by John Milton
Or swing thee in the Air, then dash thee down
To th’ hazard of thy brains and shatter’d sides.
Harapha. By Astaroth7 e’re long thou shalt lament
These braveries in Irons loaden on thee.
Chorus. His Giantship is gone somewhat crest-fall’n,
1245
Stalking with less unconsci’nable strides,
And lower looks, but in a sultrie chafe.
Samson. I dread him not, nor all his Giant-brood,
Though Fame divulge him Father of five Sons
All of Gigantic size, Goliah chief.8
1250
Chorus. He will directly to the Lords, I fear,
And with malitious counsel stir them up
Some way or other yet further to afflict thee.
Samson. He must allege some cause, and offer’d fight
Will not dare mention, lest a question rise
1255
Whether he durst accept the offer or not,
And that he durst not plain enough appear’d.
Much more affliction then already felt
They cannot well impose, nor I sustain;
If they intend advantage of my labours
1260
The work of many hands, which earns my keeping
With no small profit daily to my owners.
But come what will, my deadliest foe will prove
My speediest friend, by death to rid me hence,
The worst that he can give, to me the best.
1265
Yet so it may fall out, because thir end
Is hate, not help to me, it may with mine
Draw thir own ruin who attempt the deed.
Chorus. Oh how comely it is and how reviving
To the Spirits of just men long opprest!
1270
When God into the hands of thir deliverer
Puts invincible might
To quell the mighty of the Earth, th’ oppressour,
The brute and boist’rous force of violent men
Hardy and industrious to support
1275
Tyrannic power, but raging to pursue
The righteous and all such as honour Truth;
He all thir Ammunition
And feats of War defeats
With plain Heroic magnitude of mind
1280
And celestial vigour arm’d,
Thir Armories and Magazins contemns,
Renders them useless, while
With winged expedition
Swift as the lightning glance he executes
1285
His errand on the wicked, who surpris’d
Lose thir defence, distracted and amaz’d.
But patience is more oft the exercise
Of Saints, the trial of thir fortitude,
Making them each his own Deliverer,
1290
And Victor over all
That tyrannie or fortune can inflict;
Either of these is in thy lot,
Samson, with might endu’d
Above the Sons of men; but sight bereav’d
1295
May chance to number thee with those
Whom Patience finally must crown.
This Idols day hath bin to thee no day of rest,
Labouring thy mind
More then the working day thy hands,
1300
And yet perhaps more trouble is behind.
For I descry this way
Some other tending, in his hand
A Scepter or quaint9 staff he bears,
Comes on amain, speed in his look.
1305
By his habit I discern him now
A Public Officer, and now at hand.
His message will be short and voluble.
Officer. Ebrews, the Pris’ner Samson here I seek.
Chorus. His manacles remark10 him, there he sits.
1310
Officer. Samson, to thee our Lords thus bid me say;
This day to Dagon is a solemn Feast,
With Sacrifices, Triumph, Pomp, and Games;
Thy strength they know surpassing human rate,
And now some public proof thereof require
1315
To honour this great Feast, and great Assembly;
Rise therefore with all speed and come along,
Where I will see thee heart’n’d and fresh clad
T’ appear as fits before th’ illustrious Lords.
Samson. Thou knowst I am an Ebrew, therefore tell them,
1320
Our Law forbids at thir Religious Rites
My presence; for that cause I cannot come.
Officer. This answer, be assur’d, will not content them.
Samson. Have they not Sword-players, and ev’ry sort
Of Gymnic Artists, Wrestlers, Riders, Runners,
1325
Juglers and Dancers, Antics, Mummers, Mimics,
But they must pick me out with shackles tir’d,
And over-labour’d at thir publick Mill,
To make them sport with blind activity?
Do they not seek occasion of new quarrels
1330
On my refusal to distress me more,
Or make a game of my calamities?
Return the way thou cam’st, I will not come.
Officer. Regard thy self,11 this will offend them highly.
Samson. My self? my conscience and internal peace.
1335
Can they think me so broken, so debas’d
With corporal servitude, that my mind ever
Will condescend to such absurd commands?
Although thir drudge, to be thir fool or jester,
And in my midst of sorrow and heart-grief
1340
To shew them feats, and play before thir god,
The worst of all indignities, yet on me
Joyn’d12 with extream contempt? I will not come.
Officer. My message was impos’d on me with speed,
Brooks no delay: is this thy resolution?
