Up to the highth, whether to hold or break.
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 1355
After my great transgression? so requite
Favour renewed, and add a greater sin
By prostituting holy things to idols,
A Nazarite, in place abominable,
Vaunting my strength in honour to their Dagon? 1360
Besides how vile, contemptible, ridiculous,
What act more execrably unclean, profane?
_Chorus._ Yet with this strength thou serv'st the Philistines,
Idolatrous, uncircumcised, unclean.
_Samson._ Not in their idol-worship, but by labour 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 Philistian 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 need'st 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 dishonour 1385
Our Law, or stain my vow of Nazarite.
If there be aught of presage in the mind,
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. 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 dar'st thou, at our sending and command,
Dispute thy coming? Come without delay; 1395
Or we shall find such engines to assail
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; 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: 1410
By this compliance thou wilt win the lords
To favour, 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 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; 1420
No less the people, on their holy-days,
Impetuous, insolent, unquenchable.
Happen what may, of me expect to hear
Nothing dishonourable, impure, unworthy
Our God, our Law, my nation, or myself; 1425
The last of me or no I cannot warrant.
_Chorus._ Go, and the Holy One
Of Israel be thy guide
To what may serve his glory best, and 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
Of thy conception, and be now a shield
Of fire; that Spirit, that first rushed on thee 1435
In the camp of Dan,
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
With youthful steps? much livelier than ere while
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
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,
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
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.
_Chorus._ Doubtless the people shouting to behold
Their once great dread, captive and blind before them,
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,
Thou in old age car'st how to nurse thy son,
Made older than thy age through eye-sight 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 eye-sight was not lost,
God will restore him eye-sight 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 . . . oh, what noise!
Mercy of Heaven! what hideous noise was that?
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.
_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 eye-sight (for to Israel's God
Nothing is hard) by miracle restored,
He now be dealing dole among his foes,
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?
_Manoa._ He can, I know, but doubt to think he will;
Yet hope would fain subscribe, and tempts belief. 1535
A little stay will bring some notice hither.
_Chorus._ Of good or bad so great, of bad the sooner;
For evil news rides post, while good news baits.
And to our wish I see one hither speeding—
An Ebrew, as I guess, and of our tribe. 1540
_Messenger._ Oh, whither shall I run, or which way fly
The sight of this so horrid spectacle,
Which erst my eyes beheld, and yet behold?
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.
No preface needs, thou seest we long to know.
_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.
_Manoa._ Sad! but thou know'st to Israelites not saddest 1560
The desolation of a hostile city.
_Messenger._ Feed on that first, there may in grief be surfeit.
_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
Hitting thy aged ear, should pierce too deep.
_Manoa._ Suspense in news is torture; speak them out.
_Messenger._ Take then the worst in brief: Samson is dead. 1570
_Manoa._ The worst indeed! oh, 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
Nipt with the lagging rear of winter's frost!
Yet, ere I give the reins to grief, say first
How died he; death to life is crown or shame.
All by him fell, thou say'st; 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._ Oh, lastly over-strong against thyself! 1590
A dreadful way thou took'st 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,
And, as the gates I entered with sun-rise,
The morning trumpets festival proclaimed
Through each high street. Little I had dispatched,
When all abroad was rumoured 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.
The feast and noon grew high, and sacrifice
Had filled their hearts with mirth, high cheer, and wine,
When to their sports they turned. Immediately
Was Samson as a public servant brought, 1615
In their state livery clad; before him pipes
And timbrels; on each side went armèd guards,
Both horse and foot; before him and behind
Archers and slingers, cataphracts and spears.
At sight of him the people with a shout 1620
Rifted the air, clamouring their god with praise,
Who had made their dreadful enemy their thrall.
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, stupendious force,
None daring to appear antagonist.
At length, for intermission sake, they led him
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 archèd roof gave main support.
He unsuspicious led him; which when Samson 1635
Felt in his arms, with head a while inclined,
And eyes fast fixed, he stood, as one who prayed,
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.' 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, counsellors, or priests,
Their choice nobility and flower, not only
Of this, but each Philistian city round, 1655
Met from all parts to solemnize this feast.
Samson, with these immixed, inevitably
Pulled down the same destruction on himself;
The vulgar only scaped, who stood without.
