Licenced,  
July 2. 1670.   

PARADISE regained. A POEM. In IV BOOKS. To which is added SAMSON AGONISTES.  
The Author JOHN MILTON.  
LONDON, Printed by J. M. for John Starkey at the Mitre in Fleetstreet, near Temple-Bar. MDCLXXI.   

PARADISE regained, A POEM. The First BOOK.  

I Who e'er while 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.   

Thou Spirit who ledst this glorious Eremite  
Into the Desert, his Victorious Field  
Against the Spiritual Foe, and brought'st him thence  
By proof the undoubted Son of God, inspire,  
As thou art wont, my prompted Song else mute,  
And bear through height or depth of nature's bounds  
With prosperous wing full summed to tell of deeds  
Above Heroic, though in secret done,  
And unrecorded left through many an Age,  
Worthy t' have not remained so long unsung.   

Now had the great Proclaimer with a voice  
More awful than the sound of Trumpet, cried  
Repentance, and heaven's Kingdom nigh at hand  
To all baptised: to his great Baptism flocked  
With awe the Regions round, and with them came  
From Nazareth the Son of Joseph deemed  
To the flood Jordan, came as then obscure,  
Unmarkt, unknown; but him the Baptist soon  
Descried, divinely warned, and witness bore  
As to his worthier, and would have resigned  
To him his Heavenly Office, nor was long  
His witness unconfirmed: on him baptised  
Heaven opened, and in likeness of a Dove  
The Spirit descended, while the father's voice  
From heaven pronounced him his beloved Son.  
That heard the Adversary, who roving still  
About the world, at that assembly famed  
Would not be last, and with the voice divine  
Nigh thunderstruck, th' exalted man, to whom  
Such high attest was given, a while surveyed  
With wonder, then with envy fraught and rage  
Flies to his place, nor rests, but in mid air  
To council summons all his mighty Peers,  
Within thick Clouds and dark tenfold involved,  
A gloomy Consistory; and them amidst  
With looks aghast and sad he thus bespoke.   

O ancient Powers of Air and this wide world,  
For much more willingly I mention Air,  
This our old Conquest, then remember Hell  
Our hated habitation; well ye know  
How many Ages, as the years of men,  
This Universe we have possessed, and ruled  
In manner at our will th'affairs of Earth,  
Since Adam and his facile consort Eve  
Lost Paradise deceived by me, though since  
With dread attending when that fatal wound  
Shall be inflicted by the Seed of Eve  
Upon my head, long the decrees of heaven  
Delay, for longest time to him is short;  
And now too soon for us the circling hours  
This dreaded time have compassed, wherein we  
Must bide the stroke of that long threatened wound,  
At least if so we can, and by the head  
Broken be not intended all our power  
To be infringed, our freedom and our being.  
In this fair Empire won of Earth and Air;  
For this ill news I bring, the woman's seed  
Destined to this, is late of woman born,  
His birth to our just fear gave no small cause,  
But his growth now to youths full flower; displaying  
All virtue, grace and wisdom to achieve  
Things highest, greatest, multiplies my fear.  
Before him a great Prophet, to proclaim  
His coming, is sent Harbinger, who all  
Invites, and in the Consecrated stream  
Pretends to wash off sin, and fit them so  
Purified to receive him pure, or rather  
To do him honour as their King; all come,  
And he himself among them was baptised,  
Not thence to be more pure, but to receive  
The testimony of Heaven, that who he is  
Thenceforth the Nations may not doubt; I saw  
The Prophet do him reverence, on him rising  
Out of the water, heaven above the Clouds  
Unfold her Crystal Dores, thence on his head  
A perfect Dove descend, whate'er it meant,  
And out of heaven the sovereign voice I heard,  
This is my Son beloved, in him am pleased.  
His Mother then is mortal, but his Sire,  
He who obtains the Monarchy of heaven,  
And what will he not do to advance his Son?  
His first-begot we know, and sore have felt,  
When his fierce thunder drove us to the deep;  
Who this is we must learn, for man he seems  
In all his lineaments, though in his face  
The glimpses of his father's glory shine.  
Ye see our danger on the utmost edge  
Of hazard, which admits no long debate,  
But must with something sudden be opposed,  
Not force, but well couched fraud, well woven snares,  
ere in the head of Nations he appear  
Their King, their Leader, and supreme on Earth.  
I, when no other durst, sole undertook  
The dismal expedition to find out  
And ruin Adam, and the exploit performed  
Successfully; a calmer voyage now  
Will waft me; and the way found prosperous once  
Induces best to hope of like success.   

He ended, and his words impression left  
Of much amazement to th'infernal Crew,  
Distracted and surprised with deep dismay  
At these sad tidings; but no time was then  
For long indulgence to their fears or grief:  
Unanimous they all commit the care  
And management of this main enterprise  
To him their great Dictator, whose attempt  
At first against mankind so well had thrived  
In Adam's overthrow, and led their march  
From Hell's deep-vaulted Den to dwell in light,  
Regent's and Potentates, and Kings, yea gods  
Of many a pleasant Realm and Province wide.  
So to the Coast of Jordan he directs  
His easy steps; girded with snaky wiles,  
Where he might likeliest find this new-declared,  
This man of men, attested Son of God,  
Temptation and all guile on him to try;  
So to subvert whom he suspected raised  
To end his reign on Earth so long enjoyed:  
But contrary unwitting he fulfilled  
The purposed Counsel preordained and fixed  
Of the most High, who in full frequency bright  
Of Angels, thus to Gabriel smiling spoke.   

Gabriel this day by proof thou shalt behold,  
Thou and all Angels conversant on Earth  
With man or men's affairs, how I begin  
To verify that solemn message late,  
On which I sent thee to the Virgin pure  
In Galilee, that she should bear a Son  
Great in Renown, and called the Son of God;  
Then toldst her doubting how these things could be  
To her a Virgin, that on her should come  
The Holy Ghost, and the power of the highest  
O'ershadow her: this man born and now up-grown,  
To show him worthy of his birth divine  
And high prediction, henceforth I expose  
To Satan; let him tempt and now assay  
His utmost subtlety, because he boasts  
And vaunts of his great cunning to the throng  
Of his apostasy; he might have learned  
Less overweening, since he failed in Job,  
Whose constant perseverance overcame  
whate'er his cruel malice could invent.  
He now shall know I can produce a man  
Of female Seed, far abler to resist  
All his solicitations, and at length  
All his vast force, and drive him back to Hell,  
Winning by Conquest what the first man lost  
By fallacy surprised. But first I mean  
To exercise him in the Wilderness,  
There he shall first lay down the rudiments  
Of his great warfare, ere I send him forth  
To conquer Sin and Death the two grand foes,  
By Humiliation and strong Sufferance:  
His weakness shall o'ercome Satanic strength  
And all the world, and mass of sinful flesh;  
That all the Angels and Aetherial Powers,  
They now, and men hereafter may discern,  
From what consummate virtue I have chose  
This perfect Man, by merit called my Son,  
To earn Salvation for the Sons of men.   

So spoke the Eternal Father, and all Heaven  
Admiring stood a space, then into Hymns  
Burst forth, and in Celestial measures moved,  
Circling the Throne and Singing, while the hand  
Sung with the voice, and this the argument.   

Victory and Triumph to the Son of God  
Now entering his great duel, not of arms,  
But to vanquish by wisdom hellish wiles.  
The Father knows the Son; therefore secure  
Ventures his filial virtue, though untried,  
Against whate'er may tempt, whate'er seduce,  
Allure, or terrify, or undermine.  
Be frustrate all ye stratagems of Hell,  
And devilish machinations come to nought.   

So they in heaven their Odes and Vigils tuned:  
Mean while the Son of God, who yet some days  
Lodged in Bethabara where John baptised,  
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 godlike office now mature,  
One day forth walked alone, the Spirit leading;  
And his deep thoughts, the better to converse  
With solitude, till far from tract of men,  
Thought following thought, and step by step led on,  
He entered now the bordering Desert wild,  
And with dark shades and rocks environed round,  
His holy Meditations thus pursued.   

O what a multitude of thoughts at once  
Awakened in me swarm, while I consider  
What from within I feel myself, and hear  
What from without comes often to my ears,  
Ill sorting with my present state compared.  
When I was yet a child, no childish play  
To me was pleasing, all my mind was set  
Serious to learn and know, and thence to do  
What might be public good; myself I thought  
Born to that end, born to promote all truth,  
All righteous things: therefore above my years,  
The Law of God I read, and found it sweet,  
Made it my whole delight, and in it grew  
To such perfection, that e'er yet my age  
Had measured twice six years, at our great Feast  
I went into the Temple, there to hear  
The Teachers of our Law, and to propose  
What might improve my knowledge or their own;  
And was admired by all, yet this not all  
To which my Spirit aspired, victorious deeds  
Flamed in my heart, heroic acts, one while  
To rescue Israel from the Roman yoke,  
Then to subdue and quell o'er all the earth  
Brute violence and proud tyrannic power,  
Till truth were freed, and equity restored:  
Yet held it more humane, more heavenly first  
By winning words to conquer willing hearts,  
And make persuasion do the work of fear;  
At least to try, and teach the erring Soul  
Not wilfully mis-doing, but unware  
Miss; the stubborn only to destroy.  
These growing thoughts my Mother soon perceiving  
By words at times cast forth inly rejoiced,  
And said to me apart, high are thy thoughts  
O Son, but nourish them and let them soar  
To what height sacred virtue and true worth  
Can raise them, though above example high;  
By matchless Deeds express thy matchless Sire.  
For know, thou art no Son of mortal man,  
Though men esteem thee low of Parentage,  
Thy Father is the Eternal King, who rules  
All Heaven and Earth, Angels and Sons of men,  
A messenger from God foretell thy birth  
Conceived in me a Virgin, he foretell  
Thou shouldst be great and sit on David's Throne,  
And of thy Kingdom there should be no end.  
At thy Nativity a glorious choir  
Of Angels in the fields of Bethlehem sung  
To Shepherds watching at their folds by night,  
And told them the Messiah now was born,  
Where they might see him, and to thee they came;  
Directed to the Manger where thou laised,  
For in the Inn was left no better room:  
A Star, not seen before in Heaven appearing  
Guided the Wise Men thither from the East,  
To honour thee with Incense, Myrrh, and Gold,  
By whose bright course led on they found the place,  
Affirming it thy Star new graven in Heaven,  
By which they knew thee King of Israel born.  
Just Simeon and Prophetic Anna, warned  
By Vision, found thee in the Temple, and spoke  
Before the Altar and the vested Priest,  
Like things of thee to all that present stood.  
This having heard, straight I again revolved  
The Law and Prophets, searching what was writ  
Concerning the Messiah, to our Scribes  
Known partly, and soon found of whom they spoke  
I am; this chief, that my way must lie  
Through many a hard assay even to the death,  
ere I the promised Kingdom can attain,  
Or work Redemption for mankind, whose sins  
Full weight must be transferred upon my head.  
Yet neither thus disheartened or dismayed,  
The time prefixed I waited, when behold  
The Baptist, (of whose birth I oft had heard,  
Not knew by sight) now come, who was to come  
Before Messiah and his way prepare.  
I as all others to his Baptism came,  
Which I believed was from above; but he  
Straight knew me, and with loudest voice proclaimed  
Me him (for it was shown him so from Heaven)  
Me him whose Harbinger he was; and first  
Refused on me his Baptism to confer,  
As much his greater, and was hardly won;  
But as I risen out of the laving stream,  
Heaven opened her eternal doors, from whence  
The Spirit descended on me like a Dove,  
And last the sum of all, my Father's voice,  
Audibly heard from heaven, pronounced me his,  
Me his beloved Son, in whom alone  
He was well pleased; by which I knew the time  
Now full, that I no more should live obscure,  
But openly begin, as best becomes  
The Authority which I derived from Heaven.  
And now by some strong motion I am led  
Into this Wilderness, to what intent  
I learn not yet, perhaps I need not know;  
For what concerns my knowledge God reveals.   

So spoke our Morning Star then in his rise,  
And looking round on every side beheld  
A pathless Desert, dusk with horrid shades;  
The way he came not having marked, return  
Was difficult, by humane steps untrod;  
And he still on was led, but with such thoughts  
Accompanied of things past and to come  
Lodged in his breast, as well might recommend  
Such Solitude before choicest Society.  
Full forty days he passed, whether on hill  
Sometimes, anon in shady vale, each night  
Under the covert of some ancient Oak,  
Or Cedar, to defend him from the dew,  
Or harboured in one Cave, is not revealed;  
Nor tasted humane 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, who first with curious eye  
Perused him, then with words thus uttered spoke.   

Sir, what ill chance hath brought thee to this place  
So far from path or road of men, who pass  
In Troop or Caravan, for single none  
Durst ever, who returned, and dropped not here  
His carcase, pined with hunger and with drought?  
I ask the rather, and the more admire,  
For that to me thou seem'st the man, whom late  
Our new baptising Prophet at the Ford  
Of Jordan honoured so, and called thee Son  
Of God; I saw and heard, for we sometimes  
Who dwell this wild, constrained by want, come forth  
To Town or Village nigh (nighest is far)  
Where ought we hear, and curious are to hear,  
What happens new; Fame also finds us out.   

To whom the Son of God. Who brought me hither  
Will bring me hence, no other Guide I seek.   

By Miracle he may, replied the Swain,  
What other way I see not, for we here  
Live on tough roots and stubs, to thirst inur'd  
More than the Camel, and to drink go far,  
Men to much misery and hardship born;  
But 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.   

He ended, and the Son of God replied.  
Thinkest thou such force in Bread? is it not written  
(For I discern thee other then thou seem'st)  
Man lives not by Bread only, but each Word  
Proceeding from the mouth of God; who fed  
Our Fathers here with Manna; in the Mount  
Moses was forty days, nor eat nor drank,  
And forty days Eliah without food  
Wandered this barren waste, the same I now:  
Why dost thou then suggest to me distrust,  
Knowing who I am, as I know who thou art?   

Whom thus answered th' Arch Fiend now undisguised.  
'Tis true, I am that Spirit unfortunate,  
Who leagued with millions more in rash revolt  
Kept not my happy Station, but was driven  
With them from bliss to the bottomless deep,  
Yet to that hideous place not so confined  
By rigour unconniving, but that oft  
Leaving my dolorous Prison I enjoy  
Large liberty to round this Globe of Earth,  
Or range in th' Air, nor from the heaven of heavens  
Hath he excluded my resort sometimes.  
I came among the Sons of God, when he  
Gave up into my hands Uzzean Job  
To prove him, and illustrate his high worth;  
And when to all his Angels he proposed  
To draw the proud King Ahab into fraud  
That he might fall in Ramoth, they demurring,  
I undertook that office, and the tongues  
Of all his flattering Prophets glibbed with lies  
To his destruction, as I had in charge.  
For what he bids I do; though I have lost  
Much lustre of my native brightness, lost  
To be beloved of God, I have not lost  
To love, at least contemplate and admire  
What I see excellent in good, or fair,  
Or virtuous, I should so have lost all sense.  
What can be then less in me then desire  
To see thee and approach thee, whom I know  
Declared the Son of God, to hear attended  
Thy wisdom, and behold thy godlike deeds?  
Men generally think me much a foe  
To all mankind: why should I? 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  
Copartner in these Regions of the World,  
If not disposer; lend them oft my aid,  
Oft my advice by presages and signs,  
And answers, oracles, portents and dreams,  
Whereby they may direct their future life.  
Envy they say excites me, thus to gain  
Companions of my misery and wo.  
At first it may be; but long since with woe  
Never acquainted, now I feel by proof,  
That fellowship in pain divides not smart,  
Nor lightens aught each man's peculiar load.  
Small consolation then, were Man adjoined:  
This wounds me most (what can it less) that Man,  
Man fallen shall be restored, I never more.   

To whom our Saviour sternly thus replied.  
Deservedly thou grievest, composed of lies  
From the beginning, and in lies wilt end;  
Who boast'st release from Hell, and leave to come  
Into the heaven of Heavens; thou comest indeed,  
As a poor miserable captive thrall,  
Comes to the place where he before had sat  
Among the Prime in Splendour, now deposed,  
Ejected, emptied, gazed, unpityed, shunned,  
A spectacle of ruin or of scorn  
To all the Host of Heaven; the happy place  
Imports to thee no happiness, no joy,  
Rather inflames thy torment, representing  
Lost bliss, to thee no more communicable,  
So never more in Hell then when in Heaven.  
But thou art serviceable to Heaven's King.  
Wilt thou impute to obedience what thy fear  
Extorts, or pleasure to do ill excites?  
What but thy malice moved thee to misdeem  
Ofirghteous Job, then cruelly to afflict him  
With all inflictions, but his patience won?  
The other service was thy chosen task,  
To be a liar in four hundred mouths;  
For lying is thy sustenance, thy food.  
Yet thou pretendest to truth; all Oracles  
By thee are given, and what confessed more true  
Among the Nations? that hath been thy craft,  
By mixing somewhat true to vent more lies.  
But what have been thy answers, what but dark  
Ambiguous and with double sense deluding,  
Which they who asked have seldom understood,  
And not well understood as good not known?  
Who ever by consulting at thy shrine  
Returned the wiser, or the more instruct  
To fly or follow what concerned him most,  
And run not sooner to his fatal snare?  
For God hath justly given the Nationsup  
To thy Delusions; justly, since they fell  
Idolatrous, but when his purpose is  
Among them to declare his Providence  
To thee not known, whence hast thou then thy truth,  
But from him or his angel's precedent  
In every Province, who themselves disdaining  
To approach thy Temples, give thee in command  
What to the smallest tittle thou shalt say  
To thy Adorers; thou with trembling fear,  
Or like a Fawning Parasite obey'st;  
Then to thyself ascrib'st the truth foretell.  
But this thy glory shall be soon retrenched;  
No more shalt thou by oracling abuse  
The Gentiles; henceforth Oracles are ceased,  
And thou no more with Pomp and Sacrifice  
Shalt be enquired at Delphos or elsewhere,  
At least in vain, for they shall find thee mute.  
God hath now sent his living Oracle  
Into the World, to teach his final will,  
And sends his Spirit of Truth henceforth to dwell  
In pious Hearts, an inward Oracle  
To all truth requisite for men to know.   

So spoke our Saviour; but the subtle Fiend,  
Though inly stung with anger and disdain,  
Dissembled, and this Answer smooth returned.   

