445 Desperate of better course, to vent his rage
And mad despite to be so oft repelled.
Him walking on a sunny hill he found,
Backed on the north and west by a thick wood;
Out of the wood he starts in wonted shape;
450 And in a careless mood thus to him said.
Fair morning yet betides thee Son of God,
After a dismal night; I heard the rack
As earth and sky would mingle; but myself
Was distant; and these flaws, though mortals fear them
455 As dangerous to the pillared frame of heaven,
Or to the earth’s dark basis underneath,
Are to the main as inconsiderable,
And harmless, if not wholesome, as a sneeze
To man’s less universe, and soon are gone;
460 Yet as being ofttimes noxious where they light
On man, beast, plant, wasteful and turbulent,
Like turbulencies in the affairs of men,
Over whose heads they roar, and seem to point,
They oft fore-signify and threaten ill:
465 This tempest at this desert most was bent;
Of men at thee, for only thou here dwell’st.
Did I not tell thee, if thou didst reject
The perfect season offered with my aid
To win thy destined seat, but wilt prolong
470 All to the push of Fate, pursue thy way
Of gaining David’s throne no man knows when,
For both the when and how is nowhere told,
Thou shalt be what thou art ordained, no doubt;
For angels have proclaimed it, but concealing
475 The time and means: each act is rightliest done,
Not when it must, but when it may be best.
If thou observe not this, be sure to find,
What I foretold thee, many a hard assay
Of dangers, and adversities and pains,
480 Ere thou of Israel’s sceptre get fast hold;
Whereof this ominous night that closed thee round,
So many terrors, voices, prodigies
May warn thee, as a sure foregoing sign.
So talked he, while the Son of God went on
485 And stayed not, but in brief him answered thus.
Me worse than wet thou find’st not; other harm
Those terrors which thou speak’st of, did me none;
I never feared they could, though noising loud
And threatening nigh; what they can do as signs
490 Betok’ning, or ill boding, I contemn
As false portents, not sent from God, but thee;
Who knowing I shall reign past thy preventing,
Obtrud’st thy offered aid, that I accepting
At least might seem to hold all power of thee,
495 Ambitious Spirit, and wouldst be thought my God,
And storm’st refused, thinking to terrify
Me to thy will; desist, thou art discerned
And toil’st in vain, nor me in vain molest.
To whom the Fiend now swoll’n with rage replied:
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
Announced by Gabriel with the first I knew,
505 And of the angelic song in Bethlehem field,
On thy birth-night, that sung thee Saviour born.
From that time seldom have I ceased to eye
Thy infancy, thy childhood, and thy youth,
Thy manhood last, though yet in private bred;
510 Till at the ford of Jordan whither all
Flocked to the Baptist, I among the rest,
Though not to be baptized, by voice from Heav’n
Heard thee pronounced the Son of God beloved.
Thenceforth I thought thee worth my nearer view
515 And narrower scrutiny, that I might learn
In what degree or meaning thou art called
The Son of God, which bears no single sense;
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 declared.
Therefore I watched thy footsteps from that hour,
And followed thee still on to this waste wild;
Where by all best conjectures I collect
Good reason then, if I beforehand seek
To understand my adversary, who
And what he is; his wisdom, power, intent,
By parle, 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 centre, firm
535 To the utmost of mere man both wise and good,
Not more; for honours, riches, kingdoms, glory
Have been before contemned, and may again:
Therefore to know what more thou art than 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 hippogriff bore through the air sublime
Over the wilderness and o’er the plain;
Till underneath them fair Jerusalem,
545 The holy city lifted high her towers,
And higher yet the glorious Temple reared
Her pile, far off appearing like a mount
Of alabaster, topped with golden spires:
There on the highest pinnacle he set
550 The Son of God; and added thus in scorn:
There stand, if thou wilt stand; to stand upright
Will ask thee skill; I to thy Father’s house
Have brought thee, and highest placed; highest is best;
Now show thy progeny; if not to stand,
555 Cast thyself down; safely if Son of God:
For it is written, He will give command
Concerning thee to his angels, in their hands
They shall uplift 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 Earth’s son Antaeus (to compare
Small things with greatest) in Irassa strove
565 With Jove’s Alcides and oft foiled still rose,
Receiving from his mother Earth new strength,
Fresh from his fall, and fiercer grapple joined,
Throttled at length in the air, expired 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 monster that proposed
Her riddle, and him, who solved it not, devoured;
That once found out and solved, for grief and spite
575 Cast herself headlong from th’ Ismenian steep,
So struck with dread and anguish fell the Fiend,
And to his crew, that sat consulting, brought
Joyless triumphals of his hoped success,
Ruin, and desperation, and dismay,
580 Who durst so proudly tempt the Son of God.
So Satan fell and straight a fiery globe
Of angels on full sail of wing flew nigh,
Who on their plumy vans received him soft
From his uneasy station, and upbore
585 As on a floating couch through the blithe air,
Then in a flow’ry valley set him down
On a green bank, and set b
efore him spread
A table of celestial food, divine,
Ambrosial, fruits fetched from the Tree of Life,
590 And from the Fount of Life ambrosial drink,
That soon refreshed him wearied, and repaired
What hunger, if aught hunger had impaired,
Or thirst; and as he fed, angelic choirs
Sung Heavenly anthems of his victory
595 Over temptation, and the Tempter proud.
True image of the Father whether throned
In the bosom of bliss, and light of light
Conceiving, or remote from Heaven, enshrined
In fleshly tabernacle, and human form,
600 Wand’ring the wilderness, whatever place,
Habit, or state, or motion, still expressing
The Son of God, with Godlike force endued
Against the attempter of thy Father’s throne,
605 Thou didst debel, and down from Heav’n cast
With all his army; now thou hast avenged
Supplanted Adam, and by vanquishing
Temptation, hast regained lost Paradise,
And frústrated 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 be failed,
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, ere this thou feel’st
Thy wound, yet not thy last and deadliest wound
By this repulse received, and hold’st in Hell
No triumph; in all her gates Abaddon rues
625 Thy bold attempt; hereafter learn with awe
To dread the Son of God: he all unarmed
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 their time.
