Samson Agonistes

Overview

Full title

Samson Agonistes: A Dramatic Poem. 'Agonistes' is Greek for a contender or champion in the games, and so also a performer before spectators

Published

1671, in one octavo volume with Paradise Regain'd, printed by J. M. for John Starkey; the title page reads 'Paradise Regain'd. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is added Samson Agonistes'

Composed

Disputed. The traditional view places it after Paradise Lost, in the later 1660s; W. R. Parker argued for a start in the late 1640s; many scholars now settle on the years after the Restoration of 1660

Length

1,758 lines in the standard numbering, including the nine lines (1527–1535) printed in 1671 only in a list of omissions (Omissa) at the end of the volume

Source

Judges 13–16, with the hero's place among the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11:32

Models

Greek tragedy, especially Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus and Ajax and Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound; a prose preface defends tragedy on Aristotelian and Christian grounds

Setting

Before the prison in Gaza, on the festival day of the Philistine god Dagon; the action keeps the unities of place and time ('within the space of 24 hours')

Form

Blank verse for the dialogue, with irregular lyric choruses of varying line length and occasional rhyme; not divided into acts and scenes, and, the preface says, 'never was intended' for the stage

Persons

Samson; Manoa his father; Dalila his wife; Harapha of Gath; a Public Officer; a Messenger; a Chorus of Danites

Shape

A lament, a series of visits, a decision and a catastrophe reported by a messenger, ending in the Chorus's 'calm of mind all passion spent'

Context

Samson Agonistes was published in 1671, in the same small volume as Paradise Regain'd. Milton was sixty-two, blind for nearly twenty years, and living under the restored monarchy whose return in 1660 had ended the cause he served as Latin Secretary to the Commonwealth. The pairing is deliberate. The brief epic shows the Son of God resisting temptation by patient refusal; the tragedy shows a fallen Hebrew champion who, after a day of trials, destroys his enemies and himself. Readers have long argued about what the two works mean side by side (Lewalski 2000) (Knoppers 2008).

When the play was written is uncertain. Milton's early biographers placed it last among his major poems, after Paradise Lost, and this remained the accepted view until 1949, when William Riley Parker argued that it was begun in the late 1640s and largely finished by the early 1650s, in the years when Milton went blind. Parker's case rested on the play's metrical experiments, its closeness to his early plans for a biblical tragedy, and the absence of any evidence that ties it to the 1660s. Most later scholars, studying Milton's metrical habits and the play's apparent engagement with defeat, have returned to a date after the Restoration, though no external evidence settles the matter (Parker 1949) (Parker 1968) (Low 1974) (Lewalski 2000).

The story comes from Judges 13–16: the angel's announcement of Samson's birth to Manoa and his wife, the Nazarite vow that forbade wine and the razor, the marriage at Timnath, the slaughter with the jawbone of an ass, the gates of Gaza, Delilah's betrayal, the blinding, and the death in the temple of Dagon. Milton begins near the end, with Samson already blind and grinding at the mill, and adds much that the Bible lacks. Dalila becomes Samson's wife; Manoa's ransom attempt and the giant Harapha are his inventions; and Samson's biblical prayer to be 'avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes' (Judges 16:28) disappears into the Messenger's uncertain report. Christian tradition had treated Samson as a type of Christ and as a hero of faith, named in Hebrews 11:32 (Krouse 1949).

The form is Greek. Milton's preface, 'Of that sort of Dramatic Poem which is call'd Tragedy', invokes Aristotle's doctrine that tragedy raises pity and fear in order to purge such passions, defends tragedy by the examples of Gregory Nazianzen and of the theologian David Pareus, who read the Book of Revelation as a tragedy in acts, and condemns the English stage for mixing comic matter with tragic. The play keeps the unities, uses a chorus, reserves its violence for a messenger's speech, and recalls in its situation Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus (a blind old hero near death), his Ajax (a shamed warrior who dies by his own act) and Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound (a bound sufferer visited by a series of callers) (Parker 1937) (Lewalski 1970).

The poem's reception has been divided from the start. Samuel Johnson complained in The Rambler that it had a beginning and an end but no middle, since nothing in the visits hastens or delays the catastrophe. Twentieth-century critics answered that the middle is Samson's inner regeneration, worked out through each encounter. More recently the ending has itself become the problem: whether Samson's last act is inspired by God or is a desperate man's revenge, and whether a modern reader should admire it, especially after the attacks of 11 September 2001 (Johnson 1751) (Radzinowicz 1978) (Carey 2002).