Sharply thou hast insisted on rebuke,  
And urged me hard with do, which not will  
But misery hath rested from me; where  
Easily canst thou find one miserable,  
And not enforced ofttimes to part from truth;  
If it may stand him more in stead to lie,  
Say and unsay, feign, flatter, or abjure?  
But thou art placed above me, thou art Lord;  
From thee I can and must submiss endure  
Check or reproof, and glad to scape so quit.  
Hard are the ways of truth, and rough to walk,  
Smooth on the tongue discoursed, pleasing to th'ear,  
And tuneable as sylvan Pipe or Song;  
What wonder then if I delight to hear  
Her dictates from thy mouth? most men admire  
Virtue, who follow not her lore: permit me  
To hear thee when I come (since no man comes)  
And talk at least, though I despair to attain.  
Thy Father, who is holy, wise and pure,  
Suffers the Hypocrite or Atheous Priest  
To tread his Sacred Courts, and minister  
About his Altar, handling holy things,  
Praying or vowing, and vouchsafed his voice  
To Balaam Reprobate, a Prophet yet  
Inspired; disdain not such access to me.   

To whom our Saviour with unalter'd brow.  
Thy coming hither, though I know thy scope,  
I bid not or forbidden; do as thou findest  
Permission from above; thou canst not more.   

He added not; and Satan bowing low  
His grey dissimulation, disappeared  
Into thin Air diffused: for now began  
Night with her sullen wing to double-shade  
The Desert, Fowls in their clay nests were couched;  
And now wild Beasts came forth the woods to roam.   
The End of the First Book.   

PARADISE regained. The Second BOOK.  

MEan while the new-baptized, who yet remained  
At Jordan with the Baptist, and had seen  
Him whom they heard so late expressly called  
Jesus Messiah Son of God declared,  
And on that high Authority had believed,  
And with him talked, and with him lodged, I mean  
Andrew and Simon, famous after known  
With others though in Holy Writ not named,  
Now missing him their joy so lately found,  
So lately found, and so abruptly gone,  
Began to doubt, and doubted many days,  
And as the days increased, increased their doubt:  
Sometimes they thought he might be only shown,  
And for a time caught up to God, as once  
Moses was in the Mount, and missing long;  
And the great Thisbite who onfiery wheels  
Road up to Heaven, yet once again to come.  
Therefore as those young Prophets then with care  
Sought lost Eliah, so in each place these  
Night to Bethabara; in Jericho  
The City of Palms, Aenon, and Salem Old,  
Machaerus and each Town or City walled  
On this side the broad lake Genezaret,  
Or in Perea, but returned in vain.  
Then on the bank of Jordan, by a Creek:  
Where winds with Reeds, and Osiers whispering play  
Plain Fishermen, no greater men them call,  
Close in a Cottage low together got  
Their unexpected loss and plaints out breathed.  
Alas, from what high hope to what relapse  
Unlooked for are we fallen, our eyes beheld  
Messiah certainly now come, so long  
Expected of our Fathers; we have heard  
His words, his wisdom full of grace and truth,  
Now, now, for sure, deliverance is at hand,  
The Kingdom shall to Israel be restored:  
Thus we rejoiced, but soon our joy is turned  
Into perplexity and new amaze:  
For whither is he gone, what accident  
Hath rapt him from us? will he now retire  
After appearance, and again prolong  
Our expectation? God of Israel,  
Send thy Messiah forth, the time is come;  
Behold the Kings of the Earth how they oppress  
Thy chosen, to what height their power unjust  
They have exalted, and behind them cast  
All fear of thee, arise and vindicate  
Thy Glory, freethy people from their yoke,  
But let us wait; thus far he hath performed,  
Sent his Anointed, and to us revealed him,  
By his great Prophet, pointed at and shown,  
In public, and with him we have conversed;  
Let us be glad of this, and all our fears  
Lay on his Providence; he will not fail  
Nor will withdraw him now, nor will recall,  
Mock us with his blessed sight, then snatch him hence,  
Soon we shall see our hope, our joy return.   

Thus they out of their plaints new hope resume  
To find whom at the first they found unsought:  
But to his Mother Mary, when she saw  
Others returned from Baptism, not her Son,  
Nor left at Jordan, tidings of him none;  
Within her breast, though calm; her breast though pure,  
Motherly cares and fears got head, and raised  
Some troubled thoughts, which she in sighs thus clad.   

O what avails me now that honour high  
To have conceived of God, or that salute  
Hale highly favoured, among women blest;  
While I to sorrows am no less advanced,  
And fears as eminent, above the lot  
Of other women, by the birth I bore,  
In such a season born when scarce a Shed  
Can be obtained to shelter him or me  
From the bleak air; a Stable was our warmth,  
A Manger his, yet soon enforced to fly  
Thence into Egypt, till the murderous King  
Were dead, who sought his life, and missing filled  
With Infant blood the streets of Bethlehem;  
From Egypt home returned, in Nazareth  
Hath been our dwelling many years, his life  
Private, unactive, calm, contemplative,  
Little suspicious to any King; but now  
Full grown to Man, acknowledged, as I hear,  
By John the Baptist, and in public shown,  
Son owned from Heaven by his Father's voice;  
I looked for some great change; to Honour? no,  
But trouble, as old Simeon plain foretell,  
That to the fall and rising he should be  
Of many in Israel, and to a sign  
Spoken against, that through my very Soul  
A sword shall pierce, this is my favoured lot,  
My Exaltation to Afflictions high;  
Afflicted I may be, it seems, and blest;  
I will not argue that, nor will repine.  
But where delays he now? some great intent  
Conceals him: when twelve years he scarce had seen,  
I lost him, but so found, as well I saw  
He could not lose himself; but went about  
His Father's business; what he meant I mused,  
Since understand; much more his absence now  
Thus long to some great purpose he obscures.  
But I to wait with patience am inur'd;  
My heart hath been a store-house long of things  
And say laid up, portending strange events.   

Thus Mary pondering oft, and oft to mind  
Recalling what remarkably had passed  
Since first her Salutation heard, with thoughts  
Meekly composed awaited the fulfilling:  
The while her Son tracing the Desert wild,  
Sole but with holiest Meditations fed,  
Into himself descended, and at once  
All his great work to come before him set;  
How to begin, how to accomplish best  
His end of being on Earth, and mission high:  
For Satan with sly preface to return  
Had left him vacant, and with speed was gone  
Up to the middle Region of thick Air,  
Where all his Potentates in Council sat;  
There without sign of boast, or sign of joy,  
Solicitous and blank he thus began.   

Princes, heaven's ancient Sons, Aethereal Thrones,  
Demonian Spirits now, from the Element  
Each of his reign allotted, rightlier called,  
Powers of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth beneath,  
So may we hold our place and these mild seats  
Without new trouble; such an Enemy  
Is risen to invade us, who no less  
Threat'ns our expulsion down to Hell;  
I, as I undertook, and with the vote  
Consenting in full frequency was empowered,  
Have found him, viewed him, tasted him, but find  
Far other labour to be undergon  
Then when I dealt with Adam first of Men,  
Though Adam by his wife's allurement fell,  
However to this Man inferior far,  
If he be Man by mother's side at least,  
With more than humane gifts from Heaven adorned,  
Perfections absolute, grace's divine,  
And amplitude of mind to greatest Deeds.  
Therefore I am returned, lest confidence  
Of my success with Eve in Paradise  
Deceive ye to persuasion over-sure  
Of like succeeding here; I summon all  
Rather to be in readiness, with hand  
Or counsel to assist; lest I who erst  
Thought none my equal, now be overmatched.   

So spoke the old Serpent doubting, and from all  
With clamour was assured their utmost aid  
At his command; when from amidst them rose  
Belial the dislolutest Spirit that fell,  
The sensuallest, and after Asmodai  
The fleshliest Incubus, and thus advised.   

Set women in his eye and in his walk,  
Among daughters of men the fairest found;  
Many are in each Region passing fair  
As the noon sky; more like to Goddesses  
Then Mortal Creatures, graceful and discreet,  
Expert in amorous Arts, enchanting tongues  
Persuasive, Virgin majesty with mild  
And sweet allayed, yet terrible to approach,  
Skilled to retire, and in retiring draw  
Hearts after them tangled in Amorous Nets.  
Such object hath the power to soft'n and tame  
Severest temper, smooth the rugged'st brow,  
Enerve, and with voluptuous hope dissolve,  
Draw out with credulous desire, and lead  
At will the manliest, resolutest breast,  
As the Magnetic hardest Iron draws.  
Women, when nothing else, beguiled the heart  
Of wisest Solomon, and made him build,  
And made him bow to the Gods of his Wives.   

To whom quick answer Satan thus returned.  
Belial, in much uneven scale thou weighest  
All others by thyself; because of old  
Thou thyself dotest on womankind, admiring  
Their shape, their colour, and attractive grace,  
None are, thou thinkest, but taken with such toys,  
Before the Flood thou with thy lusty Crew,  
False titled Sons of God, roaming the Earth  
Cast wanton eyes on the daughters of men,  
And coupled with them, and begot a race.  
Have we not seen, or by relation heard,  
In Courts and Regal Chambers how thou lurk'st,  
In Wood or Grove by mossy Fountain side,  
In Valley or Green Meadow to waylay  
Some beauty rare, Calisto, Clymene,  
Daphne, or Semele, Antiopa,  
Or Amymone, Syrinx, many more  
Too long, than layest thy 'scapes on names adored,  
Apollo, Neptune, Jupiter, or Pan,  
satire, or Fawn, or sylvan? But these haunts  
Delight not all; among the Sons of Men,  
How many have with a smile made small account  
Of beauty and her lures, easily scorned  
All her assaults, on worthier things intent?  
Remember that Pellean conqueror,  
A youth, how all the Beauties of the East  
He slightly viewed, and slightly overpassed;  
How he surnamed of Africa dismissed  
In his prime youth the fair Iberian maid.  
For Solomon he lived at ease, and full  
Of honour, wealth, high fare, aimed not beyond  
Higher design then to enjoy his State;  
Thence to the bait of Women lay exposed;  
But he whom we attempt is wiser far  
Than Solomon, of more exalted mind,  
Made and set wholly on the accomplishment  
Of greatest things; what woman will you find,  
Though of this Age the wonder and the fame,  
On whom his leisure will vouchsafe an eye  
Of fond desire? or should she confident,  
As sitting Queen adored on bauties' Throne,  
Descend with all her winning charms beg'rt  
To enamour, as the Zone of Venus once  
Wrought that effect on Jove, so Fables tell;  
How would one look from his majestic brow  
Seated as on the top of virtue's hill,  
Discount'nance her despised, and put to rout  
All her array; her female pride deject,  
Or turn to reverend awe? for Beauty stands  
In the admiration only of weak minds  
Led captive; cease to admire, and all her Plumes  
Fall flat and shrink into a trivial toy,  
At every sudden slighting quite abashed:  
Therefore with manlier objects we must try  
His constancy, with such as have more show  
Of worth, of honour, glory, and popular praise;  
Rocks whereon greatest men have oftest wrecked;  
Or that which only seems to satisfy  
Lawful desires of Nature, not beyond;  
And now I know he hungers where no food  
Is to be found, in the wide Wilderness;  
The rest commit to me, I shall let pass  
No advantage, and his strength as oft assay.   

He ceased, and heard their grant in loud acclaim;  
Then forthwith to him takes a chosen band  
Of Spirits likest to himself in guile  
To be at hand, and at his beck appear,  
If cause were to unfold some active Scene  
Of various persons each to know his part;  
Then to the Desert takes with these his flight;  
Where still from shade to shade the Son of God  
After forty days fasting had remained,  
Now hungering first, and to himself thus said.   

Where will this end? four times ten days I have passed  
Wand'ring this woody maze, and humane food  
Nor tasted, nor had appetite; that Fast  
To virtue I impute not, or count part  
Of what I suffer here; if Nature need not,  
Or God support Nature without repast  
Though needing, what praise is it to endure?  
But now I feel I hunger, which declares,  
Nature hath need of what she asks; yet God  
Can satisfy that need some other way,  
Though hunger still remain: so it remain  
Without this bodies wasting, I content me,  
And from the sting of Famine fear no harm,  
Nor mind it, fed with better thoughts that feed  
Me hungering more to do my Fathers will.   

It was the hour of night, when thus the Son  
Communed in silent walk, than laid him down  
Under the hospitable covert nigh  
Of Trees thick interwoven; there he slept,  
And dreamed, as appetite is wont to dream,  
Of meats and drinks, nature's refreshment sweet;  
Him thought, he by the Brook of Cherith stood  
And saw the Ravens with their horny beaks  
Food to Elijah bringing Even and Morn,  
Though ravenous, taught to abstain from what they brought:  
He saw the Prophet also how he fled  
Into the Desert, and how there he slept  
Under a Juniper; then how awaked,  
He found his Supper on the coals prepared,  
And by the Angel was bid rise and eat,  
And eat the second time after repose,  
The strength whereof sufficed him forty days;  
Sometimes that with Elijah he partook,  
Or as a guest with Daniel at his pulse.  
Thus wore out night, 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 up risen  
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,  
From whose high top to ken the prospect round,  
If Cottage were in view, sheepcote or Herd;  
But Cottage, Herd or sheepcote none he saw,  
Only in a bottom saw a pleasant Grove,  
With chant of tuneful Birds resounding loud;  
Thither he bent his way, determined there  
To rest at noon, and entr'd soon the shade  
High roofed and walks beneath, and alleys brown  
That opened in the midst a woody Scene,  
Natures own work it seemed (Nature taught Art)  
And to a Superstitious eye the haunt  
Of Wood-Gods and Wood-Nymphs; he viewed it round,  
When suddenly a man before him stood,  
Not rustic as before, but seemlier clad,  
As one in City, or Court, or Palace bred,  
And with fair speech these words to him addressed.   

With granted leave officious I return,  
But much more wonder that the Son of God  
In this wild solitude so long should bide  
Of all things destitute, and well I know,  
Not without hunger. Others of some note,  
As story tells, have trod this Wilderness;  
The Fugitive bondwoman with her Son  
Out cast Nebaioth, yet found he relief  
By a providing Angel; all the race  
Of Israel here had famished, had not God  
Reigned from Heaven Manna, and that Prophet bold  
Native of Thebes wand'ring here was fed  
Twice by a voice inviting him to eat.  
Of thee these forty days none hath regard,  
Forty and more deserted here indeed.   

To whom thus Jesus; what concludest thou hence?  
They all had need, I as thou seest have none.   

How hast thou hunger then? Satan replied,  
Tell me if Food were now before thee set,  
Wouldst thou not eat? Thereafter as I like  
The giver, answered Jesus. Why should that  
Cause thy refusal, said the subtle Fiend,  
Hast thou not right to all Created things,  
Own not all Creatures by just right to thee  
Duty and Service, nor to stay till bid,  
But tender all their power? nor mention I  
Meats by the Law unclean, or offered first  
To Idols, those young Daniel could refuse;  
Nor proffered by an Enemy, though who  
Would scruple that, with want oppressed? behold  
Nature ashamed, or better to express,  
Troubled that thou shouldst hunger, hath purveyed  
From all the Elements her choicest store  
To treat thee as beseems, and as her Lord  
With honour, only deign to sit and eat.   

He spoke no dream, for as his words had end,  
Our Saviour lifting up his eyes beheld  
In ample space under the broadest shade  
A Table richly spread, in regal mode,  
With dishes peeled, and meats of noblest sort  
And savour, Beasts of chase, or Fowl of game,  
In pastry built, or from the spit, or boiled,  
Gris-amber-steamed; all Fish from Sea or Shore,  
Freshet, or purling Brook, of shell or fin,  
And exquisitest name, for which was drained  
Pontus and Lucrine Bay, and Afric Coast.  
Alas how simple, to these Cates compared,  
Was that crude Apple that diverted Eve!  
And at a stately side-board by the wine  
That fragrant smell diffused, in order stood  
Tall stripling youths rich clad, of fairer hue  
Than Ganymed or Hylas, distant more  
Under the Trees now tripped, now solemn stood  
Nymphs of Diana's train, and Naiads  
With fruits and flowers from Amalthea's horn,  
And Ladies of th' Hesperideses, that seemed  
Fairer than feigned of old, or fabled since  
Of Fairy Damsels met in Forest wide  
By Knights of Logres, or of lioness,  
Lancelot or Pelleas, or Pellenore,  
And all the while Harmonious Airs were heard  
Of chiming strings, or charming pipes and winds  
Of gentlest gale Arabian odours fanned  
From their soft wings, and Flora's earliest smells.  
Such was the Splendour, and the Tempter now  
His invitation earnestly renewed.   

What doubts the Son of God to sit and eat?  
These are not Fruits forbidden, no interdict  
Defends the touching of these viands pure,  
Their taste no knowledge, works at least of evil,  
But life preserves, destroys life's enemy,  
Hunger, with sweet restorative delight.  
All these are Spirits of Air, and Woods, and Springs,  
Thy gentle Ministers, who come to pay  
Thee homage, and acknowledge thee their Lord:  
What doubtest thou Son of God? sit down and eat.   

To whom thus Jesus temperately replied:  
Saidst thou not that to all things I had right?  
And who withholds my power that right to use?  
Shall I receive by gift what of my own,  
When and where likes me best, I can command?  
I can at will, doubt not, assoon as thou,  
Command a Table in this Wilderness,  
And call swift flights of Angels ministrant  
Arrayed in Glory on my cup to attend:  
Why shouldst thou then obtrude this diligence,  
In vain, where no acceptance it can find,  
And with my hunger what hast thou to do?  
Thy pompous Delicacies I contemn,  
And count thy specious gifts no gifts but guiles.   

To whom thus answered Satan malcontent:  
That I have also power to give thou seest,  
If of that power I bring thee voluntary  
What I might have bestowed on whom I pleased,  
And rather opportunely in this place  
Chose to impart to thy apparent need,  
Why shouldst thou not accept it? but I see  
What I can do or offer is suspect;  
Of these things others quickly will dispose  
Whose pains have earned the far fet spoil. With that  
Both Table and Provision vanished quite  
With sound of Harpies wings, and Talons heard;  
Only the importune Tempter still remained,  
And with these words his temptation pursued.   

