (1390)

Officer: Samson, this second message from our lords
To thee I am bid say, Art thou our slave,
Our captive, at the public mill our drudge,
And darest thou at our sending and command
Dispute thy coming? come without delay;                                                    (1395)
Or we shall find such engines to assail                   [engines = devices, torments]
And hamper thee, as thou shalt come of force,
Though thou wert firmlier fastened than a rock.

Samson: I could be well content to try their art,
Which to no few of them would prove pernicious.    [pernicious = destructive]   (1400)
Yet knowing their advantages too many,
Because they shall not trail me through their streets
Like a wild beast, I am content to go.
Masters’ commands come with a power resistless
To such as owe them absolute subjection;                                            (1405)
And for a life who will not change his purpose?
(So mutable are all the ways of men)
Yet this be sure, in nothing to comply
Scandalous or forbidden in our law.

Officer: I praise thy resolution, doff these links:        [doff links = drop chains]   (1410)
By this compliance thou wilt win the lords
To favor, and perhaps to set thee free.

Samson: Brethren farewell, your company along
I will not wish, lest it perhaps offend them
To see me girt with friends; and how the sight                [girt = surrounded]      (1415)
Of me as of a common enemy,
So dreaded once, may now exasperate them
I know not. Lords are lordliest in their wine;
And the well-feasted priest then soonest fired
With zeal, if aught Religion seem concerned:          [aught = any]                  (1420)
No less the people on their Holy-days
Impetuous, insolent, unquenchable;
Happen what may, of me expect to hear
Nothing dishonorable, impure, unworthy
Our God, our Law, my Nation, or my self,                                                    (1425)
The last of me or no I cannot warrant.                                      [Samson exits]

Chorus: Go, and the Holy One
Of Israel be thy guide
To what may serve his glory best, & spread his name
Great among the heathen round:                                                                  (1430)
Send thee the angel of thy birth, to stand
Fast by thy side, who from thy father’s field
Rode up in flames after his message told                             [Judges 13.20]
Of thy conception, and be now a shield
Of fire; that spirit that first rushed on thee                                                     (1435)
In the camp of Dan                                    [Samson a Danite: “of Dan” = tribe of Israel]
Be efficacious in thee now at need.
For never was from Heaven imparted
Measure of strength so great to mortal seed,
As in thy wondrous actions hath been seen.                                                (1440)

But wherefore comes old Manoa in such haste       [Manoa = Samson's father]
With youthful steps? much livelier then ere while                   [ere while = earlier]
He seems: supposing here to find his son,
Or of him bringing to us some glad news?

Manoa: Peace with you brethren; my inducement hither                            (1445)
Was not at present here to find my son,
By order of the Lords new parted hence
To come and play before them at their Feast.
I heard all as I came, the city rings
And numbers thither flock, I had no will,                                                       (1450)
Lest I should see him forced to things unseemly.
But that which moved my coming now, was chiefly
To give ye part with me what hope I have   [give ye part with me = share]
With good success to work his liberty.

Chorus: That hope would much rejoice us to partake                                  (1455)
With thee; say reverend Sire, we thirst to hear.

Manoa: I have attempted one by one the lords      [attempted = approached]
Either at home, or through the high street passing,
With supplication prone and father’s tears
To accept of ransom for my son their prisoner.                                             (1460)

Some much averse I found and wondrous harsh,
Contemptuous, proud, set on revenge and spite;
That part most reverenced Dagon and his priests,

Others more moderate seeming, but their aim
Private reward, for which both God and State                                              (1465)
They easily would set to sale;
                                                  a third
More generous far and civil, who confessed                   [Milton’s Christian Humanism]
They had enough revenged, having reduced
Their foe to misery beneath their fears,
The rest was magnanimity to remit,                                                             (1470)
If some convenient ransom were proposed.

What noise or shout was that? it tore the sky.                    [spectacle offstage]

Chorus: Doubtless the people shouting to behold
Their once great dread, captive, & blind before them,                      [dread = enemy]
Or at some proof of strength before them shown.                                      (1475)

Manoa: His ransom, if my whole inheritance
May compass it, shall willingly be paid
And numbered down: much rather I shall choose
To live the poorest in my tribe, than richest,
And he in that calamitous prison left.                                                            (1480)
No, I am fixed not to part hence without him.
For his redemption all my patrimony,
If need be, I am ready to forgo
And quit: not wanting him, I shall want nothing.

Chorus: Fathers are wont to lay up for their sons,                                       (1485)
Thou for thy son art bent to lay out all;
Sons wont to nurse their Parents in old age,                           [wont = are inclined to]
Thou in old age carest how to nurse thy Son,
Made older than thy age through eyesight lost.

Manoa: It shall be my delight to tend his eyes,                                             (1490)
And view him sitting in the house, ennobled
With all those high exploits by him achieved,
And on his shoulders waving down those locks,
That of a nation armed the strength contained:
And I persuade me God had not permitted                                             (1495)
His strength again to grow up with his hair
Garrisoned round about him like a camp
Of faithful soldiery, were not his purpose
To use him further yet in some great service,
Not to sit idle with so great a gift                                                                  (1500)
Useless, and thence ridiculous about him.
And since his strength with eyesight was not lost,
God will restore him eyesight to his strength.

