A Variorum Commentary on the Poems of John Milton: Volume 3 [Samson Agonistes]

The Title

TheTitle Samson: Parker notes that in naming his drama after the leading character, instead of after the Chorus (“the Danites”), Milton followed the example of more than half of the extant Greek tragedies (“Variorum”). Verity specifically observes that “the form ‘Samson’ comes from the Septuagint Σαμψών, the Hebrew being Shimshôn” (57). Although Josephus says that the word means “one that is strong” (Antiquities of the Jews 5.8.4), Krouse (42) notes that throughout the patristic period the accepted etymology of the name was sol ipsorum (“their sun”), which he traces as far back as Jerome’s Commentarii in epistolam ad Philemonem (Migne 26:644): “Totam Samson fabulam, ad veri solis (hoc quippe nomen ejus sonat) trahere sacramentum ”; and finds also in Augustine’s Enarrationes in Psalmos (Migne 37:1041) and Isidore of Seville’s Etymologiae 7.6 (Migne 82:278). Krouse (42) notes further the allegory that Augustine derived from this etymology, which makes Samson a prefiguration of Sol Justitiae or Christ. Some modern scholars give the meaning of the name as “solar,” “sun hero,” or “sunny,” from shemesh, “the sun”; other editors interpret it as meaning “the strong,” from shamam, “to waste.” Parker instead asserts that for Milton’s contemporaries the name signified “there the second time” (Milton’s Debt 13); he cites Blount’s Glossographia (1656), William Camden’s Remaines (1605), and Phillips’s New World of Words (1658). Parker adds, “this etymology supports—and may even have suggested—the theme of regeneration which runs through Milton’s version of the story. It may also have suggested elements of the plot: Samson, whose birth was twice prophesied by an angel (SA 24, 361, 635), is given a second chance to resist Dalila; the Public Officer ‘came now the second time’ to fetch Samson (Argument); and Manoa makes two appearances” (“Variorum”). 51 52 Variorum Commentary on the Poems of John Milton Agonistes: in adding a distinguishing epithet to the name of his protagonist, Milton followed the example, among others, of three of the greatest Greek tragedies , Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound, Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, and Euripides’ Hercules Furens. Newton suggests that Agonistes designates Samson as an “actor” or as one represented in a play (sig. P2r); Stebbing, e.g., repeats this interpretation , but Dunster (in Todd) eschews it and explains that an Agonist was an “athlete ” (competing in public games). Accepting this, Masson (Poetical Works 3:88) and Verity add the meaning “wrestler,” which subsequently prompts Hughes to explain that Samson “wrestles with the pillars” (John Milton 537). The word αγωνιστής means more than “athlete,” however; it means also (as A. J. Church notes [68]) “performer” and “player,” and (as Percival notes [60]) “champion” (cf. 705, 1152, 1751). Bush writes that the word means “a contestant in public games,” which “applies—both literally and ironically—to Samson’s last acts in the Philistine temple and applies also to his spiritual wrestlings with himself” (“John Milton” 412); adds Tinker, “it may be applied to an athlete but not to a professional athlete. The contestant may very likely have a rival or opponent,” whom Tinker here identifies as Dagon (72–73). Bush suggests that the word also has “the Miltonic overtone of ‘God’s champion’” (Milton). Sellin instead emphasizes the idea of “Samson ‘dissembling,’ Samson ‘assuming a mask,’ or Samson ‘playing a part’” (“Milton’s Epithet” 157). Parker observes also that “agon, in the Christian tradition, connotes moral struggle for virtue” (Milton 319). Rudrum writes, “the arena of the combat is his [Samson’s] own soul, and the enemy to be defeated is the ‘deadly swarm’ [19] of his own thoughts” (22). Phillips defines agonize as “to play the Champion or valiant Combatant” (New World sig. Eee1r). Parker thinks it may be “significant that Milton used neither agony nor agonize in his play, despite countless opportunities offered” (Milton’s Debt 13). Cf. Milton’s early intention “to sing the victorious agonies of Martyrs and Saints” (RCG [Patterson, Works 3:238]). Rudrum is reminded of “the related word ‘agonistic,’ which is a rhetorical term denoting the attempt to overcome an adversary in argument”; he adds that much of SA “hinges upon discussions which often become ‘arguments’” (18); see also Moss (297, 298). Among SA’s other commentators, Krouse proposes that the epithet agonistes is especially significant, inviting us “to think of Samson as a model of virtue, as a hero, as a champion of God, as a saint, a martyr, and a counterpart of Christ” (124). From such early literal meanings as “the...