Our Saviour, meek, and with
untroubled
mind,
Hungry and cold betook himself to rest.
Hungry and cold betook himself to rest.
World's Greatest Books - Volume 17 - Poetry and Drama
Ye shall not die.
How should ye? By the fruit? It gives you life
To knowledge. By the Threatener? Look on me--
Me who have touched and tasted, yet both live
And life more perfect have attained than Fate
Meant me, by venturing higher than my lot.
Shall that be shut to Man which to the Beast
Is open? Or will God incense his ire
For such a petty trespass? . . .
God therefore cannot hurt ye and be just.
Goddess humane, reach, then, and freely taste! "
He ended; and his words replete with guile
Into her heart too easy entrance won.
Eve herself then took up the argument and repeated admiringly the
Serpent's persuasions.
"In the day we eat
Of this fair fruit our doom is we shall die!
How dies the Serpent? He hath eaten and lives,
And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and discerns,
Irrational till then. For us alone
Was death invented? Or to us denied
This intellectual food, for beasts reserved?
Here grows the care of all, this fruit divine,
Fair to the eye, inviting to the taste,
Of virtue to make wise. What hinders then
To reach and feed at once both body and mind? "
So saying, her rash hand in evil hour
Forth-reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she ate.
Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat,
Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe
That all was lost. Back to the thicket slunk
The guilty serpent.
At first elated by the fruit, Eve presently began to reflect, excuse
herself, and wonder what the effect would be on Adam.
"And I perhaps am secret. Heaven is high--
High, and remote to see from thence distinct
Each thing on Earth; and other care perhaps
May have diverted from continual watch
Our great Forbidder, safe with all his spies
About him. But to Adam in what sort
Shall I appear? Shall I to him make known
As yet my change?
But what if God have seen
And death ensue? Then I shall be no more;
And Adam, wedded to another Eve,
Shall live with her enjoying, I extinct!
A death to think! Confirmed then, I resolve
Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe,
So dear I love him that with him all deaths
I could endure, without him live no life. "
Adam the while
Waiting desirous her return, had wove
Of choicest flowers a garland, to adorn
Her tresses. . . . Soon as he heard
The fatal trespass done by Eve amazed,
From his slack hand the garland wreathed for her
Down dropt, and all the faded roses shed.
Speechless he stood and pale, till thus at length,
First to himself he inward silence broke:
"O fairest of creation, last and best
Of all God's works, creature in whom excelled
Whatever came to sight or thought be formed,
Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet,
How art thou lost! how on a sudden lost!
Some cursed fraud
Of enemy hath beguiled thee, yet unknown,
And me with thee hath ruined; for with thee
Certain my resolution is to die.
How can I live without thee? How forego
Thy sweet converse, and love so dearly joined,
To live again in these wild words forlorn? "
Then, turning to Eve, he tries to comfort her.
"Perhaps thou shalt not die . . .
Nor can I think that God, Creator wise,
Though threatening, will in earnest so destroy
Us, His prime creatures, dignified so high,
Set over all his works. . . .
However, I with thee have fixed my lot,
Certain to undergo like doom. If death
Consort with thee, death is to me as life.
Our state cannot be severed; we are one. "
So Adam; and thus Eve to him replied:
"O glorious trial of exceeding love,
Illustrious evidence, example high! "
So saying she embraced him, and for joy
Tenderly wept, much won that he his love
Had so ennobled as of choice to incur
Divine displeasure for her sake, or death.
In recompense . . .
She gave him of that fair enticing fruit
With liberal hand. He scrupled not to eat
Against his better knowledge, not deceived,
But fondly overcome with female charm.
The effect of the fruit on them is first to excite lust with guilty
shame following, and realising this after "the exhilarating vapour
bland" had spent its force, Adam found utterance for his remorse.
"O Eve, in evil hour thou didst give ear
To that false Worm. . . .
. . . How shall I behold the face
Henceforth of God or Angel, erst with joy
And rapture so oft beheld? Those Heavenly shapes
Will dazzle now this earthly with their blaze
Insufferably bright. Oh, might I here
In solitude live savage, in some glade
Obscured, where highest winds, impenetrable
To star or sunlight, spread their umbrage broad,
And brown as evening! Cover me, ye pines!
Ye cedars, with innumerable boughs
Hide me, where I may never see them more! "
Then they cower in the woods, and clothe themselves with leaves.
Covered, but not at rest or ease of mind
They sat them down to weep.
But passion also took possession of them, and they began to taunt each
other with recriminations. Adam, with estranged look, exclaimed:
"Would thou hadst hearkened to my words, and stayed
With me, as I besought thee, when that strange
Desire of wandering, this unhappy morn,
I know not whence possessed thee! We had then
Remained still happy! "
Eve retorts:
"Hadst thou been firm and fixed in thy dissent,
Neither had I transgressed, nor thou with me. "
Then Adam:
"What could I more?
I warned thee, I admonished thee, foretold
The danger, and the lurking enemy
That lay in wait; beyond this had been force. "
Thus they in mutual accusation spent
The fruitless hours, but neither self-condemning;
And of their vain contest appeared no end.
_X. --Sin and Death Triumph_
The Angels left on guard now slowly return from Paradise to Heaven
to report their failure, but are reminded by God that it was
ordained; and the Son is sent down to judge the guilty pair, after
hearing their excuses, and to punish them with the curses of toil
and death. Meantime Sin and Death "snuff the smell of mortal change"
on Earth, and leaving Hell-gate "belching outrageous flame," erect
a broad road from Hell to Earth through Chaos, and as they come in
sight of the World meet Satan steering his way back as an angel,
"between the Centaur and the Scorpion. " He makes Sin and Death his
plenipotentiaries on Earth, adjuring them first to make man their
thrall, and lastly kill; and as they pass to the evil work "the
blasted stars look wan. " The return to Hell is received with loud
acclaim, which comes in the form of a hiss, and Satan and all his
hosts are turned into grovelling snakes. Adam, now in his repentance,
is sternly resentful against Eve, who becomes submissive, and both
pass from remorse to "sorrow unfeigned and humiliation meek. "
_XI. --Repentance and the Doom_
The repentance of the pair is accepted by God, who sends down the
Archangel Michael, with a cohort of cherubim, to announce that death
will not come until time has been given for repentance, but Paradise
can no longer be their home. Whereupon Eve laments.
"O unexpected stroke, worse than of Death!
Must I thus leave thee, Paradise? Thus leave
Thee, native soil? These happy walks and shades,
Fit haunt of gods, where I had hoped to spend
Quiet, though sad, the respite of that day
That must be mortal to us both? O flowers,
That never will in any other climate grow,
My early visitation and my last
At even, which I tied up with tender hand
From the first opening bud and gave ye names,
Who now shall rear ye to the Sun, or rank
Your tribes, and water from the ambrosial fount?
. . . How shall we breathe in other air
Less pure, accustomed to immortal fruits? "
The Angel reminds her:
"Thy going is not lonely; with thee goes
Thy husband; him to follow thou art bound.
Where he abides think there thy native soil. "
Michael then ascending a hill with Adam shows him a vision of the
world's history, while Eve sleeps.
_XII. --Paradise Behind, the World Before_
The history is continued, with its promise of redemption, until Adam
exclaims:
"Full of doubt I stand,
Whether I should repent me now of sin
By me done and occasioned, or rejoice
Much more that much more good thereof shall spring--
To God more glory, more good-will to men. "
Eve awakens from propitious dreams, it having been shown to her that--
"Though all by me is lost,
Such favour I unworthy am vouchsafed.
By me the Promised Seed shall all restore. "
The time, however, has come when they must leave. A flaming sword,
"fierce as a comet," advances towards them before the bright array of
cherubim.
Whereat
In either hand the hastening angel caught
Our lingering parents, and to the eastern gate
Led them direct, and down the cliff so fast
To the subjected plain--then disappeared.
They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld
Of Paradise, so late their happy seat,
Waved over by that flaming brand, the gate
With dreadful forces thronged and fiery arms.
Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon;
The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide.
They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way.