Chorus: Thy hopes are not ill founded nor seem vain
Of his delivery, and thy joy thereon                                                             (1505)
Conceived, agreeable to a father’s love,
In both which we, as next participate.

Manoa: I know your friendly minds and — O what noise!
Mercy of Heaven, what hideous noise was that!              [spectacle offstage]
Horribly loud, unlike the former shout.                                                         (1510)

Chorus: Noise call you it, or universal groan?
As if the whole inhabitation perished;
Blood, death, and deathful deeds are in that noise,
Ruin, destruction at the utmost point.                     [sublime as beautiful and terrible]

Manoa: Of ruin indeed methought I heard the noise,                               (1515)
Oh it continues, they have slain my son.

Chorus: Thy son is rather slaying them, that outcry
From slaughter of one foe could not ascend.

Manoa: Some dismal accident it needs must be;
What shall we do, stay here or run and see?                                          (1520)

Chorus: Best keep together here, lest running thither
We unawares run into danger’s mouth.
This evil on the Philistines is fallen,
From whom could else a general cry be heard?
The sufferers then will scarce molest us here,                                         (1525)
From other hands we need not much to fear.
What if his eyesight (for to Israel’s God
Nothing is hard) by miracle restored,
He now be dealing dole among his foes,                          [dole = suffering, grief]
And over heaps of slaughtered walk his way?                                       (1530)

Manoa: That were a joy presumptuous to be thought.

Chorus: Yet God hath wrought things as incredible
For his people of old; what hinders now?                    [Milton’s Christian Humanism?]

Manoa: He can I know, but doubt to think he will;
Yet hope would fain subscribe, and tempts belief.   [fain subscribe=willingly comply]

A little stay will bring some notice hither.                                                   (1536)

Chorus: Of good or bad so great, of bad the sooner;
For evil news rides post, while good news baits.                  [baits = dawdles]
And to our wish I see one hither speeding,
An Ebrew, as I guess, and of our tribe.                       (1540)

[enter Messenger] 

Messenger: O whither shall I run, or which way fly
The sight of this so horrid spectacle                                     [SPECTACLE!]
Which erst my eyes beheld and yet behold;                                 [erst = recently]
For dire imagination still pursues me.
But providence or instinct of nature seems,                                               (1545)
Or reason though disturbed, and scarce consulted
To have guided me aright, I know not how,
To thee first reverend Manoa, and to these
My Countrymen, whom here I knew remaining,
As at some distance from the place of horror,                                              (1550)
So in the sad event too much concerned.

Manoa: The accident was loud, and here before thee
With rueful cry, yet what it was we hear not,                                 [rueful = sorrowful]
No preface needs, thou seest we long to know.                            [needs = is needed]

Messenger: It would burst forth, but I recover breath                                  (1555)
And sense distract, to know well what I utter.

Manoa: Tell us the sum, the circumstance defer.

Messenger: Gaza yet stands, but all her sons are fallen,
All in a moment overwhelmed and fallen.                                                [sublime scale]

Manoa: Sad, but thou knowest to Israelites not saddest                             (1560)
The desolation of a hostile city.

Messenger: Feed on that first, there may in grief be surfeit. [surfeit = excess]

Manoa: Relate by whom.

Messenger: By Samson.

Manoa: That still lessens
The sorrow, and converts it nigh to joy.

Messenger: Ah Manoa I refrain, too suddenly                                             (1565)
To utter what will come at last too soon;
Lest evil tidings with too rude irruption                                       [irruption = outbreak]
Hitting thy aged ear should pierce too deep.

Manoa: Suspense in news is torture, speak them out.

Messenger: Then take the worst in brief, Samson is dead.                         (1570)

Manoa: The worst indeed, O all my hope's defeated
To free him hence! but death who sets all free
Hath paid his ransom now and full discharge.
What windy joy this day had I conceived
Hopeful of his Delivery, which now proves                                                   (1575)
Abortive as the first-born bloom of Spring
Nipped with the lagging rear of winter's frost.

Yet ere I give the reins to grief, say first          [ere = before]
How died he? death to life is crown or shame.
All by him fell thou sayest, by whom fell he,                                                 (1580)
What glorious hand gave Samson his death’s wound?

Messenger: Unwounded of his enemies he fell.

Manoa: Wearied with slaughter then or how? explain.

Messenger: By his own hands.

Manoa: Self-violence? what cause
Brought him so soon at variance with himself                                            (1585)
Among his foes?

Messenger: Inevitable cause
At once both to destroy and be destroyed;
The edifice where all were met to see him
Upon their heads and on his own he pulled.

Manoa: O lastly over-strong against thy self!                                             (1590)
A dreadful way thou tookest to thy revenge.
More than enough we know; but while things yet
Are in confusion, give us if thou canst,
Eye-witness of what first or last was done,
Relation more particular and distinct.                                                         (1595)

Messenger: Occasions drew me early to this city,          [occasions = circumstances]
And as the gates I entered with sunrise,
The morning trumpets festival proclaimed
Through each high street: little I had dispatched
When all abroad was rumored that this day                                                (1600)
Samson should be brought forth to show the people
Proof of his mighty strength in feats and games;
I sorrowed at his captive state, but minded
Not to be absent at that spectacle.                 

