- Reader Beware! Milton is not actually writing a tragedy he intends to be staged (check out Genre for more on that), so he doesn't provide any of those useful stage directions. This means no background info. However, he does include a little plot summary called "The Argument" just before the poem (phew) so we do know some basic facts:
- Samson is a captive in Gaza, and he's blind. We also know that it's a holiday, so he has a little break from prison labor. (And somehow, we suspect that it's a little tougher than making license plates.)
- All right? Off we go. Oh—but one quick note. There are no act or scene breaks, so we've divided the text up into parts based on the characters involved. (You'll pick it up quickly.)