In Samson Agonistes [S.A.] and Paradise Regained [P.R.] ,Samson and Christ are similar in that they are temporally predestined from conception as instruments of God on earth . In this function, there is a respective difference in quality and scale : Christ is to be the Redeemer of all mankind, whereas Samson is to begin Israel's deliverance (S.A.,225) , but on a mission specifically local . Samson is of the tribe of Dan--whose land borders on Philistia, as does that of Judah--yet he seems more to be working for the deliverance of Judah from Philistian hegemony (S.A.,265-8) in his scourging of the Philistines, despite his imputation of dereliction by the heads of tribes (S.A. , 242-6) .
Samson and Christ are dissimilar in that Christ volunteered prior to the incarnation (Paradise Lost [P.L] ,III,212ff) for the role of Redeemer, whereas Samson is an involuntary Deliverer : 'the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb : and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines' (Judges ,13:5) . That he fulfils his allotted role after the fact is not the same as with Christ, who has prior disposition . Also, pursuant to the scalar difference in function is a scalar difference in the reader's knowledge of Samson and Christ--in whatever age, and from whatever source, be it Mystery Play, sermon, painting or the Word . To this--and prior to Christ's entry into the action (P.R.,183)-- Milton adds the prescript that Christ will vanquish by wisdom hellish wiles (P.R,175), which is hardly conducive to narrative tension in the subsequent logomachia . By contrast, in S.A. the first line, with Samson's first-person appeal for thy guiding hand, draws the reader immediately into Samson's existential plight . And, neither before or after reading S.A. could one similarly assert that Samson 'vanquished by wisdom Philistian wiles' . It is a difference of kind : Samson is a man from first to last, whereas Christ's eternal divinity is intercalated by incarnation . Christ and Samson are dissimilar in that one is about to enter on, the other about to leave, his temporal dispensation, yet the entry/exit is preceded by a similar period of isolation--imprisonment in Gaza, 40 days in the wilderness--in which each's distinctive quality--pride in physical strength, or pride in inclination to holy meditations ( P.R,195-6)--is tested against his capacity for physical endurance, and without his volition : Samson is trapped and led to Gaza ; the spirit leads Christ into (P.R.,189,290) and around (P.R, 299) the wilderness .
They differ too in the quality of the sequence of temptations presented . Christ, with Mosaically bookish concerns and come from an impoverished Galilean backwater, is presented with things not experienced : a superfluity of sensual delights, a welter of kingdoms, a diversity of thought . Samson, on the other hand, is presented with things he has experienced : the delights of paternal care, of matrimonial love, even of the defiance of the Philistine, in Harapha . A key aid to Christ's ability to reject Satan's temptations is a perception that always has the protean Satan in view, with the effect of denying a credible effectiveness to current and subsequent temptations . The action of S.A. is a progression through a sequence of human temptations towards a point of perception where Samson willingly accepts the temptation to come into the Philistine assembly, in order to meet the divine temptation that has supervened on his life .
In S.A. ,290, Samson includes himself in the Chorus's roll of deliverers . These '' were temporary and special deliverers sent by God to deliver the Israelites from their oppressors...Their power only extended over portions of the country...Their first work was that of deliverers and leaders in war, they then administered justice to the people, and their authority supplied the want of a regular government .'' (Rev.W.M.Clow,The Bible Reader's Encyclopedia and Concordance ,re 'Judges') . In S.A. we have a deliverer whose sole work has been to scourge the Philistines--by strength, provocation, and even by marriage (215-33) . His bugbear is impotence of mind, in body strong (52) . He is Shimshon, the Sun Man, but the Philistines have rendered him eyeless in Gaza . The Nazarite, who must separate himself from strong drink (Numbers, 6), had made the first-created beam his intoxicant (83ff. ; 547-550), and the Philistines have now enforced his separation from the light so necessary...to life,...the light...in his soul .
The truth is, the divine prescription of dual role as Nazarite and Deliverer puts Samson in a seemingly hopeless position . In the period of his Separation (Numbers,6), the Nazarite must not come into contact with dead bodies . Such contact is defilement, and annuls the validity of the period gone before, so that he must start again . Samson the Nazarite unto God from the womb must maintain what is a life-long sequence of aborted periods of Separation, for proximity to dead Philistines is integral to his role of Deliverer .In fulfilling one role, he depreciates the other . His strength and the success it brings eclipse the need for reliance on mind, until an enforced Separation---from his strength via Dalila, from his adversaries in the field, and from his past unthinking progression solely as Deliverer---in Gaza prison throws him back on his sparse, scarcely used mental resources . As Samson emerges blindly into the sunlight on this Dagon day of rest, he emerges as full-blown Nazarite, undefiled by the intoxicant of light, undefiled by proximate death, with locks unshorn/The pledge of my unviolated vow . Dalila, the Philistines, and the period in prison have rendered Samson for the first time Nazarite and Deliverer : the crux is now his impotence of mind .
