The Annotated Milton: Complete English Poems (155 page)

CHOR. He speaks: let us draw nigh.

Matchless in might,

The glory late of Israel, now the grief!

We come thy friends and neighbours not unknown

From Eshtaol and Zora’s fruitful vale
⁷⁴³²

To visit or bewail thee or, if better,

Counsel or consolation we may bring,

Salve to thy sores. Apt words have power to suage

The tumors
⁷⁴³³
of a troubled mind,

And are as balm to festered wounds.

SAM. Your coming, friends, revives me, for I learn

Now of my own experience, not by talk,

How counterfeit a coin they are who friends

Bear in their superscription
⁷⁴³⁴
(of the most,
⁷⁴³⁵

I would be understood): in prosperous days

They swarm, but in adverse withdraw their head,

Not to be found, though sought. Ye see, O friends,

How many evils have enclosed me round.

Yet that which was the worst now least afflicts me,

Blindness, for had I sight, confused with shame,

How could I once look up, or heave
⁷⁴³⁶
the head,

Who like a foolish pilot have shipwracked

My vessel, trusted to me from above,

Gloriously rigged, and for a word, a tear

—Fool!—have divulged the secret gift of God

To a deceitful woman? Tell me, friends,

Am I not sung and proverbed for a fool

In every street? Do they not say how well

Are come upon him his deserts? Yet why?

Immeasurable strength they might behold

In me, of wisdom nothing more than mean.
⁷⁴³⁷

This with the other should, at least, have paired;
⁷⁴³⁸

These two, proportioned ill, drove me transverse.
⁷⁴³⁹

CHOR. Tax
⁷⁴⁴⁰
not divine disposal.
⁷⁴⁴¹
Wisest men

Have erred, and by bad women been deceived,

And shall again, pretend they ne’re so wise.

Deject not then so overmuch thyself,

Who hast of sorrow thy full load besides.

Yet truth to say, I oft have heard men wonder

Why thou should’st wed Philistian women rather

Than of thine own tribe—fairer, or as fair,

At least of thy own nation, and as noble.

SAM. The first I saw at Timna,
⁷⁴⁴²
and she pleased

Me (not my parents), that
⁷⁴⁴³
I sought to wed,

The daughter of an infidel. They
⁷⁴⁴⁴
knew not

That what I motioned
⁷⁴⁴⁵
was of God; I knew

From intimate
⁷⁴⁴⁶
impulse,
⁷⁴⁴⁷
and therefore urged
⁷⁴⁴⁸

The marriage on, that by occasion
⁷⁴⁴⁹
hence
⁷⁴⁵⁰

I might begin Israel’s deliverance,

The work to which I was divinely called.

She proving false, the next I took to wife

(O that I never had! fond
⁷⁴⁵¹
wish, too late)

Was in the Vale of Sorec, Dalila,
⁷⁴⁵²

That specious
⁷⁴⁵³
monster, my accomplished
⁷⁴⁵⁴
snare.

I thought it lawful, from
⁷⁴⁵⁵
my former act

And the same end, still watching to oppress

Israel’s oppressors. Of what now I suffer

She was not the prime cause, but I myself

Who, vanquished with a peal
⁷⁴⁵⁶
of words (O weakness!),

Gave up
⁷⁴⁵⁷
my fort of silence to a woman.

CHOR. In seeking just occasion to provoke
⁷⁴⁵⁸

The Philistine, thy country’s enemy,

Thou never wast remiss:
⁷⁴⁵⁹
I bear thee witness.

Yet Israel still serves,
⁷⁴⁶⁰
with all his sons.

SAM. That fault I take not on me, but transfer

On Israel’s governors and heads of tribes,

Who seeing those great acts which God had done

Singly
⁷⁴⁶¹
by me against their conquerors

Acknowledged not, or not at all considered

Deliverance offered. I on th’ other side

Used
⁷⁴⁶²
no ambition
⁷⁴⁶³
to commend
⁷⁴⁶⁴
my deeds:

The deeds themselves, though mute, spoke loud the doer.

But they
⁷⁴⁶⁵
persisted deaf, and would not seem

To count them things worth notice, till at length

Their lords the Philistines with gathered
⁷⁴⁶⁶
powers

Entered Judea, seeking me, who then

Safe to the rock of Etham
⁷⁴⁶⁷
was retired,

Not flying,
⁷⁴⁶⁸
but fore-casting
⁷⁴⁶⁹
in what place

To set upon them, what advantaged
⁷⁴⁷⁰
best.

Meanwhile the men of Judah, to prevent

The harass of their land, beset
⁷⁴⁷¹
me round.

I willingly (on some
⁷⁴⁷²
conditions) came

Into their hands, and they as gladly yield me

To the uncircumcised, a welcome prey,
⁷⁴⁷³

Bound with two cords
⁷⁴⁷⁴
—but cords to me were threads

Touched with the flame. On their whole host I flew,

Unarmed, and with a trivial
⁷⁴⁷⁵
weapon felled

Their choicest youth; they only lived who fled.