FOOTNOTES:
[AA] John Milton, the peer of Dante as one of the world's
master-poets, was born in Bread Street, London, on December 9, 1608,
the son of a well-to-do scrivener. Educated at St. Paul's School
and at Cambridge, he devoted himself from the first to poetry. The
"Ode on the Nativity" was written when the poet was twenty-one. His
productions till his thirtieth year were nearly all of a classical
caste--"L'Allegro," "Il Penseroso," "Comus," "Lycidas. " Returning from
Continental travels in 1639, Milton became enmeshed in politics, and so
continued for twenty years, during which time he wrote much polemical
prose, including his "Areopagitica" (see Vol. XX, p. 257) and his
"Tractate on Education. " After a spell of teaching and pamphleteering,
he served as Latin secretary to Oliver Cromwell, and was stricken with
blindness at the age of forty-four. Though poor by loss of office after
the Restoration, he was never in poverty. He died on November 8, 1674.
"Paradise Lost," planned in his youth, was actually begun in 1658,
finished in 1665, and published in 1667. The price arranged was ? 5
down and ? 5 more on each of three editions, of which Milton received
? 10, and his widow ? 8, the rest being unpaid. In English literature
"Paradise Lost" stands alone as an effort of sheer imagination, and its
literary genius is as haunting as its conception is stupendous.
Paradise Regained[AB]
_I. --The Forty Days_
I, who erewhile the happy Garden sung
By one man's disobedience lost, now sing
Recovered Paradise to all mankind,
By one man's firm obedience fully tried
Through all temptation, and the Tempter foiled
In all his wiles, defeated and repulsed,
And Eden raised in the waste Wilderness.
Having thus introduced his subject, the poet describes, on Scriptural
lines, the baptism of John, seen by Satan, "when roving still about
the world. " The Fiend then "flies to his place" and "summons all his
mighty peers"--a gloomy consistory--warning them that the time seems
approaching when they "must bide the stroke of that long-threatened
wound," when "the woman's Seed shall bruise the serpent's head. " They
agree that Satan shall return to earth and act as Tempter. In Heaven,
meantime, God tells the assembly of angels, addressing Gabriel, that
He will expose His Son to Satan, in order that the Son may "show him
worthy of His birth divine and high prediction. " And the angelic choir
sings "Victory and triumph to the Son of God. "
So they in Heaven their odes and vigils tuned.
Meanwhile the Son of God . . .
Musing and much revolving in his breast
How best the mighty work he might begin
Of Saviour to mankind, and which way first
Publish his God-like office now mature,
One day forth walked alone, the Spirit leading,
And his deep thoughts, the better to converse
With solitude, till, far from track of men,
Thought following thought, and step by step led on,
He entered now the bordering desert wild.
Christ then, in meditation, tells reminiscently the story of His life.
Full forty days He passed . . .
Nor tasted human food, nor hunger felt,
Till those days ended; hungered then at last
Among wild beasts. They at His sight grew mild,
Nor sleeping Him nor waking harmed; His walk
The fiery serpent fled and noxious worm;
The lion and fierce tiger glared aloof.
But now an aged man in rural weeds,
Following, as seemed, the quest of some stray ewe,
Or withered sticks to gather, which might serve
Against a winter's day, when winds blow keen,
To warm him wet returned from field at eve,
He saw approach.
This is Satan, and, entering into conversation adjures the Son--
"If thou be the Son of God, command
That out of these hard stones be made Thee bread,
So shalt Thou save Thyself, and us relieve
With food, whereof we wretched seldom taste. "
Christ at once discerns who His tempter is and rebuffs him; and the
Fiend, "now undisguised," goes on to narrate his own history, arguing
that he is not a foe to mankind.
"They to me
Never did wrong or violence. By them
I lost not what I lost; rather by them
I gained what I have gained, and with them dwell
Co-partner in these regions of the world. "
Christ, replying, attributes to Satan the evils of Idolatry and the
crafty oracles of heathendom, which have taken the place of the
"inward oracle in pious hearts," whereupon Satan, "bowing low his gray
dissimulation, disappeared. "
_II. --The Temptation of the Body_
Meanwhile the disciples were gathered "close in a cottage low,"
wondering where Christ could be, and Mary with troubled thoughts,
rehearsed the story of His early life. Satan, returning to the council
of his fellow fiends, in "the middle region of thick air," reports
his failure, and that he has found in the Tempted "amplitude of mind
to greatest deeds. " Belial advises that the temptation should be
continued by women "expert in amorous arts," but Satan rejects the
plan, and reminds Belial--
"Among the sons of men
How many have with a smile made small account
Of beauty and her lures. For beauty stands
In the admiration only of weak minds
Led captive: cease to admire and all her plumes
Fall flat. . . . We must try
His constancy with such as have more show
Of worth, of honour, glory, and popular praise. "
With this aim Satan again betakes himself to the desert, where Christ,
now hungry, sleeps and dreams of food.
And now the herald lark
Left his ground-nest, high towering to descry
The morn's approach, and greet her with his song,
As lightly from his grassy couch uprose
Our Saviour, and found all was but a dream;
Fasting he went to sleep and fasting waked.
Up to a hill anon his steps he reared,
And in a bottom saw a pleasant grove,
With chant of tuneful birds resounding loud.
Thither He bent His way . . .
When suddenly a man before Him stood,
Not rustic as before, but seemlier clad,
As one in city or court or palace bred.
Here Satan again tempts Him with a spread of savoury food, which Jesus
dismisses with the words:
"Thy pompous delicacies I contemn,
And count thy specious gifts no gifts, but guiles! "
The book closes with the offer of riches, which are rejected as "the
toil of fools. "
_III. --The Temptation of Glory_
Finding his weak "arguing and fallacious drift" ineffectual, Satan
next appeals to ambition and suggests conquest; but is reminded that
conquerors
"Rob and spoil, burn, slaughter, and enslave
Peaceable nations, neighbouring or remote,
Made captive, yet deserving freedom more
Than those their conquerors, who leave behind
Nothing but ruin wheresoe'r they rove,
And all the flourishing works of peace destroy;
Then swell with pride and must be titled gods.
But if there be in glory aught of good,
It may by means far different be attained;
Without ambition, war, or violence,
By deeds of peace, by wisdom eminent,
By patience, temperance. "
But Satan, sardonically, argues that God expects glory, nay, exacts it
from all, good and bad alike. To which Christ replies:
"Not glory as prime end,
But to show forth his goodness, and impart
His good communicable to every soul
Freely; of whom what could He less expect
Than glory and benediction--that is thanks--
The slightest, easiest, readiest recompense
From them who could return him nothing else. "
But, argues Satan, it is the throne of David to which the Messiah is
ordained; why not begin that reign? Hitherto Christ has scarcely seen
the Galilean towns, but He shall "quit these rudiments" and survey
"the monarchies of the earth, their pomp and state. " And thereupon he
carries Him to a mountain whence He can see "Assyria and her empire's
ancient bounds," and there suggests the deliverance of the Ten Tribes.
"Thou on the Throne of David in full glory,
From Egypt to Euphrates and beyond
Shalt reign, and Rome or Caesar not need fear. "
The answer is that these things must be left to God's "due time and
providence. "
_IV. --The Last Temptation_
The Tempter now brings the Saviour round to the western side of the
mountain, and there Rome
An imperial city stood;
With towers and temples proudly elevate
On seven hills, with palaces adorned,
Porches and theatres, baths, aqueducts,
Statues and trophies, and triumphal arcs,
Gardens and groves. Queen of the Earth,
So far renowned, and with the spoils enriched
Of nations.
But this "grandeur and majestic show of luxury" has no effect on
Christ, who says:
"Know, when my season comes to sit
On David's throne, it shall be like a tree
Spreading and overshadowing all the earth;
Or as a stone that shall to pieces dash
All monarchies besides throughout the world,
And of my Kingdom there shall be no end. "
The offer of the kingdoms of the world incurs the stern rebuke:
"Get thee behind me! Plain thou now appear'st
That Evil One, Satan, for ever damned. "
Still the Fiend is not utterly abashed, but, arguing that "the
childhood shows the man as morning shows the day," and that Christ's
empire is one of mind, he, as a last temptation from the "specular
mount," shows Athens.
"There thou shalt hear and learn the secret power
Of harmony, in tones and numbers hit
By voice or hand, and various-measured verse.
To sage philosophy next lend thine ear,
From Heaven descended to the low-roofed house
Of Socrates. "
Christ replies that whoever seeks true wisdom in the philosophies,
moralities and conjectures of men finds her not, and that the poetry
of Greece will not compare with "Hebrew songs and harps. " It is the
prophets who teach most plainly
"What makes a nation happy, and keeps it so;
What ruins kingdoms, and lays cities flat? "
Finding all these temptations futile, Satan explodes:
"Since neither wealth nor honour, arms nor arts,
Kingdom nor empire pleases thee, nor aught
By me proposed in life contemplative
Or active, tended on by glory or fame;
What dost thou in this world? The wilderness
For thee is fittest place. I found thee there
And thither will return thee. "
So he transports the passive Saviour back to his homeless solitude.
