by John Milton
219. Timna the biblical Timnath (Judges 14. 1), a Philistine city.
222. motioned proposed, recommended as a marriage partner (OED 1, 1c). Samson also plays on ‘motion’ as ‘a working of God in the soul’ (OED 9b). Cp. his ‘rousing motions’ (1382). The biblical Samson does not claim to have been prompted to the marriage by a divine motion. He says: ‘Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well’. But the next verse adds: ‘his father and his mother knew not that it was of the Lord, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines’ (Judges 14. 3–4). 1671 prints ‘mentioned’, but the Errata correct to ‘motioned’.
223. intimate *proceeding from one’s inmost self (OED 2).
impúlse strong suggestion supposed to come from a good or evil spirit (OED 3a), as in ‘An immediate Revelation or Divine Impulse’ (1674).
227. She proving false The woman of Timna betrayed Samson by telling her countrymen the answer to his riddle (Judges 14. 16–18). Samson then left her, and she was given to his ‘companion, whom he had used as his friend’ (Judges 14. 20). The Philistines later burned the woman and her father.
to wife See above, 216n.
228. fond foolish.
229. in the vale of Sorec, Dálila Cp. Judges 16. 4: ‘He loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah’.
230. specious deceptively attractive.
accomplished both ‘full of accomplishments’ and ‘fully informed’ (OED 3), as in ‘she, who was perfectly accomplished in all his qualities, advised him to lye with her’ (1603).
231. I thought it lawful from my former act Notice that Samson does not say that he received a divine ‘motion’ to marry Dalila; he thought his first marriage had given him a permanent dispensation to marry Philistines. Dalila’s betrayal of Samson is therefore no indication that Samson’s divine motions are spurious. See below, 422n and 1382n.
235. peal appeal (OED 1) and discharge of guns in a salute (OED 5). Guns ‘were not weapons of attack when pealing’ (Carey), so Samson’s surrender of his fort is all the more shameful.
237. provoke challenge, summon to fight (OED 3).
242. Israel’s governors The biblical Samson himself ‘judged Israel twenty years’ (Judges 15.20, 16. 32). M. may be glancing at the English Parliamentary leaders who failed to prevent the Restoration in 1660. Cp. REW (YP 7. 458): ‘But let our governors beware in time’.
247. ambition canvassing, solicitation of honours (OED 5).
253. rock of Etham After the Philistines had burned his first wife (see above, 227n), Samson ‘smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam’ (Judges 15. 8).
254. forecasting planning.
256–64. These events are related in Judges 15. 9–15.
258. on some conditions Samson surrendered to the men of Judah on the condition that they would not attack him themselves (Judges 15. 12).
261–2. cords… flame Cp. Judges 15. 14: ‘the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands’. Samson then killed a thousand men with the ass’s jawbone (see above, 142n).
266. by this by now (OED ‘by’ 21b).
Gath one of five Philistine cities, here used as a synecdoche for Philistia.
268–76. But… deeds M.’s general statement about nations grown corrupt carries implications for the England that had recalled Charles II. Cp. M.’s contempt in REW for those who would turn back to servitude out of a false belief ‘that they then livd in more plenty and prosperity’ (YP 7. 462). The antithesis between bondage with ease and strenuous liberty echoes Sallust, Speech of the Consul Lepidus 26: potiorque visa est periculosa libertas quieto servitio (‘I looked upon freedom united with danger as preferable to peace with slavery’). Cp. PL ii 255–7.
275. frequent common, usual.
280. Gideon See Judges 8. 5–9. The ungrateful Israelites of Succoth and Penuel refused to give bread to Gideon’s 300 soldiers when he was pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the vanquished kings of Midian.
282. ingrateful Ephraim See Judges 11. 12–33, 12. 1–6. The Ephraimite Jews refused to help Jephtha fight the Ammonites. After Jephtha had defeated the Ammonites in argument and battle, the Ephraimites threatened to burn him in his house. Jephtha’s Gileadites then fought the Ephraimites and slaughtered the survivors as they tried to cross the Jordan. The Ephraimites revealed themselves by their inability to pronounce the word shibboleth. St Paul names Gideon and Jephtha alongside Samson as examples of exemplary faith (Heb. 11. 32).
