Samson Agonistes

By John Milton

Temptation

Manoa

In the second act, Samson is confronted by his father Manoa, who, like the Chorus (ll.115-74), laments the hero's position. Manoa questions the 'divine justice' which raised his Samson to such an eminence and then, after he had made but one mistake, abandoned him

'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 o'erwhelm, and as a thrall
Subject him to so foul indignities,
Be it but for honour's sake of former deeds.' (ll.358- 72)

Samson reproves his father for questioning divine justice. Nevertheless, it is apparent that Samson is troubled by his father's words; Manoa has asked the same question Samson himself in his opening soliloquy had pondered when lamenting over the disparities between prophecy and reality in vocation. Samson confesses 'I this honour, I this pomp have brought / To Dagon', before revealing the affects of his father's queries,

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. (ll.460-7)

Samson expresses his doubt in God and himself once more. and with a difference that does not bode well for his spiritual growth. When Manoa called God's justice into doubt, Samson is plunged into near despair. Furthermore in this state of mind, he is prompted into another presumptuous act of assumes that God has finished with him. His only "hope" is hopelessness. He decides there is no possibility that he can now fulfil his vocation - 'all the contest is now / 'Twixt God and Dagon.' Samson accuses Dagon of presumption, but presumption is his own sin as well, for he implies that before his fall the battle had been between Dagon and himself.

'Swollen with pride', Samson had acted as a free agent prosecuting justice in God's name, but without His consent or authority. Confronted by his father's doubts, a reflection of his own, at this point Samson risks reversing the progress of his spiritual regeneration. Here emerges the explicit wording of the first temptation. Manoa, who has been trying to ransom his son, advises:

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;
Or the execution leave to high disposal,
And let another hand, not thine, exact
The penal forfeit from thyself; perhaps
God will relent, and quit thee all his debt
...
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 may'st bring thy off'rings, to avert
His further ire, with prayers and vows renewed. (ll.502-20)

In De Doctrina Christiana Milton was resolute that chastisement is often 'the instrumental cause of repentance'. Samson should not attempt to avoid punishment as his father advises and tempts. Manoa's temptation revolves around presumption - he presumes God has deserted Samson and therefore his vocation has been annulled. Samson concedes Manoa is probably right, and that his days as God's agent against the Philistines are over:

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, these redundant locks
Robustious to no purpose 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
Hasten the welcome end of all my pains. (ll.563-76)

However, despite Samson's physical, moral and spiritual weakness at this point, he nevertheless avoids Manoa's temptation through his own pride, recollection of former greatness. Samson refuses to become a 'pitied object' and fall into 'contemptible old age obscure'. Though Samson rejects Manoa's temptation, he does so for the wrong reason - not faith in God and his vocation, but through his extant pride.


Dalila

In the third act Samson is confronted by Dalila, who 'like a stately ship' sweeps into the prison,

With all her bravery on, and tackle trim,
Sails filled, and streamers waving,
Courted by all the winds that hold them sway. (ll.717-19)

Milton's imagery suggests that the confrontation between Samson and Dalila will take on the character of a naval engagement, a battle between a dangerous and treacherous merchantman and a damaged war vessel helplessly meandering about a sea of doubt and confusion.

Dalila's temptation is that of concupiscentia oculorum (that is, temptation by fraud or persuasion). M. Krouse observes 'it is she, more than either Manoa or Harapha, who tries to persuade Samson.' The arrival of Dalila, the hero's 'accomplished snare', spurs Samson out of the despair into which Manoa's visit had thrown him - 'My wife... my traitress, let her not come near me' (l.725). Despite purporting the illusion of seeming repentance, Dalila remains the fraudulent temptress who recalls Lady Macbeth's advice to 'looke like th' innocent flower, / But be the Serpent under 't' (Macbeth, I, v, 74-5).

Initially, Samson's response to Dalila's presence is governed by pride and his painful memories of how her betrayal had 'effeminately vanquished' him. However, the return of Samson's spirit enables him to meet her challenge and resist her sexual temptation. He refutes her arguments with his partially restored reason (recta ratio) and the result is that his ability to reason is confirmed and strengthened as he confutes her specious reasoning. Samson does not simply reject Dalila's temptation as he had done Manoa's; he overcomes it and achieves a measure of self-knowledge in the process. With a false show of penitence and 'still dreading thy displeasure, Samson', Dalila has come, she alleges through 'conjugal affection', to seek forgiveness for her 'rash but more unfortunate misdeed' (l.747). Samson, who has learned from her betrayal, immediately sees through Dalila's façade. He charges her with 'feigned remorse', realising her objective is to regain his trust only to entice him to transgress once more.

