SAMSON.

THE PERSONS.

MANOAH, the Father of Samson.

DALILA, his Wife.

HARAPHA of Gath.

PUBLIC OFFICER.

MESSENGER.

CHORUS OF DANITES.

The Scene before the Prison in Gaza.

SAMSON AGONISTES.

SAMSON.

A LITTLE onward lend thy guiding hand
To these dark steps, a little further on ;
For yonder bank hath choice of sun or shade:

Samson Agonistes.] The subject, but a very indifferent one for a dramatic fable. However he has made the best of it. He seems to have chosen it for the sake of the satire on bad wives. Warburton.

Samson Agonistes.] That is, Samson an actor, Samson represented in a play. Ayons, ludio, histrio, actor scenicus.

Samson Agonistes.] Rather ayaVans, certator, a combatant, that is, one, according to Milton himself, v. 1601.

-brought forth, to shew the people Proof of his mighty strength in feats and games;

a combatant indeed not opposed, as he says, v. 1628.

None daring to appear antagonist. Further proof, if more be wanted, of the true meaning of this title, may be found in the titles of Milton's intended tragedies printed at the end of this, where every epithet marks some particular circumstance in the life of the hero of the proposed drama;

e. g. Eliseus Hudrophantes, Adorodocetus, Menutes, i. e. Elisha the discoverer of water, the uncorrupted, the revealer of counsels, &c. (2 Kings iii. v. vi.) E.

Samson.] Milton, after the example of the Greek tragedians, whom he professes to imitate, opens his drama with introducing one of its principal personages explaining the story upon which it is founded. Thyer.

1. A little onward lend thy guiding hand

To these dark steps,] So Tiresias in Euripides, Phonissæ, ver. 841.

Ηγου προπαροιθε θυγατερ, ὡς τυφλῳ aodi &c.

Richardson.

3. For yonder bank] The scene of this tragedy is much the same as that of the Οιδιπους επι Κολωνῳ in Sophocles, where blind Edipus is conducted in like manner, and represented sitting upon a little hill near Athens: but yet I think there is scarcely a single

chance

5

There I am wont to sit, when any
Relieves me from my task of servile toil,
Daily' in the common prison else injoin'd me,
Where I a prisoner chain'd, scarce freely draw
The air imprison'd also close and damp,
Unwholesome draught: but here I feel amends,
The breath of heav'n fresh blowing, pure and sweet, 10
With day-spring born; here leave me to respire.
This day a solemn feast the people hold

To Dagon their sea-idol, and forbid
Laborious works; unwillingly this rest

Their superstition yields me; hence with leave
Retiring from the popular noise, I seek
This unfrequented place to find some ease,
Ease to the body some, none to the mind
From restless thoughts, that like a deadly swarm
Of hornets arm'd, no sooner found alone,
But rush upon me thronging, and present
Times past, what once I was, and what am now.
O wherefore was my birth from heav'n foretold
Twice by an angel, who at last in sight
Of both my parents all in flames ascended
From off the altar, where an offering burn'd,
As in a fiery column charioting

thought the same in the two pieces, and I am sure the Greek tragedy can have no pretence to be esteemed better, but only because it is two thousand years older.

13. To Dagon their sea-idol,] For Milton both here and in the Paradise Lost follows the opinion of those, who describe this idol

15

20

25

as part man, part fish, i. 462. Dagon his name, sea monster, upward man

And downward fish.

24. Twice by an angel,] Once to his mother, and again to his father Manoah and his mother both, and the second time the angel ascended in the flame of the altar. Judges xiii. 3, i1, 20.

His god-like presence, and from some great act
Or benefit reveal'd to Abraham's race?
Why was my breeding order'd and prescrib'd
As of a person separate to God,

Design'd for great exploits; if I must die
Betray'd, captiv'd, and both my eyes put out,
Made of my enemies the scorn and gaze;
To grind in brazen fetters under task

30

With this heav'n-gifted strength? O glorious strength
Put to the labour of a beast, debas'd
Lower than bondslave! promise was that I
Should Israel from Philistine yoke deliver;
Ask for this great deliverer now, and find him
Eyeless in Gaza at the mill with slaves,
Himself in bonds under Philistian yoke:
Yet stay, let me not rashly call in doubt
Divine prediction; what if all foretold

Had been fulfill'd but through mine own default,
Whom have I to complain of but myself?
Who this high gift of strength committed to me,

·28. —and from some great act,] Mr. Sympson says that the true reading is

―ts from some great act;

but the poet would hardly say As in a fiery column &c. as from some great act &c; and therefore we may retain and, and as may be understood though not expressed, As in a fiery column charioting &c. and as from some great act &c.

33. Betray'd, captiv'd,] It should be pronounced with the accent upon the last syllable, as afterwards, ver. 694.

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40

4.5

To dogs and fowls a prey, or else captiv'd.

I think we commonly pronounce it with the accent upon the first syllable captiv'd: but our old authors give it the same pronunciation as Milton. Spenser, Faery Queen, b. ii. cant. iv. st. 16.

Thus when as Guyon Furor had captiv'd:

and b. iii. cant. i. st. 2.

But the captiv'd Acrasia he sent : and Fairfax, cant. xix. s. 95.

Free was Erminia, but captiv'd her heart.

In what part lodg'd, how easily bereft me,
Under the seal of silence could not keep,
But weakly to a woman must reveal it,
O'ercome 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

By weakest subtleties, not made to rule,

But to subserve where wisdom bears command!

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55

God, when he gave me strength, to show withal
How slight the gift was, hung it in my hair.
But peace, I must not quarrel with the will
Of highest dispensation, which herein
Haply had ends above my reach to know:
Suffices that to me strength is my bane,
And proves the source of all my miseries;
So many,
and so huge, that each apart
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,

53. But what is strength without
a double share

Of wisdom, &c.] Ovid, Met. xiii. 363.

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65

70

69. or decrepit age!] So it is printed in the first edition ; the later editors have omitted or, concluding I suppose that it made the verse a syllable too long. Mr. Calton proposes to

Tu vires sine mente geris-
-tu tantum corpore prodes,
Nos animo; quantoque ratem qui read
temperat &c.

Hor. Od. iii. iv. 65.

Jortin.

Vis consili expers mole ruit sua.
Richardson.

-beggary in decrepit age ! Want joined to the weaknesses of helpless age, says he, would render it a very real misery.