The Complete Poetry of John Milton

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by John Milton

So much of Adders wisdom I have learn’t82

  To fence my ear against thy sorceries.

  If in my flower of youth and strength, when all men

  Lov’d, honour’d, fear’d me, thou alone could hate me

  940

  Thy Husband, slight me, sell me, and forgo me;

  How wouldst thou use me now, blind, and thereby

  Deceiveable, in most things as a child

  Helpless, thence easily contemn’d, and scorn’d,

  And last neglected? How wouldst thou insult

  945

  When I must live uxorious to thy will

  In perfet thraldom, how again betray me,

  Bearing my words and doings to the Lords

  To gloss upon, and censuring, frown or smile?

  This Gaol I count the house of Liberty

  950

  To thine whose doors my feet shall never enter.

  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.

  At distance I forgive thee, go with that;

  955

  Bewail thy falshood, and the pious works

  It hath brought forth to make thee memorable

  Among illustrious women, faithful wives:

  Cherish thy hast’n’d widowhood with the gold

  Of Matrimonial treason: so farewel.

  960

  Dalila. I see thou art implacable, more deaf

  To prayers, then winds and seas, yet winds to seas

  Are reconcil’d at length, and Sea to Shore:

  Thy anger, unappeasable, still rages,

  Eternal tempest never to be calm’d.

  965

  Why do I humble thus my self, and suing

  For peace, reap nothing but repulse and hate?

  Bid go with evil omen and the brand

  Of infamy upon my name denounc’t?

  To mix with thy concernments I desist

  970

  Henceforth, nor too much disapprove my own.

  Fame if not double-fac’t is double-mouth’d,

  And with contrary blast proclaims most deeds,

  On both his wings, one black, the other white,

  Bears greatest names in his wild aerie flight.

  975

  My name perhaps among the Cireumcis’d

  In Dan, in Judah, and the bordering Tribes,

  To all posterity may stand defam’d,

  With malediction mention’d, and the blot

  Of falshood most unconjugal traduc’t.

  980

  But in my countrey where I most desire,

  In Ecron, Gaza, Asdod, and in Gath83

  I shall be nam’d among the famousest

  Of Women, sung at solemn festivals,

  Living and dead recorded, who to save

  985

  Her countrey from a fierce destroyer, chose

  Above the faith of wedlock-bands, my tomb

  With odours84 visited and annual flowers,

  Not less renown’d then in Mount Ephraim,

  Jael, who with inhospitable guile

  990

  Smote Sisera sleeping through the Temples nail’d.85

  Nor shall I count it hainous to enjoy

  The public marks of honour and reward

  Conferr’d upon me, for the piety

  Which to my countrey I was judg’d t’ have shewn.

  995

  At this who ever envies or repines

  I leave him to his lot, and like my own.

  Chorus. She’s gone, a manifest Serpent by her sting

  Discover’d in the end, till now conceal’d.

  Samson. So let her go, God sent her to debase me,

  1000

  And aggravate my folly who committed

  To such a viper his most sacred trust

  Of secresie, my safety, and my life.

  Chorus. Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange power,

  After offence returning, to regain

  1005

  Love once possest, nor can be easily

  Repuls’t, without much inward passion felt

  And secret sting of amorous remorse.

  Samson. Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end,

  Not wedlock-trechery endangering life.

  1010

  Chorus. It is not vertue, wisdom, valour, wit,

  Strength, comliness of shape, or amplest merit

  That womans love can win or long inherit;86

  But what it is, hard is to say,

  Harder to hit,

  1015

  (Which way soever men refer it)

  Much like thy riddle, Samson, in one day

  Or seven, though one should musing sit;

  If any of these or all, the Timnian bride

  Had not so soon preferr’d

  1020

  Thy Paranymph,87 worthless to thee compar’d,

  Successour in thy bed,

  Nor both so loosly disally’d

  Thir nuptials, nor this last so trecherously

  Had shorn the fatal harvest of thy head.

  1025

  Is it for that such outward ornament

  Was lavish’t on thir Sex, that inward gifts

  Were left for hast unfinish’t, judgment scant,

  Capacity not rais’d to apprehend

  Or value what is best

  1030

  In choice, but oftest to affect88 the wrong?

  Or was too much of self-love mixt,

  Of constancy no root infixt,

  That either they love nothing, or not long?