Had Judah that day joined, or one whole tribe,

They had by this possessed the towers of Gath,
⁷⁴⁷⁶

And lorded over them whom now they serve.

But what more oft, in nations grown corrupt

And by their vices brought to servitude,

Than to love bondage more than liberty,

Bondage with ease than
⁷⁴⁷⁷
strenuous liberty,

And to despise, or envy, or suspect

Whom God hath of his special favor raised

As their deliverer? If he aught begin,

How frequent to desert him, and at last

To heap ingratitude on worthiest deeds?

CHOR. Thy words to my remembrance bring

How Succoth and the fort of Penuel
⁷⁴⁷⁸

Their great deliverer contemned,

The matchless Gideon, in pursuit

Of Madian and her vanquished kings.

And how ungrateful Ephraim
⁷⁴⁷⁹

Had dealt with Jephtha,
⁷⁴⁸⁰
who by argument

Not worse than by his shield and spear,

Defended Israel from the Ammonite,
⁷⁴⁸¹

Had not his prowess quelled their pride

In that sore battle when so many died,

Without reprieve adjudged to death

For want of well-pronouncing “shibboleth.”
⁷⁴⁸²

SAM. Of such examples add me to the roll.

Me easily indeed mine may neglect,
⁷⁴⁸³

But God’s proposed deliverance not so.

CHOR. Just are the ways of God,

And justifiable to men,

Unless there be who think not God at all.
⁷⁴⁸⁴

If any be, they walk obscure,
⁷⁴⁸⁵

For of such doctrine never was there school,

But the heart of the fool,

And no man therein doctor
⁷⁴⁸⁶
but himself.

Yet more there be who doubt
⁷⁴⁸⁷
His ways not just,

As to His own edicts found contradicting,

Then give the reins to wand’ring
⁷⁴⁸⁸
thought,

Regardless of His glory’s diminution,

Till by their own perplexities involved
⁷⁴⁸⁹

They ravel
⁷⁴⁹⁰
more, still less resolved,

But never find self-satisfying solution.

As if they would confine th’ interminable,
⁷⁴⁹¹

And tie Him to His own prescript,
⁷⁴⁹²

Who made our Laws to bind us, not Himself,

And hath full right t’ exempt

Whom so it pleases Him by choice

From national obstriction,
⁷⁴⁹³
without taint

Of sin, or legal debt,

For with His own Laws He can best dispense.

He would not else (who never wanted
⁷⁴⁹⁴
means,

Nor in respect of th’ enemy just cause

To set His people free)

Have prompted this heroic Nazarite,
⁷⁴⁹⁵

Against his vow of strictest purity,

To seek in marriage that fallacious
⁷⁴⁹⁶
bride,

Unclean, unchaste.

Down
⁷⁴⁹⁷
reason, then—at least, vain reasonings down,

Though reason here aver
⁷⁴⁹⁸

That moral verdict quits
⁷⁴⁹⁹
her
⁷⁵⁰⁰
of unclean:

Unchaste was subsequent, her stain not his.

But see, here comes thy reverend sire

With careful
⁷⁵⁰¹
step, locks white as down,

Old Manoa. Advise
⁷⁵⁰²

Forthwith how thou ought’st to receive him.

SAM. Aye me, another inward grief awaked:

With mention of that name, renews th’ assault.

MAN. Brethren and men of Dan, for such ye seem,

Though in this uncouth
⁷⁵⁰³
place: if old respect,

As I suppose, towards your once gloried friend,

My son now captive, hither hath informed
⁷⁵⁰⁴

Your younger feet, while mine, cast
⁷⁵⁰⁵
back with age,

Came lagging after, say if he be here.

CHOR. As signal
⁷⁵⁰⁶
now, in low dejected state,

As erst in highest, behold him where he lies.

MAN. O miserable change! Is this the man,

That invincible Samson, far renowned,

The dread of Israel’s foes, who with a strength

Equivalent to Angels walked their streets,

None offering fight? who single combatant

Duelled their armies, ranked in proud array,

Himself an army, now unequal match

To save himself against a coward, armed,

At one spear’s length? O ever failing trust

In mortal strength! and oh what not in man

Deceivable and vain! Nay, what thing good

Prayed for, but often proves our woe, our bane?
⁷⁵⁰⁷

I prayed for children, and thought barrenness

In wedlock a reproach. I gained a son,

And such a son as all men hailed me happy.

Who would be now a father in my stead?

O wherefore did God grant me my request,

And as a blessing with such pomp
⁷⁵⁰⁸
adorned?

Why are His gifts desirable,
⁷⁵⁰⁹
to tempt

Our earnest prayers, then giv’n with solemn hand

As graces, draw a scorpion’s tail behind?

For this did th’ Angel twice descend? For this

Ordained thy nurture holy, as of a plant

Select and sacred, glorious for a while,

The miracle of men, then in an hour

Ensnared, assaulted, overcome, led bound,

Thy foes’ derision, captive, poor, and blind,

Into a dungeon thrust, to work with slaves?

Alas, methinks whom God hath chosen once