_Chorus._ Oh, 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,
Chaunting their idol, and preferring
Before our living Dread, who dwells
In Silo, his bright sanctuary,
Among them he a spirit of phrenzy sent, 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,
Unweetingly importuned 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 perchèd roosts
And nests in order ranged
Of tame villatic fowl, but as an eagle 1695
His cloudless thunder bolted on their heads.
So Virtue, given for lost,
Depressed and overthrown, as seemed,
Like that self-begotten bird,
In the Arabian woods embost, 1700
That no second knows nor third,
And lay erewhile 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.
_Manoa._ Come, come; no time for lamentation now,
Nor much more cause. Samson hath quit himself
Like Samson, and heroicly hath finished 1710
A life heroic, on his enemies
Fully revenged; hath left them years of mourning,
And lamentation to the sons of Caphtor
Through all Philistian bounds; to Israel
Honour hath left and freedom, let but them 1715
Find courage to lay hold on this occasion;
To himself and father's house eternal fame;
And, which is best and happiest yet, all this
With God not parted from him, as was feared,
But favouring and assisting to the end. 1720
Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail
Or knock the breast; no weakness, no contempt,
Dispraise, or blame; nothing but well and fair,
And what may quiet us in a death so noble.
Let us go find the body where it lies 1725
Soaked in his enemies' blood, and from the stream
With lavers pure, and cleansing herbs, wash off
The clotted gore. I, with what speed the while
(Gaza is not in plight to say us nay),
Will send for all my kindred, all my friends, 1730
To fetch him hence, and solemnly attend,
With silent obsequy and funeral train,
Home to his father's house. There will I build him
A monument, and plant it round with shade
Of laurel ever green, and branching palm, 1735
With all his trophies hung, and acts enrolled
In copious legend, or sweet lyric song.
Thither shall all the valiant youth resort,
And from his memory inflame their breasts
To matchless valour, and adventures high; 1740
The virgins also shall, on feastful days,
Visit his tomb with flowers, only bewailing
His lot unfortunate in nuptial choice,
From whence captivity and loss of eyes.
_Chorus._ All is best, though we oft doubt, 1745
What the unsearchable dispose
Of Highest Wisdom brings about,
And ever best found in the close.
Oft He seems to hide his face,
But unexpectedly returns, 1750
And to his faithful champion hath in place
Bore witness gloriously; whence Gaza mourns,
And all that band them to resist
His uncontrollable intent.
His servants He, with new acquist 1755
Of true experience from this great event,
With peace and consolation hath dismissed,
And calm of mind, all passion spent.
NOTES
_A Defence of the People of England_
Page 2. _Salmasius_ (Claudius), Latinized name of Claude de Saumaise, b.
1588, d. 1653; regarded in his time, throughout Europe, as the paragon
of scholarship; engaged, after the execution of Charles I., to defend
the royal cause against the Commonwealth, which he endeavored to do in
his _Defensio Regia pro Carolo I._, addressed to Charles II. In this
work he defines a king ('if that,' says Milton, 'may be said to be
defined which he makes infinite') 'to be a person in whom the supreme
power of the kingdom resides, who is answerable to God alone, who may do
whatsoever pleases him, who is bound by no law.'
P. 4, 5. _single person_: Milton himself, who replied to the _Eikon
Basilike_, and refuted its 'maudlin sophistry' in his _Eikonoklastes_;
_antagonist of mine_: Salmasius.
_The Second Defence of the People of England_
P. 7. _one eminent above the rest_: Salmasius.
P. 9, 10. _columns of Hercules_: the mountains on each side of the
Straits of Gibraltar. It was fabled that they were formerly one
mountain, which was rent asunder by Hercules. _Triptolemus_: the fabled
inventor of the plough and the distributor of grain among men, under
favor of Ceres.
P. 10. _the most noble queen of Sweden_: Christina, daughter of Gustavus
Adolphus.
P. 12. _Monstrum horrendum_: a monster horrible, mis-shapen, huge,
deprived of his eyesight; description of the Cyclops Polyphemus, whose
one eye was put out by Ulysses.—_Virgil's Æneid_, iii. 658.
P. 14. _Tiresias_: the blind prophet of Thebes. _Apollonius Rhodius_:
poet and rhetorician (B.C. 280-203), author of the _Argonautica_, a
heroic poem on the Argonautic expedition to Colchis in quest of the
golden fleece.