Our Saviour, meek, and with untroubled mind,
Hungry and cold betook himself to rest.
The Tempter watched, and soon with ugly dreams
Disturbed his sleep. And either tropic now
'Gan thunder, and both ends of Heaven; the clouds
From many a rift abortive poured
Fierce rain with lightning mixed; water with fire
In ruin reconciled. Ill wast Thou shrouded then,
O patient Son of God! Yet only stood'st
Unshaken! Nor yet staid the terror there.
Infernal ghosts of hellish furies round
Environed thee; some howled, some yelled, some shrieked,
Some bent at thee their fiery darts, while thou
Sat'st unappalled in calm and sinless peace.
Thus passed the night so foul, till morning fair
Came forth with pilgrim steps, in amice grey,
Who with her radiant finger stilled the roar
Of thunder, chased the clouds, and laid the winds,
And grisly spectres, which the Fiend had raised
To tempt the Son of God with terrors dire.
And now the sun with more effectual beams
Had cheered the face of earth, and dried the wet
From drooping plant, or dropping tree; the birds,
Who all things now beheld more fresh and green,
After a night of storm so ruinous,
Cleared up their choicest notes in bush and spray,
To 'gratulate the sweet return of morn.
Satan, in anger, begins the last temptation.
Feigning to doubt whether the Saviour is the Son of God, he snatches
him up and carries him to where, in
Fair Jerusalem, the Holy City lifted high her towers
And higher yet the glorious Temple reared
Her pile; far off appearing like a mount
Of alabaster, topp'd with golden spires:
There on the highest pinnacle he set
The Son of God, and added thus in scorn:
"There stand if thou wilt stand; to stand upright will task thy skill. "
"Tempt not the Lord thy God," He said, and stood.
But Satan, smitten with amazement, fell,
And to his crew, that sat consulting, brought
Ruin, and desperation, and dismay.
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
As on a floating couch through the blithe air;
Then in a flowery valley set Him down
On a green bank, and set before Him, spread,
A table of celestial food. . . .
. . . . And as He fed, angelic quires
Sang Heavenly anthems of His victory
Over temptation and the Tempter proud.
"Now Thou hast avenged
Supplanted Adam, and, by vanquishing
Temptation, hast regained lost Paradise. "
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.
FOOTNOTES:
[AB] The origin of "Paradise Regained" has been told
authentically. It was suggested in 1665 by Ellwood the Quaker, who
sometimes acted as Milton's amanuensis, and it was finished and shown
to Ellwood in 1666, though not published till 1671. Neither in majesty
of conception or in charm of style can it compare with "Paradise
Lost," to which it is, as has been said, a codicil and not a sequel.
The Temptation, the reader feels, was but an incident in the life of
Christ and in the drama of the "ways of God to man," which "Paradise
Lost" introduced with such stupendous imaginative power. Much of the
poem is but a somewhat ambling paraphrase and expansion of Scriptural
narratives; but there are passages where Milton resumes his perfect
mastery of poetic form, under the inspiration that places him among the
selectest band of immortal singers.
Samson Agonistes[AC]
_Persons in the Drama_
SAMSON
MANOA, _the father of Samson_
DALILA, _his wife_
HURAPHA, _of Gath_
PUBLIC OFFICER
MESSENGER
_Chorus of Danites_
_The scene is placed before the prison in Gaza_.
SAMSON: A little onward send 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
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
The breath of Heaven 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. Hence, with leave
Retiring from the popular noise, I seek
This unfrequented place to find some ease--
Oh, wherefore was my birth from Heaven foretold
Twice by an angel, if I must die
Betrayed, captive, and both my eyes put out,
Made of my enemies the scorn and gaze?
O worse than chains,
Dungeon, or beggary, or decrepit age!
Light, the prime work of God, to me is extinct,
And all her various objects of delight
Annulled, which might in part my grief have eased.
O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon,
Irrevocably dark, total eclipse
Without all hope of day!
O first created beam, and thou great Word,
"Let there be light, and light was over all,"
Why am I thus bereaved thy prime decree?
The Sun to me is dark
And silent as the Moon,
When she deserts the night,
Hid in her vacant inter-lunar cave.
CHORUS: This, this is he; softly a while;
Let us not break in upon him.
O change beyond report, thought, or belief!
See how he lies at random, carelessly diffused,
With languished head unpropt,
As one past hope, abandoned.
Which shall I fast bewail--
Thy bondage or lost sight,
Prison within prison
Inseparably dark?
Thou art become (O worst imprisonment! )
The dungeon of thyself;
To lowest pitch of abject fortune thou are fallen.
SAMSON: I hear the sound of words; their sense the air
Dissolves unjointed ere it reach my ear.
CHORUS: 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,
To visit or bewail thee.
SAMSON: Your coming, friends, revives me.
Tell me, friends,
Am I not sung and proverbed for a fool
In every street?
CHORUS: Wisest men
Have erred, and by bad women been deceived;
And shall again, pretend they ne'er so wise.
In seeking just occasion to provoke
The Philistine, thy country's enemy,
Thou never wast remiss, I bear thee witness.
But see! here comes thy reverend sire,
With careful step, locks white as down,
OLD MANOA: advise
Forthwith how thou ought'st to receive him.
MANOA: Brethren and men of Dan, if old respect,
As I suppose, towards your once gloried friend,
My son, now captive, hither hath informed
Your younger feet, while mine, cast back with age,
Came lagging after, say if he be here.
CHORUS: As signal now in low dejected state
As erst in highest, behold him where he lies.
MANOA: O miserable change! Is this the man,
That invincible Samson, far renowned,
The dread of Israel's foes?
SAMSON: Nothing of all these evils hath befallen me
But justly.
MANOA: True; but 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
Here celebrate in Gaza, and proclaim
Great pomp, and sacrifice, and praises loud,
To Dagon, as their god who hath delivered
Thee, Samson, bound and blind, into their hands.
SAMSON: Father, I do acknowledge and confess
That I this honour, I this pomp, have brought
To Dagon, and advanced his praises high
Among the heathen round. The contest is now
'Twixt God and Dagon. Dagon hath presumed,
Me overthrown, to enter lists with God.
Dagon must stoop, and shall ere long receive
Such a discomfit as shall quite despoil him
Of all these boasted trophies won on me,
And with confusion blank his worshippers.
MANOA: But for thee what shall be done?
Thou must not in the meanwhile, here forgot,
Lie in this miserable, loathsome plight,
Neglected. I already have made way
To some Philistine lords, with whom to treat
About thy ransom.
SAMSON: Spare that proposal, father; let me here
As I deserve, pay on my punishment,
And expiate, if possible, my crime.
MANOA: Be penitent, and for thy fault contrite;
But act not in thy own affliction, son.
Repent the sin; but if the punishment
Thou canst avoid, self-preservation bids.
SAMSON: Nature within me seems
In all her functions weary of herself;
My race of glory run, and race of shame,
And I shall shortly be with them that rest.
MANOA: I, however,
Must not omit a father's timely care
To prosecute the means of thy deliverance
By ransom, or how else.
CHORUS: But who is this? what thing of sea or land--
Female of sex it seems--
That, so bedecked, ornate, and gay,
Comes this way sailing?
Some rich Philistian matron she may seem;
And now at nearer view no other certain
Than Dalila, thy wife.
SAMSON: My wife! My traitress! Let her not come near me.
DALILA: With doubtful feet and wavering resolution
I came, still dreading thy displeasure, Samson.
SAMSON: Out, out, hyena! These are thy wonted arts,
And arts of every woman false like thee--
To break all faith, all vows, deceive, betray;
Then, as repentant, to submit, beseech
A reconcilement, move with feigned remorse.
DALILA: Let me obtain forgiveness of thee, Samson,
I to the lords will intercede, not doubting
Their favourable ear, that I may fetch thee
From forth this loathsome prison-house, to abide
With me, where my redoubled love and care,
With nursing diligence, to me glad office,
May ever tend about thee to old age.