1345
Samson. So take it with what speed thy message needs.
Officer. I am sorry what this stoutness13 will produce.
Samson. Perhaps thou shalt have cause to sorrow indeed.
Chorus. Consider, Samson; matters now are strain’d
Up to the highth, whether to hold or break;
1350
He’s gone, and who knows how he may report
Thy words by adding fuel to the flame?
Expect another message more imperious,
More Lordly thund’ring then thou well wilt bear.
Samson. Shall I abuse this Consecrated gift
1355
Of strength, again returning with my hair
After my great transgression, so requite
Favour renew’d, and add a greater sin
By prostituting holy things to Idols;
A Nazarite in place abominable
1360
Vaunting my strength in honour to thir Dagon?
Besides, how vile, contemptible, ridiculous,
What act more execrably unclean, prophane?
Chorus. Yet with this strength thou serv’st the Philistines,
Idolatrous, uncircumcis’d, unclean.
1365
Samson. Not in thir Idol-worship, but by labour
Honest and lawful to deserve my food
Of those who have me in thir civil power.
Chorus. Where the heart joins not, outward acts defile not.
Samson. Where outward force constrains, the sentence holds;
1370
But who constrains me to the Temple of Dagon,
Not dragging? the Philistian Lords command.
Commands are no constraints. If I obey them,
I do it freely; venturing to displease
God for the fear of Man, and Man prefer,
1375
Set God behind: which in his jealousie<
br />
Shall never, unrepented, find forgiveness.
Yet that he may dispense with14 me or thee
Present in Temples at Idolatrous Rites
For some important cause, thou needst not doubt.
1380
Chorus. How thou wilt here come off surmounts my reach.
Samson. Be of good courage, I begin to feel
Some rouzing motions in me which dispose
To something extraordinary my thoughts.
I with this Messenger will go along,
1385
Nothing to do, be sure, that may dishonour
Our Law, or stain my vow of Nazarite.
If there be aught of presage in the mind,
This day will be remarkable in my life
By some great act, or of my days the last.
1390
Chorus. In time thou hast resolv’d, the man returns.
Officer. Samson, this second message from our Lords
To thee I am bid say. Art thou our Slave,
Our Captive, at the public Mill our drudge,
And dar’st thou at our sending and command
1395
Dispute thy coming? come without delay;
Or we shall find such Engines to assail
And hamper thee, as thou shalt come of force,
Though thou wert firmlier fast’n’d then a rock.
Samson. I could be well content to try thir Art,
1400
Which to no few of them would prove pernicious.
Yet knowing thir advantages too many,
Because they shall not15 trail me through thir streets
Like a wild Beast, I am content to go.
Masters commands come with a power resistless
1405
To such as owe them absolute subjection;
And for a life who will not change his purpose?
(So mutable are all the ways of men)
Yet this be sure, in nothing to comply
Scandalous or forbidden in our Law.
1410
Officer. I praise thy resolution, doff these links:
By this compliance thou wilt win the Lords
To favour, and perhaps to set thee free.
Samson. Brethren farewel, your company along
I will not wish, lest it perhaps offend them
1415
To see me girt with Friends; and how the sight
Of me as of a common Enemy,
So dreaded once, may now exasperate them
I know not. Lords are Lordliest in thir wine;
And the well-feasted Priest then soonest fir’d
1420
With zeal, if aught Religion seem concern’d:
No less the people on thir Holy-days
Impetuous, insolent, unquenchable;
Happ’n what may, of me expect to hear
Nothing dishonourable, impure, unworthy
1425
Our God, our Law, my Nation, or my self,
The last of me or no I cannot warrant.
Chorus. Go, and the Holy One
Of Israel be thy guide
To what may serve his glory best, and spread his name
1430
Great among the Heathen round:
Send thee the Angel of thy Birth, to stand
Fast by thy side, who from thy Fathers field
Rode up in flames after his message told
Of thy conception, and be now a shield
1435
Of fire; that Spirit that first rusht on thee
In the Camp of Dan
Be efficacious in thee now at need.
For never was from Heav’n imparted
Measure of strength so great to mortal seed,
1440
As in thy wond’rous actions hath been seen.
But wherefore comes old Manoa in such hast
With youthful steps? much livelier then e’re while
He seems: supposing here to find his Son,
Or of him bringing to us some glad news?
