The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics)

by John Milton

  678–704. But… end Most of the details in these lines could apply to biblical heroes, but the specific mention of unjust tribunals and change of times (695) strongly suggests that M. is alluding to the treatment of Commonwealth leaders after the Restoration. Charles II’s tribunals punished both the living and the dead. The carcasses (693) of Cromwell, Bradshaw and Ireton were exhumed and decapitated, and the heads were placed on poles at Westminster Hall, where they remained for several years. (Cromwell’s skull was buried only in 1960.) The Parliamentary generals Lambert and Martin were imprisoned (captíved), while Sir Henry Vane was hanged, drawn and quartered (a fate that M. narrowly escaped). The ingrateful multitude applauded these acts.

  678. elected chosen by God to be the recipient of a temporal or spiritual blessing (OED 4).

  682. dignified raised to positions of dignity.

  687. remit consign again to a previous condition (OED 11b).

  700. crude premature (OED 4).

  701–2. Though… days ‘Even though they have not themselves been immoderate (disordinate), they suffer, without cause, the same punishment as those who have led dissolute lives’. M. himself suffered from blindness and gout, despite having refrained from intemperance.

  702. in fine in conclusion.

  706. minister servant, agent.

  709. peaceful end tranquil death.

  711–18. female… Sails filled Tudor and Stuart writers often compared women to ships. Hughes cites Lady Pecunia in Jonson’s The Staple of News (Act II), who appears ‘like a galley, Gilt in the prow’. There is much nautical imagery in SA. Cp. 198–200, 710–24, 960–64, 1044–5, 1061–3, 1070, 1647–51.

  714–15. ship / Of Tarsus ‘Ships of Tarshish’ is a common O.T. phrase connoting worldly vanity. Cp. Isa. 23. 1: ‘Howl, ye ships of Tarshish’, and Ps. 48.7: ‘Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish’. Tarshish is usually identified with Tartessus in Spain rather than Tarsus in Cicilia.

  715–16. isles / Of javan Aegean isles. On Javan, see PL i 508n.

  716. Gadier the Phoenician city of Gadera (now Cadiz, in Spain).

  717. bravery finery.

  tackle trim rigging in good order. ‘Tackle’ was also a slang term for ‘mistress’ (OED 7), and ‘trim’ could mean ‘finely arrayed, “got up” ’ (OED 2).

  719. hold them play keep them moving.

  720. amber ambergris, an aromatic substance found in the sea and used as a perfume. See A Masque 863n.

  729. addressed made ready.

  731. makes address makes ready.

  734. merited deserved an evil estimation (OED 2).

  736. fact evil deed (OED 1c).

  737. perverse event unexpected outcome.

  738. penance penitence.

  748. hyena A note to Ecclesiasticus 8.18 in the Geneva Bible (1560) explains that the hyena ‘counterfaiteth the voyce of men, and so entiseth them out of their houses and devoureth them’. Cp. Jonson, Volpone IV vi 2–3: ‘Now thine eyes / Vie tears with the hyena’.

  752. move urge, request (OED 12a).

  754. try make trial of (his virtue) and afflict (his patience).

  763. bosom snake combining the proverb ‘to cherish a viper in one’s bosom’ with the idiom ‘bosom friend’.

  769. aggravations extrinsic circumstances which increase the guilt of a crime (OED 7b). In Latin aggravare means ‘make heavier’ (notice weighed, surcharged, counterpoised).

  775. importune irksome through persistency of request.

  779. naught both ‘nothing’ and ‘wickedness’ (OED 2), as in ‘From doing nothing proceed to doing naught’ (1656).

  785. parle parley.

  795. her at Timna Samson left his first wife after she revealed the answer to his riddle. See above, 227n.

  800–802. I was assured… safe custody Dalila might not be lying. In the LXX version of Judges 16. 5 the Philistine lords tell Dalila that they plan to ‘humiliate’ Samson. In the Vulgate the Greek word for ‘humiliate’ becomes affligare. In A.V. the Philistines say ‘Entice him… that we may bind him to afflict him’, but the marginal note gives ‘humble’ as an alternative to ‘afflict’.

  803. That made for me ‘that counted with me’ (OED ‘make’ 25) or ‘that worked to my advantage’ (OED 78).

  809. Whole both ‘unshared’ and ‘unwounded’.

  812. fond foolishly tender, doting (OED 5a).

  826. which i.e. pardon (825).