SAMSON: No, no; of my condition take no care;
It fits not; thou and I long since are twain;
Nor think me so unwary or accursed
To bring my feet again into the snare
Where once I have been caught.
DALILA: Let me approach at least, and touch thy hand.
SAMSON: Not for thy life, lest fierce remembrance wake
My sudden rage to tear thee joint by joint.
At distance I forgive thee; go with that;
Bewail thy falsehood, and the pious works
It hath brought forth to make thee memorable
Among illustrious women, faithful wives.
DALILA: I see thou art implacable, more deaf
To prayers than winds and seas. Yet winds to seas
Are reconciled at length, and sea to shore.
My name, perhaps, among the circumcised
In Dan, in Judah, and the bordering tribes
To all posterity may stand defamed.
But in my country, where I most desire,
I shall be named among the famousest
Of women, sung at solemn festivals,
Living and dead recorded, who to save
Her country from a fierce destroyer, chose
Above the faith of wedlock bands; my tomb
With odours visited and annual flowers.
CHORUS: She's gone--a manifest serpent by her sting--
Discovered in the end, till now concealed.
This idol's day hath been to thee no day of rest,
Labouring thy mind
More than the working day thy hands.
And yet, perhaps, more trouble is behind;
For I descry this way
Some other tending; in his hand
A sceptre or quaint staff he bears,
A public officer, and now at hand.
His message will be short and voluble.
OFFICER: Hebrews, the prisoner Samson here I seek.
CHORUS: His manacles remark him; there he sits.
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
To honour this great feast and great assembly.
Rise, therefore, with all speed, and come along,
Where I will see thee heartened and fresh clad,
To appear as fit before the illustrious lords.
SAMSON: Thou know'st I am an Hebrew; therefore tell them
Our law forbids at their religious rites
My presence; for that cause I cannot come.
OFFICER: This answer, be assured will not content them.
SAMSON: Return the way thou camest;
I will not come.
OFFICER: Regard thyself; this will offend them highly.
SAMSON: Can they think me so broken, so debased
With corporal servitude, that my mind ever
Will condescend to such absurd commands?
Joined with extreme contempt! I will not come.
OFFICER: I am sorry what this stoutness will produce.
CHORUS: He's gone, and who knows how he may report
Thy words by adding fuel to the flames.
Expect another message more imperious.
SAMSON: Shall I abuse this consecrated gift
Of strength, again returning with my hair,
After my great transgression! --so requite
Favour renewed, and add a greater sin
By prostituting holy things to idols.
CHORUS: Where the heart joins not, outward acts defile not.
SAMSON: Be of good courage; I begin to feel
Some rousing motions in me, which dispose
To something extraordinary my thoughts.
I with this messenger will go along--
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.
CHORUS: In time thou hast resolved: the man returns.
OFFICER: Samson, this second message from our lords
To thee I am bid say: Art thou our slave,
And dar'st thou, at our sending and command,
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 fastened than a rock.
SAMSON: Because they shall not trail me through their streets
Like a wild beast, I am content to go.
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, farewell. Your company along
I will not wish, lest it perhaps offend them
To see me girt with friends.
Happen what may, of me expect to hear
Nothing dishonourable, impure, unworthy
Our God, our Law, my nation, or myself.
CHORUS: Go, and the Holy One
Of Israel be thy guide.
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 their feast.
I heard all as I came; I had no will,
Lest I should see him forced to things unseemly.
But that which moved my coming now was chiefly
To give ye part with me what hope I have
With good success to work his liberty.
CHORUS: That hope would much rejoice us to partake
With thee.
MANOA: What noise or shout was that? It tore the sky.
CHORUS: Doubtless the people shouting to behold
Their once great dread, captive and blind before them,
Or at some proof of strength, before them shown.
MANOA: His ransom, if my whole inheritance
May compass it, shall willingly be paid
And numbered down. Much rather I shall choose
To live the poorest in my tribe, than richest,
And he in that calamitous prison left.
No, I am fixed not to part hence without him.
For his redemption all my patrimony,
If need be, I am ready to forego
And quit. Not wanting him, I shall want nothing.
It shall be my delight to tend his eyes,
And view him sitting in his house, ennobled
With all those high exploits by him achieved.
CHORUS: Thy hopes are not ill founded, nor seem vain,
Of his delivery.
MANOA: I know your friendly minds, and--O what noise!
Mercy of Heaven! What hideous noise was that
Horribly loud, unlike the former shout.
CHORUS: Noise call you it, or universal groan,
As if the whole inhabitation perished?
Blood, death, and deathful deeds, are in that noise,
Ruin, destruction at the utmost point.
MANOA: Of ruin indeed methought I heard the noise.
Oh! it continues; the 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.
What shall we do--stay here, or run and see?
CHORUS: Best keep together here, lest, running thither,
We unawares run into danger's mouth.
This evil on the Philistines is fallen:
From whom could else a general cry be heard?
MANOA: A little stay will bring some notice hither.
CHORUS: I see one hither speeding--
An Hebrew, as I guess, and of our tribe.
MESSENGER: O, whither shall I run, or which way fly?
The sight of this so horrid spectacle,
Which erst my eyes beheld, and yet behold?
MANOA: The accident was loud, and here before thee
With rueful cry; yet what it was we know not.
Tell us the sum, the circumstance defer.
MESSENGER: Gaza yet stands; but all her sons are fallen,
All in a moment overwhelmed and fallen.
MANOA: Sad! but thou know'st to Israelites not saddest
The desolation of a hostile city.
MESSENGER: Feed on that first; there may in grief be surfeit.
MANOA: Relate by whom.
MESSENGER: By Samson.
MANOA: That still lessens
The sorrow and converts it nigh to joy.
MESSENGER: Ah! Manoa, I refrain too suddenly
To utter what will come at last too soon,
Lest evil tidings, with too rude eruption
Hitting thy aged ear, should pierce too deep.
MANOA: Suspense in news is torture; speak them out.
MESSENGER: Then take the worst in brief--Samson is dead.
MANOA: The worst indeed! O, all my hope's defeated
To free him hence! but Death, who sets all free,
Hath paid his ransom now and full discharge.
How died he? --death to life is crown or shame.
All by him fell, thou say'st; by whom fell he?
What glorious hand gave Samson his death's wound?
MESSENGER: Unwounded of his enemies he fell.
MANOA: Wearied with slaughter, then, or how? Explain.
MESSENGER: By his own hands.
MANOA: Self-violence! What cause
Brought him so soon at variance with himself
Among his foes?
MESSENGER: Inevitable cause--
At once both to destroy and be destroyed.
The edifice, where all were met to see him,
Upon their heads and on his own he pulled.
The building was a spacious theatre,
Half round on two main pillars vaulted high,
With seats where all the lords, and each degree
Of sort, might sit in order to behold.
Immediately
Was Samson as a public servant brought,
In their state livery clad.
At sight of him the people with a shout
Rifted the air, clamoring their god with praise,
Who had made their dreadful enemy their thrall.
He patient, but undaunted, where they led him,
Came to the place; and what was set before him,
Which without help of eye might be assayed,
To heave, pull, draw, or break, he still performed
All with incredible, stupendous force,
None daring to appear antagonist
At length, for intermission sake, they led him
Between the pillars; he his guide requested,
As over-tired, to let him lean awhile
With both his arms on those two massy pillars,
That to the arched roof gave main support.
He unsuspicious led him; which when Samson
Felt in his arms, with head awhile inclined,
And eyes fast fixed, he stood, as one who prayed,
Or some great matter in his mind revolved.
At last, with head erect, thus cried aloud,
"Hitherto, lords, what your commands imposed
I have performed, as reason was, obeying,
Not without wonder or delight beheld;
Now, of my own accord, such other trial
I mean to show you of my strength yet greater
As with amaze shall strike all who behold. "
This uttered, straightening all his nerves, he bowed.
As with the force of winds and waters pent
When mountains tremble, those two massy pillars
With horrible convulsions to and fro
He tugged, he shook, till down they came, and drew
The whole roof after them with burst of thunder
Upon the heads of all who sat beneath,
Lords, ladies, captains, counsellors, or priests,
Their choice nobility and flower, not only
Of this, but each Philistian city round,
Met from all parts to solemnise this feast.
Samson, with these immixed, inevitably
Pulled down the same destruction on himself;
The vulgar only scaped, who stood without.
MANOA: Samson hath quit himself
Like Samson, and heroically hath finished
A life heroic.
Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail
Or knock the breast; no weakness, no contempt,
Dispraise or blame; nothing but well and fair,
And what may quiet us in a death so noble.
How should ye? By the fruit? It gives you life
To knowledge. By the Threatener? Look on me--
Me who have touched and tasted, yet both live
And life more perfect have attained than Fate
Meant me, by venturing higher than my lot.
Shall that be shut to Man which to the Beast
Is open? Or will God incense his ire
For such a petty trespass? . . .
God therefore cannot hurt ye and be just.
Goddess humane, reach, then, and freely taste! "
He ended; and his words replete with guile
Into her heart too easy entrance won.
Eve herself then took up the argument and repeated admiringly the
Serpent's persuasions.
"In the day we eat
Of this fair fruit our doom is we shall die!
How dies the Serpent? He hath eaten and lives,
And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and discerns,
Irrational till then. For us alone
Was death invented? Or to us denied
This intellectual food, for beasts reserved?
Here grows the care of all, this fruit divine,
Fair to the eye, inviting to the taste,
Of virtue to make wise. What hinders then
To reach and feed at once both body and mind? "
So saying, her rash hand in evil hour
Forth-reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she ate.
Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat,
Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe
That all was lost. Back to the thicket slunk
The guilty serpent.
At first elated by the fruit, Eve presently began to reflect, excuse
herself, and wonder what the effect would be on Adam.
"And I perhaps am secret. Heaven is high--
High, and remote to see from thence distinct
Each thing on Earth; and other care perhaps
May have diverted from continual watch
Our great Forbidder, safe with all his spies
About him. But to Adam in what sort
Shall I appear? Shall I to him make known
As yet my change?
But what if God have seen
And death ensue? Then I shall be no more;
And Adam, wedded to another Eve,
Shall live with her enjoying, I extinct!
A death to think! Confirmed then, I resolve
Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe,
So dear I love him that with him all deaths
I could endure, without him live no life. "
Adam the while
Waiting desirous her return, had wove
Of choicest flowers a garland, to adorn
Her tresses. . . . Soon as he heard
The fatal trespass done by Eve amazed,
From his slack hand the garland wreathed for her
Down dropt, and all the faded roses shed.
Speechless he stood and pale, till thus at length,
First to himself he inward silence broke:
"O fairest of creation, last and best
Of all God's works, creature in whom excelled
Whatever came to sight or thought be formed,
Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet,
How art thou lost! how on a sudden lost!
Some cursed fraud
Of enemy hath beguiled thee, yet unknown,
And me with thee hath ruined; for with thee
Certain my resolution is to die.
How can I live without thee? How forego
Thy sweet converse, and love so dearly joined,
To live again in these wild words forlorn? "
Then, turning to Eve, he tries to comfort her.
"Perhaps thou shalt not die . . .
Nor can I think that God, Creator wise,
Though threatening, will in earnest so destroy
Us, His prime creatures, dignified so high,
Set over all his works. . . .
However, I with thee have fixed my lot,
Certain to undergo like doom. If death
Consort with thee, death is to me as life.
Our state cannot be severed; we are one. "
So Adam; and thus Eve to him replied:
"O glorious trial of exceeding love,
Illustrious evidence, example high! "
So saying she embraced him, and for joy
Tenderly wept, much won that he his love
Had so ennobled as of choice to incur
Divine displeasure for her sake, or death.
In recompense . . .
She gave him of that fair enticing fruit
With liberal hand. He scrupled not to eat
Against his better knowledge, not deceived,
But fondly overcome with female charm.
The effect of the fruit on them is first to excite lust with guilty
shame following, and realising this after "the exhilarating vapour
bland" had spent its force, Adam found utterance for his remorse.
"O Eve, in evil hour thou didst give ear
To that false Worm. . . .
. . . How shall I behold the face
Henceforth of God or Angel, erst with joy
And rapture so oft beheld? Those Heavenly shapes
Will dazzle now this earthly with their blaze
Insufferably bright. Oh, might I here
In solitude live savage, in some glade
Obscured, where highest winds, impenetrable
To star or sunlight, spread their umbrage broad,
And brown as evening! Cover me, ye pines!
Ye cedars, with innumerable boughs
Hide me, where I may never see them more! "
Then they cower in the woods, and clothe themselves with leaves.
Covered, but not at rest or ease of mind
They sat them down to weep.
But passion also took possession of them, and they began to taunt each
other with recriminations. Adam, with estranged look, exclaimed:
"Would thou hadst hearkened to my words, and stayed
With me, as I besought thee, when that strange
Desire of wandering, this unhappy morn,
I know not whence possessed thee! We had then
Remained still happy! "
Eve retorts:
"Hadst thou been firm and fixed in thy dissent,
Neither had I transgressed, nor thou with me. "
Then Adam:
"What could I more?
I warned thee, I admonished thee, foretold
The danger, and the lurking enemy
That lay in wait; beyond this had been force. "
Thus they in mutual accusation spent
The fruitless hours, but neither self-condemning;
And of their vain contest appeared no end.
_X. --Sin and Death Triumph_
The Angels left on guard now slowly return from Paradise to Heaven
to report their failure, but are reminded by God that it was
ordained; and the Son is sent down to judge the guilty pair, after
hearing their excuses, and to punish them with the curses of toil
and death. Meantime Sin and Death "snuff the smell of mortal change"
on Earth, and leaving Hell-gate "belching outrageous flame," erect
a broad road from Hell to Earth through Chaos, and as they come in
sight of the World meet Satan steering his way back as an angel,
"between the Centaur and the Scorpion. " He makes Sin and Death his
plenipotentiaries on Earth, adjuring them first to make man their
thrall, and lastly kill; and as they pass to the evil work "the
blasted stars look wan. " The return to Hell is received with loud
acclaim, which comes in the form of a hiss, and Satan and all his
hosts are turned into grovelling snakes. Adam, now in his repentance,
is sternly resentful against Eve, who becomes submissive, and both
pass from remorse to "sorrow unfeigned and humiliation meek. "
_XI. --Repentance and the Doom_
The repentance of the pair is accepted by God, who sends down the
Archangel Michael, with a cohort of cherubim, to announce that death
will not come until time has been given for repentance, but Paradise
can no longer be their home. Whereupon Eve laments.
"O unexpected stroke, worse than of Death!
Must I thus leave thee, Paradise? Thus leave
Thee, native soil? These happy walks and shades,
Fit haunt of gods, where I had hoped to spend
Quiet, though sad, the respite of that day
That must be mortal to us both? O flowers,
That never will in any other climate grow,
My early visitation and my last
At even, which I tied up with tender hand
From the first opening bud and gave ye names,
Who now shall rear ye to the Sun, or rank
Your tribes, and water from the ambrosial fount?
. . . How shall we breathe in other air
Less pure, accustomed to immortal fruits? "
The Angel reminds her:
"Thy going is not lonely; with thee goes
Thy husband; him to follow thou art bound.
Where he abides think there thy native soil. "
Michael then ascending a hill with Adam shows him a vision of the
world's history, while Eve sleeps.
_XII. --Paradise Behind, the World Before_
The history is continued, with its promise of redemption, until Adam
exclaims:
"Full of doubt I stand,
Whether I should repent me now of sin
By me done and occasioned, or rejoice
Much more that much more good thereof shall spring--
To God more glory, more good-will to men. "
Eve awakens from propitious dreams, it having been shown to her that--
"Though all by me is lost,
Such favour I unworthy am vouchsafed.
By me the Promised Seed shall all restore. "
The time, however, has come when they must leave. A flaming sword,
"fierce as a comet," advances towards them before the bright array of
cherubim.
Whereat
In either hand the hastening angel caught
Our lingering parents, and to the eastern gate
Led them direct, and down the cliff so fast
To the subjected plain--then disappeared.
They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld
Of Paradise, so late their happy seat,
Waved over by that flaming brand, the gate
With dreadful forces thronged and fiery arms.
Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon;
The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide.
They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way.
FOOTNOTES:
[AA] John Milton, the peer of Dante as one of the world's
master-poets, was born in Bread Street, London, on December 9, 1608,
the son of a well-to-do scrivener. Educated at St. Paul's School
and at Cambridge, he devoted himself from the first to poetry. The
"Ode on the Nativity" was written when the poet was twenty-one. His
productions till his thirtieth year were nearly all of a classical
caste--"L'Allegro," "Il Penseroso," "Comus," "Lycidas. " Returning from
Continental travels in 1639, Milton became enmeshed in politics, and so
continued for twenty years, during which time he wrote much polemical
prose, including his "Areopagitica" (see Vol. XX, p. 257) and his
"Tractate on Education. " After a spell of teaching and pamphleteering,
he served as Latin secretary to Oliver Cromwell, and was stricken with
blindness at the age of forty-four. Though poor by loss of office after
the Restoration, he was never in poverty. He died on November 8, 1674.