By hunger, that each other Creature tames,  
Thou art not to be harmed, therefore not moved;  
Thy temperance invincible besides,  
For no allurement yields to appetite,  
And all thy heart is set on high designs,  
High actions; but wherewith to be achieved?  
Great acts require great means of enterprise,  
Thou art unknown, unfriended, low of birth,  
A Carpenter thy Father known, thyself  
Bred up in poverty and straits at home;  
Lost in a Desert here and hunger-bit:  
Which way or from what hope dost thou aspire  
To greatness? whence Authority deriv'st,  
What Followers, what Retinue canst thou gain,  
Or at thy heels the dizzy Multitude,  
Longer than thou canst feed them on thy cost?  
Money brings Honour, Friends, Conquest, and Realms;  
What raised Antipater the Edomite,  
And his Son Herod placed on Judas Throne;  
(Thy throne) but gold that got him puissant friends?  
Therefore, if at great things thou wouldst arrive,  
Get Riches first, get Wealth, and Treasure heap,  
Not difficult, if thou harken to me,  
Riches are mine, Fortune is in my hand;  
They whom I favour thrive in wealth amain,  
While Virtue, Valour, Wisdom sit in want.   

To whom thus Jesus patiently replied;  
Yet Wealth without these three is impotent,  
To gain dominion or to keep it gained.  
Witness those ancient Empires of the Earth,  
In height of all their flowing wealth dissolved:  
But men endued with these have oft attained  
In lowest poverty to highest deeds;  
Gideon and Jephtha, and the Shepherd lad,  
Whose offspring on the Throne of Juda sat  
So many Ages, and shall yet regain  
That seat, and reign in Israel without end.  
Among the Heathen, (for throughout the World  
To me is not unknown what hath been done  
Worthy of Memorial) canst thou not remember  
Quintius, Fabricius, Curius, Regulus?  
For I esteem those names of men so poor  
Who could do mighty things, and could contemn  
Riches though offered from the hand of Kings.  
And what in me seems wanting, but that I  
May also in this poverty as soon  
Accomplish what they did, perhaps and more?  
Extol not Riches then, the toil of Fools,  
The wise man's cumbrance if not snare, more apt  
To slacken Virtue, and abate her edge,  
Then prompt her to do aught may merit praise.  
What if with like aversion I reject  
Riches and Realms; yet not for that a Crown,  
Golden in show, is but a wreath of thorns,  
Brings dangers, troubles, cares, and sleepless nights  
To him who wears the Regal Diadem,  
When on his shoulders each man's burden lies;  
For therein stands the office of a King,  
His Honour, virtue, Merit and chief Praise,  
That for the public all this weight he bears.  
Yet he who reigns within himself, and rules  
Passions, Desires, and Fears, is more a King;  
Which every wise and virtuous man attains:  
And who attains not, ill aspires to rule  
Cities of men, or headstrong Multitudes,  
Subject himself to Anarchy within,  
Or lawless passions in him which he serves.  
But to guide Nations in the way of truth  
By saving Doctrine, and from error lead  
To know, and knowing worship God aright,  
Is yet more Kingly, this attracts the Soul,  
Governs the inner man, the nobler part,  
That other o'er the body only reigns,  
And oft by force, which to a generous mind  
So reigning can be no sincere delight.  
Besides to give a Kingdom hath been thought  
Greater and nobler done, and to lay down  
Far more magnanimous, then to assume.  
Riches are needless then, both for themselves,  
And for thy reason why they should be sought  
To gain a sceptre, oftest better miss.   
The End of the Second Book.   

PARADISE regained. The Third BOOK.  

SO spoke the Son of God, and Satan stood  
A while as mute confounded what to say,  
What to reply, confuted and convinced  
Of his weak arguing, and fallacious drift;  
At length collecting all his Serpent wiles,  
With soothing words renewed, him thus accosts.   

I see thou knowst what is of use to know,  
What best to say canst say, to do canst do;  
Thy actions to thy words accord, thy words  
To thy large heart give utterance due, thy heart  
Contains of good, wise, just, the perfect shape.  
Should Kings and Nations from thy mouth consult,  
Thy Counsel would be as the Oracle  
Urim and Thummim, those oraculous gems  
On Aaron's breast: or tongue of Seers old  
Infallible; or wert thou sought to deeds  
That might requireth ' array of war, thy skill  
Of conduct would be such, that all the world  
Can not sustain thy Prowess, or subsist  
In battle, though against thy few in arms.  
These godlike virtues wherefore dost thou hid?  
Affecting private life, or more obscure  
In savage Wilderness, wherefore deprive  
All Earth her wonder at thy acts, thyself  
The fame and glory, glory the reward  
That sole excites to high attempts the flame  
Of most erected Spirits, most tempered pure  
Aetherial, who all pleasures else despise,  
All treasures and all gain esteem as dross,  
And dignities and powers all but the highest?  
Thy years are ripe, and over-ripe, the Son  
Of Macedonian Philip had e'er these  
Won Asia and the Throne of Cyrus held  
At his dispose, young Scipio had brought down  
The Carthaginian pride, young Pompey quelled  
The Pontic King and in triumph had road.  
Yet years, and to ripe years judgement mature,  
Quench not the thirst of glory, but augment.  
Great Julius, whom now all the world admires  
The more he grew in years, the more inflamed  
With glory, wept that he had lived so long  
Inglorious: but thou yet art not too late.   

To whom our Saviour calmly thus replied.  
Thou neither dost persuade me to seek wealth  
For empire's sake, nor Empire to affect  
For glories sake by all thy argument.  
For what is glory but the blaze of fame,  
The people's praise, if always praise unmixed?  
And what the people but a herd confused,  
A miscellaneous rabble, who extol  
[praise,  
Things vulgar, & well weighed, scarce worth the  
They praise and they admire they know not what;  
And know not whom, but as one leads the other;  
And what delight to be by such extolled,  
To live upon their tongues and be their talk,  
Of whom to be dispraised were no small praise?  
His lot who dares be singularly good.  
Th' intelligent among them and the wise  
Are few, and glory scarce of few is raised.  
This is true glory and renown, when God  
Looking on the Earth, with approbation marks  
The just man, and divulges him through Heaven  
To all his Angels, who with true applause  
Recount his praises; thus he did to Job,  
When to extend his fame through Heaven & Earth,  
As thou to thy reproach mayst well remember,  
He asked thee, hast thou seen my servant Job?  
Famous he was in Heaven, on Earth less known▪  
Where glory is false glory, attributed  
To things not glorious, men not worthy of fame.  
They err who count it glorious to subdue  
By Conquest far and wide, to overrun  
Large Countries, and in field great battles win,  
Great Cities by assault: what do these Worthies,  
But 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 wheresoever they rove,  
And all the flourishing works of peace destroy,  
Then swell with pride, and must be titled Gods,  
Great Benefactors of mankind, Deliverers,  
Worshipped with Temple, Priest and Sacrifice;  
One is the Son of Jove, of Mars the other,  
Till conqueror Death discover them scarce men,  
Rolling in brutish vices, and deformed,  
Violent or shameful death their due reward.  
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; I mention still  
Him whom thy wrongs with Saintly patience born,  
Made famous in a Land and times obscure;  
Who names not now with honour patiented Job?  
Poor Socrates (who next more memorable?)  
By what he taught and suffered for so doing,  
For truth's sake suffering death unjust, lives now  
Equal in fame to proudest conquerors.  
Yet if for fame and glory aught be done,  
Aught suffered; if young African for fame  
His wasted Country freed from Pun●● rage,  
The deed becomes unpraised, the ma● 〈◊〉 least,  
And loses, though but verbal, his quite  
Shall I seek glory then, as vain me● 〈◊〉  
Oft not deserved? I seek not mine, 〈◊〉  
Who sent me, and thereby witness whence I am.   

To whom the Tempter murmuring thus replied.  
Think not so slight of glory; therein lest  
Resembling thy great Father: he seeks glory,  
And for his glory all things made, all things  
Orders and governs, nor content in Heaven  
By all his Angels glorified, requires  
Glory from men, from all men good or bad,  
Wise or unwise, no difference, no exemption;  
Above all Sacrifice, or hallowed gift  
Glory he requires, and glory he receives  
Promiscuous from all Nations, Jew, or Greek,  
Or Barbarous, nor exception hath declared;  
From us his foes pronounced glory he exacts.   

To whom our Saviour fervently replied.  
And reason; since his word all things produced,  
Though chief not for 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  
Then glory and benediction, that is thanks,  
The slightest, easiest, readiest recompense  
From them who could return him nothing else,  
And not returning that would likeliest render  
Contempt instead, dishonour, obloquy?  
Hard recompense, unsuitable return  
For so much good, so much beneficence.  
But why should man seek glory? who of his own  
Hath nothing, and to whom nothing belongs  
But condemnation, ignominy, and shame?  
Who for so many benefits received  
Turned recreant to God, ingrate and false,  
And so of all true good himself despoiled,  
Yet, sacrilegious, to himself would take  
That which to God alone of right belongs;  
Yet so much bounty is in God, such grace,  
That who advance his glory, not their own,  
Them he himself to glory will advance.   

So spoke the Son of God; and here again  
Satan had not to answer, but stood struck  
With guilt of his own sin, for he himself  
Insatiable of glory had lost all,  
Yet of another Plea bethought him soon.   

Of glory as thou wilt, said he, so deem,  
Worth or not worth the seeking, let it pass:  
But to a Kingdom thou art born, ordained  
To sit upon thy Father David's Throne;  
By mother's side thy Father, though thy right  
Be now in powerful hands, that will not part  
Easily from possession won with arms;  
Judaea now and all the promised land  
Reduced a Province under Roman yoke,  
Obeys Tiberius; nor is always ruled  
With temperate sway; oft have they violated  
The Temple, oft the Law with foul affronts,  
Abominations rather, as did once  
Antiochus: and thinkest thou to regain  
Thy right by sitting still or thus retiring?  
So did not Machabens: he indeed  
Retired unto the Desert, but with arms;  
And o'er a mighty King so oft prevailed,  
That by strong hand his Family obtained,  
Though Priests, the Crown, and David's Throne usurped,  
With Modin and her Suburbs once content.  
If Kingdom move thee not, let move thee Zeal,  
And Duty; Zeal and Duty are not slow;  
But on Occasions forelock watchful wait.  
They themselves rather are occasion best,  
Zeal of thy father's house, Duty to free  
Thy Country from her Heathen servitude;  
So shalt thou best fulfil, best verify  
The prophet's old, who sung thy endless reign,  
The happier reign the sooner it gins,  
Reign then; what canst thou better do the while?   

To whom our Saviour answer thus returned.  
All things are best fullfiled in their due time,  
And time there is for all things, Truth hath said:  
If of my reign Prophetic Writ hath told,  
That it shall never end, so when begin  
The Father in his purpose hath decreed,  
He in whose hand all times and seasons roll.  
What if he hath decreed that I shall first  
Be tried in humble state, and things adverse,  
By tribulations, injuries, insults,  
Contempts, and scorns, and snares, and violence;  
Suffering, abstaining, quietly expecting  
Without distrust or doubt, that he may know  
What I can suffer, how obey? who best  
Can suffer, best can do; best reign, who first  
Well hath obeyed; just trial ere I merit  
My exaltation without change or end.  
But what concerns it thee when I begin  
My everlasting Kingdom, why art thou  
Solicitous, what moves thy inquisition?  
knowst thou not that my rising is thy fall,  
And my promotion will be thy destruction?   

To whom the Tempter inly racked replied.  
Let that come when it comes; all hope is lost  
Of my reception into grace; what worse?  
For where no hope is left, is left no fear;  
If there be worse, the expectation more  
Of worse torments me then the feeling can.  
I would be at the worst; worst is my Port,  
My harbour and my ultimate repose,  
The end I would attain, my final good.  
My error was my error, and my crime  
My crime; whatever for itself condemned,  
And will alike be punished; whether thou  
Reign or reign not; though to that gentle brow  
Willingly I could fly, and hope thy reign,  
From that placid aspect and meek regard,  
Rather than aggravate my evil state,  
Would stand between me and thy father's ire;  
(Whose ire I dread more than the fire of Hell)  
A shelter and a kind of shading cool  
Interposition, as a summer's cloud.  
If I then to the worst that can be haste,  
Why move thy feet so slow to what is best,  
Happiest both to thyself and all the world,  
That thou who worthiest art shouldst be their King?  
Perhaps thou linger'st in deep thoughts detained  
Of the enterprise so hazardous and high;  
No wonder, for though in thee be united  
What of perfection can in man be found,  
Or human nature can receive, consider  
Thy life hath yet been private, most part spent  
At home, scarce viewed the galilean Towns,  
And once a year Jerusalem, few days  
Short sojourn; and what thence couldst thou observe?  
The world thou hast not seen, much less her glory,  
Empires, and monarches, and their radiant Courts,  
Best school of best experience, quickest in sight  
In all things that to greatest actions lead.  
The wisest, unexperienced, will be ever  
Timorous and loath, with novice modesty;  
(As he who seeking Asses found a Kingdom)  
Irresolute, unhardy, unadventrous:  
But I will bring thee where thou soon shalt quit  
Those rudiments, and see before thine eyes  
The Monarchies of the Earth, their pomp and state;  
Sufficient introduction to inform  
Thee, of thyself so apt, in regal Arts;  
And regal Mysteries; that thou may'st know  
How best their opposition to withstand.   

With that (such power was given him then) he took  
The Son of God upto a Mountain high.  
It was a Mountain at whose verdant feet  
A spacious plain out stretched in circuit wide  
Lay pleasant; from his side two rivers flowed,  
Th' one winding, the other straight and left between  
Fair Champain with less rivers interveind,  
Then meeting joined their tribute to the Sea▪  
Fertile of corn the glebe, of oil and wine,  
With herds the pastures thronged, with flocks the hills,  
Huge Cities and high towered, that well might seem  
The seats of mightiest monarches, and so large  
The Prospect was, that here and there was room  
For barren desert fountainless and dry.  
To this high mountain top the Tempter brought.  
Our Saviour, and new train of words began.   

Well have we sped, and o'er hill and dale,  
Forest and field, and flood, Temples and Towers  
Cut shorter many a league; here thou beholdest  
Assyria and her Empires ancient bounds,  
Araxes and the Caspian lake, thence on  
As far as Indus East, Euphrates West,  
And oft beyond; to South the Persian Bay,  
And inaccessible the Arabian drought:  
Here Ninevee, of length within her wall  
Several days journey, built by Ninus old,  
Of that first golden Monarchy the seat,  
And ●●t of Salmanassar, whose success  
Israel in long captivity still mourns;  
There Babylon the wonder of all tongues,  
As ancient, but rebuilt by him who twice  
Judah and all thy Father David's house  
Led captive, and Jerusalem laid waste,  
Till Cyrus set them free; Persepolis  
His City there thou seest, and Bactra there;  
Ecbatana her structure vast there shows,  
And Hecatompylos her hundred gates,  
There Susa by Choaspes, amber stream,  
The drink of none but Kings; of later fame  
Built by Emathian, or by Parthian hands,  
The great Seleucia, Nisibis, and there  
Artaxata, Teredon, Tisiphone,  
Turning with easy eye thou may'st behold.  
All these the Parthian, now some Ages past,  
By great Arsaces led, who founded first  
That Empire, under his dominion holds  
From the luxurious Kings of Antioch won.  
And just in time thou comest to have a view  
Of his great power; for now the Parthian King  
In Ctesiphon hath gathered all his Host  
Against the Scythian, whose incursions wild  
Have wasted Sogdiana; to her aid  
He marches now in haste; see, though from far,  
His thousands, in what martial equipage  
They issue forth, Steel Bows, and Shafts their arms  
Of equal dread in flight, or in pursuit;  
All Horsemen, in which fight they most excel;  
See how in warlike muster they appear,  
In Rhombs and wedges, and half moons, and wings.   

He looked and saw what numbers numberless  
The City gates out poured, light armed Troops  
In coats of Mail and military pride;  
In Mail their horses clad, yet fleet and strong,  
Prancing their riders bore, the flower and choice  
Of many Provinces from bound to bond;  
From Arachosia, from Candaor East,  
And Margiana to the Hyrcanian cliffs  
Of Caucasus, and dark Iberian dales,  
From Atropatia and the neighbouring plains  
Of Adiabene, Media, and the South  
Of Susiana to Balsara's haven.  
He saw them in their forms of battle ranged,  
How quick they wheeled, and flying behind themshot  
Sharp sleet of arrowy shower against the face  
Of their pursuers, and overcame by flight;  
The field all iron cast a gleaming brown,  
Nor wanted clouds of foot, nor on each horn,  
Cuirassiers all in steel for standing fight;  
Chariots or Elephants endorsed with Towers  
Of Archers, nor of labouring pioneers  
A multitude with Spades and Axes armed  
To lay hills plain, fell woods, or valleys fill,  
Or where plain was raise hill, or over-lay  
With bridges rivers proud, as with a yoke;  
Mules after these, Camels and Dromedaries,  
And wagons fraught with Utensils of war.  
Such forces met not, nor so wide a camp,  
When Agrican with all his Northern powers  
Besieged Albracca, as Romances tell;  
The City of Gallaphrone, from thence to win  
The fairest of her Sex Angelica  
His daughter, sought by many Prowest Knights,  
Both Paynim, and the Peers of Charlemane.  
Such and so numerous was their chivalry;  
At sight whereof the Fiend yet more presumed,  
And to our Saviour thus his words renewed.   

That thou may'st know I seek not to engage  
Thy virtue, and not every way secure  
On no slight grounds thy safety; hear, and mark  
To what end I have brought thee hither and shown  
All this fair fight; thy Kingdom though foretold  
By Prophet or by Angel, unless thou  
Endeavour, as thy Father David did,  
Thou never shalt obtain; prediction still  
In all things, and all men, supposes means,  
Without means used, what it predicts revokes.  
But say thou were't possessed of David's Throne  
By free consent of all, none opposite,  
Samaritan or Jew; how couldst thou hope  
Long to enjoy it quiet and secure,  
Between two such enclosing enemies  
Roman and Parthian? therefore one of these  
Thou must make sure thy own, the Parthian first  
By my advice, as nearer and of late  
Found able by invasion to annoy  
Thy country, and captive lead away her Kings  
Antigonus, and old Hyrcanus bound,  
Maugre the Roman: it shall be my task  
To render thee the Parthian at dispose;  
Choose which thou wilt by conquest or by league.  
By him thou shalt regain, without him not,  
That which alone can truly reinstall thee  
In David's royal seat, his true successor,  
Deliverance of thy brethren, those ten Tribes  
Whose offspring in his Territory yet serve  
In Habor, and among the Medes dispersed,  
Ten Sons of Jacob, two of Joseph lost  
Thus long from Israel; serving as of old  
Their Fathers in the land of Egypt served,  
This offer sets before thee to deliver.  
These if from servitude thou shalt restore  
To their inheritance, then, nor till then,  
Thou on the Throne of David in full glory,  
From Egypt to Euphrates and beyond  
Shalt reign, and Rome or Caesar not need fear.   