291. mine my fellow Hebrews.
293. Just are the ways of God Cp. Rev. 15.3: ‘just and true are thy ways’.
294. justifiable to men Cp. PL i 26.
295. think believe in the existence of (OED 13).
296. obscure intellectually dark (OED 1c) and frequenting the darkness to elude sight (OED 2). Cp. Eccles. 2. 14: ‘the fool walketh in darkness’. Atheists had to walk obscure when atheism was punishable by law.
298. heart of the fool Cp. Ps. 14. 1: ‘The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God’.
299. doctor teacher, learned divine.
305. ravel inquire (OED v1 4) and become entangled (OED v1 1). There is also an implied metaphor of a maze. A clue was said to ‘ravel’ as it came off the reel (OED v1 3). Notice wand’ring and involved and cp. ‘in wand’ring mazes lost’ (PL ii 561).
resolved freed from doubt (OED 3a).
306. *self-satisfying.
312. *obstriction legal obligation (prohibiting marriages with Gentiles). Carey notes: ‘seemingly no O.T. prohibition bans marriage with Philistines’, but Deut. 7. 4 implies that any marriage between Jew and Gentile will lead to idol worship, and Deut. 7. 6 states that God has chosen the Jews as ‘a special people unto himself. See also below, 319n.
313. legal debt duty to the (Mosaic) law.
319. strictest purity The chorus is referring to the impurity of mixed marriages. The Nazarite vow did not require celibacy (Num. 6. 1–21). Carey claims that ‘marriage with Gentiles was not impurity until after the reformation of Ezra’, but Ezra advocated a return to the Mosaic law. See Ezra 9–10, esp. 9. 14, where Ezra refers to Deut. 7. 3–5. M. cites these verses (and Neh. 13. 30) in DDD (YP 2. 262).
320. fallacious deceitful.
bride Samson’s first wife, the woman of Timna.
321. Unclean as a Gentile.
325. Unchaste was subsequent Samson’s first wife became unchaste when she was ‘given to his companion’ (Judges 14. 20).
327. careful anxious, troubled.
333. uncouth unfamiliar (OED 2).
334. *gloried OED’s sole instance of the past participle.
335. informed guided (OED 4d) – a sense coined by M. in A Masque 180.
338. signal conspicuous.
dejected abased, humbled (OED 2).
339. erst formerly.
340. miserable change Cp. Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra IV xv 51: ‘The miserable change now at my end / Lament nor sorrow at’.
345. Duelled their armies engaged entire armies in single combat as if they were equal antagonists.
357. pomp the splendour of the angel who ascended ‘in the flame of the altar’ after announcing Samson’s birth (Judges 13. 20).
360. graces favours, including ‘individual excellencies, divinely given’ (OED 11e).
scorpion’s tail Cp. Luke 11. 12: ‘if [a son] shall ask [of his father] an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?’
363. sacred including ‘set apart’ (as a ‘Nazarite’, see above, 31n).
373. Appoint both ‘blame’ (OED 18) and ‘prescribe’ (OED 8).
377. profaned including ‘disclosed, revealed’ (Latin profano).
380. Canaanite ‘no true Israelite’ (OED 1). The Philistines had immigrated into Canaan from Caphtor (Amos 9.7).
384. secret the answer to Samson’s riddle, which his first wife betrayed to her countrymen. See 227 and Judges 14.
388. prime both ‘beginning’
and ‘most desirable part’.
389. vitiated corrupted – with overtones of ‘deflower or violate a woman’ (OED 3). Samson’s rivals seduced Dalila with the mere scent of money, which sufficed to make her conceive treason as her illegitimate (spurious) first-born child.
390. Though offered only Cp. Judges 16. 5: ‘And we will give thee every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silver’.
394. capital chief, fatal, and pertaining to the head (OED 6d, 4, 1). Cp. ‘capital bruise’ (PL xii 383).
395. summed concentrated. The context also implies the image of a stag, whose head was ‘summed’ when full of antlers (OED 1). Contrast Samson as a shorn ‘wether’ (538).
396. Thrice I deluded her Judges 16. 6–15.
400. undissembled *not disguised or concealed (OED 2). Dalila did not hide her contempt for Samson even when she dissembled her love for him.
