by John Milton
Ambitious spirit, and wouldst be thought my God,
And storm’st refus’d, thinking to terrifie
Mee to thy will; desist, thou art discern’d
And toil’st in vain, nor me in vain molest.
To whom the Fiend now swoln with rage reply’d:
500
Then hear, O Son of David, Virgin-born;
For Son of God to me is yet in doubt,
Of the Messiah I have heard foretold
By all the Prophets; of thy birth at length
Announc’t by Gabriel with the first I knew,
505
And of th’ Angelic Song in Bethlehem field,
On thy birth-night, that sung thee Saviour born.
From that time seldom have I ceas’d to eye
Thy infancy, thy childhood, and thy youth,
Thy manhood last, though yet in private bred;
510
Till at the Ford of Jordan wither all
Flock’d to the Baptist, I among the rest,
Though not to be Baptiz’d,45 by voice from Heav’n
Heard thee pronounc’d the Son of God belov’d.
Thenceforth I thought thee worth my nearer view
515
And narrower Scrutiny, that I might learn
In what degree or meaning thou art call’d
The Son of God, which bears no single sence;
The Son of God I also am, or was,
And if I was, I am; relation stands;
520
All men are Sons of God; yet thee I thought
In some respect far higher so declar’d.
Therefore I watch’d thy footsteps from that hour,
And follow’d thee still on to this wast wild;
Where by all best conjectures I collect
525
Thou art to be my fatal enemy.
Good reason then, if I before-hand seek
To understand my Adversary,46 who
And what he is; his wisdom, power, intent,
By parl, or composition, truce, or league
530
To win him, or win from him what I can.
And opportunity I here have had
To try thee, sift thee, and confess have found thee
Proof against all temptation as a rock
Of Adamant, and as a Center, firm;
535
To th’ utmost of meer man both wise and good,
Not more; for Honours, Riches, Kingdoms, Glory
Have been before contemn’d, and may agen:
Therefore to know what more thou art then man,
Worth naming Son of God by voice from Heav’n,
540
Another method I must now begin.
So saying he caught him up, and without wing
Of Hippogrif47 bore through the Air sublime
Over the Wilderness and o’re the Plain;
Till underneath them fair Jerusalem,
545
The holy City lifted high her Towers,
And higher yet the glorious Temple48 rear’d
Her pile, far off appearing like a Mount
Of Alabaster, top’t with Golden Spires:
There on the highest Pinacle he set
550
The Son of God; and added thus in scorn:
There stand, if thou wilt stand;49 to stand upright
Will ask thee skill; I to thy Fathers house
Have brought thee, and highest plac’t, highest is best,
Now shew thy Progeny;50 if not to stand,
555
Cast thy self down; safely if Son of God:
For it is written,51 He will give command
Concerning thee to his Angels, in thir hands
They shall up lift thee, lest at any time
Thou chance to dash thy foot against a stone.
560
To whom thus Jesus: also it is written,
Tempt not the Lord thy God, he said and stood.
But Satan smitten with amazement fell
As when Earths Son Antæus (to compare
Small things with greatest) in Irassa strove
565
With Joves Alcides,52 and oft foil’d still rose,
Receiving from his mother Earth new strength,
Fresh from his fall, and fiercer grapple joyn’d,
Throttl’d at length in th’ Air, expir’d and fell;
So after many a foil the Tempter proud,
570
Renewing fresh assaults, amidst his pride
Fell whence he stood to see his Victor fall.
And as that Theban Monster53 that propos’d
Her riddle, and him, who solv’d it not, devour’d;
That once found out and solv’d, for grief and spight
575
Cast her self headlong from th’ Ismenian steep,
So strook with dread and anguish fell the Fiend,
And to his crew, that sat consulting, brought
Joyless triumphals of his hop’t success,
Ruin, and desperation, and dismay,
580
Who durst so proudly tempt the Son of God.
So Satan fell and strait a fiery Globe
Of Angels on full sail of wing flew nigh,
Who on their plumy Vans54 receiv’d him soft
From his uneasie station, and upbore
585
As on a floating couch through the blithe Air,55
Then in a flowry valley set him down
On a green bank, and set before him spred
A table of Celestial Food, Divine,
Ambrosial, Fruits fetcht from the tree of life,
590
And from the fount of life Ambrosial drink,
That soon refresh’d him wearied, and repair’d
What hunger, if aught hunger had impair’d,
Or thirst, and as he fed, Angelic Quires
Sung Heavenly Anthems of his victory
595
Over temptation, and the Tempter proud.
True Image of the Father whether thron’d
In the bosom of bliss, and light of light
Conceiving, or remote from Heav’n, enshrin’d
In fleshly Tabernacle, and human form,
600
Wandring the Wilderness, whatever place,
Habit, or state, or motion, still expressing
The Son of God, with Godlike force indu’d
Against th’ Attempter of thy Fathers Throne,
And Thief of Paradise; him long of old
605
Thou didst debel,56 and down from Heav’n cast
With all his Army, now thou hast aveng’d
Supplanted Adam, and by vanquishing
Temptation, hast regain’d lost Paradise,
And frustrated the conquest fraudulent:
610
He never more henceforth will dare set foot
In Paradise to tempt; his snares are broke:
For though that seat of earthly bliss he fail’d,
A fairer Paradise is founded now
For Adam and his chosen Sons, whom thou
615
A Saviour art come down to re-install,
Where they shall dwell secure, when time shall be
Of Tempter and Temptation without fear.