  What e’re it be, to wisest men and best

  1035

  Seeming at first all heav’nly under virgin veil,

  Soft, modest, meek, demure,

  Once join’d, the contrary she proves, a thorn

  Intestin, far within defensive arms

  A cleaving mischief, in his way to vertue

  1040

  Adverse and turbulent, or by her charms

  Draws him awry enslav’d

  With dotage, and his sense deprav’d

  To folly and shameful deeds which ruin ends.

  What Pilot so expert but needs must wreck

  1045

  Embarqu’d with such a Stears-mate at the Helm?

  Favour’d of Heav’n who finds

  One vertuous rarely found,

  That in domestic good combines:

  Happy that house! his way to peace is smooth:

  1050

  But vertue which breaks through all opposition,

  And all temptation can remove,

  Most shines and most is acceptable above.

  Therefore Gods universal Law

  Gave to the man despotic power

  1055

  Over his female in due awe,

  Nor from that right to part an hour,

  Smile she or lowr:

  So shall he least confusion draw

  On his whole life, not sway’d

  1060

  By female usurpation, nor dismay’d.

  But had we best retire, I see a storm?

  Samson. Fair days have oft contracted89 wind and rain.

  Chorus. But this another kind of tempest brings.

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

  1065

  Chorus. Look now for no inchanting voice, nor fear

  The bait of honied 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.

  1070

  Comes he in peace? what wind hath blown him hither

  I less conjecture then when first I saw

  The sumptuous Dalila floating this way:

  His habit carries peace, his brow defiance.

  Samson. Or peace or not, alike to me he comes.

  1075 />
  Chorus. His fraught90 we soon shall know, he now arrives.

  Harapha. I come not Samson, to condole thy chance,91

  As these perhaps, yet wish it had not been,

  Though for no friendly intent. I am of Gath,

  Men call me Harapha, of stock renown’d

  1080

  As Og or Anak and the Emims old

  That Kiriathaim held; thou knowst me now

  If thou at all art known. Much I have heard

  Of thy prodigious might and feats perform’d

  Incredible to me, in this displeas’d,

  1085

  That I was never present on the place

  Of those encounters, where we might have tri’d

  Each others force in camp or listed field:92

  And now am come to see of whom such noise

  Hath walk’d about, and each limb to survey,

  1090

  If thy appearance answer loud report.

  Samson. The way to know were not to see but taste.

  Harapha. Dost thou already single93 me; I thought

  Gyves and the Mill had tam’d thee? O that fortune

  Had brought me to the field where thou art fam’d

  1095

  T’ have wrought such wonders with an Asses Jaw;

  I should have forc’d thee soon wish other arms,

  Or left thy carkass where the Ass lay thrown:

  So had the glory of Prowess been recover’d

  To Palestine, won by a Philistine

  1100

  From the unforesldnn’d race, of whom thou bear’st

  The highest name for valiant Acts; that honour

  Certain t’ have won by mortal duel from thee,

  I lose, prevented by thy eyes put out.

  Samson. Boast not of what thou wouldst have done, but do

  1105

  What then thou would’st, thou seest it in thy hand.

  Harapha. To combat with a blind man I disdain,

  And thou hast need much washing to be toucht.

  Samson. Such usage as your honourable Lords

  Afford me assassinated94 and betray’d,

  1110

  Who durst not with thir whole united powers

  In fight withstand me single and unarm’d,

  Nor in the house with chamber Ambushes

  Close-banded durst attaque me, no not sleeping,

  Till they had hir’d a woman with their gold

  1115

  Breaking her Marriage Faith to circumvent me.

  Therefore without feign’d shifts let be assign’d

  Some narrow place enclos’d, where sight may give thee,

  Or rather flight, no great advantage on me;

  Then put on all thy gorgeous arms, thy Helmet

  1120

  And Brigandine95 of brass, thy broad Habergeon,96

  Vant-brass and Greves, and Gauntlet,97 add thy Spear

  A Weavers beam,98 and seven-times-folded shield,

  I only with an Oak’n staff will meet thee,

  And raise such out-cries on thy clatter’d Iron,

  1125

  Which long shall not with-hold mee from thy head,

  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.

  1130

  Harapha. Thou durst not thus disparage glorious arms

  Which greatest Heroes have in battel worn,

  Thir ornament and safety, had not spells

  And black enchantments, some Magicians Art

  Arm’d thee or charm’d thee strong, which thou from Heav’n

  1135

  Feign’dst at thy birth was giv’n thee in thy hair,

  Where strength can least abide, though all thy hairs

  Were bristles rang’d like those that ridge the back

  Of chaf’t wild Boars, or ruffl’d Porcupines.