The initial soliloquising serves as a sort of clearing-house of the mind : analysis of motivation and self-condemnation are functional, but, in Samson's abjectness, there is the temptation to self-pity . The Chorus of Dan, Samson's own tribe, enter with power to 'suage/The tumours of a troubled mind (184-5), and throughout the Temptations, they have the role of attending on Samson, positively firming out Samson's burgeoning thought, against the negative pull of the Temptations and of Samson's own impulsive emotions . But they are not an all-seeing Ancient Chorus : at1250ff. they call Samson's entry into the Dagon assembly unclean, yet throughout they seem as unaware as Samson of the defilement of Samson the Nazarite in slaying the flower of Palestine (144) .
Still, even this early (210), they plant seminal thought : Tax not divine disposal : most pertinent to one whose life is 'divinely disposed', yet their thinking here verges on self-pity . In a sense, the presence of tribal friends is itself a possible temptation away from Samson's as-yet-undiscerned divine mission . Manoah arrives, and the pull is now tribal and familial . His temptation is the prospect of release, ease in the paternal home, and relief from his mission as Deliverer (507-8) . Samson rejects these, preferring death as a welcome end to my pains (576) . To this self-devised temptation, and to Samson's sense that by God he is cast off...as never known (641), the Chorus counsel that divine providence is distributed not evenly (671), and that it changes even for one solemnly elected (678) : i.e. you, the elected, may suffer with the generality, so your current state is not evidence of divine abandonment .
Dalila now enters (915ff.) with the tempting offer of home in leisure, and domestic ease as seen chez Manoah, but with the seductive addition of wifely solaces enjoyed/Where other senses want not their delights . Dalila too has been tempted, by Samson's strength (790-6), and by her sense of civil duty : to the public good/Private respects must yield (867-8) . The latter jolts Samson back on course as Israelite Deliverer--Nor think me so unwary...to bring my feet again into the snare (930-2) ; To thine whose doors my feet shall never enter . 'Philistine' means 'wanderer', and Samson here votes against being a 'Wanderer-through-marriage', by his feet . Figuratively, of course, as well as actually, Samson is thinking out his role .
For this man whose strength as Deliverer has defiled the Nazarite in him, the entry of Harapha is the most serious temptation . Harapha's presence and scorn challenge Samson's life-long and most immediate instinctive response to a Philistine adversary, cutting across his burgeoning reasoning powers, and offering again the prospect of defilement through proximate death . Samson is on the way to sensing his destiny, for at 1168ff. he acknowledges that the indignities here heaped on him, though existentially they are from Harapha and the Philistines, are from God inflicted on me/justly, yet despair not of his final pardon . Harapha's temptation is final catalyst, and Samson emerges inviolate and sure of his strength, but now with a purpose : because their end/Is hate, not help to me, it may with mine/Draw their own ruin who attempt the deed .
The Chorus says,This idol's day hath been to thee no day of rest/Labouring thy mind/ More than the working day thy hands (1297-9), and the product is a Samson whose reasoning powers dominate the Officer-Chorus-Samson scene (1308ff.) , highlighted in the rhetorical climax of 1362ff., in which Chorus and Samson fittingly merge . In1404-5, Samson actually feigns abject submission to the Officer's demands with a double-entendre that articulates his submission to his divinely ordained role of Nazarite and Deliverer . The zenith of his mastery over his own thoughts is his awareness and assertion of his free will (1372-3) : from a peak of physical strength on through physical weakness to mental weakness and up through the Temptations, Samson is on the threshold of mental strength , free action, and spiritual direction--He obeys in response to something extraordinary in my thoughts (1383) ; And for a life who will not change his purpose ? (1406) .
How far Samson is now above human, pragmatic concerns is highlighted by the arrival of Manoah, with his talk of rewards, ransom, and wishful thinking about the restoration of Samson's sight (1460-95), with the Chorus wondering the same thing (1527) . Samson is beyond all this, having attained to spiritual vision .
The eye-witness...relation (1594-5) puts Manoah, the Chorus, and the reader on a par with God : able to see what Samson the man could not . Milton's determination to be specific about details of the Dagon building is to parallel it with the detail of the Israelite Tabernacle in Exodus,26-7 . In this Philistine Feast of the Tabernacle--the Jewish equivalent celebrates the sojourn in the wilderness--Samson celebrates his sojourn in the wilderness of prison, but more so, his sojourn through life, where, in being deliverer, slayer and judge, he has always therein annulled his Nazarite separation unto God . This last scenario gives Samson the sole opportunity in his life of reconciling slaughter of the Philistines--his function as Judge--with that of approaching God's tabernacle (cf.Numbers,6) after the Separation period which prison has afforded . The Philistine building is scene for his approach to his Israelite Holy of Holies, to definitively confirm his Covenant with God .
