Chapter Spiritual Regeneration of Samson Agonistes - Study Guide by John Milton

aware of the importance of Samson's actions for Israel. With unconscious irony the Chorus expresses its sense of the momentousness of Samson's great act,

But he though blind of sight,
Despised and thought extinguished quite,
With inward eyes illuminated
His fiery virtue roused
From under ashes into sudden flame,
...
So virtue given for lost,
Depressed, and overthrown, as seemed,
Like that self-begotten bird
In the Arabian woods embossed,
That no second knows nor third,
And lay erewhile a holocaust,
From out her ashy womb now teemed,
Revives, reflourishes, then vigorous most
When most unactive deemed,
And though her body die, her fame survives,
A secular bird ages of lives.' (ll.1687- 1706)

Manoa's approach to Samson's death is altogether more pragmatic. Nevertheless with his limited vision, Manoa manages consolation and spiritual insight - 'Samson hath quit himself / Like Samson', declaring his son has conferred upon Israel,

'Honour... and freedom, let but them
Find courage to lay hold on this occasion,
To himself and father's house eternal fame;
And which is best and happiest yet, all this
With God not parted from him, as was feared,
But favouring and assisting to the end.' (ll.1715-20)

For the Chorus and Manoa it is apparent that through his recovery of virtue Samson has been restored to his vocation as God's 'faithful champion'. They understand his victory is as much spiritual as physical - the catharsis of his inner triumph is as important as that over the Philistine oppressor and idolatrous religion. Having received a new understanding of God's ways and a new sense of religious purpose the Hebrew Chorus concludes,

'All is best, though we oft doubt,
What the unsearchable dispose
Of highest wisdom brings about,
And ever best found in the close.
Oft he seems to hide his face,
But unexpectedly returns
And to his faithful champion hath in place
Bore witness gloriously; whence Gaza mourns
And all that band them to resist
His uncontrollable intent,
His servants he with new acquist
Of true experience from this great event
With peace and consolation hath dismissed,
And calm of mind all passion spent.' (ll.1745-58)

Finally, the reader, with the knowledge of written revelation and typology Milton would have taken for granted, is expected to lay down Samson Agonistes with new insight into the mysterious workings of Providence.