To whom our Saviour answered thus unmoved.  
Much ostentation vain of fleshly arm,  
And fragile arms, much instrument of war  
Long in preparing, soon to nothing brought,  
Before mine eyes thou hast set; and in my ear  
Vented much policy, and projects deep  
Of enemies, of aids, battles and leagues,  
Plausible to the world, to me worth naught.  
Means I must use thou sayest, prediction else  
Will unpredict and fail me of the Throne:  
My time I told thee, (and that time for thee  
Were better farthest off) is not yet come;  
When that comes think not thou to find me slack  
On my part aught endeavouring, or to need  
Thy politic maxims, or that cumbersome  
Luggage of war there shown me, argument  
Of human weakness rather than of strength.  
My brethren, as thou call'st them; those Ten Tribes  
I must deliver, if I mean to reign  
David's true heir, and his full sceptre sway  
To just extent over all Israel's Sons;  
But whence to thee this zeal, where was it then  
For Israel, or for David, or his Throne,  
When thou stoodst up his Tempter to the pride  
Of numbering Israel, which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  
Of threeseore and ten thousand Israelites  
By three days Pestilence? such was thy zeal  
To Israel then, the same that now to me.  
As for those captive Tribes, themselves were they  
Who wrought their own captivity, fell off  
From God to worship Calves, the Deities  
Of Egypt, Baal next and Ashtaroth,  
And all the Idolatries of Heathen round,  
Besides their other worse than heathenish crimes;  
Nor in the land of their captivity  
Humbled themselves, or penitent besought  
The God of their forefathers; but so died  
Impenitent, and left a race behind  
Like to themselves, distinguishable scarce  
From gentiles, but by Circumcision vain,  
And God with Idols in their worship joined.  
Should I of these the liberty regard,  
Who freed, as to their ancient Patrimony,  
Unhumbl'd, unrepentant, unreform'd,  
Headlong would follow; and to their Gods perhaps  
Of Bethel and of Dan? no, let them serve  
Their enemies, who serve Idols with God.  
Yet he at length, time to himself best known,  
Remembering Abraham by some wondrous call  
May bring them back repentant and sincere,  
And at their passing cleave the Assyrian flood,  
While to their native land with joy they hast,  
As the Red Sea and Jordan once he cleft,  
When to the promised land their Fathers passed;  
To his due time and providence I leave them.   

So spoke Israel's true King, and to the Fiend  
Made answer meet, that made void all his wiles  
So fares it when with truth falsehood contends.   
The End of the Third Book.   

PARADISE regained. The Fourth BOOK.  

Perplexed and troubled at his bad success  
The Tempter stood, nor had what to reply,  
Discovered in his fraud, thrown from his hope,  
So oft, and the persuasive Rhetoric  
That sleeked his tongue, and won so much on Eve,  
So little here, nay lost; but Eve was Eve,  
This far his over-match, who self deceived  
And rash, beforehand had no better weighed  
The strength he was to cope with, or his own:  
But as a man who had been matchless held  
In cunning, over-reach't where least he thought,  
To salve his credit, and for very spite  
Still will be tempting him who foils him still,  
And never cease, though to his shame the more;  
Or as a swarm of flies in vintage time,  
About the wine-press where sweet moust is poured,  
Beat off, returns as oft with humming sound;  
Or surging waves against a solid rock,  
Though all to shivers dashed, the assault renew,  
Vain battery, and in froth or bubbles end;  
So Satan, whom repulse upon repulse  
Met ever; and to shameful silence brought,  
Yet gives not o'er though desperate of success,  
And his vain importunity pursues.  
He brought our Saviour to the western side  
Of that high mountain, whence he might behold  
Another plain, long but in breadth not wide;  
Washed by the Southern Sea, and on the North  
To equal length backed with a ridge of hills  
That screened the fruits of the earth and seats of men  
From cold Septentrion blasts, thence in the midst  
Divided by a river, of whose banks  
On each side an Imperial City stood,  
With Towers and Temples proudly elevate  
On seven small Hills, with Palaces adorned,  
Porches and Theatres, Baths, Aqueducts,  
Statues and trophies, and Triumphal Arcs,  
Gardens and Groves presented to his eyes,  
Above the height of Mountains interposed.  
By what strange Parallax or Optic skill  
Of vision multiplied through air, or glass  
Of Telescope, were curious to inquire:  
And now the Tempter thus his silence broke.   

The City which thou seest no other deem  
Then great and glorious Rome, Queen of the Earth  
So far renowned, and with the spoils enriched  
Of Nations; there the Capitol thou seest  
Above the rest lifting his stately head  
On the Tarpeian rock, her citadel  
Impregnable, and there Mount Palatine  
The Imperial Palace, compass huge, and high  
The Structure, skill of noblest Architects,  
With gilded battlements, conspicuous far,  
Turrets and Terrases, and glittering Spires.  
Many a fair Edifice besides, more like  
Houses of Gods (so well I have disposed  
My airy Microscope) thou may'st behold  
Outside and inside both, pillars and roofs  
Carved work, the hand of famed Artificers  
In Cedar, Marble, Ivory or Gold.  
Thence to the gates cast round thine eye, and see  
What conflux issuing forth, or entering in,  
Praetors, proconsul's to their Provinces  
Hasting or on return, in robes of State;  
Lictors and rods the ensigns of their power,  
Legions and Cohorts, turmes of horse and wings:  
Or Embassies from Regions far remote  
In various habits on the Appian road,  
Or on the Aemilian, some from farthest South,  
Syene, and where the shadow both way falls,  
Meroe Nilotic Isle, and more to West,  
The Realm of Bocchus to the Black-moor Sea;  
From the Asian Kings and Parthian among these,  
From India and the golden Chersoness,  
And utmost Indian Isle Taprobane,  
Dusk faces with white silken turbans wreathed:  
From Gallia, Gades, and the British West,  
Germans and Scythians, and Sarmatians North  
Beyond Danubius to the Tauric Pool.  
All Nations now to Rome obedience pay,  
To Rome's great Emperor, whose wide domain  
In ample Territory, wealth and power,  
Civility of Manners, Arts, and Arms,  
And long Renown thou justly may'st prefer  
Before the Parthian; these two Thrones except,  
The rest are barbarous, and scarce worth the sight,  
Shared among petty Kings too far removed;  
These having shown thee, I have shown thee all  
The Kingdoms of the world, and all their glory.  
This Emperor hath no Son, and now is old,  
Old, and lascivious, and from Rome retired  
To Capri an Island small but strong  
On the Campanian shore, with purpose there  
His horrid lusts in private to enjoy,  
Committing to a wicked Favourite  
All public cares, and yet of him suspicious,  
Hated of all, and hating; with what ease  
Endued with Regal virtues as thou art;  
Appearing, and beginning noble deeds;  
Mightst thou expel this monster from his Throne  
Now made a sty, and in his place ascending  
A victor, people free from servile yoke?  
And with my help thou may'st; to I the power  
Is given, and by that right I give it thee.  
Aim therefore at no less than all the world,  
Aim at the highest, without the highest attained  
Will be for thee no sitting, or not long  
On David's Throne, be prophesied what will.   

To whom the Son of God unmoved replied.  
Nor doth this grandeur and majestic show  
Of luxury, though called magnificence,  
More than of arms before, allure mine eye,  
Much less my mind; though thou shouldst add to tell  
Their sumptuous gluttonies, and gorgeous feasts  
On citron tables or Atlantic stone;  
(For I have also heard, perhaps have read)  
Their wines of Setia, Cales, and Falerne,  
Chios and Crect, and how they quaff in Gold,  
Crystal and Myrrhine cups embossed with Gems  
And studs of Pearl, to me shouldst tell who thirst  
And hunger still: then Embassies thou show'st  
From Nations far and nigh; what honour that,  
But tedious waist of time to sit and hear  
So many hollow compliments and lies,  
Outlandish flatteries? then proceedest to talk  
Of the Emperor, how easily subdued,  
How gloriously; I shall, thou sayest, expel  
A brutish monster: what if I withal  
Expel a Devil who first made him such?  
Let his tormenter Conscience find him out,  
For him I was not sent, nor yet to free  
That people victor once, now vile and base,  
Deservedly made vassal, who once just,  
Frugal, and mild, and temperate, conquered well,  
But govern ill the Nations under yoke,  
Peeling their Provinces, exhausted all  
By lust and rapine; first ambitious grown  
Of triumph that insulting vanity;  
Then cruel, by their sports to blood enured  
Of fight beasts, and men to beasts exposed,  
Luxurious by their wealth, and greedier still,  
And from the daily Scene effeminate.  
What wise and valiant man would seek to free  
These thus degenerate, by themselves enslaved,  
Or could of inward slaves make outward free?  
Know therefore when my season comes to sit  
On David's Throne, it shall be like a tree  
Spreading and over-shadowing 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:  
Means there shall be to this, but what the means,  
Is not for thee to know, nor me to tell.   

To whom the Tempter impudent replied.  
I see all offers made by me how slight  
Thou valu'st, because offered, and reject'st:  
Nothing will please the difficult and nice,  
Or nothing more than still to contradict:  
On the other side know also thou, that I  
On what I ofser set as high esteem,  
Nor what I part with mean to give for naught;  
All these which in a moment thou beholdest,  
The Kingdoms of the world to thee I give;  
For given to me, I give to whom I please,  
No trifle; yet with this reserve, not else,  
On this condition, if thou wilt fall down,  
And worship me as thy superior Lord,  
Easily done, and hold them all of me;  
For what can less so great a gift deserve?   

Whom thus our Saviour answered with disdain.  
I never liked thy talk, thy offers less,  
Now both abhor, since thou hast dared to utter  
The abominable terms, impious condition;  
But I endure the time, till which expired,  
Thou hast permission on me. It is written  
The first of all Commandments, Thou shalt worship  
The Lord thy God, and only him shalt serve;  
And darest thou to the Son of God propound  
To worship thee accursed, now more accursed  
For this attempt bolder than that on Eve,  
And more blasphemous? which expect to rue.  
The Kingdoms of the world to thee were given,  
Permitted rather, and by thee usurped,  
Other donation none thou canst produce:  
If given, by whom but by the King of Kings,  
God over all supreme? if given to thee,  
By thee how fairly is the Giver now  
Repaid? But gratitude in thee is lost  
Long since. Wert thou so void of fear or shame,  
As offer them to me the Son of God,  
To me my own, on such abhorred pact,  
That I fall down and worship thee as God?  
Get thee behind me; plain thou now appear'st  
That Evil one, Satan for ever damned.   

To whom the Fiend with fear abashed replied.  
Be not so sore offended, Son of God;  
Though Sons of God both Angels are and Men,  
If I to try whether in higher sort  
Than these thou bearest that title, have proposed  
What both from Men and Angels I receive,  
Tetrarches of fire, air, flood, and on the earth  
Nations besides from all the quartered winds,  
God of this world invoked and world beneath;  
Who than thou art, whose coming is foretold  
To me so fatal, me it most concerns.  
The trial hath endamaged thee no way,  
Rather more honour left and more esteem;  
Me naught advantaged, missing what I aimed.  
Therefore let pass, as they are transitory,  
The Kingdoms of this world; I shall no more  
Advise thee, gain them as thou canst, or not.  
And thou thyself seem'st otherwise inclined  
Then to a worldly Crown, addicted more  
To contemplation and profound dispute,  
As by that early action may be judged,  
When slipping from thy mother's eye thou wentest  
Alone into the Temple; there was found  
Among the gravest rabbis disputant  
On points and questions fitting Moses Chair,  
Teaching not taught; the childhood shows the man,  
As morning shows the day. Be famous then  
By wisdom; as thy Empire must extend,  
So let extend thy mind o'er all the world,  
In knowledge, all things in it comprehend,  
All knowledge is not couched in Moses Law,  
The Pentateuch or what the Prophets wrote,  
The Gentiles also know, and write, and teach  
To admiration, led by nature's light;  
And with the Gentiles much thou must converse,  
Ruling them by persuasion as thou meanest,  
Without their learning how wilt thou with them,  
Or they with thee hold conversation meet?  
How wilt thou reason with them, how refute  
Their Idolisms, Traditions, Paradoxes?  
Error by his own arms is best evinced.  
Look once more ere we leave this specular Mount  
Westward, much nearer by south-west, behold  
Where on the Aegean shore a City stands  
Built nobly, pure the air, and light the soil,  
Athens the eye of Greece, Mother of Arts  
And Eloquence, native to famous wits  
Or hospitable, in her sweet recess,  
City or Suburban, studious walks and shades;  
See there the Olive Grove of Academe,  
Plato's retirement, where the Attic Bird  
Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long,  
There flowery hill Hymettus with the sound  
Of Bees industrious murmur oft invites  
To studious musing; there Ilissus rolls  
His whispering stream; within the walls than view  
The schools of ancient Sages; his who bred  
Great Alexander to subdue the world,  
Lyceum there, and painted Stoa next:  
There thou shalt hear and learn the secret power  
Of harmony in tones and numbers hit  
By voice or hand, and various-measured verse,  
Aeolian charms and Dorian Lyric Odes,  
And his who gave them breath, but higher sung,  
Blind Melesigenes thence Homer called,  
Whose Poem Phoebus challenged for his own.  
Thence what the lofty grave tragedians taught  
In Chorus or jambic, teachers best  
Of moral prudence, with delight received  
In brief sententious precepts, while they treat  
Of fate, and chance, and change in human life;  
High actions, and high passions best describing:  
Thence to the famous Orators repair,  
Those ancient, whose resistless eloquence  
Wielded at will that fierce democraty,  
Shook the Arsenal and fulmined over Greece,  
To Macedon, and Artaxerxes Throne;  
To sage Philosophy next lend thine ear,  
From Heaven descended to the low-rooft house  
Of Socrates, see there his Tenement,  
Whom well inspired the Oracle pronounced  
Wisest of men; from whose mouth issued forth  
Mellifluous streams that watered all the schools  
Of Academics old and new, with those  
Surnamed Peripatetics, and the Sect  
Epicurean, and the Stoic severe;  
These here revolve, or, as thou lik'st, at home,  
Till time mature thee to a Kingdom's weight;  
These rules will render thee a King complete  
Within thyself, much more with Empire joined.   

To whom our Saviour sagely thus replied.  
Think not but that I know these things, or think  
I know them not; not therefore am I short  
Of knowing what I aught: he who receives  
Light from above, from the fountain of light,  
No other doctrine needs, though granted true;  
But these are false, or little else but dreams,  
Conjectures, fancies, built on nothing firm.  
The first and wisest of them all professed  
To know this only, that he nothing knew;  
The next to fabling-fell and smooth conceits,  
A third sort doubted all things, though plain sense;  
Others in virtue placed felicity,  
But virtue joined with riches and long life,  
In corporal pleasure he, and careless ease,  
The Stoic last in Philosophic pride,  
By him called virtue; and his virtuous man,  
Wise, perfect in himself, and all possessing  
Equal to God, oft shames not to prefer,  
As fearing God nor man, contemning all  
Wealth, pleasure, pain or torment, death and life,  
Which when he lists, he leaves, or boasts he can,  
For all his tedious talk is but vain boast,  
Or subtle shifts conviction to evade.  
Alas what can they teach, and not misled;  
Ignorant of themselves, of God much more,  
And how the world began, and how man fell  
Degraded by himself, on grace depending?  
Much of the Soul they talk, but all awry,  
And in themselves seek virtue, and to themselves  
All glory arrogate, to God give none,  
Rather accuse him under usual names,  
Fortune and Fate, as one regardless quite  
Of mortal things. Who therefore seeks in these  
True wisdom, finds her not, or by delusion  
Far worse, her false resemblance only meets,  
An empty cloud. However many books  
Wise men have said are wearisome; who reads  
Incessantly, and to his reading brings not  
A spirit and judgement equal or superior,  
(And what he brings, what needs he elsewhere seek)  
Uncertain and unsettl'd still remains,  
Deep versed in books and shallow in himself,  
Crude or intoxicate, collecting toys,  
And trifles for choice matters, worth a sponge;  
As Children gathering pebbles on the shore.  
Or if I would delight my private hours  
With Music or with Poem, where so soon  
As in our native Language can I find  
That solace? All our Law and Story strewed  
With Hymns, our Psalms with artful terms inscribed,  
Our Hebrew Songs and Harps in Babylon,  
That pleased so well our victor's ear, declare  
That rather Greece from us these Arts derived;  
Ill imitated, while they loudest sing  
The vices of their Deities, and their own  
In Fable, Hymn, or Song, so personating  
Their Gods ridiculous, and themselves past shame.  
Remove their swelling epithets thick laid  
As varnish on a harlot's cheek, the rest,  
Thin sown with aught of profit or delight,  
Will far be found unworthy to compare  
With Sion's songs, to all true tastes excelling,  
Where God is praised aright, and Godlike men,  
The Holiest of Holies, and his Saints;  
Such are from God inspired, not such from thee;  
Unless where moral virtue is expressed  
By light of Nature not in all quite lost.  
Their Orators thou then extoll'st, as those  
The top of Eloquence, Statists indeed,  
And lovers of their Country, as may seem;  
But herein to our Prophets far beneath,  
As men divinely taught, and better teaching  
The solid rules of Civil Government  
In their majestic unaffected stile  
Then all the Oratory of Greece and Rome.  
In them is plainest taught, and easiest learned,  
What makes a Nation happy, and keeps it so,  
What ruins Kingdoms, and lays Cities flat;  
These only with our Law best form a King.   

So spoke the Son of God; but Satan now  
Quite at a loss, for all his darts were spent,  
Thus to our Saviour with stern brow replied.   