"Paradise Lost," planned in his youth, was actually begun in 1658,
finished in 1665, and published in 1667. The price arranged was ? 5
down and ? 5 more on each of three editions, of which Milton received
? 10, and his widow ? 8, the rest being unpaid. In English literature
"Paradise Lost" stands alone as an effort of sheer imagination, and its
literary genius is as haunting as its conception is stupendous.
Paradise Regained[AB]
_I. --The Forty Days_
I, who erewhile the happy Garden sung
By one man's disobedience lost, now sing
Recovered Paradise to all mankind,
By one man's firm obedience fully tried
Through all temptation, and the Tempter foiled
In all his wiles, defeated and repulsed,
And Eden raised in the waste Wilderness.
Having thus introduced his subject, the poet describes, on Scriptural
lines, the baptism of John, seen by Satan, "when roving still about
the world. " The Fiend then "flies to his place" and "summons all his
mighty peers"--a gloomy consistory--warning them that the time seems
approaching when they "must bide the stroke of that long-threatened
wound," when "the woman's Seed shall bruise the serpent's head. " They
agree that Satan shall return to earth and act as Tempter. In Heaven,
meantime, God tells the assembly of angels, addressing Gabriel, that
He will expose His Son to Satan, in order that the Son may "show him
worthy of His birth divine and high prediction. " And the angelic choir
sings "Victory and triumph to the Son of God. "
So they in Heaven their odes and vigils tuned.
Meanwhile the Son of God . . .
Musing and much revolving in his breast
How best the mighty work he might begin
Of Saviour to mankind, and which way first
Publish his God-like office now mature,
One day forth walked alone, the Spirit leading,
And his deep thoughts, the better to converse
With solitude, till, far from track of men,
Thought following thought, and step by step led on,
He entered now the bordering desert wild.
Christ then, in meditation, tells reminiscently the story of His life.
Full forty days He passed . . .
Nor tasted human food, nor hunger felt,
Till those days ended; hungered then at last
Among wild beasts. They at His sight grew mild,
Nor sleeping Him nor waking harmed; His walk
The fiery serpent fled and noxious worm;
The lion and fierce tiger glared aloof.
But now an aged man in rural weeds,
Following, as seemed, the quest of some stray ewe,
Or withered sticks to gather, which might serve
Against a winter's day, when winds blow keen,
To warm him wet returned from field at eve,
He saw approach.
This is Satan, and, entering into conversation adjures the Son--
"If thou be the Son of God, command
That out of these hard stones be made Thee bread,
So shalt Thou save Thyself, and us relieve
With food, whereof we wretched seldom taste. "
Christ at once discerns who His tempter is and rebuffs him; and the
Fiend, "now undisguised," goes on to narrate his own history, arguing
that he is not a foe to mankind.
"They to me
Never did wrong or violence. By them
I lost not what I lost; rather by them
I gained what I have gained, and with them dwell
Co-partner in these regions of the world. "
Christ, replying, attributes to Satan the evils of Idolatry and the
crafty oracles of heathendom, which have taken the place of the
"inward oracle in pious hearts," whereupon Satan, "bowing low his gray
dissimulation, disappeared. "
_II. --The Temptation of the Body_
Meanwhile the disciples were gathered "close in a cottage low,"
wondering where Christ could be, and Mary with troubled thoughts,
rehearsed the story of His early life. Satan, returning to the council
of his fellow fiends, in "the middle region of thick air," reports
his failure, and that he has found in the Tempted "amplitude of mind
to greatest deeds. " Belial advises that the temptation should be
continued by women "expert in amorous arts," but Satan rejects the
plan, and reminds Belial--
"Among the sons of men
How many have with a smile made small account
Of beauty and her lures. For beauty stands
In the admiration only of weak minds
Led captive: cease to admire and all her plumes
Fall flat. . . . We must try
His constancy with such as have more show
Of worth, of honour, glory, and popular praise. "
With this aim Satan again betakes himself to the desert, where Christ,
now hungry, sleeps and dreams of food.
And now the herald lark
Left his ground-nest, high towering to descry
The morn's approach, and greet her with his song,
As lightly from his grassy couch uprose
Our Saviour, and found all was but a dream;
Fasting he went to sleep and fasting waked.
Up to a hill anon his steps he reared,
And in a bottom saw a pleasant grove,
With chant of tuneful birds resounding loud.
Thither He bent His way . . .
When suddenly a man before Him stood,
Not rustic as before, but seemlier clad,
As one in city or court or palace bred.
Here Satan again tempts Him with a spread of savoury food, which Jesus
dismisses with the words:
"Thy pompous delicacies I contemn,
And count thy specious gifts no gifts, but guiles! "
The book closes with the offer of riches, which are rejected as "the
toil of fools. "
_III. --The Temptation of Glory_
Finding his weak "arguing and fallacious drift" ineffectual, Satan
next appeals to ambition and suggests conquest; but is reminded that
conquerors
"Rob and spoil, burn, slaughter, and enslave
Peaceable nations, neighbouring or remote,
Made captive, yet deserving freedom more
Than those their conquerors, who leave behind
Nothing but ruin wheresoe'r they rove,
And all the flourishing works of peace destroy;
Then swell with pride and must be titled gods.
But if there be in glory aught of good,
It may by means far different be attained;
Without ambition, war, or violence,
By deeds of peace, by wisdom eminent,
By patience, temperance. "
But Satan, sardonically, argues that God expects glory, nay, exacts it
from all, good and bad alike. To which Christ replies:
"Not glory as prime end,
But to show forth his goodness, and impart
His good communicable to every soul
Freely; of whom what could He less expect
Than glory and benediction--that is thanks--
The slightest, easiest, readiest recompense
From them who could return him nothing else. "
But, argues Satan, it is the throne of David to which the Messiah is
ordained; why not begin that reign? Hitherto Christ has scarcely seen
the Galilean towns, but He shall "quit these rudiments" and survey
"the monarchies of the earth, their pomp and state. " And thereupon he
carries Him to a mountain whence He can see "Assyria and her empire's
ancient bounds," and there suggests the deliverance of the Ten Tribes.
"Thou on the Throne of David in full glory,
From Egypt to Euphrates and beyond
Shalt reign, and Rome or Caesar not need fear. "
The answer is that these things must be left to God's "due time and
providence. "
_IV. --The Last Temptation_
The Tempter now brings the Saviour round to the western side of the
mountain, and there Rome
An imperial city stood;
With towers and temples proudly elevate
On seven hills, with palaces adorned,
Porches and theatres, baths, aqueducts,
Statues and trophies, and triumphal arcs,
Gardens and groves. Queen of the Earth,
So far renowned, and with the spoils enriched
Of nations.
But this "grandeur and majestic show of luxury" has no effect on
Christ, who says:
"Know, when my season comes to sit
On David's throne, it shall be like a tree
Spreading and overshadowing all the earth;
Or as a stone that shall to pieces dash
All monarchies besides throughout the world,
And of my Kingdom there shall be no end. "
The offer of the kingdoms of the world incurs the stern rebuke:
"Get thee behind me! Plain thou now appear'st
That Evil One, Satan, for ever damned. "
Still the Fiend is not utterly abashed, but, arguing that "the
childhood shows the man as morning shows the day," and that Christ's
empire is one of mind, he, as a last temptation from the "specular
mount," shows Athens.
"There thou shalt hear and learn the secret power
Of harmony, in tones and numbers hit
By voice or hand, and various-measured verse.
To sage philosophy next lend thine ear,
From Heaven descended to the low-roofed house
Of Socrates. "
Christ replies that whoever seeks true wisdom in the philosophies,
moralities and conjectures of men finds her not, and that the poetry
of Greece will not compare with "Hebrew songs and harps. " It is the
prophets who teach most plainly
"What makes a nation happy, and keeps it so;
What ruins kingdoms, and lays cities flat? "
Finding all these temptations futile, Satan explodes:
"Since neither wealth nor honour, arms nor arts,
Kingdom nor empire pleases thee, nor aught
By me proposed in life contemplative
Or active, tended on by glory or fame;
What dost thou in this world? The wilderness
For thee is fittest place. I found thee there
And thither will return thee. "
So he transports the passive Saviour back to his homeless solitude.