  840. Knowing knowing myself to be.

  841–2. to cover shame… uncover’st more Cp. PL ix 1057–61, where Adam and Eve are ‘naked left / To guilty Shame: he covered, but his robe / Uncovered more. So rose the Danite strong / Herculean Samson from the harlot-lap / Of Philistéan Dálila’.

  857. priest There is no priest in the biblical account.

  859. meritorious entitling to divine reward (OED 1, theological term). There may be a pun on Latin meritorius, ‘earning money (by prostitution)’.

  865. grounded firmly established.

  866. rife frequently heard.

  868. Private respects personal considerations.

  878–9. loved… Too well Cp. Shakespeare, Othello V ii 345: ‘loved not wisely, but too well’.

  881. could deny thee nothing Cp. Shakespeare, Othello III iii 83: ‘I will deny thee nothing’.

  885–6. thou wast to leave / Parents Cp. Gen. 2. 24: ‘Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother’. M.’s own first wife had returned to her parents shortly after marrying M.

  890. law of nature, law of nations echoing the title of John Selden’s De Jure Naturali et Gentium (1640), which M. cites in DDD as Of the Law of Nature and of Nations (YP 2. 350).

  891. crew gang, mob (OED 4). M. often employs this pejorative sense. Cp. PL vi 49, 370 (‘Godless crew’, ‘Atheist crew’).

  894. our country Israel, as opposed to thy country (884, 889, 891). Cp. 238, 518, 851.

  897. acquit themselves perform their offices, avenge themselves, prove themselves to be (OED ‘acquit’ 2, 6, 13b). Samson withholds the expected complement ‘gods’, since that is what Philistine gods cannot be.

  prosecute persecute (OED 9).

  901. varnished colours specious pretences.

  906. worried *pestered with reiterated demands (OED v 6a).

  peals noisy appeals.

  910. Afford me place to give me a chance to.

  913. sensibly acutely, intensely (OED 2a).

  916. other senses Dalila hints at the pleasures of sex. See below, 951n. want lack.

  926. grateful pleasing.

  932. trains snares and the bait leading to them (OED sb2 2, 3).

  933. dearly at great cost and from the heart.

  gins snares.

  toils hunting nets. Cp. Orestes’ description of the robe in which Clytemnestra caught Agamemnon: ‘what shall I call it…? Trap for an animal or… net… May no such wife as she was come to live with me’ (Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 998–1005).

  934. enchanted cup alluding to Circe and the whore of Babylon. See A Masque 51n.

  charms songs, spells.

  936. adder’s wisdom deafness. Cp. Ps. 58.4–5: ‘the deaf adder that stoppeth the ear; / Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers’.

  944. insult exult proudly or contemptuously (OED 1).

  948. gloss upon make unfavourable comments upon (OED 1b).

  censuring, frown or smile ‘finding fault with me, both when you frown and when you smile’.

  950. To compared to.

  951. Let me… touch Greek tragedy places great significance on touch. See e.g. Sophocles, Oedipus the King 1467, Oedipus at Colonus 1112, 1130–35, Philoctetes 810–20. Samson’s spurning of Dalila recalls Philoctetes’ rejection of Neoptolemus (Philoctetes 761–2), but Dalila’s offered touch has sexual overtones.

  953. tear thee joint by joint Cp. Samson’s tearing of the lion (128); also Euripides, Hecuba 1125, where Polymestor, blinded by Hecuba, threatens to ‘claw her to pieces with these bare hands’. See further Lieb2 252–3.

&
nbsp; 958. Cherish cheer, gladden (OED 4).

  967. evil omen Dalila means Samson’s sarcastic prediction about her future fame (956–7).

  969. concernments affairs.

  971–4. Fame… flight the goddess Fama (Rumour) was often depicted as flying or blowing a trumpet, but Dalila makes Fame a god, not a goddess. The black and white wings are also M.’s invention, though Silius Italicus depicts Infamia as flying with black wings (Punica xv 6–9).

  971. double-mouthed with two mouths and mouthing duplicities.

  975. circumcised Israelites.

  976. Dan a city in the territory of the Danites, Samson’s tribe.

  979. traduced passed on to posterity (OED 2) and maligned.

  981. Ecron… Gath Philistine cities.

  983. solemn including ‘grand, sumptuous’ (OED 4a).

  984. recorded sung about (OED 2b) and recorded in history.

  987. odours incense. Cp. Jer. 34. 5: ‘So shall they burn odours for thee’.

  988–90. Mount Ephraim… nailed See Judges 4. 21. Defeated by the Israelites, the Canaanite general Sisera sought refuge in the tent of Jael, wife of the Kenite Heber. Jael told Sisera ‘fear not’, then killed him by driving a nail through his head while he slept. The prophetess Deborah, who lived in Mount Ephraim, sang Jael’s praises (hence renowned). See Judges 5. 24–7.

