The Complete Poetry of John Milton (148 page)

   390     
Though offer’d only, by the scent conceiv’d

               
Her spurious first-born; Treason against me?

               
Thrice she assay’d with flattering prayers and sighs,

               
And amorous reproaches to win from me

               
My capital
⁵⁶
secret, in what part my strength

   395     
Lay stor’d, in what part summ’d, that she might know:

               
Thrice I deluded her, and turn’d to sport

               
Her importunity, each time perceiving

               
How openly, and with what impudence

               
She purpos’d to betray me, and (which was worse

   400     
Then undissembl’d hate) with what contempt

               
She sought to make me Traytor to my self;

               
Yet the fourth time, when mustring all her wiles,

               
With blandisht parlies, feminine assaults,

               
Tongue-batteries, she surceas’d not day nor night

   405     
To storm me over-watch’t,
⁵⁷
and wearied out.

               
At times when men seek most repose and rest,

               
I yielded, and unlock’d her all my heart,

               
Who with a grain of manhood well resolv’d

               
Might easily have shook off all her snares:

   410     
But foul effeminacy held me yok’t

               
Her Bond-slave; O indignity, O blot

               
To Honour and Religion! servil mind

               
Rewarded well with servil punishment!

               
The base degree to which I now am fall’n,

   415     
These rags, this grinding, is not yet so base

               
As was my former servitude, ignoble,

               
Unmanly, ignominious, infamous,

               
True slavery, and that blindness worse then this,

               
That saw not how degeneratly I serv’d.

   420  
      
       
Manoa.
I cannot praise thy Marriage choises, Son,

               
Rather approv’d them not; but thou didst plead

               
Divine impulsion prompting how thou might’st

               
Find some occasion to infest our Foes.

               
I state not that; this I am sure; our Foes

   425     
Found soon occasion thereby to make thee

               
Thir Captive, and thir triumph; thou the sooner

               
Temptation found’st, or over-potent charms

               
To violate the sacred trust of silence

               
Deposited within thee; which t’ have kept

   430     
Tacit, was in thy power; true; and thou bear’st

               
Enough, and more the burden of that fault;

               
Bitterly hast thou paid, and still art paying

               
That rigid score. A worse thing yet remains,

               
This day the
Philistines
a popular Feast

   435     
Here celebrate in
Gaza;
and proclaim

               
Great Pomp, and Sacrifice, and Praises loud

               
To
Dagon
, as their God who hath deliver’d

               
Thee
Samson
, bound and blind into thir hands,

               
Them out of thine, who slew’st them many a slain.

   440     
So
Dagon
shall be magnifi’d, and God,

               
Besides whom is no God, compar’d with Idols,

               
Disglorifi’d, blasphem’d, and had in scorn

               
By th’ Idolatrous rout amidst thir wine;

               
Which to have come to pass by means of thee,

   445     
Samson
, of all thy sufferings think the heaviest,

               
Of all reproach the most with shame that ever

               
Could have befall’n thee and thy Fathers house.

           
      
       
Samson.
Father, I do acknowledge and confess

               
That I this honour, I this pomp have brought

   450     
To
Dagon
, and advanc’d his praises high

               
Among the Heathen round; to God have brought

               
Dishonour, obloquie, and op’t the mouths

               
Of Idolists, and Atheists; have brought scandal

               
To
Israel
, diffidence
⁵⁸
of God, and doubt

   455     
In feeble hearts, propense anough before

               
To waver, or fall off and joyn with Idols;

               
Which is my chief affliction, shame and sorrow,

               
The anguish of my Soul, that suffers not

               
Mine eie to harbour sleep, or thoughts to rest.