Our Saviour, meek, and with untroubled mind,
Hungry and cold betook himself to rest.
The Tempter watched, and soon with ugly dreams
Disturbed his sleep. And either tropic now
'Gan thunder, and both ends of Heaven; the clouds
From many a rift abortive poured
Fierce rain with lightning mixed; water with fire
In ruin reconciled. Ill wast Thou shrouded then,
O patient Son of God! Yet only stood'st
Unshaken! Nor yet staid the terror there.
Infernal ghosts of hellish furies round
Environed thee; some howled, some yelled, some shrieked,
Some bent at thee their fiery darts, while thou
Sat'st unappalled in calm and sinless peace.
Thus passed the night so foul, till morning fair
Came forth with pilgrim steps, in amice grey,
Who with her radiant finger stilled the roar
Of thunder, chased the clouds, and laid the winds,
And grisly spectres, which the Fiend had raised
To tempt the Son of God with terrors dire.
And now the sun with more effectual beams
Had cheered the face of earth, and dried the wet
From drooping plant, or dropping tree; the birds,
Who all things now beheld more fresh and green,
After a night of storm so ruinous,
Cleared up their choicest notes in bush and spray,
To 'gratulate the sweet return of morn.
Satan, in anger, begins the last temptation.
Feigning to doubt whether the Saviour is the Son of God, he snatches
him up and carries him to where, in
Fair Jerusalem, the Holy City lifted high her towers
And higher yet the glorious Temple reared
Her pile; far off appearing like a mount
Of alabaster, topp'd with golden spires:
There on the highest pinnacle he set
The Son of God, and added thus in scorn:
"There stand if thou wilt stand; to stand upright will task thy skill. "
"Tempt not the Lord thy God," He said, and stood.
But Satan, smitten with amazement, fell,
And to his crew, that sat consulting, brought
Ruin, and desperation, and dismay.
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
As on a floating couch through the blithe air;
Then in a flowery valley set Him down
On a green bank, and set before Him, spread,
A table of celestial food. . . .
. . . . And as He fed, angelic quires
Sang Heavenly anthems of His victory
Over temptation and the Tempter proud.
"Now Thou hast avenged
Supplanted Adam, and, by vanquishing
Temptation, hast regained lost Paradise. "
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.
FOOTNOTES:
[AB] The origin of "Paradise Regained" has been told
authentically. It was suggested in 1665 by Ellwood the Quaker, who
sometimes acted as Milton's amanuensis, and it was finished and shown
to Ellwood in 1666, though not published till 1671. Neither in majesty
of conception or in charm of style can it compare with "Paradise
Lost," to which it is, as has been said, a codicil and not a sequel.
The Temptation, the reader feels, was but an incident in the life of
Christ and in the drama of the "ways of God to man," which "Paradise
Lost" introduced with such stupendous imaginative power. Much of the
poem is but a somewhat ambling paraphrase and expansion of Scriptural
narratives; but there are passages where Milton resumes his perfect
mastery of poetic form, under the inspiration that places him among the
selectest band of immortal singers.
Samson Agonistes[AC]
_Persons in the Drama_
SAMSON
MANOA, _the father of Samson_
DALILA, _his wife_
HURAPHA, _of Gath_
PUBLIC OFFICER
MESSENGER
_Chorus of Danites_
_The scene is placed before the prison in Gaza_.
SAMSON: A little onward send 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
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
The breath of Heaven 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. Hence, with leave
Retiring from the popular noise, I seek
This unfrequented place to find some ease--
Oh, wherefore was my birth from Heaven foretold
Twice by an angel, if I must die
Betrayed, captive, and both my eyes put out,
Made of my enemies the scorn and gaze?
O worse than chains,
Dungeon, or beggary, or decrepit age!
Light, the prime work of God, to me is extinct,
And all her various objects of delight
Annulled, which might in part my grief have eased.
O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon,
Irrevocably dark, total eclipse
Without all hope of day!
O first created beam, and thou great Word,
"Let there be light, and light was over all,"
Why am I thus bereaved thy prime decree?
The Sun to me is dark
And silent as the Moon,
When she deserts the night,
Hid in her vacant inter-lunar cave.
CHORUS: This, this is he; softly a while;
Let us not break in upon him.
O change beyond report, thought, or belief!
See how he lies at random, carelessly diffused,
With languished head unpropt,
As one past hope, abandoned.
Which shall I fast bewail--
Thy bondage or lost sight,
Prison within prison
Inseparably dark?
Thou art become (O worst imprisonment! )
The dungeon of thyself;
To lowest pitch of abject fortune thou are fallen.
SAMSON: I hear the sound of words; their sense the air
Dissolves unjointed ere it reach my ear.
CHORUS: 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,
To visit or bewail thee.
SAMSON: Your coming, friends, revives me.
Tell me, friends,
Am I not sung and proverbed for a fool
In every street?
CHORUS: Wisest men
Have erred, and by bad women been deceived;
And shall again, pretend they ne'er so wise.
In seeking just occasion to provoke
The Philistine, thy country's enemy,
Thou never wast remiss, I bear thee witness.
But see! here comes thy reverend sire,
With careful step, locks white as down,
OLD MANOA: advise
Forthwith how thou ought'st to receive him.
MANOA: Brethren and men of Dan, if old respect,
As I suppose, towards your once gloried friend,
My son, now captive, hither hath informed
Your younger feet, while mine, cast back with age,
Came lagging after, say if he be here.
CHORUS: As signal now in low dejected state
As erst in highest, behold him where he lies.
MANOA: O miserable change! Is this the man,
That invincible Samson, far renowned,
The dread of Israel's foes?
SAMSON: Nothing of all these evils hath befallen me
But justly.
MANOA: True; but 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
Here celebrate in Gaza, and proclaim
Great pomp, and sacrifice, and praises loud,
To Dagon, as their god who hath delivered
Thee, Samson, bound and blind, into their hands.
SAMSON: Father, I do acknowledge and confess
That I this honour, I this pomp, have brought
To Dagon, and advanced his praises high
Among the heathen round. The contest is now
'Twixt God and Dagon. Dagon hath presumed,
Me overthrown, to enter lists with God.
Dagon must stoop, and shall ere long receive
Such a discomfit as shall quite despoil him
Of all these boasted trophies won on me,
And with confusion blank his worshippers.
MANOA: But for thee what shall be done?
Thou must not in the meanwhile, here forgot,
Lie in this miserable, loathsome plight,
Neglected. I already have made way
To some Philistine lords, with whom to treat
About thy ransom.
SAMSON: Spare that proposal, father; let me here
As I deserve, pay on my punishment,
And expiate, if possible, my crime.
MANOA: Be penitent, and for thy fault contrite;
But act not in thy own affliction, son.
Repent the sin; but if the punishment
Thou canst avoid, self-preservation bids.
SAMSON: Nature within me seems
In all her functions weary of herself;
My race of glory run, and race of shame,
And I shall shortly be with them that rest.
MANOA: I, however,
Must not omit a father's timely care
To prosecute the means of thy deliverance
By ransom, or how else.
CHORUS: But who is this? what thing of sea or land--
Female of sex it seems--
That, so bedecked, ornate, and gay,
Comes this way sailing?
Some rich Philistian matron she may seem;
And now at nearer view no other certain
Than Dalila, thy wife.
SAMSON: My wife! My traitress! Let her not come near me.
DALILA: With doubtful feet and wavering resolution
I came, still dreading thy displeasure, Samson.
SAMSON: Out, out, hyena! These are thy wonted arts,
And arts of every woman false like thee--
To break all faith, all vows, deceive, betray;
Then, as repentant, to submit, beseech
A reconcilement, move with feigned remorse.
DALILA: Let me obtain forgiveness of thee, Samson,
I to the lords will intercede, not doubting
Their favourable ear, that I may fetch thee
From forth this loathsome prison-house, to abide
With me, where my redoubled love and care,
With nursing diligence, to me glad office,
May ever tend about thee to old age.
SAMSON: No, no; of my condition take no care;
It fits not; thou and I long since are twain;
Nor think me so unwary or accursed
To bring my feet again into the snare
Where once I have been caught.