Since neither wealth, nor honour, arms nor arts,  
Kingdom nor Empire pleases thee, nor aught  
By me proposed in life contemplative,  
Oractive, 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, yet remember  
What I foretell thee, soon thou shalt have cause  
To wish thou never hadst rejected thus  
Nicely or cautiously my offered aid,  
Which would have set thee in short time with ease  
On David's Throne; or Throne of all the world,  
Now at full age, fullness of time, thy season,  
When prophecies of thee are best fulfilled.  
Now contrary, if I read aught in Heaven,  
Or heaven writ aught of Fate, by what the Stars  
Voluminous, or single characters,  
In their conjunction met, give me to spell,  
Sorrows, and labours, opposition, hate,  
Attends thee, scorns, reproaches, injuries,  
Violence and stripes, and lastly cruel death,  
A Kingdom they portend thee, but what Kingdom,  
Real or Allegoric I discern not,  
Nor when, eternal sure, as without end,  
Without beginning; for no date prefixed  
Directs me in the Starry Rubric set.   

So saying he took (for still he knew his power  
Not yet expired) and to the Wilderness  
Brought back the Son of God, and left him there,  
Feigning to disappear. Darkness now risen,  
As daylight sunk, and brought in lowering night  
Her shadowy offspring unsubstantial both,  
Privation mere of light and absent day.  
Our Saviour meek and with untroubled mind  
After his airy jaunt, though hurried sore,  
Hungry and cold betook him to his rest,  
Wherever, under some concourse of shades  
Whose branching arms thick intertwind might shield  
From dews and damps of night his sheltered head,  
But sheltered slept in vain, for at his head  
The Tempter watched, and soon with ugly dreams  
Disturbed his sleep; and either Tropic now  
Can thunder; and both ends of heaven, the Clouds  
From many a horrid rift abortive poured  
Fierce rain with lightning mixed, water with fire  
In ruin reconciled: nor slept the winds  
Within their stony caves, but rushed abroad  
From the four hinges of the world, and fell  
On the vexed Wilderness, whose tallest Pines,  
Though rooted deep as high, and sturdiest Oaks  
Bowed their Stiff necks, loaden with stormy blasts,  
Or torn up sheer: ill waist thou shrouded then,  
O patiented Son of God, yet only stoodst  
Unfnaken; nor yet stayed the terror there,  
Infernal Ghosts, and Hellish Furies, round shrieked,  
Environed thee, some howled, some yelled, some  
Some bent at thee their fiery darts, while thou  
Satst 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 behold 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;  
Nor yet amidst this joy and brightest morn  
Was absent, after all his mischief done,  
The Prince of darkness, glad would also seem  
Of this fair change, and to our Saviour came,  
Yet with no new device, they all were spent,  
Rather by this his last affront resolved,  
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 wont shape;  
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  
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;  
Yet as being oft times 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 foresignify and threaten ill:  
This Tempest at this Desert most was bend;  
Of men at thee, for only thou here dwellest.  
Did I not tell thee, if thou didst reject  
The perfect season offered with my aid  
To win thy destined seat, but wilt prolong  
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 not where told,  
Thou shalt be what thou art ordained, no doubt;  
For Angels have proclaimed it, but concealing  
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,  
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  
And stayed not, but in brief him answered thus.   

Me worse than wet thou findest not; other harr●  
Those terrors which thou speakest of, did me none;  
I never feared they could, though noising loud  
And threatening nigh; what they can do as signs  
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  
Atleast might seem to hold all power of thee,  
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 swollen with rage replied:  
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,  
And of the Angelo 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;  
Till at the Ford of Jordan whither all  
Flocked to the Baptist, I among the rest,  
Though not to be baptised, by voice from heaven  
Herd thee pronounced the Son of God beloved.  
Thenceforth I thought thee worth my nearer view  
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;  
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 waist wild;  
Where by all best conjectures I collect  
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 parl, or composition, truce, or league  
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  
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 then man,  
Worth naming Son of God by voice from heaven,  
Another method I must now begin.   

So saying he caught him up, and without wing  
Of Hippogrif bore through the Air sublime  
Over the Wilderness and o'er the Plain;  
Till underneath them 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, top't 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 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,  
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 up lift thee, lest at any time  
Thou chance to dash thy foot against a stone.   

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  
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,  
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  
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,  
Who durst so proudly tempt the Son of God.  
So Satan fell and straight a fiery Globe  
Of Angels on full sail of wingflew 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, Divine,  
Ambrosial, Fruits fetched from the tree of life,  
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 Quires  
Sung Heavenly Anthems of his victory  
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,  
Wand'ring the Wilderness, whatever place,  
Habit, or state, or motion, still expressing  
The Son of God, with Godlike force endued  
Against th'Attempter of thy father's Throne,  
And Thief of Paradise; him long of old  
Thou didst debel, and down from heaven cast  
With all his Army, now thou hast avenged  
Supplanted Adam, and by vanquishing  
Temptation, hast regained lost Paradise,  
And frustrated the conquest fraudulent:  
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  
A Saviour art come down to reinstall.  
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  
Or Lightning thou shalt fall from heaven trod down  
Under his feet: for proof, ere this thou feelest  
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  
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,  
And beg to hid 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  
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.   
The END.   

SAMSON AGONISTES, A DRAMATIC POEM.  
The Author JOHN MILTON.  Aristot. Poet. Cap. 6. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc.  
Tragoedia est imitatio actionis seriae, etc. Per misericordiam & metum perficiens talium affectuum lustrationem.  
LONDON, Printed by J. M. for John Starkey at the Mitre in Fleetstreet, near Temple-Bar. MDCLXXI.   