   460     
This only hope relieves me, that the strife

               
With me hath end; all the contest is now

               
’Twixt God and
Dagon; Dagon
hath presum’d,

               
Me overthrown, to enter lists with God,

               
His Deity comparing and preferring

   465     
Before the God of
Abraham.
He, be sure,

               
Will not connive,
⁵⁹
or linger, thus provok’d,

               
But will arise and his great name assert:

               
Dagon
must stoop, and shall e’re long receive

               
Such a discomfit, as shall quite despoil him

   470     
Of all these boasted Trophies won on me,

               
And with confusion blank his Worshippers.

           
      
       
Manoa.
With cause this hope relieves thee, and these words

               
I as a Prophecy receive: for God,

               
Nothing more certain, will not long defer

   475     
To vindicate the glory of his name

               
Against all competition, nor will long

               
Endure it, doubtful whether God be Lord,

               
Or
Dagon.
But for thee what shall be done?

               
Thou must not in the mean while here forgot

   480     
Lie in this miserable loathsom plight

               
Neglected. I already have made way

               
To some
Philistian
Lords, with whom to treat

               
About thy ransom: well they may by this

               
Have satisfi’d thir utmost of revenge

   485     
By pains and slaveries, worse then death inflicted

               
On thee, who now no more canst do them harm.

           
      
       
Samson.
Spare that proposal, Father, spare the trouble

               
Of that sollicitation; let me here,

               
As I deserve, pay on my punishment;

   490     
And expiate, if possible, my crime,

               
Shameful garrulity. To have reveal’d

               
Secrets of men, the secrets of a friend,

               
How hainous had the fact been, how deserving

               
Contempt, and scorn of all, to be excluded

   495     
All friendship, and avoided as a blab,

               
The mark of fool set on his front!
⁶⁰
But I

               
Gods counsel have not kept, his holy secret

               
Presumptuously have publish’d, impiously,

               
Weakly at least, and shamefully: A sin

   500     
That Gentiles in thir Parables condemn

               
To thir abyss and horrid pains confin’d.
⁶¹

           
      
       
Manoa.
Be penitent and for thy fault contrite,

               
But act not in thy own affliction, Son;

               
Repent the sin, but if the punishment

   505     
Thou canst avoid, self-preservation bids;

               
Or th’ execution leave to high disposal,

               
And let another hand, not thine, exact

               
Thy penal forfeit from thy self; perhaps

               
God will relent, and quit thee all his debt;

   510     
Who evermore approves and more accepts

               
(Best pleas’d with humble and filial submission)

               
Him who imploring mercy sues for life,

               
Then who self-rigorous chooses death as due;

               
Which argues over-just, and self-displeas’d

   515     
For self-offence, more then for God offended.

               
Reject not then what offerd means, who knows

               
But God hath set before us, to return thee

               
Home to thy countrey and his sacred house,

               
Where thou mayst bring thy off’rings, to avert

   520     
His further ire, with praiers and vows renew’d.

           
      
       
Samson.
His pardon I implore; but as for life,

               
To what end should I seek it? when in strength

               
All mortals I excell’d, and great in hopes

               
With youthful courage and magnanimous
⁶²
thoughts

   525     
Of birth from Heav’n foretold and high exploits,

               
Full of divine instinct, after some proof

               
Of acts indeed heroic, far beyond

               
The Sons of
Anac
, famous now and blaz’d,

               
Fearless of danger, like a petty God

   530     
I walk’d about admir’d of all and dreaded

               
On hostile ground, none daring my affront.

               
Then swoll’n with pride into the snare I fell

               
Of fair fallacious looks, venereal trains,
⁶³

               
Soft’n’d with pleasure and voluptuous life;

   535     
At length to lay my head and hallow’d pledge

               
Of all my strength in the lascivious lap

               
Of a deceitful Concubine who shore me

               
Like a tame Weather, all my precious fleece,

               
Then turn’d me out ridiculous, despoil’d,

   540     
Shav’n, and disarm’d among my enemies.

           
      
       
Chorus.
Desire of wine and all delicious drinks,

               
Which many a famous Warriour overturns,

               
Thou couldst repress, nor did the dancing Rubie

               
Sparkling, out-pow’rd, the flavor, or the smell,