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 Heavenly feast refreshed
Brought on his way with joy; he unobserved
Home to his mother’s house private returned.
SAMSON AGONISTES
OF THAT SORT OF DRAMATIC POEM WHICH IS CALLED TRAGEDY
Tragedy, as it was anciently composed, 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
5 passions, that is to temper and reduce them to just measure
with a kind of delight, stirred up by reading or seeing those
passions well-imitated. Nor is nature wanting in her own
effects to make good his assertion: for so in physic things of
melancholic hue and quality are used against melancholy, sour
10 against sour, 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
their discourse. The Apostle Paul himself thought it not
unworthy to insert a verse of Euripides into the text of Holy
15 Scripture, I Cor. 15. 33, and Paraeus commenting on the
Revelation, divides the whole book as a tragedy, into acts,
distinguished each by a chorus of Heavenly harpings and song
between. Heretofore men in highest dignity have laboured
not a little to be thought able to compose a tragedy. Of that
20 honour Dionysius the elder was no less ambitious, than before
of his attaining to the tyranny. Augustus Caesar also had
begun his Ajax, but unable to please his own judgement with
what he had begun, left it unfinished. Seneca the philosopher
is by some thought the author of those tragedies (at least the
25 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 entitled
Christ Suffering. This is mentioned to vindicate tragedy from
the small esteem, or rather infamy, which in the account of
30 many it undergoes at this day with other common interludes;
happening through the poet’s error of intermixing comic stuff
with tragic sadness and gravity; or introducing trivial and
vulgar persons, which by all judicious hath been counted
absurd; and brought in without discretion, corruptly to gratify
35 the people. And though ancient tragedy use no prologue, 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 ancient manner, much different from what
among us passes for best, thus much beforehand may be
40 epistled: that chorus is here introduced after the Greek
manner, not ancient only but modern, and still in use among
the Italians. In the modelling therefore of this poem, with
good reason, the ancients and Italians are rather followed, as
of much more authority and fame. The measure of verse used
45 in the chorus is of all sorts, called by the Greeks monostrophic,
or rather apolelymenon, without regard had to strophe, antistrophe,
or epode, which were a kind of stanzas framed only
for the music, then used with the chorus that sung; not
essential to the poem, and therefore not material; or being
50 divided into stanzas or pauses, they may be called alloeostropha.
Division into act and scene referring chiefly to the stage (to
which this work was never intended) is here omitted.
It suffices if the whole drama be found not produced beyond
the fifth act. Of the style and uniformity, and that commonly
55 called the plot, whether intricate or explicit, which is nothing
indeed but such economy, or disposition of the fable as may
stand best with verisimilitude and decorum; they only will
best judge who are not unacquainted with Aeschylus,
Sophocles, and Euripides, the three tragic poets unequalled
60 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 ancient rule, and best example,
within the space of twenty-four hours.
The Argument
Samson made captive, blind, and now in the prison at Gaza,
there to labour as in a common workhouse, on a festival day,
in the general cessation from labour, comes forth into the
open air, to a place nigh, somewhat retired there to sit a while
5 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,
10 that this feast was proclaimed by the Philistines as a day of
thanksgiving for their 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 meanwhile is visited by other persons; and
15 lastly by a public officer to require his coming to the feast
before the lords and people, to play or show his strength in
their presence; he at first refuses, dismissing the public officer
with absolute denial to come; at length persuaded inwardly
that this was from God, he yields to go along with him, who
20 came now the second time with great threatenings to fetch
him; the chorus yet remaining on the place, Manoa returns
full of joyful hope, to procure ere long his son’s deliverance:
in the midst of which discourse an Hebrew comes in haste
confusedly at first; and afterward more distinctly relating the
25 catastrophe, what Samson had done to the Philistines, and by
accident to himself; wherewith the tragedy ends.
The Persons
Samson
Manoa, the father of Samson
Dalila his wife
Harapha of Gath
Public Officer
Messenger
Chorus of Danites
The Scene before the Prison in Gaza
Samson. A little onward lend thy guiding hand
To these dark steps, a little further on;
For yonder bank hath choice of sun or shade;
There I am wont to sit, when any chance
5 Relieves me from my task of servile toil,
Daily in the common prison else enjoined me,
Where I a prisoner chained, scarce freely draw
The air imprisoned also, close and damp,
Unwholesome draught: but here I feel amends,
10 The breath of heav’n fresh-blowing pure and sweet,
With day-spring born; here leave me to respire.
This day a solemn feast the people hold
To Dagon their sea-idol, and forbid
Laborious works; unwillingly this rest
15 Their superstition yields me; hence with leave
Retiring from the popular noise, I seek
This unfrequented place to find some ease;
Ease to the body some, none to the mind
From restless thoughts, that like a deadly swarm
20 Of hornets armed, no sooner found alone,