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 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 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 Scripture, 1 Cor. 15. 33. and Parsus 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 honour Dionysius the elder was no less ambitious, then 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 lest the 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 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 the people. And though ancient Tragedy use no Prologue, yet using sometimes, in case of self defence, or explanation, that which marshal 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 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 in the Chorus is of all sorts, called by the Greeks Monostrophic, or rather Apolelymenon, without regard had to Strophe, Antistrophe or Epod, which were a kind of Stanza's framed only for the Music, then used with the Chorus that sung; not essential to the Poem, and therefore not material; or being divided into Stanza's or Pauses, they may be called Allaeostropha. Division into Act and Scene referring chief to the Stage (to which this work never was intended) is here omitted.  
It suffices if the whole Drama be found not produced beyond the fift Act, of the style and uniformity, and that commonly called the Plot, whether intricate or explicit, which is nothing indeed but such oeconomy, or disposition of the fable as may stand best with verisimilitude and decorum; they only will best judge who are not unacquainted with Aeschulus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the three Tragic Poets unequalled yet by any, and the best rule to all who endeavour to write Tragedy. The circumscription of time wherein the whole Drama gins and ends, is according to ancient rule, and best example, within the space of 24 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 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, 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 mean while is visited by other persons; and 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 came now the second time with great threaten to fetch him; the Chorus yet remaining on the place, Manoa returns full of joyful hope, to procure e'er 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 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 AGONISTES.  sam's. 
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  
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 dayspring born; here leave me to respire.  
This day a solemn Feast the people hold  
To Dagon their Sea-Idol, and forbidden  
Laborious works, unwillingly this rest  
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  
Of Hornets armed, no sooner found alone,  
But rush upon me thronging, and present  
Times past, what once I was, and what am now.  
O wherefore was my birth from Heaven foretold  
Twice by an Angel, who at last in sight  
Of both my Parents all in flames ascended  
From off the Altar, where an offering burned,  
As in a fiery column charioting  
His Godlike presence, and from some great act  
Or benefit revealed to Abraham's race?  
Why was my breeding ordered and prescribed  
As of a person separate to God,  
Designed for great exploits; if I must die  
Betrayed captived, and both my Eyes put out,  
Made of my Enemies the scorn and gaze;  
To grind in Brazen Fetters under task  
With this Heav'n-gifted strength? O glorious strength  
Put to the labour of a Beast, debased  
Lower than bondslave! Promise was that I  
Should Israel from Philistian yoke deliver;  
Ask for this great Deliverer now, and find him  
Eyeless in Caza at the Mill with slaves,  
Himself in bonds under Philistian yoke;  
Yet stay, let me not rashly call in doubt  
Divine Prediction; what if all foretold  
Had been fulfilld but through mine own default,  
Whom have I to complain of but myself?  
Who this high gift of strength committed to me,  
In what part lodged, how easily bereavest me,  
Under the Seal of silence could not keep,  
But weakly to a woman must reveal it,  
O'ercome with importunity and tears.  
O impotence of mind, in body strong!  
But what is strength without a double share  
Of wisdom, vast, unwieldy, burdensome,  
Proudly secure, yet liable to fall  
By weakest subtleties, not made to rule,  
But to subserve where wisdom bears command.  
God, when he gave me strength, to show withal  
How slight the gift was, hung it in my Hair.  
But peace, I must not quarrel with the will  
Of highest dispensation, which herein  
Haply had ends above my reach to know:  
Suffices that to me strength is my bane,  
And proves the source of all my miseries;  
So many, and so huge, that each apart  
Would ask a life to wail, but chief of all,  
O loss of sight, of thee I most complain!  
Blind among enemies, 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,  
Inferior to the vilest now become  
Of man or worm; the vilest here excel me,  
They creep, yet see, I dark in light exposed  
To daily fraud, contempt, abuse and wrong,  
Within doors, or without, still as a fool,  
In power of others, never in my own;  
Scarce half I seem to live, dead more than half.  
O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon,  
Irrecoverably 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 interlunar cave.  
Since light so necessary is to life,  
And almost life itself, if it be true  
That light is in the Soul,  
She all in every part; why was the sight  
To such a tender ball as th' eye confined?  
So obvious and so easy to be quenched,  
And not as feeling through all parts diffused,  
That she might look at will through every poor?  
Then had I not been thus exiled from light;  
As in the land of darkness yet in light,  
To live a life half dead, a living death,  
And buried; but O yet more miserable!  
Myself, my sepulchre, a moving Grave,  
Buried, yet not exempt  
By privilege of death and burial  
From worst of other evils, pains and wrongs,  
But made hereby obnoxious more  
To all the miseries of life,  
Life in captivity  
Among inhuman foes.  
But who are these? for with joint pace I hear  
The tread of many feet steering this way;  
Perhaps my enemies who come to stare  
At my affliction, and perhaps to insult,  
Their daily practice to afflict me more.  Chor. 
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 unpropped,  
As one past hope, abandoned,  
And by himself given over;  
In slavish habit, ill-fitted weeds  
O'er worn and soiled;  
Or do my eyes misrepresent? Can this be he,  
That Heroic, that renowned,  
irresistible Samson? whom unarmed withstand;  
No strength of man, or fiercest wild beast could  
Who tore the Lion, as the Lion tears the Kid,  
Ran on embattelld Armies clad in Iron,  
And weaponless himself,  
Made Arms ridiculous, useless the forgery  
Of brazen shield and spear, the hammered Cuirass,  
Chalybean tempered steel, and frock of mail  
Adamantean Proof;  
But safest he who stood aloof,  
When insupportably his foot advanced,  
In scorn of their proud arms and warlike tools,  
Spurned them to death by Troops. The bold Ascalonite  
Fled from his Lion ramp, old Warriors turned  
Their plated backs under his heel;  
Or groveling soiled their crested helmets in the dust.  
Then with what trivial weapon came to hand,  
The Jaw of a dead Ass, his sword of bone,  
A thousand foreskins fell, the flower of Palestin  
In Ramath-lechi famous to this day:  
Then by main force pulled up, and on his shoulders bore  
The Gates of Azza, Post, and massy Bar  
Up to the Hill by Hebron, seat of Giants old,  
No journey of a Sabbath day, and loaded so;  
Like whom the Gentiles feign to bear up heaven.  
Which shall I first bewail,  
Thy Bondage or lost Sight,  
Prison within Prison  
Inseparably dark?  
Thou art become (O worst imprisonment!)  
The Dungeon of thyself; thy Soul  
(Which Men enjoying sight oft without cause come plained)  
Imprisoned now indeed,  
In real darkness of the body dwells,  
Shut up from outward light  
To incorporate with gloomy night;  
For inward light alas  
Puts forth no visual beam.  
O mirror of our fickle state,  
Since man on earth unparallelled?  
The rarer thy example stands,  
By how much from the top of wondrous glory,  
Strongest of mortal men,  
To lowest pitch of abject fortune thou art fallen.  
For him I reckon not in high estate  
Whom long descent of birth  
Or the sphere of fortune raises;  
But thee whose strength, while virtue was her mate,  
Might have subdued the Earth,  
Universally crowned with highest praises.  Sam. 
I hear the sound of words, their sense the air  
Dissolves unjointed ere it reach my ear.  Chor. 
He speaks, let us draw nigh. Matchless in might,  
The glory late of Israel, now the grief;  
We come thy friends and neighbours not unknown  
From Eshtaol and Zora's fruitful Vale  
To visit or bewail thee, or if better,  
Counsel or Consolation we may bring,  
Salve to thy Sores, apt words have power to suage  
The tumours of a troubled mind,  
And are as Balm to festered wounds.  Sam. 
Your coming, Friends, revives me, for I learn  
Now of my own experience, not by talk,  
How counterfeit a coin they are who friends  
Bear in their Superscription (of the most  
I would be understood) in prosperous days  
They swarm, but in adverse withdraw their head  
Not to be found, though sought. Ye see, O friends,  
How many evils have enclosed me round;  
Yet that which was the worst now lest afflicts me,  
Blindness, for had I sight, confused with shame,  
How could I once look up, or heave the head,  
Who like a foolish Pilot have shipwrecked,  
My Vessel trusted to me from above,  
Gloriously rigged; and for a word, a tear,  
Fool, have divulged the secret gift of God  
To a deceitful Woman: tell me Friends,  
Am I not sung and proverbd for a Fool  
In every street, do they not say, how well  
Are come upon him his deserts? yet why?  
Immeasurable strength they might behold  
In me, of wisdom nothing more than mean;  
This with the other should, at least, have paired,  
These two proportioned ill drove me transverse.  Chor. 
Tax not divine disposal, wisest Men  
Have erred, and by bad Women been deceived;  
And shall again, pretend they ne'er so wise.  
Deject not then so overmuch thyself,  
Who hast of sorrow thy full load besides;  
Yet truth to say, I oft have heard men wonder  
Why thou shouldst wed Philistian women rather  
Than of thine own Tribe fairer, or as fair,  
At least of thy own Nation, and as noble.  Sam. 
The first I saw at Timna, and she pleased  
Me, not my Parents, that I sought to wed,  
The daughter of an Infidel: they knew not  
That what I montioned was of God; I knew  
From intimate impulse, and therefore urged  
The Marriage on; that by occasion hence  
I might begin Israel's Deliverance,  
The work to which I was divinely called;  
She proving false, the next I took to Wife  
(O that I never had! fond wish too late.)  
Was in the Vale of Sorec, Dalila,  
That specious Monster, my accomplished snare.  
I thought it lawful from my former act,  
And the same end; still watching to oppress  
Israel's oppressors: of what now I suffer  
She was not the prime cause, but I myself,  
Who vanquished with a peal of words (O weakness!)  
Gave up my fort of silence to a Woman.  Chor. 
In seeking just occasion to provoke  
The Philistine, thy country's Enemy,  
Thou never wast remiss, I bear thee witness:  
Yet Israel still serves with all his Sons.  Sam. 
That fault I take not on me, but transfer  
On Israel's governors, and Heads of Tribes,  
Who seeing those great acts which God had done  
Singly by me against their conquerors  
Acknowledged not; or not at all considered  
Deliverance offered: I on th'other side  
Used no ambition to commend my deeds,  
The deeds themselves, though mute, spoke loud the doer;  
But they persisted deaf, and would not seem  
To count them things worth notice, till at length  
Their Lords the Philistines with gathered powers  
Entered Judea seeking me, who then  
Safe to the rock of Etham was retired,  
Not flying, but forecasting in what place  
To set upon them, what advantaged best;  
Mean while the men of Judah to prevent  
The harrass of their Land, beset me round;  
I willingly on some conditions came  
Into their hands, and they as gladly yield me  
To the uncircumcised a welcome prey,  
Bound with two cords; but cords to me were threads  
Touched with the flame: on their whole Host I flew  
Unarmed, and with a trivial weapon felled  
Their choicest youth; they only lived who fled.  
Had Judah that day joined, or one whole Tribe,  
They had by this possessed the Towers of Gath,  
And lorded over them whom now they serve;  
But what more oft in Nations grown corrupt,  
And by their vices brought to servitude,  
Then to love Bondage more than Liberty,  
Bondage with ease then strenuous liberty;  
And to despise, or envy, or suspect  
Whom God hath of his special favour raised  
As their Deliverer; if he aught begin,  
How frequent to desert him, and at last  
To heap ingratitude on worthiest deeds?  Cho. 
Thy words to my remembrance bring  
How Succoth and the Fort of Penuel  
Their great Deliverer contemned,  
The matchless Gideon in pursuit  
Of Madian and her vanquished Kings:  
And how ingrateful Ephraim  
Had dealt with Jephtha, who by argument,  
Not worse than by his shield and spear  
Defended Israel from the Ammonite,  
Had not his prowess quelled their pride  
In that sore battle when so many died  
Without Reprieve adjudged to death,  
For want of well pronouncing Shibboleth.  Sam. 
Of such examples add me to the roll,  
Me easily indeed mine may neglect,  
But Gods proposed deliverance not so.  Chor. 
Just are the ways of God,  
And justifiable to Men;  
Unless there be who think not God at all,  
If any be, they walk obscure;  
For of such Doctrine never was there School,  
But the heart of the Fool,  
And no man therein Doctor but himself.  
Yet more there be who doubt his ways not just,  
As to his own edicts, found contradicting,  
Then give the rains to wand'ring thought,  
Regardless of his glories diminution;  
Till by their own perplexities involved  
They ravel more, still less resolved,  
But never find self-satisfying solution.  
As if they would confine th'interminable,  
And tie him to his own prescript,  
Who made our Laws to bind us, not himself,  
And hath full right to exempt  
Whom so itipleases him by choice  
From National obstriction, without taint  
Of sin, or legal debt;  
For with his own Laws he can best dispense.  
He would not else who never wanted means,  
Nor in respect of the enemy just cause  
To set his people free,  
Have prompted this Heroic Nazarite,  
Against his vow of strictest purity,  
To seek in marriage that fallacious Bride,  
Unclean, unchaste.  
Down Reason then, at least vain reasonings down,  
Though Reason here aver  
That moral verdict quits her of unclean:  
Unchaste was subsequent, her stain not his.  
But see here comes thy reverend Sire  
With careful step, Locks white as down,  
Old Manoah: advise  
Forthwith how thou oughtest to receive him.  Sam. 
Ay me, another inward grief awaked,  
With mention of that name renewsth ' assault.  Man. 
Brethren and men of Dan, for such ye seem,  
Though in this uncouth place; 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.  Chor. 
As signal now in low dejected state,  
As erst in highest, behold him where he lies.  Man. 
O miserable change! is this the man,  
That invincible Samson, far renowned,  
The dread of Israel's foes, who with a strength  
Equivalent to Angels walked their streets,  
None offering fight; who single combatant  
Duelled their Armies ranked in proud array,  
Himself an Army, now unequal match  
To save himself against a coward armed  
At one spear's length. O ever failing trust  
In mortal strength! and oh what not in man  
Deceivable and vain! Nay what thing good  
Prayed for, but often proves our woe, our bane?  
I prayed for Children, and thought barrenness  
In wedlock a reproach; I gained a Son,  
& Such a Son as all Men hailed me happy;  
Who would be now a Father in my stead?  
O wherefore did God grant me my request,  
And as a blessing with such pomp adorned?  
Why are his gifts desirable, to tempt  
Our earnest Prayers, then given with solemn hand  
As Graces, draw a scorpion's tail behind?  
For this did the Angel twice descend? for this  
Ordained thy nurture holy, as of a Plant;  
Select, and Sacred, Glorious for a while,  
The miracle of men: then in an hour  
Ensnared, assaulted, overcome, led bound,  
Thy Foes derision, Captive, Poor, and Blind  
Into a Dungeon thrust, to work with Slaves?  
Alas methinks whom God hath chosen once  
To worthiest deeds, if he through frailty err,  
He should not so overwhelm, and as a thrall  
Subject him to so foul indignities,  
Be it but for honour's sake of former deeds.  Sam. 
Appoint not heavenly disposition, Father,  
Nothing of all these evils hath befallen me  
But justly; I myself have brought them on,  
Sole Author I, sole cause: if aught seem vile,  
As vile hath been my folly, who have profaned  
The mystery of God given me under pledge  
Of vow, and have betrayed it to a woman,  
A Canaanite, my faithless enemy.  
This well I knew, nor was at all surprised,  
But warned by oft experience: did not she  
Of Timna first betray me, and reveal  
The secret wrested from me in her height  
Of Nuptial Love professed, carrying it straight  
To them who had corrupted her, my Spies,  
And Rivals? In this other was there found  
More Faith? who also in her prime of love,  
Spousal embraces, vitiated with Gold,  
Though offered only, by the sent conceived  
Her spurious firstborn; Treason against me?  
Thrice she assayed with flattering prayers and sighs,  
And amorous reproaches to win from me  
My capital secret, in what part my strength  
Lay stored, in what part summed, that she might know:  
Thrice I deluded her, and turned to sport  
Her importunity, each time perceiving  
How openly, and with what impudence  
She purposed to betray me, and (which was worse  
Than undissembled hate) with what contempt  
She sought to make me traitor to myself;  
Yet the fourth time, when mustering all her wiles,  
With blandisht parleys, feminine assaults,  
Tongue-batteries, she surceased not day nor night  
To storm me over-watched, and wearied out.  
At times when men seek most repose and rest,  
I yielded, and unlocked her all my heart,  
Who with a grain of manhood well resolved  
Might easily have shaken off all her snares:  
But foul effeminacy held me yoked  
Her bondslave; O indignity, O blot  
To Honour and Religion! Servile mind  
Rewarded well with servile punishment!  
The base degree to which I now am fallen,  
These rags, this grinding, is not yet so base  
As was my former servitude, ignoble,  
Unmanly, ignominious, infamous,  
True slavery, and that blindness worse than this,  
That saw not how degeneratly I served.  Man. 
I cannot praise thy Marriage choises, Son,  
Rather approved them not; but thou didst plead  
Divine impulsion prompting how thou Mightst  
Find some occasion to infest our Foes.  
I state not that; this I am sure; our Foes  
Found soon occasion thereby to make thee  
Their Captive, and their triumph; thou the sooner  
Temptation found'st, or over-potent charms  
To violate the sacred trust of silence  
Deposited within thee; which to have kept  
Tacit, was in thy power; true; and thou bearest  
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 hand●  
Them out of thine, who slew'st them many a 〈◊〉.  
So Dagon shall be magnified, and God,  
Besides whom is no God, compared with Idols,  
Disglorified, blasphemed, and had in scorn  
By th'Idolatrous rout amidst their wine;  
Which to have come to pass by means of thee,  
Samson, of all thy sufferings think the heaviest,  
Of all reproach the most with shame that ever  
Can have befallen thee and thy father's house.  Sam. 
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; to God have brought  
Dishonour, obloquy, and oped the mouths  
Of Idolists, and Atheists; have brought scandal  
To Israel, diffidence of God, and doubt  
In feeble hearts, propense anough before  
To waver, or fall off and join with Idols;  
Which is my chief affliction, shame and sorrow;  
The anguish of my Soul, that suffers not  
Mine eye to harbour sleep, or thoughts to rest.  
This only hope relieves me, that the strife  
With me hath end; all the contest is now  
'Twixt God and Dagon; Dagon hath presumed,  
Me overthrown, to enter lists with God,  
His Deity comparing and preferring  
Before the God of Abraham. He, be sure,  
Will not connive, or linger, thus provoked,  
But will arise and his great name assert:  
Dagon must stoop, and shall e'er long receive  
Such a discomfit, as shall quite despoil him  
Of all these boasted Trophies won on me,  
And with confusion blank his Worshippers.  Man. 
With cause this hope relieves thee, and these words  
I as a Prophecy receive: for God,  
Nothing more certain, will not long defer  
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  
Lie in this miserable loathsome plight  
Neglected. I already have made way  
To some Philistian Lords, with whom to treat  
About thy ransom: well they may by this  
Have satisfied their utmost of revenge  
By pains and slaveries, worse than death inflicted  
On thee, who now no more canst do them harm.  Sam. 
Spare that proposal, Father, spare the trouble  
Of that solicitation; let me here,  
As I deserve, pay on my punishment;  
And expiate, if possible, my crime,  
Shameful garrulity. To have revealed  
Secrets of men, the secrets of a friend,  
How heinous had the fact been, how deserving  
Contempt, and scorn of all, to be excluded  
All friendship, and avoided as a blab,  
The mark of fool set on his front?  
But I god's counsel have not kept, his holy secret  
Presumptuously have published, impiously,  
Weakly at least, and shamefully: A sin  
That Gentiles in their Parables condemn  
To their abyss and horrid pains confined.  Man. 
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;  
Of th' execution leave to high disposal,  
And let another hand, not thine, exact  
Thy penal forfeit from thyself; perhaps  
God will relent, and quit thee all his debt;  
Who evermore approves and more accepts  
(Best pleased with humble and filial submission)  
Him who imploring mercy sues for life,  
Then who self-rigorous chooses death as due;  
Which argues overjust, and self-displeased  
For self-offence, more than for God offended.  
Reject not then what offered means, who knows  
But God hath set before us, to return thee  
Home to thy country and his sacred house,  
Where thou mayst bring thy offerings, to avert  
His further ire, with prayers and vows renewed.  Sam. 
His pardon I implore; but as for life,  
To what end should I seek it? when in strength  
All mortals I excelled, and great in hopes  
With youthful courage and magnanimous thoughts  
Of birth from heaven foretold and high exploits,  
Full of divine instinct, after some proof  
Of acts indeed heroic, far beyond  
The Sons of Anac, famous now and blazed,  
Fearless of danger, like a petty God  
I walked about admired of all and dreaded  
On hostile ground, none daring my affront.  
Then swollen with pride into the snare I fell  
Of fair fallacious looks, venereal trains,  
Softened with pleasure and voluptuous life;  
At length to lay my head and hallowed pledge  
Of all my strength in the lascivious lap  
Of a deceitful Concubine who shore me  
Like a tame wether, all my precious fleece,  
Then turned me out ridiculous, despoiled,  
Shav'n, and disarmed among my enemies.  Chor. 
Desire of wine and all delicious drinks,  
Which many a famous warrior overturns,  
Thou couldst repress, nor did the dancing ruby  
Sparkling, out-pow'rd, the flavour, or the smell,  
Or taste that cheers the heart of Gods and men,  
Allure thee from the cool Crystalline stream.  Sam. 
Where ever fountain or fresh current flowed  
Against the Eastern ray, translucent, pure.  
With touch aetherial of heavens fiery rod  
I drank, from the clear milky juice allaying  
Thirst, and refreshed; nor envied them the grape  
Whose heads that turbulent liquor fills with fumes.  Chor. 
O madness, to think use of strongest wines  
And strongest drinks our chief support of health,  
When God with these forbidden made choice to rear  
His mighty Champion, strong above compare,  
Whose drink was only from the liquid brook.  Sam. 
But what availed this temperance, not complete  
Against another object more enticing?  
What boots it at one gate to make defence,  
And at another to let in the foe  
Effeminatly vanquished? by which means,  
Now blind, disheartened, shamed, dishonoured, quelled,  
To what can I be useful, wherein serve  
My Nation, and the work from heaven imposed,  
But to sit idle on the household hearth,  
A burdenous drone; to visitants a gaze,  
Or pitied object, thief redundant locks  
Robustious to no purpofe clustering down,  
Vain monument of strength; till length of years  
And sedentary numbness craze my limbs  
To a contemptible old age obscure.  
Here rather let me drudge and earn my bread,  
Till vermin or the draff of servile food  
Consume me, and oft-invocated death  
Hast'n the welcome end of all my pains.  Man. 
Wilt thou then serve the Philistines with that gift  
Which was expressly given thee to annoy them?  
Better at home lie bedrid, not only idle,  
Inglorious, unemployed, with age outworn.  
But God who caused a fountain at thy prayer  
From the dry ground to spring, thy thirst to allay  
After the brunt of battle, can as easy  
Cause light again within thy eyes to spring,  
Wherewith to serve him better than thou hast;  
And I persuade me so; why else this strength  
Miraculous yet remaining in those locks?  
His might continues in thee not for naught,  
Nor shall his wondrous gifts be frustrate thus.  Sam. 
All otherwise to me my thoughts portend,  
That these dark orbs no more shall treat with light,  
Nor th' other light of life continue long,  
But yield to double darkness nigh at hand:  
So much I feel my genial spirits droop,  
My hopes all flat, 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.  Man. 
Believe not these suggestions which proceed  
From anguish of the mind and humours black,  
That mingle with thy fancy. I however  
Must not omit a father's timely care  
To prosecute the means of thy deliverance  
By ransom or how else: mean while be calm,  
And healing words from these thy friends admit.  Sam. 
O that torment should not be confined  
To the body's wounds and sores  
With maladies innumerable  
In heart, head, breast, and reins;  
But must secret passage find  
To th' inmost mind,  
There exercise all his fierce accidents,  
And on her purest spirits prey,  
As on entrails, joints, and limbs,  
With answerable pains, but more intense,  
Though void of corporal sense.  
My griefs not only pain me  
As a lingering disease,  
But finding no redress, ferment and rage,  
Nor less than wounds immedicable  
Rankle, and fester, and gangrene,  
To black mortification.  
Thoughts my torments armed with deadly stings  
Mangle my apprehensive tenderest parts,  
Exasperate, exulcerate, and raise  
Dire inflammation which no cooling herb  
Or medcinal liquor can assuage,  
Nor breath of Vernal Air from snowy Alp.  
Sleep hath forsaken and given me o'er  
To death's benumbing Opium as my only cure.  
Thence faintings, swoon of despair,  
And sense of heavens desertion.  
I was his nurssing once and choice delight,  
His destined from the womb,  
Promised by Heavenly message twice descending.  
Under his special eye  
Abstemious I grew up and thrived amain;  
He led me on to mightiest deeds  
Above the nerve of mortal arm  
Against the uncircumcised, our enemies.  
〈◊〉 hath cast me off as never known,  
〈◊〉 those cruel enemies,  
Whom I by his appointment had provoked,  
Left me all helpless with th' irreparable loss  
Of sight, reserved alive to be repeated  
The subject of their cruelty, or scorn.  
Nor am I in the list of them that hope;  
Hopeless are all my evils, all remediless;  
This one prayer yet remains, might I be heard,  
No long petition, speedy death,  
The close of all my miseries, and the balm.  Chor. 
Many are the say of the wise  
In ancient and in modern books enroled;  
Extolling Patience as the truest fortitude;  
And to the bearing well of all calamities,  
All chances incident to man's frail life.  
Consolatories writ  
With studied argument, and much persuasion sought  
Lenient of grief and anxious thought,  
But with ' afflicted in his pangs their sound  
Little prevails, or rather seems a tune,  
Harsh, and of dissonant mood from his complaint,  
Unless he feel within  
Some source of consolation from above;  
Secret refresh, that repair his strength,  
And fainting spirits uphold.  
God of our Fathers, what is man!  
That thou towards him with hand so various,  
Or might I say contrarious,  
Temperst thy providence through his short course,  
Not evenly, as thou rul'st  
The Angelic orders and inferior creatures mute,  
Irrational and brute.  
Nor do I name of men the common rout,  
That wand'ring lose about  
Grow up and perish, as the summer fly,  
Heads without name no more remembered,  
But such as thou hast solemnly elected,  
With gifts and graces eminently adorned  
To some great work, thy glory,  
And people's safety, which in part they effect:  
Yet toward these thus dignified, thou oft  
Amidst their height of noon,  
Changest thy countenance, and thy hand with no regard  
Of highest favours passed  
From thee on them, or them to thee of service.  
Nor only dost degrade them, or remit  
To life obscured, which were a fair dismission,  
But throw'st them lower than thou didst exalt them high,  
Unseemly falls in human eye,  
Too grievous for the trespass or omission,  
Oft leav'st them to the hostile sword  
Of Heathen and profane, their carcases  
To dogs and fowls a prey, or else captived:  
Or to the unjust tribunals, under change of times,  
And condemnation of the ingrateful multitude.  
If these they scape, perhaps in poverty  
With sickness and disease thou bow'st them down,  
Painful diseases and deformed,  
In crude old age;  
Though not disordinate, yet causeless suffering  
The punishment of dissolute days, in fine,  
Just or unjust, alike seem miserable,  
For oft alike, both come to evil end.  
So deal not with this once thy glorious Champion,  
The Image of thy strength, and mighty minister.  
What do I beg? how hast thou dealt already?  
Behold him in this state calamitous, and turn  
His labours, for thou canst, to peaceful end.  
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  
Like a stately Strip  
Of Tarsus, bound for th' Isles  
Of Javan or Gadier  
With all her bravery on, and tackle trim,  
Sails filled, and streamers waving,  
Courted by all the winds that hold them play,  
An Amber sent of odorous perfume  
Her harbinger, a damsel train behind;  
Some rich Philistian Matron she may seem,  
And now at nearer view, no other certain  
Then Dalila thy wife.  Sam. 
My Wife, my traitress, let her not come near me.  Cho. 
Yet on she moves, now stands & eyes thee fixed,  
About t' have spoke, but now, with head declined  
Like a fair flower surcharged with dew, she weeps  
And words addressed seem into tears dissolved,  
Wetting the borders of her silk'n veil:  
But now again she makes address to speak.  Dal. 
With doubtful feet and wavering resolution  
I came, still dreading thy displeasure, Samson,  
Which to have merited, without excuse,  
I cannot but acknowledge; yet if tears  
May expiate (though the fact more evil drew  
In the perverse event than I foresaw)  
My penance hath not slackened, though my pardon  
No way assured. But conjugal affection  
Prevailing over fear, and timorous doubt  
Hath led me on desirous to behold  
Once more thy face, and know of thy estate.  
If aught in my ability may serve  
To light'n what thou sufferest, and appease  
Thy mind with what amends is in my power,  
Though late, yet in some part to recompense  
My rash but more unfortunate misdeed.  Sam. 
Out, out Hyaena; these are thy wont arts,  
And arts of every woman false like thee,  
To break all faith, all vows, deceive, betray,  
Then as repentant to submit, beseech,  
And reconcilement move with feigned remorse,  
Confess, and promise wonders in her change,  
Not truly penitent, but chief to try  
Her husband, how far urged his patience bears,  
His virtue or weakness which way to assail:  
Then with more cautious and instructed skill  
Again transgresses, and again submits;  
That wisest and best men full oft beguiled  
With goodness principled not to reject  
The penitent, but ever to forgive,  
Are drawn to wear out miserable days,  
Entangled with a poisonous bosom snake,  
If not by quick destruction soon cut off  
As I by thee, to Ages an example.  Dal. 
Yet hear me Samson; not that I endeavour  
To lessen or extenuate my offence,  
But that on th'other side if it be weighed  
By itself, with aggravations not surcharged,  
Or else with just allowance counterpoised,  
I may, if possible, thy pardon find  
The easier towards me, or thy hatred less.  
First granting, as I do, it was a weakness  
In me, but incident to all our sex,  
Curiosity, inquisitive, importune  
Of secrets, then with like infirmity  
To publish them, both common female faults:  
Was it not weakness also to make known  
For importunity, that is for naught,  
Wherein consisted all thy strength and safety?  
To what I did thou show'dst me first the way.  
But I to enemies revealed, and should not.  
Nor shouldst thou have trusted that to woman's frailty  
ere I to thee, thou to thyself waste cruel.  
Let weakness then with weakness come to parl  
So near related, or the same of kind,  
Thine forgive mine; that men may censure thine  
The gentler, if severely thou exact not  
More strength from me, then in thyself was found.  
And what if Love, which thou interpret'st hate,  
The jealousy of Love, powerful of sway  
In human hearts, nor less in mine towards thee,  
Caused what I did? I saw thee mutable  
Of fancy, feared lest one day thou wouldst leave me  
As her at Timna, sought by all means therefore  
How to endear, and hold thee to me firmest:  
No better way I saw then by importuning  
To learn thy secrets, get into my power  
Thy key of strength and safety: thou wilt say,  
Why then revealed? I was assured by those  
Who tempted me, that nothing was designed  
Against thee but safe custody, and hold:  
That made for me, I knew that liberty  
Would draw thee forth to perilous enterprises,  
While I at home sat full of cares and fears  
Wailing thy absence in my widowed bed;  
Here I should still enjoy thee day and night  
Mine and love's prisoner, not the Philistines,  
Whole to myself, unhazarded abroad,  
Fearless at home of partners in my love.  
These reasons in love's law have passed for good,  
Though fond and reasonless to some perhaps;  
And Love hath oft, well meaning, wrought much woe,  
Yet always pity or pardon hath obtained.  
Be not unlike all others, not austere  
As thou art strong, inflexible as steel.  
If thou in strength all mortals dost exceed,  
In uncompassionate anger do not so.  Sam. 
How cunningly the sorceress displays  
Her own transgressions, to upbraid me mine?  
That malice not repentance brought thee hither,  
By this appears: I gave, thou sayest, th' example,  
I led the way; bitter reproach, but true,  
I to myself was false ere thou to me,  
Such pardon therefore as I give my folly,  
Take to thy wicked deed: which when thou seest  
Impartial, self-severe, inexorable,  
Thou wilt renounce thy seeking, and much rather  
Confess it feigned, weakness is thy excuse,  
And I believe it, weakness to resist  
Philistian gold: if weakness may excuse,  
What murderer, what traitor, Parricide,  
Incestuous, Sacrilegious, but may plead it?  
All wickedness is weakness: that plea therefore  
With God or Man will gain thee no remission.  
But Love constrained thee; call it furious rage  
To satisfy thy lust: Love seeks to have Love;  
My love how couldst thou hope, who tookst the way  
To raise in me inexpiable hate,  
Knowing, as needs I must, by thee betrayed?  
In vain thou strivest to cover shame with shame,  
Or by evasions thy crime uncoverst more.  Dal. 
Since thou determinst weakness for no plea  
In man or woman, though to thy own condemning,  
Hear what assaults I had, what snares besides,  
What sieges gird me round, ere I consented;  