P. 14, 15. _Timoleon of Corinth_: Greek statesman and general, who
expelled the tyrants from the Greek cities of Sicily, and restored the
democratic form of government; died blind, 337 B.C. _Appius Claudius_:
surnamed Cæcus from his blindness. Roman consul, 307 and 296; induced
the senate, in his old age, to reject the terms of peace which Cineas
had proposed on behalf of Pyrrhus. _Pyrrhus_: king of Epirus (B.C.
318-272), who waged war against the Romans. _Cæcilius Metellus_: Roman
consul, B.C. 251, 249; pontifex maximus for twenty-two years from 243;
lost his sight in 241 while rescuing the Palladium when the temple of
Vesta was on fire. _Dandolo_ (_Enrico_): b. 1107(?); elected Doge in
1192; d. 1205. He was ninety-six years old when, though blind, he
commanded the Venetians at the taking of Constantinople, June 17, 1203.
'Oh, for one hour of blind old Dandolo!
The octogenarian chief, Byzantium's conquering foe.'
—_Byron's Childe Harold_, Canto iv. St. xii.
_Ziska_, or Zizka (John): military chief of the Hussites, b. 1360(?), d.
1424; his real name was Trocznow; he lost an eye in battle, and was
thence called Ziska, _i.e._ one-eyed; lost his other eye from an arrow
at the siege of Rubi, but his blindness did not prevent his continuing
the war against ecclesiastical tyranny. _Jerome Zanchius_ (Girolamo
Zanchi), Italian Protestant theologian, b. 1516, d. 1590; was canon
regular of the Lateran when he became a Protestant; professor of
theology and philosophy, University of Strasburg, 1553-1563; professor
of theology, University of Heidelberg, 1568-1576.
P. 16. _Æsculapius_: the god of medicine. _Epidaurus_ (now Epidauro):
chief seat of the worship of Æsculapius; _the son of Thetis_: Achilles,
the hero of the Iliad. I have substituted the Earl of Derby's
translation of the lines which follow from the Iliad, for that given by
Robert Fellowes.
P. 18. _Prytaneum_: 'a public building in the towns of Greece, where the
Prytanes (chief magistrates in the states) assembled and took their
meals together, and where those who had deserved well of their country
were maintained during life.'
P. 19, 20. _born in London_: 9th of December, 1608; _grammar-school_:
St. Paul's, notable among the classical seminaries then in London. The
head-master was a Mr. Alexander Gill, Sr., and the sub-master, or usher,
Mr. Alexander Gill, Jr.; with the latter Milton afterward maintained an
intimate friendship.
P. 20. _On my father's estate_: at Horton, in Buckinghamshire. _Henry
Wotton_: at this time Provost of Eton. His letter to Milton is dated 13
April, 1638. In the concluding paragraph, Sir Henry writes: 'At Sienna I
was tabled in the house of one Alberto Scipioni, an old Roman courtier
in dangerous times, . . . at my departure toward Rome (which had been
the centre of his experience) I had won confidence enough to beg his
advice, how I might carry myself securely there, without offence of
others, or of mine own conscience. _Signor Arrigo mio_ (says he), _I
pensieri stretti, & il viso sciolto_: that is, your thoughts close and
your countenance loose, will go safely over the whole world. Of which
Delphian oracle (for so I have found it) your judgment doth need no
commentary; and therefore, Sir, I will commit you with it to the best of
all securities, God's dear love, remaining your friend as much at
command as any of longer date.' Milton was certainly the last man in the
world to make such a prudential, or rather crafty, maxim his rule of
conduct, even in such a country as Italy then was. He has stated his own
rule further on in this extract. _Thomas Scudamore_: miswritten for John
(_Masson_).
P. 21. _Jacopo Gaddi_: a prominent and influential literary man of
Florence, member of the Florentine Academy, author of poems, historical
essays, etc., in Latin and in Italian. _Carlo Dati_: his full name was
Carlo Ruberto Dati; only in his 19th year when Milton visited Florence;
was afterwards one of the most distinguished of the Florentine men of
letters and academicians; became strongly attached to Milton, and
corresponded with him after his return to England; author of 'Vite de'
Pittori Antichi' (Lives of the Ancient Painters) and numerous other
works.