1445
Manoa. Peace with you brethren; my inducement hither
Was not at present here to find my Son,
By order of the Lords new parted hence
To come and play before them at thir Feast.
I heard all as I came, the City rings
1450
And numbers thither flock; I had no will,
Lest I should see him forc’t to things unseemly.
But that which mov’d my coming now, was chiefly
To give ye part with me what hope I have
With good success to work his liberty.
1455
Chorus. That hope would much rejoyce us to partake
With thee; say reverend Sire, we thirst to hear.
Manoa. I have attempted16 one by one the Lords
Either at home, or through the high street passing,
With supplication prone and Fathers tears
1460
T’ accept of ransom for my Son thir pris’ner;
Some much averse I found and wondrous harsh,
Contemptuous, proud, set on revenge and spite;
That part most reverenc’d Dagon and his Priests;
Others more moderate seeming, but thir aim
1465
Private reward, for which both God and State
They easily would set to sale; a third
More generous far and civil, who confess’d
They had anough reveng’d, having reduc’t
Thir foe to misery beneath thir fears;
1470
The rest was magnanimity to remit,17
If some convenient ransom were propos’d.
What noise or shout was that? it tore the Skie.
Chorus. Doubtless the people shouting to behold
Thir once great dread, captive, and blind before them,
1475
Or at some proof of strength before them shown.
Manoa. His ransom, if my whole inheritance
May compass it, shall willingly be paid
And numberd down: much rather I shall chuse
To live the poorest in my Tribe, then richest,
1480
And he in that calamitous prison left.
No, I am fixt not to part hence without him.
For his redemption all my Patrimony,
If I need be, I am ready to forgo
And quit: not wanting him, I shall want nothing.
1485
Chorus. Fathers are wont to lay up for thir Sons,
Thou for thy Son art bent to lay out all;
Sons wont to nurse thir Parents in old age,
Thou in old age car’st how to nurse thy Son,
Made older then thy age through eye-sight lost.
1490
Manoa. It shall be my delight to tend his eyes,
And view him sitting in the house, ennobl’d
With all those high exploits by him atchiev’d,
And on his shoulders waving down those locks,
That of a Nation arm’d the strength contain’d:
1495
And I perswade me God had not permitted
His strength again to grow up with his hair
Garrison’d round about him like a Camp
Of faithful Souldiery, were not his purpose
To use him further yet in some great service,
1500
Not to sit idle with so great a gift
Useless, and thence ridiculous about him.
And since his strength with eye-sight was not lost,
God will restore him eye-sight to his strength.
Chorus. Thy hopes are not ill founded nor seem vain
1505
Of his delivery, and thy joy thereon
Conceiv’d, agreeable to a Fathers love,
In both which we, as next18 participate.
Manoa. I know your friendly minds and—O what noise!
Mercy of Heav’n what hideous noise
was that!
1510
Horribly loud unlike the former shout.
Chorus. Noise call you it or universal groan
As if the whole inhabitation perish’d;
Blood, death, and deathful deeds are in that noise,
Ruin, destruction at the utmost point.
1515
Manoa. Of ruin indeed methought I heard the noise,
Oh it continues, they have slain my Son.
Chorus. Thy Son is rather slaying them, that outcry
From slaughter of one foe could not ascend.
Manoa. Some dismal accident it needs must be;
1520
What shall we do, stay here or run and see?
Chorus. Best keep together here, lest running thither
We unawares run into dangers mouth.
This evil on the Philistines is fall’n,
From whom could else a general cry be heard?
1525
The sufferers then will scarce molest us here,
From other hands we need not much to fear.
What if his eye-sight (for to Israels God
Nothing is hard) by miracle restor’d,
He now be dealing dole19 among his foes,
1530
And over heaps of slaughter’d walk his way?
Manoa. That were a joy presumptuous to be thought.
Chorus. Yet God hath wrought things as incredible
For his people of old; what hinders now?
Manoa. He can I know, but doubt to think he will;
1535
Yet Hope would fain subscribe, and tempts Belief.
A little stay will bring some notice hither.
Chorus. Of good or bad so great, of bad the sooner;
For evil news rides post, while good news baits.20
And to our wish I see one hither speeding,
1540
An Ebrew, as I guess, and of our Tribe.
Messenger. O whither shall I run, or which way flie
The sight of this so horrid spectacle
Which earst my eyes beheld and yet behold;
For dire imagination still persues me?
1545
But providence or instinct of nature seems,