Which might have awed the best resolved of men,  
The constantest to have yielded without blame.  
It was not gold, as to my charge thou layest,  
That wrought with me: thou knowst the Magistrates  
And Princes of my country came in person,  
Solicited, commanded, threatened, urged,  
Adjured by all the bonds of civil Duty  
And of Religion, pressed how just it was,  
How honourable, how glorious to entrap  
A common enemy, who had destroyed  
Such numbers of our Nation: and the Priest  
Was not behind, but ever at my ear,  
Preaching how meritorious with the gods  
It would be to ensnare an irreligious  
Dishonourer of Dagon: what had I  
To oppose against such powerful arguments?  
Only my love of thee held long debate;  
And combated in silence all these reasons  
With hard contest: at length that grounded maxim  
So rife and celebrated in the mouths  
Of wisest men; that to the public good  
Private refpects must yield; with grave authority  
Took full possession of me and prevailed;  
Virtue, as I thought, truth, duty so enjoining.  Sam. 
I thought where all thy circling wiles would end;  
In feigned Religion, smooth hypocrisy.  
But had thy love, still odiously pretended,  
Been, as it ought, sincere, it would have taught thee  
Far other reasonings, brought forth other deeds.  
I before all the daughters of my Tribe  
And of my Nation chose thee from among  
My enemies, loved thee, as too well thou knewest,  
Too well, unbosomed all my secrets to thee,  
Not out of levity, but overpowered  
By thy request, who could deny thee nothing;  
Yet now am judged an enemy. Why then  
Didst thou at first reccive me for thy husband?  
Then, as since then, thy country's foe professed:  
Being once a wife, for me thou wast to leave  
Parents and country; nor was I their subject,  
Nor under their protection but my own,  
Thou mine, not theirs: if aught against my life  
Thy country sought of thee, it sought unjustly,  
Against the law of nature, law of nations,  
No more thy country, but an impious crew  
Of men conspiring to uphold their state  
By worse than hostile deeds, violating the ends  
For which our country is a name so dear;  
Not therefore to be obeyed. But zeal moved thee;  
To please thy gods thou didst it; gods unable  
To acquit themselves and prosecute their foes  
But by ungodly deeds, the contradiction  
Of their own deity, Gods cannot be:  
Lesle therefore to be pleased, obeyed, or feared,  
These false pretexts and varnished colours failing,  
Bare in thy guilt how foul must thou appear?  Dal. 
In argument with men a woman ever  
Goes by the worse, whatever be her cause.  Sam. 
For want of words no doubt, or lack of breath,  
Witness when I was worried with thy peals.  Dal. 
I was a fool, too rash, and quite mistaken  
In what I thought would have succeeded best.  
Let me obtain forgiveness of thee, Samson,  
Afford me place to show what recompense  
Towards thee I intent for what I have misdone,  
Misguided; only what remains past cure  
Bear not too sensibly, nor still insist  
To afflict thyself in vain: though sight be lost,  
Life yet hath many solaces, enjoyed  
Where other senses want not their delights  
At home in leisure and domestic ease,  
Exempt from many a care and chance to which  
Eyesight exposes daily men abroad.  
I to the Lords will intercede, not doubting  
Their favourable ear, that I may fetch thee  
From forth this loathsome prisonhouse, 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  
With all things grateful cheered, and so supplied,  
That what by me thou hast lost thou lest shalt miss.  sam's. 
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; I know thy trains  
Though dearly to my cost, thy gins, and toils;  
Thy fair enchanted cup, and warbling charms  
No more on me have power, their force is nulled,  
So much of adder's wisdom I have learned  
To fence my ear against thy sorceries.  
If in my flower of youth and strength, when all men  
Loved, honoured, feared me, thou alone could hate me  
Thy Husband, slight me, sell me, and forgo me;  
How wouldst thou use me now, blind, and thereby  
Deceivable, in most things as a child  
Helpless, thence eafily contemned, and scorned,  
And last neglected? How wouldst thou insult  
When I must live uxorious to thy will  
In perfect thraldom, how again betray me,  
Bearing my words and do to the Lords  
To gloss upon, and censuring, frown or smile?  
This Gaol I count the house of Liberty  
To thine whose doors my feet shall never enter.  Dal. 
Let me approach at least, and touch thy hand.  Sam. 
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:  
Cherish thy hastened widowhood with the gold  
Of Matrimonial treason: so farewell.  Dal. 
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:  
Thy anger, unappeasable, still rages,  
Eternal tempest never to be calmed.  
Why do I humble thus myself, and suing  
For peace, reap nothing but repulse and hate?  
Bid go with evil omen and the brand  
Of infamy upon my name denounced?  
To mix with thy concernments I desist  
Henceforth, nor too much disapprove my own.  
Fame if not double-faced is double-mouthed,  
And with contrary blast proclaims most deeds,  
On both his wings, one black, th' other white,  
Bears greatest names in his wild airy flight.  
My name perhaps among the circumcised  
In Dan, in Judah, and the bordering Tribes,  
To all posterity may stand defamed,  
With malediction mentioned, and the blot  
Of falsehood most unconjugal traduced.  
But in my country where I most desire,  
In Ecron, Gaza, Asdod, and in Gath  
I shall be named among the famousest  
Of Women, sung at solemn festivals,  
Living and dead recorded, whoto save  
Her country from a fierce destroyer, chose  
Above the faith of wedlock-bands, my tomb  
With odours visited and annual flowers.  
Not less renowned then in Mount Ephraim,  
Jael, who with in hospitable guile  
Smote Sisera sleeping through the Temples nailed.  
Nor shall I count it heinous to enjoy  
The public marks of honour and reward  
Conferred upon me, for the piety  
Which to my country I was judged to have shown.  
At this who ever envies or repines  
I leave him to his lot, and like my own.  Chor. 
She's gone, a manifest Serpent by her sting  
Discovered in the end; till now concealed.  Sam. 
So let her go, God sent her to debase me,  
And aggravate my folly who committed  
To such a viper his most sacred trust  
Of secrecy, my safety, and my life.  Chor. 
Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange power,  
After offence returning, to regain  
Love once possessed, nor can be easily  
Repulsed, without much inward passion felt  
And secret sting of amorous remorse.  Sam. 
Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end,  
Not wedlock-trechery endangering life.  Cho. 
It is not virtue, wisdom, valour, wit,  
Strength, comeliness of shape, or amplest merit  
That woman's love can win or long inherit;  
But what it is, hard is to say:  
Harder to hit,  
(Which way soever men refer it)  
Much like thy riddle, Samson, in one day  
Or seven, though one should musing sit;  
If any of these or all, the Timnian bride  
Had not so soon preferred  
Thy Paranymph, worthless to thee compared,  
Successor in thy bed,  
Nor both so loosely disallyed  
Their nuptials, nor this last so treacherously  
Had shorn the fatal harvest of thy head.  
Is it for that such outward ornament  
Was lavished on their Sex, that inward gifts  
Were left for hast unfinished, judgement scant,  
Capacity not raised to apprehend  
Or value what is best  
In choice, but oftest to affect the wrong?  
Or was too much of self-love mixed,  
Of constancy no root infixed,  
That either they love nothing, or not long?  
What e'reit be, to wisest men and best  
Seeming at first all heavenly under virgin veil,  
Soft, modest, meek, demure,  
Once joined, the contrary she proves, a thorn  
Intestine, far within defensive arms  
A cleaving mischief; in his way to virtue  
Adverse and turbulent, or by her charms  
Draws him awry enslaved  
With dotage, and his sense depraved  
To folly and shameful deeds which ruin ends.  
What Pilot so expert but needs must wreck  
Embarked with such a Stears-mate at the Helm?  
Favoured of heaven who finds  
One virtuous rarely found,  
That in domestic good combines:  
Happy that house! his way to peace is smooth:  
But virtue which breaks through all opposition,  
And all temptation can remove,  
Most shines and most is acceptable above.  
Therefore Gods universal Law  
Gave to the man despotic power  
Over his female in due awe,  
Nor from that right to part an hour,  
Smile she or lower:  
So shall he least confusion draw  
On his whole life, not swayed  
By female usurpation, nor dismayed.  
But had we best retire, I see a storm?  Sam. 
Fair days have oft contracted wind and rain.  Chor. 
But this another kind of tempest brings.  Sam. 
Be less abstruse, my riddling days are past.  Chor. 
Look now for no enchanting voice, nor fear  
The bait of honeyed words; a rougher tongue  
Draws hitherward, I know him by his stride,  
The Giant Harapha of Gath, his look  
Haughty as is his pile high-built and proud.  
Comes he in peace? what wind hath blown him hither  
I less conjecture than when first I saw  
The sumptuous Dalila floating this way:  
His habit carries peace, his brow defiance.  Sam. 
Or peace or not, alike to me he comes.  Chor. 
His fraught we soon shall know, he now arrives.  Har. 
I come not Samson, to condole thy chance,  
As these perhaps, yet wish it had not been,  
Though for no friendly intent. I am of Gath,  
Men call me Harapha, of stock renowned  
As Og or Anak and the Emims old  
That Kiriathaim held, thou know'st me now  
If thou at all art known. Much I have heard  
Of thy prodigious might and feats performed  
Incredible to me, in this displeased,  
That I was never present on the place  
Of those encounters, where we might have tried  
Each others force in camp or listed field:  
And now am come to see of whom such noise  
Hath walked about, and each limb to survey,  
If thy appearance answer loud report.  Sam. 
The way to know were not to see but taste.  Har. 
Dost thou already single me; I thought  
Gives and the Mill had tamed thee? O that fortune  
Had brought me to the field where thou art famed  
To have wrought such wonders with an ass' Jaw;  
I should have forced thee soon wish other arms,  
Or left thy carcase where the Ass lay thrown:  
So had the glory of Prowess been recovered  
To Palestine, won by a Philistine  
From the unforeskinned race, of whom thou bearest  
The highest name for valiant Acts, that honour  
Certain to have won by mortal duel from thee,  
I lose, prevented by thy eyes put out.  Sam. 
Boast not of what thou wouldst have done, 〈◊〉  
What then thou wouldst, thou seest it in thy hand.  Har. 
To combat with a blind man I disdain,  
And thou hast need much washing to be touched.  Sam. 
Such usage as your honourable Lords  
Afford me assassinated and betrayed,  
Who durst not with their whole united powers  
In fight withstand me single and unarmed,  
Nor in the house with chamber Ambushes  
Close-banded durst attaque me, no not sleeping,  
Till they had hired a woman with their gold  
Breaking her Marriage Faith to circumvent me.  
Therefore without feigned shifts let be assigned  
Some narrow place enclosed, where sight may give thee,  
Or rather flight, no great advantage on me;  
Then put on all thy gorgeous arms, thy Helmet  
And Brigandine of brass, thy broad Habergeon,  
Vant-brass and Greves, and Gauntlet, add thy Spear  
A Weavers beam, and seven-times-folded shield,  
I only with an Oak'n staff will meet thee,  
And raise such out-cries on thy clattered Iron.  
Which long shall not withhold me from thy head,  
That in a little time while breath remains thee,  
Thou oft shalt wish thyself at Gath to boast  
Again in safety what thou wouldst have done  
To Samson, but shalt never see Gath more.  Har. 
Thou durst not thus disparage glorious arms  
Which greatest Heroes have in battle worn,  
Their ornament and safety, had not spells  
And black enchantments, some magician's Art  
Armed thee or charmed thee strong, which thou from Heaven  
Feigndst at thy birth was given thee in thy hair,  
Where strength can least abide, though all thy hairs  
Were bristles ranged like those that ridge the back  
Of chafed wild Boars, or ruffled Porcupines.  Sam. 
I know no Spells, use no forbidden Arts;  
My trust is in the living God who gave me  
At my Nativity this strength, diffused  
No less through all my sinews, joints and bones,  
Then thine, while I preserved these locks unshorn,  
The pledge of my unviolated vow.  
For proof hereof, if Dagon be thy god,  
Go to his Temple, invocate his aid  
With solemnest devotion, spread before him  
How highly it concerns his glory now  
To frustrate and dissolve these Magic spells,  
Which I to be the power of Israel's God  
Avow, and challenge Dagon to the test,  
Offering to combat thee his Champion bold,  
With th' utmost of his Godhead seconded:  
Then thou shalt see, or rather to thy sorrow  
Soon feel, whose God is strongest, thine or mine.  Har. 
Presume not on thy God, what e'er he be,  
〈◊〉 he regards not, owns not, hath cut off  
Quite from his people, and delivered up  
〈◊〉 thy enemy's hand, permitted them  
〈…〉 out both thine eyes, and fettered send thee  
〈…〉 common Prison, there to grind  
Among the Slaves and Asses thy comrades,  
As good for nothing else, no better service  
With those thy boisterous locks, no worthy match  
For valour to assail, nor by the sword  
Of noble warrior, so to slain his honour,  
But by the barber's razor best subdued.  Sam. 
All these indignities, for such they are  
From thine, these evils I deserve and more,  
Acknowledge them from God inflicted on me  
Justly, yet despair not of his final pardon  
Whose ear is ever open; and his eye  
Gracious to re-admit the suppliant;  
In confidence whereof I once again  
Defy thee to the trial of mortal fight,  
By combat to decide whose god is God,  
Thine or whom I with Israel's Sons adore.  Har. 
Fair honour that thou dost thy God, in trusting  
He will accept thee to defend his cause,  
A murderer, a Revolter, and a Robber.  Sam. 
Tongue-doubtie Giant, how dost thou prove me these?  Har. 
Is not thy Nation subject to our Lords?  
Their Magistrates confessed it, when they took thee  
As a League-breaker and delivered bound  
Into our hands: for hadst thou not committed  
Notorious murder on those thirty men  
At Askalon, who never did thee harm,  
Then like a Robber stripdst them of their robes?  
The Philistines, when thou hadst broke the league,  
Went up with armed powers thee only seeking,  
To others did not violence nor spoil.  Sam. 
Among the Daughters of the Philistines  
I chose a Wife, which argued me no foe;  
And in your City held my Nuptial Feast:  
But your ill-meaning Politician Lords,  
Under pretence of Bridal friends and guests,  
Appointed to await me thirty spies,  
Who threatening cruel death constrained the bride  
To wring from me and tell to them my secret,  
That solved the riddle which I had proposed.  
When I perceived all set on enmity,  
As on my enemies, where ever chanced,  
I used hostility, and took their spoil  
To pay my underminers in their coin.  
My Nation was subjected to your Lords.  
It was the force of Conquest; force with force  
Is well ejected when the conquered can.  
But I a private person, whom my country  
As a leaguebreaker gave up bound, presumed  
Single Rebellion and did Hostile Acts.  
I was no private but a person raised  
With strength sufficient and command from heaven  
To free my country; if their servile minds  
Me their Deliverer sent would not receive,  
But to their Masters gave me up for nought,  
Th'unworthier they; whence to this day they serve.  
I was to do my part from heaven assigned,  
And had performed it if my known offence  
Had not disabled me, not all your force:  
These shifts refuted, answer thy appellant  
Though by his blindness maimed for high attempts,  
Who now defies thee thrice to single fight,  
As a petty enterprise of small enforce.  Har. 
With thee a Man condemned, a Slave enrolled,  
Due by the Law to capital punishment?  
To fight with thee no man of arms will deign.  Sam. 
Cam'st thou for this, vain boaster, to survey me,  
To descant on my strength, and give thy verdict?  
Come nearer, part not hence so slight informed;  
But take good heed my hand survey not thee.  Har. 
O baalzebub! can my ears unused  
Hear these dishonours, and not render death?  Sam. 
No man withholds thee, nothing from thy hand  
Fear I incurable; bring up thy van,  
My heels are fettered, but my fist is free.  Har. 
This insolence other kind of answer fits.  sam's. 
Go baffled coward, left I run upon thee,  
Though in these chains, bulk without spirit vast,  
And with one buffet lay thy structure low,  
Or swing thee in the Air, then dash thee down  
To the hazard of thy brains and shattered sides.  Har. 
By Astaroth e'er long thou shalt lament  
These braveries in Irons loaden on thee.  Chor. 
His Giantship is gone somewhat crest-fallen,  
Stalking with less unconsci'nable strides,  
And lower looks, but in a sultry chafe.  Sam. 
I dread him not, nor all his Giant-brood,  
Though Fame divulged him Father of five Sons  
All of Gigantic size, Goliath chief.  Chor. 
He will directly to the Lords, I fear,  
And with malicious counsel stir them up  
Some way or other yet further to afflict thee.  Sam. 
He must allege some cause, and offered fight  
Will not dare mention, lest a question rise  
Whether he durst accept the offer or not,  
And that he durst not plain enough appeared.  
Much more affliction than already felt  
They cannot well impose, nor I sustain;  
If they intent advantage of my labours  
The work of many hands, which earns my keeping  
With no small profit daily to my owners.  
But come what will, my deadliest foe will prove  
My speediest friend, by death to rid me hence,  
The worst that he can give, to me the best.  
Yet so it may fall out, because their end  
Is hate, not help to me, it may with mine  
Draw their own ruin who attempt the deed.  Chor. 
Oh how comely it is and how reviving  
To the Spirits of just men long oppressed!  
When God into the hands of their deliverer  
Puts invincible might  
To quell the mighty of the Earth, th' oppressor,  
The brute and boisterous force of violent men  
Hardy and industrious to support  
Tyrannic power, but raging to pursue  
The righteous and all such as honour Truth;  
He all their Ammunition  
And feats of War defeats  
With plain Heroic magnitude of mind  
And celestial vigour armed,  
Their armouries and magazines contemns,  
Renders them useless, while  
With winged expedition  
Swift as the lightning glance he executes  
His errand on the wicked, who surprised  
Lose their defence distracted and amazed.  
But patience is more oft the exercise  
Of Saints, the trial of their fortitude,  
Making them each his own Deliverer,  
And Victor over all  
That tyranny or fortune can inflict,  
Either of these is in thy lot,  
Samson, with might endued  
Above the Sons of men; but sight bereaved  
May chance to number thee with those  
Whom Patience finally must crown.  
This Idols 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 acquaint staff he bears,  
Comes on amain, speed in his look.  
By his habit I discern him now  
A Public Officer, and now at hand.  
His message will be short and voluble.  Off. 
Ebrews, the prisoner Samson here I seek.  Chor. 
His manacles remark him, there he fits.  Off. 
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 fits before th'illustrious Lords.  Sam. 
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.  Off. 
This answer, be assured, will not content them.  Sam. 
Have they not Sword-players, and every sort  
Of Gymnic Artists, Wrestlers, Riders, Runners,  
Jugglers and Dancers, Antics, Mummers, Mimics,  
But they must pick me out with shackles tired,  
〈…〉 laboured at their public Mill,  
〈…〉 them sport with blind activity?  
〈…〉 not seek occasion of new quarrels  
On my refusal to distress me more,  
Or make a game of my calamities?  
Return the way thou cam'st, I will not come.  Off. 
Regard thyself, this will offend them highly.  Sam. 
Myself? my conscience and internal peace.  
Can they think me so broken, so debased  
With corporal servitude, that my mind ever  
Will condescend to such absurd commands?  
Although their drudge, to be their fool or jester,  
And in my midst of sorrow and heart-grief  
To show them feats, and play before their god,  
The worst of all indignities, yet on me  
Joined with extreme contempt? I will not come.  Off. 
My message was imposed on me with speed,  
Brooks no delay: is this thy resolution?  Sam. 
So take it with what speed thy message needs.  Off. 
I am sorry what this stoutness will produce.  Sa. 
Perhaps thou shalt have cause to sorrow indeed.  Chor. 
Consider, Samson; matters now are strained  
Up to the height, whether to hold or break;  
He's gone, and who knows how he may report  
Thy words by adding fuel to the flame?  
Expect another message more imperious,  
More Lordly thundering then thou well wilt bear.  Sam. 
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;  
A Nazarite in place abominable  
Vaunting my strength in honour to their Dagon?  
Besides, how vile, contemptible, ridiculous,  
What act more execrably unclean, profane?  Chor. 
Yet with this strength thou servest the Philistines,  
Idolatrous, uncircumcised, unclean.  Sam. 
Not in their Idol-worship, but by labour  
Honest and lawful to deserve my food  
Of those who have me in their civil power.  Chor. 
Where the heart joins not, outward acts defile not.  Sam. 
Where outward force constrains, the sentence holds  
But who constrains me to the Temple of Dagon,  
Not dragging? the Philistian Lords command.  
Commands are no constraints. If I obey them,  
I do it freely; venturing to displease  
God for the fear of Man, and Man prefer,  
Set God behind: which in his jealousy  
Shall never, unrepented, find forgiveness.  
Yet that he may dispense with me or thee  
Present in Temples at Idolatrous Rites  
For some important cause, thouneedst not doubt.  Chor. 
How thou wilt here come off surmounts my reach.  Sam. 
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,  
Nothing do, be sure, that may dishonour  
Our Law, or slain my vow of Nazarite.  
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.  Chor. 
In time thou hast resolved, the man returns.  Off. 
Samson, this second message from our Lords  
To thee I am bid say. Art thou our Slave,  
Our Captive, at the public Mill our drudge,  
And darest 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.  Sam. 
I could be well content to try their Art,  
Which to no few of them would prove pernicious:  
Yet knowing their advantages too many,  
Because they shall not trail me through their streets  
Like a wild Beast, I am content to go.  
Master's commands come with a power resistless  
To such as owe them absolute subjection;  
And for a life who will not change his purpose?  
(So mutable are all the ways of men)  
Yet this be sure, in nothing to comply  
Scandalous or forbidden in our Law.  Off. 
I praise thy resolution, doff these links:  
By this compliance thou wilt win the Lords  
To favour, and perhaps to set thee free.  Sam. 
Brethren farewel, your company along  
I will not wish, lest it perhaps offend them  
To see me girt with Friends; and how the sight  
Of me as of a common Enemy,  
So dreaded once may now exasperate them  
I know not. Lords are Lordliest in their wines  
And the well-feasted Priest than soon fired  
With zeal, if aught Religion seem concerned:  
No less the people on their holidays  
Impetuous, insolent, unquenchable;  
Happen what may, of me expect to hear  
Nothing dishonourable, impure, unworthy  
Our God, our Law, my Nation, or myself,  
The last of me or no I cannot warrant.  Chor. 
Go, and the Holy One  
Of Israel be thy guide  
To what may serve his glory best, & spread his name  
Great among the Heathen round:  
Send thee the Angel of thy Birth, to stand  
Fast by thy side, who from thy father's field  
Road up in flames after his message told  
Of thy conception, and be now a shield  
Of fire; that Spirit that first rushed on thee  
In the Camp of Dan  
Be efficacious in thee now at need.  
For never was from Heaven imparted  
Measure of strength so great to mortal seed.  
As in thy wondrous actions hath been seen.  
But wherefore comes old Manoa in such haste  
With youthful steps? much livelier than e'er while  
He seems: supposing here to find his Son,  
Or of him bringing to us some glad news?  Man. 
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, the City rings  
And numbers thither flock, I had no will,  
Lest I should see him forced to things unseemly.  
But that which moved my coming now, was chief  
To give ye part with me what hope I have  
With good success to work his liberty.  Cho. 
That hope would much rejoice us to partake  
With thee; say reverend Sire, we thirst to hear.  Man. 
I have attempted one by one the Lords  
Either at home, or through the high street passing,  
With supplication prone and father's tears  
To accept of ransom for my Son their prisoner,  
Some much averse I found and wondrous harsh,  
Contemptuous, proud, set on revenge and spite;  
That part most reverenced Dagon and his Priests,  
Others more moderate seeming, but their aim  
Private reward, for which both God and State  
They easily would set to sale, a third  
More generous far and civil, who confessed  
They had anough revenged, having reduced  
Their foe to misery beneath their fears,  
The rest was magnanimity to remit,  
If some convenient ransom were proposed.  
What noise or shout was that? it tore the sky.  Chor. 
Doubtless the people shouting to behold  
Their once great dread, captive, & blind before them,  
Or at some proof of strength before them shown.  Man. 
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.  
●or his redemption all my Patrimony,  
If need be, I am ready to forgo  
And quit: not wanting him, I shall want nothing.  Chor. 
Father's are wont to lay up for their Sons,  
Thou for thy Son art bend to lay out all;  
Sons wont to nurse their Parents in old age,  
Thou in old age carest how to nurse thy Son.  
Made older than thy age through eyesight lost.  Man. 
It shall be my delight to tend his eyes,  
And view him sitting in the house, ennobled  
With all those high exploits by him achieved,  
And on his shoulders waving down those locks,  
That of a Nation armed the strength contained:  
And I persuade me God had not permitted  
His strength again to grow up with his hair  
Garrisoned round about him like a Camp  
Of faithful soldiery, were not his purpose  
To use him further yet in some great service,  
Not to sit idle with so great a gift  
Useless, and thence ridiculous about him.  
And since his strength with eyesight was not lost,  
God will restore him eyesight to his strength.  Chor. 
Thy hopes are not ill founded nor seem vain  
Of his delivery, and thy joy thereon  
Conceived, agreeable to a father's love,  
In both which we, as next participate.  Man. 
I know your friendly minds and— O what noise!  
Mercy of heaven what hideous noise was that!  
Horribly loud unlike the former shout.  Chor. 
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.  Man. 
Of ruin indeed methought I heard the noise,  
Oh it continues, they have slain my Son.  Chor. 
Thy Son is rather slaying them, that outcry  
From slaughter of one foe could not ascend.  Man. 
Some dismal accident it needs must be;  
What shall we do, stay here or run and see?  Chor. 
Best keep together here, lest running thither  
We unawares run into dangers mouth.  
This evil on the Philistines is fallen,  
From whom could else a general cry be heard?  
The sufferers than will scarce molest us here,  
From other hands we need not much to fear.  
A little stay will bring some notice hither,  
For evil news rides post, while good news baits.  
And to our wish I see one hither speeding,  
An Hebrew, as I guess, and of our Tribe.  Mess. 
O whither shall I run, or which way fly  
The sight of this so horrid spectacle  
Which erst my eyes beheld and yet behold;  
For dire imagination still pursues me.  
But providence or instinct of nature seems,  
Or reason though disturbed, and scarce consulted  
To have guided me aright, I know not how,  
To thee first reverend Manoa, and to these  
My countrymen, whom here I knew remaining,  
As at some distance from the place of horror,  
So in the sad event too much concerned.  Man. 
The accident was loud, & heard before thee  
With rueful cry, yet what it was we hear not,  
No Preface needs, thou seest we long to know.  Mess. 
It would burst forth, but I recover breath  
And sense distract, to know well what I utter.  Man. 
Tell us the sum, the circumstance defer.  Mess. 
Gaza yet stands, but all her Sons are fallen,  
All in a moment overwhelmed and fallen.  Man. 
Sad, but thou know'st to Israelites not saddest  
The desolation of a Hostile City.  Mess. 
Feed on that first, there may in grief be surfeit.  Man. 
Relate by whom.  Mess. 
By Samson.  (Man. 
That still lessens  
The sorrow, and converts it nigh to joy.  Mess. 
Ah Manoa I refrain, too suddenly  
To utter what will come at lasttoosoon;  
Lest evil tidings with too rude irruption  
Hitting thy aged ear should pierce too deep.  Man. 
Suspense in news is torture, speak them out.  Mess. 
Then take the worst in brief, Samson is dead.  Man. 
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.  
What windy joy this day had I conceived  
Hopeful of his Delivery, which now proves  
Abortive as the firstborn bloom of spring  
Nipped with the lagging rear of winter's frost.  
Yet ere I give the rains to grief, say first,  
How died he? death to life is crown or shame.  
All by him fell thou sayest, by whom fell he,  
What glorious hand gave Samson his death's wound?  Mess. 
Unwounded of his enemies he fell.  Man. 
Wearied with slaughter then or how? explain.  Mess. 
By his own hands.  Man. 
Self-violence? what cause  
Brought him so soon at variance with himself  
Among his foes?  Mess. 
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.  Man. 
O last overstrong against thyself!  
A dreadful way thou took'st to thy revenge.  
More than anough we know; but while things yet  
Are in confusion, give us if thou canst,  
Eye-witness of what first or last was done,  
Relation more particular and distinct.  Mess. 
Occasions drew me early to this City,  
And as the gates I entered with Sun-rise,  
The morning Trumpets Festival proclaimed  
Through each high street: little I had dispatched  
When all abroad was rumoured that this day  
Samson should be brought forth to show the people  
Proof of his mighty strength in feats and games;  
I sorrowed at his captive state, but minded  
Not to be absent at that spectacle.  
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,  
The other side was open, where the throng  
On banks and scaffolds under sky might stand;  
I among these aloof obscurely stood.  
The Feast and noon grew high, and Sacrifice  
Had filled their hearts with mirth, high cheer, & wine,  
When to their sports they turned. Immediately  
Was Samson as a public servant brought,  
In their state Livery clad; before him Pipes  
And timbres, on each side went armed guards,  
Both horse and foot before him and behind  
Archers, and Slingers, Cataphracts and Spears.  
At sight of him the people with a shout  
Rifted the Air clamouring their god with praise,  
Who had made their dreadful enemy their thrall.  
He patiented 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, stupendious force,  
None daring to appear Antagonist.  
At length for intermission sake they led him  
Between the pillars; he his guide requested  
(For so from such as nearer stood we heard)  
As over-tired to let him lean a while  
With both his arms on those two massy Pillars  
That to the arched roof gave main support.  
He unsuspitious led him; which when Samson  
Felt in his arms, with head a while 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, straining all his nerves he bowed,  
As with the force of winds and waters penned,  
When Mountains tremble, those two massy Pillars  
With horrible convulsion 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, councillors, or Priests,  
Their choice nobility and flower, not only  
Of this but each Philistian City round  
Met from all parts to solemnize this Feast.  
Samson with these immixed, inevitably  
Pulled down the same destruction on himself;  
The vulgar only scaped who stood without.  Chor. 
O dearly-bought revenge, yet glorious!  
Living or dying thou hast fulfilled  
The work for which thou wast foretold  
To Israel, and now liest victorious  
Among thy slain self-killed  
Not willingly, but tangled in the fold,  
Of dire necessity, whose law in death conjoined  
Thee with thy slaughtered foes in number more  
Than all thy life had slain before.  Semichor. 
While their hearts were jocund and sublime,  
Drunk with Idolatry, drunk with Wine,  
And fat regorged of Bulls and Goats,  
Chanting their Idol, and preferring  
Before our living Dread who dwells  
In Silo his bright Sanctuary:  
Among them he a spirit of frenzy sent,  
Who hurt their minds,  
And urged them on with mad desire  
To call in haste for their destroyer;  
They only set on sport and play  
Unweetingly importuned  
Their own destruction to come speedy upon them.  
So fond are mortal men  
Fallen into wrath divine,  
As their own ruin on themselves to invite,  
Insensate left, or to sense reprobate,  
And with blindness internal struck.  Semichor. 
But he though blind of sight,  
Despised and thought extinguished quite,  
With inward eyes illuminated  
His fiery virtue roused  
From under ashes into sudden flame,  
And as an evening Dragon came,  
Assailant on the perched roosts,  
And nests in order ranged  
Of tame villatic Fowl; but as an Eagle  
His cloudless thunder bolted on their heads.  
So virtue given for lost,  
Depressed, and overthrown, as seemed,  
Like that self-begott'n bird  
In the Arabian woods embossed,  
That no second knows nor third,  
And lay e'er while a Holocaust,  
From out her ashy womb now teemed,  
Revives, reflourishes, then vigorous most  
When most unactive deemed,  
And though her body die, her fame survives,  
A secular bird ages of lives.  Man. 
Come, come, no time for lamentation now,  
Nor much more cause, Samson hath quit himself  
Like Samson, and heroicly hath finished  
A life Heroic, on his Enemies  
Fully revenged, hath left them years of mourning,  
And lamentation to the Sons of Caphtor  
Through all Philistian bounds. To Israel  
Honour hath left, and freedom, let but them  
Find courage to lay hold on this occasion,  
To himself and father's house eternal fame;  
And which is best and happiest yet, all this  
With God not parted from him, as was feared,  
But favouring and assisting to the end.  
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.  
Let us go find the body where it lies  
Soaked in his enemy's blood, and from the stream  
With lavers pure and cleansing herbs wash off  
The clotted gore. I with what speed the while  
(Gaza is not in plight to say us nay)  
Will send for all my kindred, all my friends  
To fetch him hence and solemnly attend  
With silent obsequy and funeral train  
Home to his father's house: there will I build him  
A Monument, and plant it round with shade  
Of Laurel ever green, and branching Palm,  
With all his Trophies hung, and Acts enroled  
In copious Legend, or sweet Lyric Song.  
Thither shall all the valiant youth resort,  
And from his memory inflame their breasts  
To matchless valour, and adventures high:  
The Virgins also shall on feastful days  
Visit his Tomb with flowers, only bewailing  
His lot unfortunate in nuptial choice,  
From whence captivity and loss of eyes.  Chor. 
All is best, though we oft doubt,  
What th' unsearchable dispose  
Of highest wisdom brings about,  
And ever best found in the close.  
Oft he seems to hid his face,  
But unexpectedly returns  
And to his faithful Champion hath in place  
Bore witness gloriously; whence Gaza mourns  
And all that band them to resist  
His uncontrollable intent,  
His servants he with new acquist  
Of true experience from this great event  
With peace and consolation hath dismissed,  
And calm of mind all passion spent.  
THE END.   