DALILA: Let me approach at least, and touch thy hand.
SAMSON: Not for thy life, lest fierce remembrance wake
My sudden rage to tear thee joint by joint.
At distance I forgive thee; go with that;
Bewail thy falsehood, and the pious works
It hath brought forth to make thee memorable
Among illustrious women, faithful wives.
DALILA: I see thou art implacable, more deaf
To prayers than winds and seas. Yet winds to seas
Are reconciled at length, and sea to shore.
My name, perhaps, among the circumcised
In Dan, in Judah, and the bordering tribes
To all posterity may stand defamed.
But in my country, where I most desire,
I shall be named among the famousest
Of women, sung at solemn festivals,
Living and dead recorded, who to save
Her country from a fierce destroyer, chose
Above the faith of wedlock bands; my tomb
With odours visited and annual flowers.
CHORUS: She's gone--a manifest serpent by her sting--
Discovered in the end, till now concealed.
This idol's day hath been to thee no day of rest,
Labouring thy mind
More than the working day thy hands.
And yet, perhaps, more trouble is behind;
For I descry this way
Some other tending; in his hand
A sceptre or quaint staff he bears,
A public officer, and now at hand.
His message will be short and voluble.
OFFICER: Hebrews, the prisoner Samson here I seek.
CHORUS: His manacles remark him; there he sits.
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
To honour this great feast and great assembly.
Rise, therefore, with all speed, and come along,
Where I will see thee heartened and fresh clad,
To appear as fit before the illustrious lords.
SAMSON: Thou know'st I am an Hebrew; therefore tell them
Our law forbids at their religious rites
My presence; for that cause I cannot come.
OFFICER: This answer, be assured will not content them.
SAMSON: Return the way thou camest;
I will not come.
OFFICER: Regard thyself; this will offend them highly.
SAMSON: Can they think me so broken, so debased
With corporal servitude, that my mind ever
Will condescend to such absurd commands?
Joined with extreme contempt! I will not come.
OFFICER: I am sorry what this stoutness will produce.
CHORUS: He's gone, and who knows how he may report
Thy words by adding fuel to the flames.
Expect another message more imperious.
SAMSON: Shall I abuse this consecrated gift
Of strength, again returning with my hair,
After my great transgression! --so requite
Favour renewed, and add a greater sin
By prostituting holy things to idols.
CHORUS: Where the heart joins not, outward acts defile not.
SAMSON: Be of good courage; I begin to feel
Some rousing motions in me, which dispose
To something extraordinary my thoughts.
I with this messenger will go along--
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.
CHORUS: In time thou hast resolved: the man returns.
OFFICER: Samson, this second message from our lords
To thee I am bid say: Art thou our slave,
And dar'st thou, at our sending and command,
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 fastened than a rock.
SAMSON: Because they shall not trail me through their streets
Like a wild beast, I am content to go.
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, farewell. Your company along
I will not wish, lest it perhaps offend them
To see me girt with friends.
Happen what may, of me expect to hear
Nothing dishonourable, impure, unworthy
Our God, our Law, my nation, or myself.
CHORUS: Go, and the Holy One
Of Israel be thy guide.
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 their feast.
I heard all as I came; I had no will,
Lest I should see him forced to things unseemly.
But that which moved my coming now was chiefly
To give ye part with me what hope I have
With good success to work his liberty.
CHORUS: That hope would much rejoice us to partake
With thee.
MANOA: What noise or shout was that? It tore the sky.
CHORUS: Doubtless the people shouting to behold
Their once great dread, captive and blind before them,
Or at some proof of strength, before them shown.
MANOA: His ransom, if my whole inheritance
May compass it, shall willingly be paid
And numbered down. Much rather I shall choose
To live the poorest in my tribe, than richest,
And he in that calamitous prison left.
No, I am fixed not to part hence without him.
For his redemption all my patrimony,
If need be, I am ready to forego
And quit. Not wanting him, I shall want nothing.
It shall be my delight to tend his eyes,
And view him sitting in his house, ennobled
With all those high exploits by him achieved.
CHORUS: Thy hopes are not ill founded, nor seem vain,
Of his delivery.
MANOA: I know your friendly minds, and--O what noise!
Mercy of Heaven! What hideous noise was that
Horribly loud, unlike the former shout.
CHORUS: Noise call you it, or universal groan,
As if the whole inhabitation perished?
Blood, death, and deathful deeds, are in that noise,
Ruin, destruction at the utmost point.
MANOA: Of ruin indeed methought I heard the noise.
Oh! it continues; the 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.
What shall we do--stay here, or run and see?
CHORUS: Best keep together here, lest, running thither,
We unawares run into danger's mouth.
This evil on the Philistines is fallen:
From whom could else a general cry be heard?
MANOA: A little stay will bring some notice hither.
CHORUS: I see one hither speeding--
An Hebrew, as I guess, and of our tribe.
MESSENGER: O, whither shall I run, or which way fly?
The sight of this so horrid spectacle,
Which erst my eyes beheld, and yet behold?
MANOA: The accident was loud, and here before thee
With rueful cry; yet what it was we know not.
Tell us the sum, the circumstance defer.
MESSENGER: Gaza yet stands; but all her sons are fallen,
All in a moment overwhelmed and fallen.
MANOA: Sad! but thou know'st to Israelites not saddest
The desolation of a hostile city.
MESSENGER: Feed on that first; there may in grief be surfeit.
MANOA: Relate by whom.
MESSENGER: By Samson.
MANOA: That still lessens
The sorrow and converts it nigh to joy.
MESSENGER: Ah! Manoa, I refrain too suddenly
To utter what will come at last too soon,
Lest evil tidings, with too rude eruption
Hitting thy aged ear, should pierce too deep.
MANOA: Suspense in news is torture; speak them out.
MESSENGER: Then take the worst in brief--Samson is dead.
MANOA: The worst indeed! O, all my hope's defeated
To free him hence! but Death, who sets all free,
Hath paid his ransom now and full discharge.
How died he? --death to life is crown or shame.
All by him fell, thou say'st; by whom fell he?
What glorious hand gave Samson his death's wound?
MESSENGER: Unwounded of his enemies he fell.
MANOA: Wearied with slaughter, then, or how? Explain.
MESSENGER: By his own hands.
MANOA: Self-violence! What cause
Brought him so soon at variance with himself
Among his foes?
MESSENGER: Inevitable cause--
At once both to destroy and be destroyed.
The edifice, where all were met to see him,
Upon their heads and on his own he pulled.
The building was a spacious theatre,
Half round on two main pillars vaulted high,
With seats where all the lords, and each degree
Of sort, might sit in order to behold.
Immediately
Was Samson as a public servant brought,
In their state livery clad.
At sight of him the people with a shout
Rifted the air, clamoring their god with praise,
Who had made their dreadful enemy their thrall.
He patient, but undaunted, where they led him,
Came to the place; and what was set before him,
Which without help of eye might be assayed,
To heave, pull, draw, or break, he still performed
All with incredible, stupendous force,
None daring to appear antagonist
At length, for intermission sake, they led him
Between the pillars; he his guide requested,
As over-tired, to let him lean awhile
With both his arms on those two massy pillars,
That to the arched roof gave main support.
He unsuspicious led him; which when Samson
Felt in his arms, with head awhile inclined,
And eyes fast fixed, he stood, as one who prayed,
Or some great matter in his mind revolved.
At last, with head erect, thus cried aloud,
"Hitherto, lords, what your commands imposed
I have performed, as reason was, obeying,
Not without wonder or delight beheld;
Now, of my own accord, such other trial
I mean to show you of my strength yet greater
As with amaze shall strike all who behold. "
This uttered, straightening all his nerves, he bowed.
As with the force of winds and waters pent
When mountains tremble, those two massy pillars
With horrible convulsions to and fro
He tugged, he shook, till down they came, and drew
The whole roof after them with burst of thunder
Upon the heads of all who sat beneath,
Lords, ladies, captains, counsellors, or priests,
Their choice nobility and flower, not only
Of this, but each Philistian city round,
Met from all parts to solemnise this feast.
Samson, with these immixed, inevitably
Pulled down the same destruction on himself;
The vulgar only scaped, who stood without.
MANOA: Samson hath quit himself
Like Samson, and heroically hath finished
A life heroic.
Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail
Or knock the breast; no weakness, no contempt,
Dispraise or blame; nothing but well and fair,
And what may quiet us in a death so noble.
