The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (156 page)

To worthiest deeds, if he through frailty err

He
⁷⁵¹⁰
should not so oerwhelm, and as a thrall
⁷⁵¹¹

Subject him to so foul indignities,

Be it but for honor’s sake, of former deeds.

SAM. Appoint
⁷⁵¹²
not Heav’nly disposition, father.

Nothing of all these evils hath befall’n me

But justly. I myself have brought them on,

Sole author I, sole cause. If aught seem vile,

As
⁷⁵¹³
vile hath been my folly, who have profaned

The mystery of God giv’n me under pledge

Of vow, and have betrayed it to a woman,

A Canaanite, my faithless enemy.

This well I knew, nor was at all surprised,

But warned by oft experience. Did not she

Of Timna
⁷⁵¹⁴
first betray me, and reveal

The secret wrested from me in her height

Of nuptial love professed, carrying it straight

To them who had corrupted her, my spies

And rivals? In this other was there found

More faith? who also in her prime of love,

Spousal embraces, vitiated
⁷⁵¹⁵
with gold,

Though offered only, by the scent
⁷⁵¹⁶
conceived

Her spurious
⁷⁵¹⁷
first-born, treason against me?

Thrice she assayed, with flattering prayers and sighs,

And amorous reproaches, to win from me

My capital
⁷⁵¹⁸
secret, in what part my strength

Lay stored, in what part summed, that she might know.

Thrice I deluded
⁷⁵¹⁹
her, and turned to sport
⁷⁵²⁰

Her importunity, each time perceiving

How openly and with what impudence

She purposed to betray me, and (which was worse

Than undissembled hate) with what contempt

She sought to make me traitor to myself.

Yet the fourth time, when must’ring all her wiles,

With blandished
⁷⁵²¹
parleys,
⁷⁵²²
feminine assaults,

Tongue-batteries,
⁷⁵²³
she surceased not day nor night

To storm
⁷⁵²⁴
me, over-watched
⁷⁵²⁵
and wearied out.

At times when men seek most repose and rest

I yielded, and unlocked her all my heart,

Who with a grain of manhood well resolved
⁷⁵²⁶

Might easily have shook off all her snares.

But foul effeminacy
⁷⁵²⁷
held me yoked

Her bondslave. O indignity, O blot

To honor and religion! Servile mind

Rewarded well with servile punishment!

The base degree to which I now am fall’n,

These rags, this grinding,
⁷⁵²⁸
is not yet so base

As was my former servitude, ignoble,

Unmanly, ignominious, infamous,

True slavery, and that blindness worse than this,

That saw not how degenerately I served.

MAN. I cannot praise thy marriage choices, son—

Rather approved them not. But thou didst plead

Divine impulsion
⁷⁵²⁹
prompting how thou might’st

Find some occasion to infest
⁷⁵³⁰
our foes.

I state not that. This I am sure: our foes

Found soon occasion thereby to make thee

Their captive, and their triumph. Thou the sooner

Temptation found’st, or over-potent charms

To violate the sacred trust of silence

Deposited within thee, which t’ have kept

Tacit
⁷⁵³¹
was in thy power. True: and thou bear’st

Enough, and more, the burden of that fault.

Bitterly hast thou paid, and still art paying

That rigid
⁷⁵³²
score.
⁷⁵³³
A worse thing yet remains.

This day the Philistines a popular feast

Here celebrate in Gaza, and proclaim

Great pomp, and sacrifice, and praises loud

To Dagon, as their god who hath delivered

Thee, Samson, bound and blind into their hands,

Them out of thine, who slew’st them many a slain.

So Dagon shall be magnified, and God,

Besides whom is no God, compared with idols,

Disglorified, blasphemed, and had in scorn

By th’ idolatrous rout
⁷⁵³⁴
amidst their wine,

Which to have come to pass by means of thee,

Samson, of all thy sufferings think the heaviest,

Of all reproach the most with shame that ever

Could have befall’n thee and thy father’s house.
⁷⁵³⁵

SAM. Father, I do acknowledge and confess

That I this honor, I this pomp have brought

To Dagon, and advanced his praises high

Among the heathen round
⁷⁵³⁶
—to God have brought

Dishonor, obloquy,
⁷⁵³⁷
and op’t
⁷⁵³⁸
the mouths

Of idolists, and atheists, have brought scandal

To Israel, diffidence
⁷⁵³⁹
of God, and doubt

In feeble hearts, propense
⁷⁵⁴⁰
enough before

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

Mine eye to harbor
⁷⁵⁴¹
sleep, or thoughts to rest.