The building was a spacious theatre                                                           (1605)
Half round on two main pillars vaulted high,
With seats where all the lords and each degree
Of sort, might sit in order to behold,
The other side was open, where the throng
On banks and scaffolds under sky might stand;                                         (1610)
I among these aloof obscurely stood.      [aloof = apart, separately]

The feast and noon grew high, and sacrifice
Had filled their hearts with mirth, high cheer, & wine,
When to their sports they turned. Immediately
Was Samson as a public servant brought,                                                 (1615)
In their state livery clad; before him pipes                    [livery = uniform; pipes = flutes]
And timbrels, on each side went armed guards,      [timbrels = hand drums, tambourines]
Both horse and foot before him and behind
archers, and slingers, cataphracts and spears.       [cataphracts = cavalry]

At sight of him the people with a shout                                                         (1620)
Rifted the air clamoring their god with praise,
Who had made their dreadful enemy their thrall.          [thrall = captive]
He patient but undaunted where they led him,
Came to the place, and what was set before him
Which without help of eye, might be assayed,                                            (1625)
To heave, pull, draw, or break, he still performed
All with incredible, stupendous force,
None daring to appear antagonist.

At length for intermission sake they led him                [intermission = rest, relief]
Between the pillars; he his guide requested                                                (1630)
(For so from such as nearer stood we heard)
As over-tired to let him lean a while
With both his arms on those two massy pillars
That to the arched roof gave main support.

He unsuspicious led him; which when Samson       [He = Samson's guide]      (1635)
Felt in his arms, with head a while inclined,
And eyes fast fixed he stood, as one who prayed,                    [Judges 16.28]
Or some great matter in his mind revolved.
At last with head erect thus cried aloud,
Hitherto, Lords, what your commands imposed                                            (1640)
I have performed, as reason was, obeying,
Not without wonder or delight beheld.
Now of my own accord such other trial
I mean to show you of my strength, yet greater;
As with amaze shall strike all who behold.        [amaze = amazement; sublime]    (1645)

This uttered, straining all his nerves he bowed,
As with the force of winds and waters pent,
When mountains tremble, those two massy pillars
With horrible convulsion to and fro,
He tugged, he shook, till down they came and drew                              (1650)
The whole roof after them, with burst of thunder
Upon the heads of all who sat beneath,
Lords, ladies, captains, councilors, or priests,
Their choice nobility and flower, not only
Of this but each Philistine city round                                                            (1655)
Met from all parts to solemnize this feast.
Samson with these immixed, inevitably                          [immixed = tumbled together]
Pulled down the same destruction on himself;
The vulgar only escaped who stood without.                   [vulgar = common people]

Chorus: O dearly-bought revenge, yet glorious!                                         (1660)
Living or dying thou hast fulfilled
The work for which thou wast foretold
To Israel, and now liest victorious
Among thy slain self-killed
Not willingly, but tangled in the fold                                                             (1665)
Of dire necessity, whose law in death conjoined
Thee with thy slaughtered foes in number more
Than all thy life had slain before.

Semichorus: While their hearts were jocund and sublime,
Drunk with Idolatry, drunk with wine,                                                            (1670)
And fat regorged of bulls and goats,
Chanting their idol, and preferring
Before our living dread who dwells                        [our living dread = God / Yahweh]
In Silo his bright Sanctuary:                                       [Silo = Shiloh; see Joshua 18.1]

Among them he a spirit of phrenzy sent,    [phrenzy = frenzy; cf. Dionysus in Bacchae]     (1675)
Who hurt their minds,
And urged them on with mad desire
To call in haste for their destroyer;
They only set on sport and play
Unwittingly importuned                                                 [blindly sought]               (1680)
Their own destruction to come speedy upon them.

So fond are mortal men
Fallen into wrath divine,
As their own ruin on themselves to invite,
Insensate left, or to sense reprobate,                                                            (1685)
And with blindness internal struck.

Semichorus:  But he though blind of sight,
Despised and thought extinguished quite,
With inward eyes illuminated
His fiery virtue roused                                                                                   (1690)
From under ashes into sudden flame,
And as an evening dragon came,
Assailant on the perched roosts,
And nests in order ranged
Of tame villatic Fowl; but as an eagle                   [villatic = of a village; rural]     (1695)
His cloudless thunder bolted on their heads.

So virtue given for lost,
Depressed, and overthrown, as seemed,
Like that self-begotten bird                      [the Phoenix; non-scriptural tradition or legend]    
In the Arabian woods embost,            [embost = imbosked, concealed in a wood]  (1700)
That no second knows nor third,
And lay ere while a Holocaust,
From out her ashy womb now teemed
Revives, reflourishes, then vigorous most
When most unactive deemed,                                                                      (1705)
And though her body die, her fame survives,
A secular bird ages of lives.                                                      [secular > non-scriptural]