Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/329

 SAMSON AGONISTES

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��reenforcing this plea by the further one of love of country and religion. Samson re- pels her again and again, with a mounting passion of abhorrence ; but she refuses to be turned away, and at last says humbly, " Let me approach at least and touch thy hand." When this last consummate simu- lacrum of tenderness fails, she throws off the mask, and stands in her heartless pride, as magnificent in self-justification as Web- ster's Vittoria Corombona:

" 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, who, to save Her country from a fierce destroyer, chose Above the faith of wedlock bands."

Act III. closes, upon Dalila's departure, with a chorus in which Milton's quarrel with woman finds its most terrible expres- sion. The strophes quiver and groan un- der their weight of personal bitterness. As we read we are reminded of yet another parallelism between Milton and his hero. Both had felt overmasteriugly in youth the power of woman. For both, the cruel- est irony was the survival of the old long- ing, the old cry of the heart and the flesh, long after the unworthiness of the thing desired seemed proved. The chorus hints at this aspect of Samson's anguish in a way that illustrates the intimateness with which Milton has used his Chorus to interpret the subtle shiftings of emotion and thought in the mind of his protagonist. After Sam- son has dismissed his wife, the Chorus muses,

" Yet beanty, 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."

Act IV. begins at line 1076, after the Chorus has heralded the approach of Hara- pha. The visit of Dalila has stung Samson again to life; in his passion of resentment, he has shaken off the tcediwn vitce which

��weighed him down. The coming of the giant Harapha, the third provocative inci- dent, does more: it rouses in him again the proud consciousness of power, and fills him with lust to use it for revenge. As Hara- pha, ceasing from his insults, and frightened and discountenanced by Samson's challenge to single combat, goes off, the giant utters the threat which motives the remainder of the play,

" By Astaroth, ere long thou shalt lament These braveries." . ..

This closes, at line 1243, what may be con- sidered the first scene of Act IV. After some talk between Samson and the Chorus as to the outcome of Harapha's visit, their doubts are resolved by the arrival of the Officer, sent by the Lords at Harapha's in- stigation. Samson refuses to obey the summons and the Officer departs. The re- monstrances of the Chorus are of no avail to change Samson's decision. But sud- denly, as if smitten by a new and absorb- ing thought, he changes his mind. His words,

" 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."

show that a vague scheme of vengeance has dawned in his brain. In the Chorus which closes the act, a strange hovering half-consciousness of what is about to hap- pen seems to have been caught from Sam- son by sympathy. A very poignant effect is produced, too, by the Chorus's recalling at this juncture the signs and wonders which had long ago attended the hero's birth.

Act V. opens with line 1445. The most striking use of pathetic irony occurs here, where Manoa appears and explains his hope of ransoming Samson from captivity. While the old man is musing over his plans for tending his son and making him happy, he is interrupted by a great shout in the distance, and later by another, still louder. The Chorus is conjecturing that mayhap the Lord has restored sight to his champion

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