Plot overview

On a feast day of Dagon, when the Philistines rest from labour, the blind Samson is led out of the prison in Gaza to sit in the open air. Alone, he laments his blindness and shame and asks why his birth was foretold by an angel if he was to end 'Eyeless in Gaza at the Mill with slaves'. A Chorus of his fellow Danites comes to comfort him; they recall his former feats, and he blames himself for revealing the secret of his strength to a woman, while also blaming Israel's leaders for refusing to follow him.

His old father Manoa arrives, grieving and baffled by God's treatment of his son, and announces that he is negotiating with the Philistine lords for Samson's ransom. He also reports that the feast is a thanksgiving to Dagon for delivering Samson into Philistine hands, and Samson feels most keenly that he has brought dishonour on God. He refuses to be ransomed, wishes only for death, and sinks into despair after Manoa leaves.

Next comes Dalila, richly dressed, who asks forgiveness, offers excuses (weakness, love, and the duty she owed her country and religion), and proposes to take him home and nurse him. Samson rejects her, refusing even to let her touch his hand, and she leaves declaring that her own people will honour her. The giant Harapha of Gath then comes to mock him; Samson challenges him to single combat and drives him off with threats. A Public Officer summons Samson to perform feats of strength at the feast. Samson refuses, then, feeling 'rouzing motions' within, agrees to go, promising to do nothing unworthy of his God or his vow.

Manoa returns, full of hope that the ransom can be arranged. They hear a shout, then a terrible noise. A Hebrew Messenger arrives and relates the catastrophe: Samson performed his feats in the theatre, asked to rest between the two main pillars, stood as one who prayed, then pulled the building down on the Philistine lords and on himself. The Chorus sings of his fulfilled vocation, Manoa resolves to bring the body home and build a monument, and the Chorus ends by declaring that God's servants are dismissed with 'calm of mind all passion spent'.

Part by part

Characters

Samson and his people

Samson

The Nazarite champion of Israel, of the tribe of Dan, chosen by God from birth to begin Israel's deliverance from the Philistines. Blind, enslaved and in despair at the opening, he passes through a series of visits that test his shame, his anger and his faith, until he goes to the temple of Dagon and pulls it down on the Philistine lords and himself. Whether he is regenerated, deluded or both is the central question of the play.

Manoa

Samson's aged father, to whom the angel announced Samson's birth. Loving, practical and hopeful, he seeks to ransom his son and later to bring him home to an honoured old age. He grieves over God's apparent cruelty, and at the end declares that Samson has 'quit himself / Like Samson' and resolves to build him a monument.

Chorus and messengers

The Chorus

Men of Dan, Samson's 'friends and equals' from Eshtaol and Zora, who stay on stage throughout as in Greek tragedy. They comfort, question, misjudge and interpret Samson's experience; their odes on God's justice, on women and on patience are among the most discussed passages in the play. At the end they split into semichoruses.

The Messenger

A Hebrew, an eyewitness of the catastrophe, who reports the destruction of the theatre in the long speech that ends the action. Like messengers in Greek tragedy, he narrates what cannot be shown.

Philistines

Dalila

Samson's Philistine wife (in Judges she is not called his wife), who betrayed the secret of his strength to the lords. She comes to ask forgiveness and offer him a home, and defends herself with arguments from weakness, love and patriotic duty. Rejected, she leaves confident of fame among her own people. Her sincerity is one of the play's open questions.

Harapha

A giant of Gath, invented by Milton, of the race of Og and Anak and said to be father of Goliath. He comes to look at Samson and mock him, refuses his challenge to combat, and leaves threatening revenge.

Public Officer

A messenger of the Philistine lords, who twice summons Samson to perform at the feast. His second, threatening message meets Samson's consent after the 'rouzing motions'.

Dagon

The 'Sea-Idol' of the Philistines, whose festival gives the play its occasion. He never appears, but Samson and Manoa see the day as a contest between Dagon and the God of Israel.

Themes

Regeneration and inner change

The play's action takes place largely inside Samson. He begins in self-pity and despair, accepts responsibility, resists temptations to ease (Manoa's ransom, Dalila's home), recovers courage and hope (with Harapha), and finally receives or believes he receives a new impulse from God. Many critics read this as a Protestant drama of repentance and regeneration, in which each visit is a trial that prepares him for the final act (Krouse 1949) (Low 1974) (Radzinowicz 1978).