  Samson. I know no Spells, use no forbidden Arts;

  1140

  My trust is in the living God who gave me

  At my Nativity this strength, diffus’d

  No less through all my sinews, joints and bones

  Then thine, while I preserv’d these locks unshorn,

  The pledge of my unviolated vow.

  1145

  For proof hereof, if Dagon be thy god,

  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,

  1150

  Which I to be the power of Israel’s God

  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

  1155

  Soon feel, whose God is strongest, thine or mine.

  Harapha. Presume not on thy God, what e’re he be,

  Thee he regards not, owns not, hath cut off

  Quite from his people, and deliver’d up

  Into thy Enemies hand, permitted them

  1160

  To put out both thine eyes, and fetter’d send thee

  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 boyst’rous99 locks, no worthy match

  1165

  For valour to assail, nor by the sword

  Of noble Warriour, so to stain his honour,

  But by the Barbers razor best subdu’d.

  Samson. All these indignities, for such they are

  From thine,1 these evils I deserve and more,

  1170

  Acknowledge them from God inflicted on me

  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

  1175

  Defie thee to the trial of mortal fight,

  By combat to decide whose god is God,

  Thine or whom I with Israel’s Sons adore.

  Harapha. Fair honour that thou dost thy God, in trusting

  He will accept thee to defend his cause,

  1180

  A Murtherer, a Revolter, and a Robber.

  Samson. Tongue-doughtie Giant, how dost thou prove me these?

  Harapha. Is not thy Nation subject to our Lords?

  Thir Magistrates confest it, when they took thee

  As a League-breaker and deliver’d bound

  1185

  Into our hands:2 for hadst thou not committed

  Notorious murder on those thirty men

  At Askalon, who never did thee harm,

  Then like a Robber strip’dst them of thir robes?3

  The Philistines, when thou hadst broke the league,

  1190

  Went up with armed powers thee only seeking,

  To others did no violence nor spoil.

  Samson. Among the Daughters of the Philistines

  I chose a Wife, which argu’d me no foe;

  And in your City held my Nuptial Feast:

  1195

  But your ill-meaning Politician Lords,

  Under pretence of Bridal friends and guests,

  Appointed to await me thirty spies,

  Who threatning cruel death constrain’d the bride

  To wring from me and tell to them my secret,

  1200

  That solv’d the riddle which I had propos’d.

  When I perceiv’d all set on enmity,

  As on my enemies, where ever chanc’d,

  I us’d hostility, and took thir spoil

  To pay my underminers in thir coin.

  1205

  My Nation was subjected
to your Lords.

  It was the force of Conquest; force with force

  Is well ejected when the Conquer’d can.

  But I a private person, whom my Countrey

  As a league-breaker gave up bound, presum’d

  1210

  Single Rebellion and did Hostile Acts.

  I was no private but a person rais’d

  With strength sufficient and command from Heav’n

  To free my Countrey; if their servile minds

  Me their Deliverer sent would not receive,

  1215

  But to thir Masters gave me up for nought,

  Th’ unworthier they; whence to this day they serve.

  I was to do my part from Heav’n assign’d,

  And had perform’d it if my known offence

  Had not disabl’d me, not all your force:

  1220

  These shifts refuted, answer thy appellant

  Though by his blindness maim’d for high attempts,

  Who now defies thee thrice to single fight,

  As a petty enterprise of small enforce.

  Harapha. With thee a Man condemn’d, a Slave enrol’d,

  1225

  Due by the Law to capital punishment?

  To fight with thee no man of arms will deign.

  Samson. Cam’st thou for this, vain boaster, to survey me,

  To descant on my strength, and give thy verdit?

  Come nearer, part not hence so slight inform’d;

  1230

  But take good heed my hand survey not thee.

  Harapha. O Baal-zebub!4 can my ears unus’d

  Hear these dishonours, and not render death?

  Samson. No man with-holds thee, nothing from thy hand

  Fear I incurable; bring up thy van,5

  1235

  My heels are fetter’d, but my fist is free.

  Harapha. This insolence other kind of answer fits.

  Samson. Go baffl’d6 coward, lest I run upon thee,

  Though in these chains, bulk without spirit vast,

  And with one buffet lay thy structure low,

  1240

  Or swing thee in the Air, then dash thee down

 

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