Omissa.  
Page 89 after verse 537. which ends, Not much to fear, insert these.  
What if his eyesight (for to Israel's God  
Nothing is hard) by miracle restored,  
He now be dealing dole among his foes,  
And over heaps of slaughtered walk his way?  Man. 
That were a joy presumptuous to be thought.  Chor. 
Yet God hath wrought things as incredible  
For his people of old; what hinders now?  Man. 
He can I know, but doubt to think he will;  
Yet Hope would fain subscribe, and tempts Belief.  
After the next verse which gins, A little stay, insert this.  Chor. 
Of good or bad so great, of bad the sooner;  
Then follows in order, For evil news, etc.   

Errata in the former Poem.  
PAge 4. verse 62. after being no stop, p. 13. verse 226. for destroy, r. subdue, p. 21. v. 373. for demurring, r. demurring, p. 22. v. 400. for never, r. nearer, p. 23. v. 407. for Imports, r. Imparts, p. 35. v. 127. after threat'ns, insert then, p. 44. v. 313. for Thebes, r. Thebez, p. 46. v. 341. for peeled, r. piled, p. 47. v. 371. no comma after knowledge, but after works, p. 71. v. 323. for shower, r. showers, p. 83. v. 102. no stop after victor.   

Errata in the latter Poem.  
PAge 16. verse 127. for irresistible, r. Irresistible, p. 17. v. 158. for complained, r. complain, p. 21. v. 222. for mentioned, r. motioned, p. 28. v. 255. before, such r. And, p. 43. v. 657. no stop at the end, p. 44. v. 661. for to, r. with, p. 75. v. 259. for divulged, r. divulge, p. 78. v. 324. for race r. rate, p. 79. v. 336. for Mimirs, r. Mimics, p. 90. v. 553. for herd r. here.