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
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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
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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
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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;
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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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,
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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
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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.
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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,
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(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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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:
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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,
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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,
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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
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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
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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
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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,
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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
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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
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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,
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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.
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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
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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;
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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.
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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,
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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
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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
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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
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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,
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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
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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,
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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
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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,
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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:
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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,
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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.
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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
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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,
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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:
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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,
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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;
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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
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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,
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