  995–6. At this… my own Cp. Teucer’s words in Sophocles’ Ajax 1038–9: ‘But if anyone should find my thought at fault, / Let him keep his opinion, and I mine’.

  1000. aggravate make more grievous (OED 6).

  1012. inherit hold, possess.

  1015. refer consider.

  1016. thy riddle the riddle that Samson set his Philistine guests when he married the woman of Timna: ‘Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness’ (Judges 14. 14). The ‘eater’ was a lion, and ‘sweetness’ honey in the lion’s carcass. After seven days, the Philistines learned the answer from Samson’s wife, whom they had threatened with death (Judges 14. 15–18).

  1020. paranymph ‘best man’ (OED 1). After Samson left his wife, she ‘was given to his companion, whom he had used as his friend’ (Judges 14. 20). Junius-Tremellius has pronubus for ‘friend’.

  1022. both both wives.

  *disallied dissolved, cancelled.

  1025. Is it for that Is it because.

  1030. affect prefer (OED 2).

  1035–7. under virgin veil… a thorn Cp. DDD: ‘who knows not that the bashfull mutenes of a virgin may oft-times hide all the unlivelines & naturall sloth which is really unfit for conversation’ (YP 2. 249).

  1037. joined married.

  1037–8. a thorn / Intestine Cp. Num. 33. 55: ‘if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you… those which ye let remain of them shall be… thorns in your sides’. Cp. also II Cor. 12. 7: ‘a thorn in the flesh’. Intestine includes ‘domestic’ (OED 1a).

  1038. within defensive arms ‘having penetrated his defences’ and ‘within his embrace’.

  1039. cleaving both ‘clinging to’ and ‘splitting apart’. Cp. Areopagitica (1644): ‘good and evill as two twins cleaving together’ (YP 2. 514). Cp. also Tetrachordon on Gen. 2.24: ‘Cleav to a Wife, but let her bee a wife… not an adversary, not a desertrice; can any law or command be so unreasonable as to make men cleav to calamity?’ (YP 2. 605).

  1044–5. What pilot… helm Cp. Samson as shipwrecked pilot (197–200).

  1046. Favoured of Heav’n who finds ‘That man is favoured by Heaven who finds’. See Proverbs 31. 10–28 on the virtues of a good wife.

  1055. in due awe primarily ‘her awe of him’, but perhaps also ‘his awe of her’. Cp. PL viii 558: ‘an awe / About her’, and viii 577: ‘So awful, that with honour thou may’st love / Thy mate’.

  1059. swayed ruled, governed.

  1060. female usurpation Cp. I Tim. 2. 12: ‘I suffer not a woman to… usurp authority over the man’. M. cites this verse approvingly in DDD (YP 2. 324).

  1062. contracted incurred.

  1064. riddling days See above, 1016n.

  1068. Hárapha No such character appears in Judges, but in the A.V. of II Sam. 21. 16, David fights ‘the sons of the giant’. Some commentators took ‘the giant’ (Hebrew ha rapha) to be a name. See also 1249n below.

  1069. pile *lofty mass (OED 4b, earliest figurative instance).

  1073. His habit carries peace ‘he is dressed as if for peace’.

  1075. fraught cargo of a ship (OED 2), continuing the nautical imagery. Harapha is also ‘big with menace’ (OED ppl. a 3b). Cp. Satan ‘fraught with mischievous revenge’ (PL ii 1054).

  1076. condole thy chance lament your misfortune.

  1080. Og… Anak… Emims biblical giants (see Deut. 2. 10–11, 3. 11; Num. 13. 33 and 21. 33–35).

  1081. Kiriathaim home of the Emims (Gen. 14. 5).

  1081–2. thou know’st… art known Cp. Satan’s ‘Not to know me argues yourselves unknown’ (PL iv 830).

  1087. camp field of battle (Latin campus).

  listed *provided with lists, for tilting (OED a2 2).

  1088. noise report, rumour (OED 2a).

  1091. taste explore by touch, put to the proof (OED 1, 2).

  1092. single pick out (OED 4), ‘challenge to single combat’.

  1093. Gyves shackles, fetters.

  1099. Palestine… Philistine The two words are etymologically related.

  1105. in thy hand within easy reach.

  1109. Afford allow.

  assassinated wounded by treachery (OED).

  1113. Close-banded both ‘secretly banded together’ and ‘fighting in close-ranks’.

  1115. circumvent take prisoner (OED 1) and outwit.