This only hope relieves me, that the strife

With me hath end: all the contest is now

’Twixt God and Dagon. Dagon hath presumed

(Me overthrown) to enter lists
⁷⁵⁴²
with God,

His deity comparing and preferring

Before the God of Abraham. He,
⁷⁵⁴³
be sure,

Will not connive,
⁷⁵⁴⁴
or linger, thus provoked,

But will arise and His great name assert.

Dagon must stoop,
⁷⁵⁴⁵
and shall ere long receive

Such a discomfit
⁷⁵⁴⁶
as shall quite despoil
⁷⁵⁴⁷
him

Of all these boasted trophies won on me,

And with confusion blank
⁷⁵⁴⁸
his worshippers.

MAN. With cause
⁷⁵⁴⁹
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

Against all competition, nor will long

Endure it, doubtful
⁷⁵⁵⁰
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

Neglected. I already have made way
⁷⁵⁵¹

To some Philistian lords, with whom to treat
⁷⁵⁵²

About thy ransom. Well they may by this
⁷⁵⁵³

Have satisfied their utmost of revenge

By pains and slaveries worse than death inflicted

On thee, who now no more canst do them harm.

SAM. Spare
⁷⁵⁵⁴
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,

Shameful garrulity. To have revealed

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,

The mark of fool set on his front?
⁷⁵⁵⁵
But I

God’s counsel have not kept, His holy secret

Presumptuously have published,
⁷⁵⁵⁶
impiously,

Weakly at least, and shamefully, a sin

That gentiles in their parables
⁷⁵⁵⁷
condemn
⁷⁵⁵⁸

To their abyss and horrid pains confined.
⁷⁵⁵⁹

MAN. Be penitent and for thy fault contrite,

But act not in thy own affliction, son.

Repent the sin, but if the punishment

Thou canst avoid, self-preservation bids,

Or th’ execution leave to high disposal,
⁷⁵⁶⁰

And let another hand, not thine, exact

Thy penal forfeit
⁷⁵⁶¹
from thyself. Perhaps

God will relent, and quit
⁷⁵⁶²
thee all His debt,

Who evermore approves and more accepts

(Best pleased with humble and filial submission)

Him who imploring mercy sues
⁷⁵⁶³
for life,

Than who, self-rigorous, chooses death as due,

Which argues over-just, and self-displeased

For self-offence, more than for God offended.

Reject not then what offered means
⁷⁵⁶⁴
(who knows

But God hath set before us) to return thee

Home to thy country and His sacred house,

Where thou may’st bring thy off ’rings, to avert

His further ire with prayers and vows renewed.

SAM. 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
⁷⁵⁶⁵
thoughts

Of birth from Heav’n foretold and high exploits,

Full of divine instinct,
⁷⁵⁶⁶
after some proof

Of acts indeed heroic, far beyond

The sons of Anac,
⁷⁵⁶⁷
famous now and blazed,
⁷⁵⁶⁸

Fearless of danger, like a petty god

I walked about, admired of all and dreaded

On hostile ground, none daring my affront.
⁷⁵⁶⁹

Then swoll’n with pride into the snare I fell

Of fair fallacious
⁷⁵⁷⁰
looks, venereal trains,
⁷⁵⁷¹

Softn’d with pleasure and voluptuous life,

At length to lay my head and hallowed pledge
⁷⁵⁷²

Of all my strength in the lascivious lap

Of a deceitful concubine, who shore me

Like a tame wether, all my precious fleece,

Then turned me out ridiculous, despoiled,

Shav’n, and disarmed among my enemies.

CHOR. Desire of wine and all delicious drinks,

Which many a famous warrior overturns,

Thou could’st repress, nor did the dancing ruby
⁷⁵⁷³

Sparkling, out-poured, the flavor, or the smell,

Or taste that cheers the heart of gods and men,

Allure thee from
⁷⁵⁷⁴
the cool crystalline stream.

SAM. Wherever fountain or fresh current flowed

Against the eastern ray, translucent, pure

With touch aetherial of Heav’ns fiery rod,
⁷⁵⁷⁵

I drank, from the clear milky
⁷⁵⁷⁶
juice
⁷⁵⁷⁷
allaying

Thirst, and refreshed, nor envied them the grape

Whose heads that turbulent liquor fills with fumes.

CHOR. O madness, to think use of strongest wines

And strongest drinks our chief support of health,

When God with these forbidd’n made choice to rear

His mighty champion, strong above compare,

Whose drink was only from the liquid brook.

SAM. But what availed this temperance, not complete

Against another object more enticing?

What boots it at one gate to make defence

And at another to let in the foe,

Effeminately vanquished? By which means,