‘In Power of Others, Never in My Own’

Abstract

While much has been written on Milton and liberty, especially in relation to republicanism, its antonym—slavery—has attracted little attention, even in the case of Samson Agonistes. This chapter supplies a genuinely historical account of what type of slave Samson is, and what kind of prison the prison in Gaza is, drawing on the Roman materials in Milton’s Latin projects of the 1650s—the defences, De doctrina Christiana, and the Thesaurus. However, despite the effort Milton puts into the physical realization of Samson’s condition as a slave, to Samson himself this is not true slavery, which is actually an inward condition. For Samson to free himself from inward slavery is to become the slave of God instead.

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