In Samson's life, his divine gift of strength at the expense of mind was for the Deliverer a life-long temptation to break his vow of Nazarite Separation, by proximity with dead Philistines . The development of his thought from impotence, through human temptations, to mature reasoning gave Samson the wherewithal to resist the divine temptation with inwards eyes illuminated (1689) : his dead body cannot be defiled by proximity with the slain Philistines . He died a fulfilled Nazarite. and, in cloud-less thunder (1696), phoenix-like, he died the fulfilled Shimshon, the Sun Man, dying into eternity .
In the above treatment of S.A., I did not consider Evil, because I did not get the sense there of a pervasive malevolence or maleficence working continuously against Samson . Of course, one could qualify Dalila and Harapha as types of evil. Of course, one could qualify the Philistines as evil, and fall into accord with Scriptural viewpoint . But from the Philistine viewpoint one could similarly --and more justifiably on the basis of head-count of their dead--qualify Samson as evil . By contrast in P.R. I find that Satan fulfils my criteria of Evil--he is as malevolent and maleficent as he was in P.L--consistently . In P.R. there is little room for a comparable Satan viewpoint : Christ's purity prevents it . Yet while I could describe the offers made to Samson as temptations--because amid Samson's turmoil he was often on the edge, with the possibility of inclining to things already experienced--here in P.R. I do not see a single sign of equivocation in Christ, so the question of 'temptation' does not arise . In this contest between Satan's mutability--manifested in protean change and varied offer--and Christ's inflexibility, the mooted 'temptations' are reduced to 'Proposals' .
The temptation that does remain is born out of Christ's presence, which threatens Satanic suzerainty over the earth (I,124-5), and posits the prospect--the sovran voice (I,84)--that Christ may be the instrument of the divinely prophesied fatal wound (I,53) . Christ's presence tempts Satan out of the earthly arena where he successfully harvests lost souls, into the more rarified air of wilderness, hazard and final ends . Satan's immediate response is to convoke a subdued, barely individuated Pandemonium in the mid air, in order to sanction his intention of suborning this man in whom God is well pleased .
The sequence of Satanic Proposals turns out to be a sequence of proofs of Satan's lack of perception : with the failure of one ruse, he switches and wheels in another, all the while not perceiving Christ's invulnerability . Satan opens his Proposals with the notion of Christ as temporal embodiment of the Messianic hope (I,215-7), then that of turning stone into bread, and, finally in Bk. I, that of Satan as the resort sometimes of God, concurrent with his co-partnership with Man : benevolent, supportive, sympathetic with Man's woes .
The point of the Andrew and Simon episode and the Mary episode at the start of Bk. II is to show the thought processes of benevolent human beings who are close to Christ, showing the tempting thoughts brought on by their anxiety for Christ, and their dealing with them through patience and reason . By contrast, the already failed and anxious Satan repairs to consult the Satanic hordes . The supernatural Satan has cunning and ingenuity, but lacks the inner moral resource and deductive powers of these mere humans . Christ is similarly provisioned as Mary et al : fed with better thoughts that feed/Me hung'ring more to do my Father's will (II,258-9) . Satan sees not Christ the intellectual, but only Christ the brute, the man, and purveys to this sort of appetite--the banquet--and mentality : gold as the easy road to earthly kingship .
Bk III heightens the sense of Satan's lack of perception . From an initial logomachia that contrasts Satan's vaunted human vainglory (III,25-8) with Christ's true glory and renown (III,60) received from God, Satan progresses willy-nilly with his pageant of empires : the Parthian first, because it may entice with the prospect of reuniting the Israelite Diaspora (III,374), then the Roman, because Christ's regal virtues (IV,98) merit the acquisition of this degenerate empire, and Greece finally as the earthly seat of wisdom, which Christ calls an empty cloud (IV, 321) .
What is evident in the logomachia of these last two Books is Christ's increasing dominance, turning on what concerns it thee when I begin/My everlasting kingdom ? (III,198-90) . Christ is the tempter, teasing out Satan's desire to be at the worst (III,209) . He is again the tempter in IV,152-3 : Means there shall be to this, but what the means/Is not for thee to know, nor me to tell , with the result that Satan is sucked into trying to discover Christ's means (IV, 233-4) . Satan has already fallen from his own heights . His fall from the pinnacle of the Temple merely confirms this . His penultimate ruse of the Unsympathetic Background (IV, 451-91) evokes an image of what he is and has been : a weather-cock ever swivelling before the blast of Christian virtue, with not a genuine cock-crow to be heard . His was a lost cause, as is the artistic achievement of P.R. . It is rife with deja vus from P.L , hamstrung with veridical scriptural inclusions, and is a letter deadened by the initially prescripted certainty of its conclusions, and by Christ's infallible perception : it is a tabula rasa on which everything is writ, but no faltering human traces discerned .
