Paradise Lost: The Arguments - WW Norton & Company

20 John Milton
Dagan must stoop, and shall ere long receive
Such a discomfit as shall quite despoil him
Of all these boasted trophies won on me, 470
And with confusion blank 4 his worshipers.
manoa. With cause this hope relieves thee; and these words
I as a prophecy receive; for God
(Nothing more certain) will not long defer
To vindicate the glory of his name 475
Against all competition, nor will long
Endure it doubtful whether God be Lord,
Or Dagon. But for thee what shall be done?
Thou must not in the meanwhile, here forgot,
Lie in this miserable loathsome plight 480
Neglected. I already have made way
To some Philistian lords, with whom to treat
About thy ransom. Well they may by this 5
Have satisfied their utmost of revenge
By pains and slaveries, worse than death, inflicted 485
On thee, who now no more canst do them harm.
samson. Spare that proposal, father; spare the trouble
Of that solicitation. Let me here,
As I deserve, pay on my punishment,
And expiate, if possible, my crime, 490
Shameful garrulity. To have revealed
Secrets of men, the secrets of a friend,
How heinous had the fact been, how deserving
Contempt and scorn of all; to be excluded
All friendship, and avoided as a blab, 495
The mark of fool set on his front! 6 But I
God’s counsel have not kept, his holy secret
Presumptuously have published, impiously,
Weakly at least and shamefully: a sin
That Gentiles in their parables condemn 500
4. Confound, turn pale.
5. By this time.
6. Forehead.