The structure that Johnson thought empty is, on this view, the substance of the play. Yet the change is never stated, only inferred, and the evidence can be read differently. The play leaves room for doubt about how far Samson has truly changed.

Providence and justice

The Chorus says 'Just are the ways of God' and then complains that God treats his champions 'with hand so various'. Manoa asks why God's gifts turn into curses. The question of Paradise Lost, how to justify God's ways, here becomes a question asked by people who cannot see the end. Only the final chorus claims that all is best 'in the close', and even it admits that God 'seems to hide his face'.

The play shows providence working through human choices and misunderstandings: the feast, the summons and Samson's own decisions all lead to the catastrophe without any visible divine intervention.

Blindness and inner light

Blindness is Samson's worst affliction and the play's richest image. The Philistines are blinded by idolatry and drink; Samson, 'though blind of sight', is 'With inward eyes illuminated'. The contrast between outer darkness and inner light draws on a Christian tradition that Milton had used of himself in Paradise Lost and the sonnets, though the play never makes the connection explicit.

Liberty and servitude

Samson moves between kinds of bondage: the prison and the mill, his former 'servitude' to Dalila, the slavery of nations that 'love Bondage more then Liberty'. He calls the jail a 'house of Liberty' compared with Dalila's home, and finds freedom in obeying God rather than men. The theme links the play to Milton's political writing and to the experience of those defeated in 1660 (Hill 1977).

Marriage and the sexes

Samson's two Philistine marriages, his betrayal and Dalila's visit make marriage a central subject. Samson's bitterness, the Chorus's ode on women, and Manoa's final regret at his son's 'nuptial choice' present a harsh view; Dalila's speeches give the other side some force. The play's treatment of gender is now one of its most debated aspects.

Heroism and fame

Samson is a hero in the Old Testament mode, a man of strength who wins by violence. Harapha represents a degraded version of heroic honour; Dalila expects to be famous in Philistia; Manoa wants a monument and 'sweet Lyric Song'. The play asks what kind of heroism is left to a blind slave, and whether patience or action is the true fortitude.

Motifs

Visits and trials

Samson receives a sequence of visitors, as Prometheus does in Aeschylus' play. Each tempts or tests him in a different way, and their order, from friends and father to wife, enemy and master, has been read as a sequence of temptations to despair, sensuality, pride and conformity (Parker 1937).

Riddles and secrets

Samson's riddle at his wedding, the secret of his strength and the 'Secret refreshings' the Chorus hopes for connect knowledge, trust and betrayal. 'my riddling days are past', he says, but the play ends with an act whose meaning is still a riddle.

Noise and report

Much of the play happens offstage and is known through sounds and stories: footsteps, shouts, the 'hideous noise', the Messenger's account. Fame and report, 'double-mouth'd', shape how Samson and Dalila will be remembered.

Fire and the phoenix

From the angel who ascended in flames at Samson's birth to the 'fierie vertue rouz'd / From under ashes', fire marks divine presence and renewal. The phoenix, the 'self-begott'n bird', is the semichorus's emblem of virtue reborn.

Symbols

Samson's hair

The pledge of his Nazarite vow and the seat of his strength, shorn by Dalila and now grown again. Its regrowth gives Manoa hope and suggests to readers that God's favour has returned, though the hair is a sign, not the source, of strength.

The mill

Grinding at the mill, the work of slaves and animals, is the emblem of Samson's degradation. The mill's circular labour contrasts with the decisive act at the end.

The theatre and its pillars

The building where Samson dies is described as 'a spacious Theatre'. Samson brings down the place of spectacle where he was to be shown, a detail that has been read as a comment on idolatrous display and on the theatre that Milton's preface criticises (Knoppers 1994).

Light and noon

Samson's 'blaze of noon' becomes the high noon of the feast at which he acts. Light, lost outwardly, returns as inward illumination.

Critical debates

The date of composition

The early biographers, and especially Jonathan Richardson in 1734, placed Samson Agonistes after Paradise Lost, and this order was long assumed. In 1949 W. R. Parker argued that the play was begun in 1646–47 and largely finished by 1653, pointing to Milton's early plans for biblical tragedies in the Trinity manuscript, to the play's metrical irregularity, and to the lack of positive evidence for a late date. He restated the case in his biography and in an essay of 1971 (Parker 1949) (Parker 1968) (Wittreich 1971).