403. *blandished invested with flattery (sole instance in OED).
405. over-watched wearied with too much watching (OED).
408. grain the smallest unit of weight (OED 8).
422. Divine impulsion the ‘intimate impulse’ of line 223. Manoa speaks as if Samson had claimed divine impulsion for both marriages. But Samson claims an ‘intimate impulse’ for his first marriage only. See above, 231n. At stake is the authenticity of the ‘rousing motions’ that bring about the catastrophe (1382). Manoa implies that Samson is an unreliable interpreter of divine motions. Samson never doubts their authenticity.
423–5. occasion… occasion excuse, pretext (OED 2b)… opportunity (to attack).
infest attack (OED 1a).
424. state *have an opinion upon (OED 2b, sole instance). Manoa is doing his best not to say ‘I told you so’.
426. triumph *subject of triumph (OED 2b, sole instance).
433. rigid score unchanging debt.
434. popular public.
439. Them out of thine the Philistines out of Samson’s hands.
slew’st them many a slain ‘slew many of them, to their cost’. The them imitates the Latin dative of disadvantage.
442. Disglorified deprived of glory.
453. idolists idolaters.
scandal including ‘discredit to religion occasioned by the conduct of a religious person’ (OED 1a).
454. diffidence distrust (OED 1).
455. propense inclined, willing, ready.
456. fall off revolt, withdraw from allegiance (OED 92e). Cp. PL i 42–3: ‘to fall off / From their Creator’.
463. enter lists with enter a place enclosed for tilting, hence: challenge to fight.
464–5. preferring / Before both ‘liking (his own deity) better than God’s’ and ‘laying (his deity) before God formally for consideration, approval, or sanction’ (OED ‘prefer’ 5).
466. connive remain inactive (OED 5). OED cites only this and PL x 624 as instances of this sense. Latin conniveo means ‘close the eyes’.
468. stoop ‘bow’ to superior power (OED 2). Samson’s words are indeed a prophecy (473), for Dagon’s idol will soon fall flat on its face. See 471n, below.
469. discomfit defeat.
471. blank disconcert, ‘shut up’ (OED 2). Blank his worshippers recalls PL i 461, where Dagon ‘fell flat, and shamed his worshippers’, who had placed the ark of the Covenant in his temple. See I Sam. 5. 4.
475. vindicate assert or make good by means of action (OED 4) and *claim as properly belonging to himself (OED 5).
483. ransom There is no precedent either in the Bible or the Samson tradition for Manoa’s attempted ransoming of Samson.
by this by now. Cp. 266.
493. fact evil deed, crime (OED 1c).
496. front forehead.
500–501. Gentiles… confined Tantalus was condemned to eternal punishment in Hades because he had revealed the gods’ secrets (Euripides, Orestes 10).
503–15. But… offended Cp. Adam’s argument against suicide in PL x 1013–28; also CD ii 8, where M. argues that suicides are guilty of ‘a perverse hatred’ of self (trans. Carey, YP 6. 719). There was much debate as to whether the biblical Samson was guilty of suicide. See below, 1664–5n.
509. quit thee all his debt remit all your debt to him.
513. self-rigorous both ‘strict in judging oneself’ and ‘being oneself a strict judge’ (when the truly penitent sinner would submit the judgement to God).
514. argues over-just proves one to be excessively just.
515. self-offence injury against oneself (OED 1). Manoa implies that Samson is more concerned with the injury (OED ‘offence’ 4a) he has brought upon himself than with his sin (OED ‘offence’ 7a) against God.
516. what… knows ‘whatever means are offered, which (who knows?)…’
518. his sacred house the Tabernacle – a curtained tent which held the ark of the Covenant and served as the portable sanctuary of the Israelites until Solomon built the Temple.
526. instínct impulse (OED 1), as in ‘he began to have many instincts and strong motions from God’ (1633). Cp. Samson’s ‘intimate impulse’ (223) and ‘rousing motions’ (1382).
528. sons of Anak giants. See above, 148n.
blazed celebrated.
530. admired wondered at.
531. affront attack, assault (OED 3).
533. fallacious deceitful.
venereal trains sexual snares.
535. pledge sign of (God’s) favour (OED 3), i.e. Samson’s hair, which he had pledged never to cut (Judges 13. 5).