  1116. shifts evasions, excuses.

  1120. brigandine chain-mail or plates sewn on canvas or leather.

  habergeon sleeveless coat of mail.

  1121. Vant-brace armour for the forearm.

  1121–2. spear / A weaver’s beam Goliath’s spear was ‘like a weaver’s beam’ (I Sam. 17. 7, I Chron. 20. 5) – the heavy roller used to keep threads taut in a loom.

  1122. seven-times-folded shield Cp. the shield of Ajax, made of seven layers of bull’s hide (Homer, Il. vii 200), and the sevenfold shield of Turnus (Virgil, Aen. xii 925).

  1123. staff David ‘took his staff in his hand’ when he faced Goliath, who said: ‘Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves?’ (I Sam. 17. 40, 43). Hill (437) notes that the staff ‘was the traditional weapon of the English lower classes’.

  1138. chafed angered.

  ruffled angry and stiffened (quills).

  1139. I know no spells echoing the judicial oath taken by medieval knights before engaging in trial by combat: ‘I do swear that I have not upon me, nor upon any of the arms I shall use, words, charms, or enchantments, to which I trust for help to conquer my enemy, but that I do only trust in God, in my right, and in the strength of my body and arms’ (Todd).

  1144. pledge Cp. the apple as a ‘pledge’ of Adam and Eve’s obedience (PL viii 325).

  1147. spread before him explain to him.

  1153. seconded both ‘assisted’ and ‘supported as by a ”second” in a duel’. Cp. PL iv 929.

  1157–8. cut off / Quite Cp. PL iii 46–50: ‘from the cheerful ways of men / Cut off… quite shut out’.

  1164. boist’rous coarse-growing, rank (OED 6).

  1169. thine thy people.

  1186–8. murder… robes Samson had wagered ‘thirty change of garments’ that the Philistines could not answer his riddle (see above, 1016n). When his wife betrayed his secret (see above, 227n), he paid his wager in this way: ‘And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and slew thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave change of garments unto them which expounded the riddle’ (Judges 14. 19).

  1192–3. Among… no foe In fact Samson married the woman of Timna precisely because he sought an ‘occasion’ against the Philistines. See 222–5, 423 and Judges 14. 4. />
  1195. politician craftily plotting.

  1197. await wait upon (OED 5) and watch stealthily with hostile purpose (OED 1).

  thirty spies Cp. Judges 14. 11: ‘And it came to pass, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him’. The Bible does not call these men spies, but Josephus says they were sent ‘in pretence to be his companions, but in reality to be a guard upon him’ (Antiquities V viii 6).

  1198. threat’ning cruel death The Philistines threatened to burn Samson’s wife (Judges 14. 15).

  1201–3. When… hostility ‘When I saw that the Philistines were all set on enmity, I treated them as enemies, wherever I came upon them’.

  1204. underminers insidious assailants.

  1206–7. force… conquered can Cp. Brief Notes Upon a Late Sermon (1660): ‘if [kings rule] by conquest, that conquest we have now conquerd’ (YP 7. 483).

  1208. But I a private person ‘But you call me a private person’. Samson is not conceding the point. See line 1211.

  1210. Single perhaps including ‘free from duplicity’ (OED 14a). Contrast the tricks of the ‘politician lords’ (1195).

  1211. private person not holding any public office (OED B 1a).

  1218. my known offence ‘my offence of making [God’s secret] known’. Some editors conjecture that M. dictated ‘mine own offence’.

  1220. shifts evasions.

  appellant one who challenges another to single combat to prove upon his body the felony of which he ‘appealed’ him (OED B 1b).

  1221. attempts warlike enterprises (OED 3a).

  1222. defies thee thrice to single fight In judicial combats it was customary to repeat a challenge three times. Samson has openly challenged Harapha in lines 1151 and 1175.

  1223. enforce effort, exertion.

  1224. enrolled named on a list, as a criminal or slave. Only nobles or soldiers could participate in judicial combat.

  1228. descant comment at length.

  1231. Baäl-zebub the name under which Baal was worshipped in the Philistine city of Ekron (II Kings 1. 2). He appears as Beëlzebub in PL. unused unaccustomed.

  1234. van vanguard (i.e. ‘start fighting’).

  1237. baffled publicly disgraced (OED I 1). When a knight was ‘baffled’, he (or his image) was hung by the heels and he could never again fight in duels. See The Gentleman’s Calling (1660): ‘he that has once been baffled, is ever after an incompetent Challenger’ (v 71).