But thou, Infernal Serpent, shalt not long
Rule in the Clouds; like an Autumnal Star
620
Or Lightning thou shalt fall from Heav’n trod down
Under his feet: for proof, e’re this thou feel’st
Thy wound, yet not thy last and deadliest wound
By this repulse receiv’d, and hold’st in Hell
No triumph; in all her gates Abaddon57 rues
625
Thy bold attempt; hereafter learn with awe
To dread the Son of God: he all unarm’d
Shall chase thee with the terror of his voice
From thy Demoniac holds, possession foul,
>
Thee and thy Legions, yelling they shall fly,
630
And beg to hide them in a herd of Swine,
Lest he command them down into the deep
Bound, and to torment sent before thir time.58
Hail Son of the most High, heir of both worlds,
Queller of Satan, on thy glorious work
635
Now enter, and begin to save mankind.
Thus they the Son of God our Saviour meek
Sung Victor, and from Heav’nly Feast refresht
Brought on his way with joy; hee unobserv’d
Home to his Mothers house private return’d.
(1646–48 ?; revised or, according to some critics, written after 1665)59
* * *
1 The central Italian plain, with the Tyrrhene Sea to the south and the Apennines to the northwest, is divided by the Tiber, on which lies Rome.
2 northern.
3 the apparent displacement of an object seen from two different positions.
4 See EL 1, n. 11.
5 chiefly judicial magistrates, next in rank to consuls.
6 provincial governors.
7 officers, carrying fasces (a bundle of rods), who cleared the way for magistrates in public.
8 tenth parts of a legion; a turme was a tenth part of a wing, a flank of the cavalry.
9 lying between Rome and Brindisi.
10 lying between Rome and the Adriatic Sea.
11 a city on the Upper Nile. Bocchus was in northern Africa, and the Black-moor Sea means the Mediterranean along the northwestern African coast.
12 the Malay peninsula.
13 Ceylon.
14 Cadiz.
15 people of a region between the Vistula and Volga rivers.
16 the Sea of Azof.
17 Tiberius.
18 Sejanus.
19 tables of fine wood from citrus trees or of marble.
20 The first three are Italian areas and the last two Greek islands all famous for wines.
21 made of a semiprecious stone; the glassware was transparent, showing pieces of embedded colored glass (perhaps with gems).
22 stripping.
23 Luke i. 33.
24 fastidious.
25 Matt. iv. 10; Luke iv. 8.
26 rulers of a quarter of the world (l. 202), but referring too to the four enumerated elements.
27 See Luke ii. 42–47.
28 the first five books of the Old Testament.
29 the nightingale.
30 Aristotle.
31 the “porch” in the marketplace of Athens where Zeno taught his Stoic philosophy.
32 referring primarily to Sappho and Pindar.
33 king of Persia, who sided with Sparta against Athens. The orators were Demosthenes and Pericles, respectively.
34 followers of Aristotle.
35 Socrates.
36 Plato.
37 Pyrrho, founder of the Sceptics.
38 the Peripatetics.
39 Epicurus.
40 statesmen.
41 a hood worn by the clergy.
42 the universe.
43 Svendsen (p. 39) points out that a sneeze was thought a benefit to health because it purged the brain (“mans less universe”).
44 from.
45 not only because as an angel he was a fiery essence, but because such immersion absolved man of Adam and Eve’s original sin. Though he had instigated that sin, he had not inherited it as had the descendants of Adam.
46 Note that it is Satan who is called the “Adversary” in I, 33.
47 a winged animal, half horse and half griffin.
48 that built by Herod.
49 both “stand up” rather than “fall down” and “remain steadfast in resistance.” The Son is faced with the dilemma of remaining and not bringing God’s command (ll. 556–59) to pass, or casting himself down and thus succumbing to Satan by putting God to the test. Thus should he cast himself down, his fall would be both literal and figurative.
50 parentage.
51 Matt. iv. 6–7, referring to Ps. xci. 11–12, which includes the significant phrase “to keep thee in all thy ways.”
52 Hercules, who reasoned how to subdue the giant Antaeus.
53 the Sphinx, who devoured those unable to solve her riddle; when Oedipus gave the correct answer (“Man”), she flung herself from the acropolis into the river Ismenus. The answer “Man” is symbolically meaningful at this point in the Son’s defeat of Satan.
54 wings.
55 Thus does God’s command come to pass; the Son solved his dilemma through faith.
56 subdue.
57 Hell.
58 See El. 4, n. 20.
59 The traditional dating of the entire epic after 1665 and before SA has been challenged by the editor in “Chronology of Milton’s Major Poems” where these dates are conjectured. Parker, Milton, A Biography, II, 1140, suggests a date of c. 1656–58 for the first attempts at PR.