Her first attempt having failed, Dalila tries a second. She admits her error in revealing the secret of his God-given strength to her Philistine lords, but attempts to convince him that she was moved by her own weakness and the fear of losing him (either to another woman or on the field of battle) and that she had been unable to foresee the consequences of her treacherous deed. However Samson remains resolute and is not deceived, either by Dalila's tears or her weighty and polished rhetoric. In response, Samson declares that 'All wickedness is weakness: that plea therefore / With God or man will gain thee no remission.' (ll.834-5)

Realising she has been thwarted by Samson once again, Dalila adjusts the grounds of her argument for a third time. She moves on to appeal to Samson to understand that she acted out of her commitment to public duty and religion, claiming it 'took full possession of me and prevailed' (l.869). However, this does not move Samson. Making a final attempt, Dalila suggests that she intercede with the Philistian lords for his release so that:

'I may fetch thee
From forth this loathsome prison-house, to abide
With me, where my redoubled love and care
With nursing diligence, to me glad office,
May ever tend about thee to old age
With all things grateful cheered, and so supplied,
That what by me thou hast lost thou least shalt miss.' (ll.921-7)

Dalila's final attempt at temptation is to sloth and it is precisely the temptation that Manoa had earlier offered his son - except that with Dalila there is added temptation of carnal indulgence. Samson, however, is ready for Dalila's attempt to play on his emotions and has no difficulty in overcoming her final temptation:

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 learnt
To fence my ear against thy sorceries. (ll.934-7)

Upon realising Samson cannot be tempted and deceived, Dalila finally reveals her true self and storms away, 'a manifest serpent by her sting / Discovered in the end, till now concealed' (997-8). The scene is given literary harmony by repetition of the nautical imagery with which it commenced. The Chorus inquires in a rhetorical question, 'What pilot so expert but needs must wreck / Embarked with such a steers-man at the helm?' (ll.1044-45)

From the encounter with Dalila Samson has not learned humility, patience, or faith; it does succeed in raising him out of the apathy, emotional torpor and despair Manoa's visit had instigated in the hero. Dalila's visit is the first of a series that activate Samson. The importance of the encounter is that Samson has used reason to refute her specious arguments and has, with the aid of right reason, overcome her temptations to draw him 'into the snare / Where once I have been caught' (931-2). However, Samson's reaction to temptation at this point is too self-motivated (as his pride has been irritated by Dalila) for positive spiritual growth. It is in the encounters with Harapha and the Philistian Officer that Samson learns selfless service. The trial of temptation offered by Dalila is the necessary prelude to these encounters.


Harapha

The fourth act is divided into two scenes in which Samson is confronted by Harapha, the fictional giant of Gath, and the Philistian Officer; The taunting Harapha and commands of the Officer are, for the hero's regeneration, the most significant of Samson's trials.

Harapha reveals he has heard of Samson's martial feats and has come 'to see of whom such noise / Hath walked about' (ll.1088-9). He laments that they had not collided on the battlefield, so that he might have vindicated Philistian glory, but now 'that honour, / Certain to have been won by mortal duel from thee, / I lose, prevented by thy eyes put out' (ll.1101-3). Samson's impulsive reaction is to challenge the Philistian giant to a trial by single combat. Harapha, who has come only to taunt the fallen Samson, is shaken by the spirited challenge; he alleges that Samson's strength is the product of 'spells / And black enchantments', of 'some magician's art' that 'Armed thee or charmed thee strong' (ll.1132-4). Samson replies with a firm declaration of his God-given strength:

'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,
Than thine, while I preserved these locks unshorn,
The pledge of my unviolated vow. ' (ll.1139-44)

Harapha's has drawn from Samson an expression of hope, the first in the tragedy. During Manoa's visit he had given over all hope of his divine mission ('all the contest is now / 'Twixt God and Dagon'). But now, forgetting all earlier despair at his sense of heaven's desertion, Samson unconsciously assumes once more his role as God's instrument and provides a positive and conscious declaration of his faith:

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 readmit 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. (ll.1168-77)

The confrontation with Dalila lifted Samson from near despair, and his despair (as illustrated in the Manoa episode) derived from selfish remorse. Once Samson's attention becomes focused on the spiritual rather than on the temporal or physical aspects of his situation, humility and faith become open to him - Harapha's insults invoke a latent belief in God's mercy. Samson always retained faith in divine justice, and from the beginning has accepted personal responsibility for his condition. Nevertheless, as his thoughts had been too often self-centred, he had begun to doubt and finally despair that God tempers justice with mercy. Guided by right reason and activated more so by Harapha's derisive suggestion that Heaven has deserted him than by the slight to his own pride, Samson asserts that there is no cause to doubt divine mercy or despair of pardon, for God's 'ear is ever open; and his eye / Gracious to readmit the suppliant'. Doubt gives way to faith. Samson becomes a humble petitioner seeking divine grace.