537. concubine Some biblical commentators saw Delilah as a concubine, but M. follows a tradition that saw her as Samson’s wife (see above, 216n). Samson is reluctant to acknowledge the marriage (cp. 725, 929), but does acknowledge it at 227, 755, 885, etc.
shore me The biblical Delilah called for a man to shave off Samson’s locks (Judges 16. 19); M.’s Dalila shaved them herself.
538. wether castrated ram.
541. wine As a Nazarite Samson was required to ‘separate himself from wine and strong drink’ (Num. 6. 3; cp. Judges 13. 4).
543. dancing ruby red wine.
545. cheers the heart of gods and men Cp. Judges 9.13: ‘wine, which cheereth God and man’.
547–8. fountain… eastern ray Ancient belief held that the most wholesome water was that which rose from a spring in the face of the rising sun. Cp. Ezek. 47. 8 and Tasso, Il Mondo Creato iii 133–40.
549. fiery rod sunbeam. Cp. Euripides, Suppliants 650: ‘fiery shaft’.
550. milky juice fresh water. Cp. PL v 306: ‘milky stream’. Cp. also Song of Sol. 5. 12: ‘rivers of water, washed with milk’.
557. liquid clear, transparent, bright (OED 2).
558. complete fully armed.
560. What boots it of what use is it.
562. Effeminately *through degrading passion for a woman (OED 2, sole instance).
567. gaze that which is gazed at.
568. redundant *plentiful, exuberant (OED 2) and superfluous.
569. Robustious strong or healthy-looking.
571. craze render decrepit (OED 5).
574. draff pig-swill.
servile food food fit for slaves.
578. annoy molest, injure.
580. unemployed *idle (a sense coined by M. in PL iv 617).
581–98. But God… rest Cp. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica ii 438–48. When Jason expresses the hope that a god might restore Phineus’s sight, Phineus replies that there is no remedy for his eyes, and that death is his only hope.
581. fountain See Judges 15. 18–19. In A.V. the water comes from the jawbone. But the Hebrew is ambiguous, and M. follows a rival tradition, in which the water comes from the dry ground named ‘Lehi’ after the jawbone.
589. frustrate ineffectual, useless (OED 2).
591. treat with have to do with.
593. double darkness of blindness and death.
594. genial pertaining to ‘genius’ or natural disposition (OED 6). Genial spirits here means vital energy, will to live.
599. suggesti
ons including ‘promptings to evil’ (OED 1a).
600. humours black black bile (an imaginary fluid associated with melancholy in the old physiology).
601. fancy imagination.
603. prosecute persevere in.
605. healing words The healing power of words is proverbial in Greek tragedy. Cp. Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 379, Euripides, Hippolytus 478. Cp. also the chorus’s promise to cure Samson with words (183–6). Adam speaks ‘healing words’ in PL ix 290.
609. reins kidneys.
612. accidents medical symptoms (OED 3).
615. answerable corresponding.
622. mortification gangrene, necrosis (OED 2).
624. apprehensive pertaining to mental impressions.
625. Exasperate increase the fierceness of a disease (OED 2) and provoke to anger (OED 4).
exulcerate cause ulcers.
628. alp any high, snow-capped mountain. Cp. PL ii 620.
637. Abstemious abstaining from wine.
amain vigorously.
639. nerve strength (OED 3a).
643. appointment direction.
645. repeated made repeatedly.
651. balm aromatic ointment used for soothing pain (OED 5) and aromatic preparation for embalming the dead (OED 2).
657. Consolatories consoling treatises.
659. Lenient of soothing to.
661–2. tune… complaint Cp. Ecclesiasticus 22. 6: ‘A tale out of season is as music in mourning’.
662. mood both ‘state of mind’ and ‘mode of music’.
667. what is man Cp. Job 7. 17: ‘What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him?’ and Ps. 8. 4: ‘What is man, that thou art mindful of him?’
668. various *acting in different ways (OED 6b, sole instance).
669. contrarious self-contradictory (OED 2). Cp. M.’s only other instance, in DDD: ‘the righteous and all wise judgements and statutes of God; which are not variable and contrarious’ (YP 2. 321).
670. Temper’st regulate, control (OED 7).
671. evenly *without fluctuations (OED 4a).