Samson Agonistes1
OF THAT SORT OF DRAMATIC POEM WHICH IS CALL’D TRAGEDY
Tragedy, as it was antiently compos’d, hath been ever held the gravest, moralest, and most profitable of all other Poems: therefore said by Aristotle to be of power by raising pity and fear, or terror, to purge the mind of those and such like passions, that is to temper and reduce them to just measure with a kind of delight, stirr’d up by reading or seeing those passions well imitated.2 Nor is Nature wanting in her own effects to make good his assertion: for so in Physic things of melancholic hue and quality are us’d against melancholy, sowr against sowr, salt to remove salt humours. Hence Philosophers and other gravest Writers, as Cicero, Plutarch and others, frequently cite out of Tragic Poets, both to adorn and illustrate thir discourse. The Apostle Paul himself thought it not unworthy to insert a verse of Euripides into the Text of Holy Scripture, 1 Cor. 15.33.3 and Paræus4 commenting on the Revelation, divides the whole Book as a Tragedy, into Acts distinguisht each by a Chorus of Heavenly Harpings and Song between. Heretofore Men in highest dignity have labour’d not a little to be thought able to compose a Tragedy. Of that honour Dionysius the elder5 was no less ambitious, then before of his attaining to the Tyranny. Augustus Cæsar also had begun his Ajax, but unable to please his own judgment with what he had begun, left it unfinisht.6 Seneca the Philosopher is by some thought the Author of those Tragedies (at least the best of them) that go under that name. Gregory Nazianzen a Father of the Church, thought it not unbeseeming the sanctity of his person to write a Tragedy, which he entitl’d, Christ suffering.7 This is mention’d to vindicate Tragedy from the small esteem, or rather infamy, which in the account of many it undergoes at this day with other common Interludes; hap’ning through the Poets error of intermixing Comic stuff with Tragic sadness and gravity; or introducing trivial and vulgar persons, which by all judicious hath bin counted absurd; and brought in without discretion, corruptly to gratifie the people. And though antient Tragedy use no Prologue,8 yet using sometimes, in case of self defence, or explanation, that which Martial calls an Epistle; in behalf of this Tragedy coming forth after the antient manner, much different from what among us passes for best, thus much before-hand may be Epistl’d; that Chorus is here introduc’d after the Greek manner, not antient only but modern, and still in use among the Italians. In the modelling therefore of this Poem, with good reason, the Antients and Italians are rather follow’d, as of much more authority and fame. The measure of Verse us’d in the Chorus is of all sorts, call’d by the Greeks Monostrophic,9 or rather Apolelymenon, without regard had to Strophe, Antistrophe or Epod, which were a kind of Stanzas fram’d only for the Music, then us’d with the Chorus that sung; not essential to the Poem, and therefore not material; or being divided into Stanzas or Pauses, they may be call’d Allæostropha.10 Division into Act and Scene referring chiefly to the Stage (to which this work never was intended) is here omitted. It suffices if the whole Drama be found not produc’t beyond the fift Act.
Of the style and unifo
rmitie, and that commonly call’d the Plot, whether intricate or explicit, which is nothing indeed but such œconomy, or disposition of the fable as may stand best with verisimilitude and decorum, they only will best judge who are not unacquainted with Æschulus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the three Tragic Poets unequall’d yet by any, and the best rule to all who endeavour to write Tragedy. The circumscription of time wherein the whole Drama begins and ends, is according to antient rule, and best example, within the space of 24 hours.
THE ARGUMENT
Samson made Captive, Blind, and now in the Prison at Gaza,11 there to labour as in a common work-house, on a Festival day, in the general cessation from labour, comes forth into the open Air, to a place nigh, somewhat retir’d, there to sit a while and bemoan his condition. Where he happens at length to be visited by certain friends and equals of his tribe, which make the Chorus, who seek to comfort him what they can; then by his old Father Manoa, who endeavours the like, and withal tells him his purpose to procure his liberty by ransom; lastly, that this Feast was proclaim’d by the Philistins as a day of Thanksgiving for thir deliverance from the hands of Samson, which yet more troubles him. Manoa then departs to prosecute his endeavour with the Philistian Lords for Samson’s redemption; who in the mean while is visited by other persons; and lastly by a publick Officer to require his coming to the Feast before the Lords and People, to play or shew his strength in thir presence; he at first refuses, dismissing the publick Officer with absolute denyal to come; at length perswaded inwardly that this was from God, he yields to go along with him, who came now the second time with great threatnings to fetch him; the Chorus yet remaining on the place, Manoa returns full of joyful hope, to procure e’re long his Sons deliverance: in the midst of which discourse an Ebrew comes in haste, confusedly at first; and afterward more distinctly relating the Catastrophe, what Samson had done to the Philistins, and by accident to himself; wherewith the Tragedy ends.
THE PERSONS
Samson
Manoa the Father of Samson
Dalila his Wife
Harapha of Gath
Publick Officer
Messenger
Chorus of Danites