Though the verbal encounter with Harapha causes Samson to reassert his faith and humility before God, it does not teach him the virtue of patience. Without God's sanction, he challenges Harapha to a 'trial of mortal fight, / By combat to decide whose god is God'. Patience in waiting for divine commands is something Samson must learn. As was the case in his determination to marry Dalila, his motive in challenging Harapha is inherently good. Yet his defiant and selfless challenge puts him on the verge of committing another presumptuous act, of sacrificing the spiritual headway he has made through one negligent, though well- meaning, act. Ironically, a sudden burst of pride prevents Samson from carrying this presumptuous threat into execution: he disdains to fight a 'vain boaster' who uses every excuse to avoid combat - i.e. that Harapha claims he cannot fight a blind man, or demean himself to duel with a slave. Samson contemptuously dismisses the Philistine braggadocio in high scorn:

'Go baffled coward, lest 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.' (ll.1237-41)


The Philistian Officer

Few critics have regarded Samson's confrontation with the Philistian Officer as a separate and significant trial. However, it is one of the hero's most significant temptations: Samson must learn that as an agent of divine will he must wait to act only when God commands. The temptation presented by the Philistian Officer teaches Samson the necessity of patience, of standing and waiting for God's calling.

After the Chorus ironically observes Samson's lack of sight 'May chance to number with those / Whom patience finally must crown' (ll.1295-6), the Officer enters and commands Samson to follow him to the temple, where a festival is being held in Dagon's honour. Although Samson upholds adherence to Hebraic law as his reason for refusing to comply, it is apparent that his refusal is also motivated by wounded pride:

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,
And over-laboured at their public mill,
To make them sport with blind activity? (ll.1323-8)

Once more Samson verges on doing the right thing for the wrong reason. However, when the Officer reminds him that he should obey for his own safety, Samson remembers that his own safety is not important, that his strength is a God-given gift and must not, especially now that he has hope of pardon, be profaned in 'feats and play before their gods' (l.1340). Ultimately, Samson refuses to obey the command because he realises that, in doing so, he would be breaking God's law and prostituting his 'consecrated gift / Of strength' (l.1354-5) for the amusement of idolaters. His choice is to obey God's law or the Philistines' command. Since Samson has free will, the choice is his alone:

'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. (ll.1371-6)

This is confirmation of Samson's faith and humility that he gives credence to the supreme value - he decides to obey divine law, regardless of the consequences. He goes further, for he declares that God:

'may dispense with me or thee
Present in temples at idolatrous rites
For some important cause.' (ll.1377-9)

That is, Samson refuses to obey the Philistine command, but says if God were to will his presence at the pagan temple, he would obey without hesitation or question. For the moment, however, he has received no such direction and so is forced to decline to accompany the Officer. Samson has finally learned they who only stand and wait also serve God.

Unable to comprehend Samson's resolute determination to disobey the Officer, the Chorus observes in astonishment, 'How thou wilt here come off surmounts my reach.' (l.1380) At this moment Samson is isolated - no-one fully understands Samson's decision - from all except God. Until God has indicated otherwise, Samson must resolve to pass his days in patient waiting; at last Samson has developed into a true hero, one who exemplifies the 'better fortitude / Of patience and heroic martyrdom' Milton praised in Paradise Lost.

Samson's spiritual regeneration is now complete. Having learned and accepted the lessons of humility, faith and patience, Samson has been renovated and sanctified. Precisely at this point, the culmination of his regenerative experience, Samson is made aware by 'intimate impulse' of the vocatio specialis that recalls him into divine service. He notes 'I begin to feel / Some rousing motions in me which dispose / To something extraordinary my thoughts.' (ll.1381-3) Under the guidance of the Spirit of God Samson now accedes to accompany the Philistian Officer to the temple:

'I with this messenger will go along,
Nothing to do, be sure, that may dishonour
Our Law, or stain my vow of Nazarite.
If there be aught of presage in my mind,
This day will be remarkable in my life
By some great act, or of my days the last.' (ll.1384-9)

He does not know the particulars of the duties to which God, through the Officer, is summoning him, but he is fully aware of the vocational significance of the 'rousing motions', his calling. Samson knows he has regained divine grace and his vocation, and that his prophesied mission is to find expression in some glorious action. Samson realises that this will be his last effort in pursuit of God's will. In going to the temple of Dagon, Samson transgresses divine law, but he does so out of respect to the will of the Lawgiver. The Chorus cannot comprehend Samson's decision at this stage. This parallels his marriage at God's command to the woman of Timnath. We leave Samson as God's active champion, humility and faith restored, he leaves freely following the Philistian Officer to the temple, where he awaits further instruction from God, ready to fulfil the prophecy that foretold him.