Others answered that the metrical evidence points the other way and that the play's concern with defeat, captivity and the uncertain return of God's favour fits the years after 1660. Most recent biographers and editors favour a Restoration date, while acknowledging that it cannot be proved (Low 1974) (Lewalski 2000) (Knoppers 2008).

The poem and the Restoration

Christopher Hill read the play as Milton's response to the defeat of the English Revolution: Samson, captive and blind among the Philistines, figures the defeated godly cause, and the destruction of the Philistine lords expresses the hope that God might again act through his servants. Later historicist critics refined this reading. David Loewenstein emphasised the play's radical religious politics and its apocalyptic violence; Laura Lunger Knoppers connected the Philistine feast with the spectacles of the restored monarchy, including the public punishment of the regicides; Sharon Achinstein placed it among the writings of the Nonconformists (Hill 1977) (Loewenstein 2001) (Knoppers 1994) (Achinstein 2003).

Such readings are persuasive but indirect, since the play never refers to contemporary events. They depend partly on the late date, and they leave open whether the play urges action, patience or a mixture of both.

Samson as terrorist?

In September 2002, a year after the attacks of 11 September, John Carey asked in the Times Literary Supplement whether Samson Agonistes was 'a work in praise of terrorism'. Carey, whose edition of the shorter poems is a standard text (Carey 1997), took issue with Stanley Fish's argument in How Milton Works that the play's value lies in Samson's willingness to act on an inner conviction that cannot be verified. Carey argued that this makes Samson's act indistinguishable from that of the hijackers, and that the play itself is far more uncertain, allowing the reader to doubt that the impulse comes from God (Carey 2002) (Fish 2001).

The debate drew on earlier work. Joseph Wittreich had already argued that Milton's play questions the tradition of Samson as a hero of faith; Feisal Mohamed argued that critics should confront, not explain away, the play's sympathy with divinely sanctioned violence; Janel Mueller related Samson to the experience of London Nonconformity in the 1660s; Michael Lieb studied the culture of violence in Milton more broadly (Wittreich 1986) (Wittreich 2002) (Mohamed 2005) (Mueller 2002) (Lieb 1994).

Regeneration and providence

For much of the twentieth century the standard view was that the play depicts Samson's regeneration. F. Michael Krouse showed how the Christian tradition treated Samson as a saint and type of Christ; Anthony Low read the play as a tragedy of the soul's recovery; Mary Ann Radzinowicz traced the play as a summation of Milton's thought, in which Samson learns through each encounter (Krouse 1949) (Low 1974) (Radzinowicz 1978).

Wittreich and others challenged this view, arguing that Milton's Samson is a flawed figure whose violence the play exposes, and that the Chorus and Manoa misread the ending. John Shawcross argued that the play deliberately leaves the reader in uncertainty. Fish sits between the camps: he denies that the play gives evidence, but treats Samson's acting without evidence as faith (Wittreich 1986) (Shawcross 2001) (Fish 1989).

Dalila and gender

Dalila's speeches give the play's most eloquent counterargument, and readers have increasingly asked whether she is a hypocrite, a patriot, or a woman whose love is real but misdirected. The Chorus's ode on women and Manoa's final regret present a harsh view of women, and it is unclear whether these represent Milton's own opinion or the limited perspective of the characters. Feminist and historicist critics have read the scene in terms of the division between public and private life (Wittreich 1986) (Achinstein 2003).

Tragedy, structure and catharsis

Johnson's objection that the play has no middle was answered by critics who saw the visits as a necessary inner progress. The preface's theory of catharsis, which purges passions 'by raising pity and fear', and the final line 'calm of mind all passion spent' have encouraged readings of the whole play as a demonstration of tragic purgation, for the characters as well as the reader (Johnson 1751) (Radzinowicz 1978).

Barbara Lewalski connected the preface's reference to Pareus with a tradition that read Revelation as a tragedy, suggesting that Milton's tragedy has an apocalyptic dimension. The relation between classical form and biblical content, between Greek tragic fate and Christian providence, remains central to the play's criticism (Lewalski 1970) (Parker 1937).

Key passages

Questions for study

1. Johnson said the play has a beginning and an end but no middle. Is he right?

   Consider what changes in Samson across the visits of Manoa, Dalila and Harapha, and whether any of them makes the catastrophe possible.

2. How does Milton use the conventions of Greek tragedy, and where does he depart from them?

   Look at the preface, the Chorus, the unities, the Messenger's speech, and the role of providence instead of fate.

