Preface
Milton opens the tragedy with a translation in Latin of a sentence from Aristotle's Poetics. In opening with a reference to Aristotle, Milton immediately asserts the seriousness of his literary endeavour.
The Preface: 'Of that sort of dramatic poetry which is called tragedy'
Milton upholds the value of tragedy, claiming 'as it was anciently composed, hath been ever held the gravest, moralest, and most profitable of all other poems'. The poet evokes Aristotle's idea of the power of poetry on the human mind, the 'power, by raising pity and fear, or terror, to purge the mind of those and suchlike passions, that is to temper and reduce them to just measure'. The poet believes in the cathartic power of poetry over the reader. Milton goes on to call upon Natural law to validate this point, and recalls that 'philosophers and other gravest writers' used the tragic poets to uphold their discussion. This belief in the power of literature to invoke change in the reader was by no means new in either Milton´s time or Renaissance England. For example the prefaces to a number of plays by Ben Jonson and references in Andrew Marvell´s poetry reveal the very same concern with the ´duty´ or ´moment´ of the poet. Milton proceeds to justify his use of tragedy by giving eminent examples of its use in the past by 'men of highest dignity'.
Act I
We are first introduced to Samson who laments his position in the prison at Gaza. Samson, betrayed by his wife Dalila, with his fellow Danites is held captive and enslaved by the Philistines. As Samson is led up the 'dark steps' of the prison-house, Milton alludes to the openness of God's grace to the fallen hero. The 'guiding hand' serves as both the anonymous figure who helps Samson, and more importantly as a symbol of God. Outside again Milton provides an allusion to Samson's free will to chose to repent his sins or not with the imagery of the 'yonder bank' that has 'choice of sun or shade' - the light of God, or darkness of his fallen state. Samson has some awareness of this:
'But here I feel amends,
The breath of heav'n fresh-blowing, pure and sweet,
With day-spring born; here leave me to respire.'
Nevertheless, Samson is drowned in self-pity. He laments his fall from grace, the failure to fulfil his vocation, and his enslavement and captivity under the Philistines:
'when any chance
Relieves me from my task of servile toil,
Daily in the common prison else enjoined me,
Where I, a prisoner chained, scarcely freely draw
The air imprisoned also, close and damp.'
We are told of the 'restless thoughts' that plague Samson, which he likens to a 'deadly swarm / Of hornets armed'; Samson recounts the prophecy of his birth and vocation. His doubt is apparent when he considers his vocation:
'Ask for this great deliverer now, and find him
Eyeless in Gaza at the mill with slaves.
Himself in bonds under Philistian yoke' (ll.40-3)
The germ of Samson's spiritual regeneration lies in his ability to acknowledge his own infallibility and that he has sinned against God - 'Whom have I to complain of but myself?' (ll.46) But Samson questions God's ways, that by divine 'dispensation' he has been given such great strength but without the necessary 'double share' of wisdom - 'God, when he gave me strength, to show withal / How slight the gift was, hung it in my hair.' (ll.59-60) Samson is here complains that while God has invested him with great strength to fulfil his vocation, he lacks the complementary wisdom to protect him from such trickery as that of his wife Dalila. Nevertheless, Samson is aware that he must not question God's ways, which humankind can never understand (he concedes this is 'above my reach to know'):
'... let me not rashly call in doubt
Divine prediction
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'
This is echoed later by the Chorus, who tell Samson 'Tax not divine disposal' (l.210), and again 'Just are the ways of God, / And justifiable to men' (ll.293-4). A reader of Paradise Lost will recognise Milton's concern to depict the innermost tribulations that precede spiritual regeneration of the 'godly' - Adam goes through the very same process of catharsis in the poet's epic.
The imagery of Samson blindness and his being deprived of light alludes to his sense of being alienated from God:
'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,'
Samson again expresses his doubt or lack of faith in God: 'Light, the prime work of God, is to me extinct,' (l.70) interpreting his blindness as a sign of God's abrogation of Samson's vocation; 'Why am I thus bereaved thy prime decree?' (l.85) The Chorus, comprised of 'certain friends and equals', arrives to give 'Counsel or consolation' to Samson. At first they stand back from the blind Samson and observe the pitiful state God's champion has fallen to
'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 complain)
Imprisoned now indeed
In real darkness of the body dwells,
Shut up from outward light'
The Chorus invokes Samson's past deeds (which Milton takes from the Book of Judges). The Chorus questions divine justice by asking 'By how much from the top of wondrous glory, / Strongest of mortal men, / To lowest pitch of abject fortune thou art fall'n.' (ll.167-9) The Chorus interprets Samson's condition (blinded, fallen, captive and slave) as 'O mirror of our fickle state...' (l.164). Samson discussed Dalila's betrayal of him. He takes responsibility, asking how he could have been such a 'Fool, have divulged the secret gift of God / To a deceitful woman?' Samson asks if the Hebrew people now mock him. The Chorus consoles him, telling him that 'wisest men / Have erred, and by bad women been deceived; / And shall again, pretend they ne'er so wise.' (ll.210-13)
Samson recounts the history of his wives (from Judges 14 and 16). Though the Woman of Timnath was indeed Samson's wife, Judges does not record Dalila as such. This is Milton's own literary alteration. We learn how Dalila, 'a deceitful woman', 'That specious monster, my accomplished snare', had tricked Samson into revealing the secret of his divinely ordained strength and betrayed him to the Philistines. Samson admits, however, that Dalila 'was not the prime cause' and confesses 'I myself / ... Gave up my fort of silence to a woman.'
The Chorus observes that the Hebrews are in servitude to the Philistines. Samson refuses to take the blame for the Hebrews' enslavement; he states it is the fault of Israel's governors and tribal heads. He recalls his past endeavours (again, taken from the Book of Judges) and asserts they abandoned him - stating if they had followed Samson they would have 'lorded over them whom they now serve'. Samson scorns the Hebrews for renouncing their freedom, that they 'love bondage more than liberty, / Bondage with ease more than strenuous liberty;' - Milton here is making a succinct political allusion to the fate of the Protectorate (cf. The Readie and Easie Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth), comparing Hebrew apathy with that of the English 'people' of his own times.
The Chorus continues to advise Samson, declaring 'Just are the ways of God / And justifiable to men' (ll.193- 94) in answer to the opening of Book I of Paradise Lost. Samson is warned of the danger of doubting divine justice, and the hero is told of inner tribulation there is 'no man therein doctor but himself'. Samson is reminded of his matrimonial error in marrying Dalila - God had willed that he marry the woman of Timnath, so contravening pre-existing tribal and divine law could be justified; with his decision to marry Dalila, though his intentions were good (i.e. to pursue his vocation), he is guilty of presumption.