The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics)

  Rather by this his last affront resolved,

  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

  525 Thou art to be my fatal enemy.

  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 before 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,

  And thief of Paradise; him long of old

  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