3. What is the significance of Samson's blindness in the play?

   Compare the opening lament with the semichorus's 'inward eyes illuminated', and think about the Philistines' blindness.

4. Are the 'rouzing motions' from God? How does the play let us decide?

   Compare the earlier 'intimate impulse' for the marriages, the Messenger's 'as one who pray'd', and the responses of Manoa and the Chorus.

5. How convincing is Dalila's defence of herself?

   Weigh her three arguments (weakness, love, public duty), Samson's replies, and her comparison with Jael.

6. What is the function of Harapha?

   Think about heroic honour, Samson's recovery of courage, and his claim to have been raised by God to free his country.

7. In what ways might Samson Agonistes reflect the political situation after 1660?

   Consider Samson's criticism of Israel's leaders, the theme of captivity, the feast of Dagon, and whether the date affects the reading.

8. Is Samson's final act heroic, tragic, or terrible? Can it be all three?

   Look at the Chorus's 'dearly-bought revenge', Manoa's verdict, and the debate begun by Carey in 2002.

9. How does the Chorus shape our understanding of the action?

   Consider its odes on God's justice, on women and on patience, and whether its judgments are always reliable.

10. What does 'calm of mind all passion spent' mean in relation to the preface on tragedy?

    Compare the preface's account of catharsis with the final chorus, and ask whose passions are spent.

Further reading

• Achinstein, Sharon. Literature and Dissent in Milton's England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
• Carey, John, ed. Milton: Complete Shorter Poems. London: Longman, 1968; 2nd ed. Harlow: Longman, 1997.
• Carey, John. "A Work in Praise of Terrorism? September 11 and Samson Agonistes." Times Literary Supplement, 6 September 2002, 15–16.
• Fish, Stanley. "Spectacle and Evidence in Samson Agonistes." Critical Inquiry 15 (1989): 556–586.
• Fish, Stanley. How Milton Works. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2001.
• Hill, Christopher. Milton and the English Revolution. London: Faber and Faber, 1977.
• Johnson, Samuel. The Rambler, nos. 139 and 140 (16 and 20 July 1751).
• Knoppers, Laura Lunger. Historicizing Milton: Spectacle, Power, and Poetry in Restoration England. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1994.
• Knoppers, Laura Lunger, ed. The Complete Works of John Milton, vol. 2: The 1671 Poems: Paradise Regain'd and Samson Agonistes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
• Krouse, F. Michael. Milton's Samson and the Christian Tradition. Princeton: Princeton University Press for the University of Cincinnati, 1949.
• Lewalski, Barbara Kiefer. "Samson Agonistes and the 'Tragedy' of the Apocalypse." PMLA 85 (1970): 1050–1062.
• Lewalski, Barbara K. The Life of John Milton: A Critical Biography. Oxford: Blackwell, 2000.
• Lieb, Michael. Milton and the Culture of Violence. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994.
• Loewenstein, David. Representing Revolution in Milton and His Contemporaries: Religion, Politics, and Polemics in Radical Puritanism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
• Low, Anthony. The Blaze of Noon: A Reading of Samson Agonistes. New York: Columbia University Press, 1974.
• Mohamed, Feisal G. "Confronting Religious Violence: Milton's Samson Agonistes." PMLA 120 (2005): 327–340.
• Mueller, Janel. "The Figure and the Ground: Samson as a Hero of London Nonconformity, 1662–1667." In Milton and the Terms of Liberty, edited by Graham Parry and Joad Raymond. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2002.
• Parker, William Riley. Milton's Debt to Greek Tragedy in Samson Agonistes. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1937.
• Parker, William Riley. "The Date of Samson Agonistes." Philological Quarterly 28 (1949): 145–166.
• Parker, William Riley. Milton: A Biography. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968.
• Radzinowicz, Mary Ann. Toward Samson Agonistes: The Growth of Milton's Mind. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978.
• Shawcross, John T. The Uncertain World of Samson Agonistes. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2001.
• Wittreich, Joseph Anthony, Jr., ed. Calm of Mind: Tercentenary Essays on Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes in Honor of John S. Diekhoff. Cleveland: Press of Case Western Reserve University, 1971.
• Wittreich, Joseph. Interpreting Samson Agonistes. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986.
• Wittreich, Joseph. Shifting Contexts: Reinterpreting Samson Agonistes. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 2002.