Paradise Lost: The Arguments - WW Norton & Company

44 John Milton
Though fame divulge him father of five sons,
All of gigantic size, Goliath chief. 7
chorus. He will directly to the lords, I fear, 1250
And with malicious counsel stir them up
Some way or other yet further to afflict thee.
samson. He must allege some cause, and offered fight
Will not dare mention, lest a question rise
Whether he durst accept the offer or not; 1255
And that he durst not plain enough appeared.
Much more affliction than already felt
They cannot well impose, nor I sustain,
If they intend advantage of my labors,
The work of many hands, which earns my keeping, 1260
With no small profit daily to my owners.
But come what will; my deadliest foe will prove
My speediest friend, by death to rid me hence;
The worst that he can give, to me the best.
Yet so it may fall out, because their end 1265
Is hate, not help to me, it may with mine
Draw their own ruin who attempt the deed.
chorus. O how comely it is, and how reviving
To the spirits of just men long oppressed,
When God into the hands of their deliverer 1270
Puts invincible might
To quell the mighty of the earth, th’ oppressor,
The brute and boisterous force of violent men,
Hardy and industrious to support
Tyrannic power, but raging to pursue 1275
The righteous, and all such as honor truth!
He all their ammunition
And feats of war defeats, 8
With plain heroic magnitude of mind
And celestial vigor armed; 1280
Their armories and magazines 9 contemns,
7. 2 Samuel 21 describes four giants “born to the giant in Gath” and brothers of Goliath, slain by David’s
men; Milton makes the identification with Harapha on his own.
8. A touch of the pervasive Miltonic punning.
9. Storerooms, hence the contents, military stores.