Composition
Samson (HWV 57, 1743) was the first of Handel's oratorios after the Messiah and was based on Milton's Samson Agonistes (1671), which is itself drawn from Judges 13-16. The libretto by Newburgh Hamilton adapts Milton's closet drama into a performable oratorio, preserving much of its philosophical intensity while adding dramatic action. Handel gave the tenor role of Samson some of his most demanding and expressive writing, and the work's trajectory - from Samson's blinded captivity to his final act of divinely enabled destruction - traces a spiritual journey from despair to redemption.
Biblical Text
Judges 16:28-30 provides the climax: Samson's prayer before his death - "Sovereign LORD, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more" - and his pushing down the pillars of the Temple of Dagon, killing more Philistines in his death than in his life. Milton and Handel read this as a type of Christ's death: the strong man who becomes weak, who is betrayed by someone close to him, who dies in apparent defeat and achieves in death what he could not achieve in life. Hebrews 11:32-34 lists Samson among the heroes of faith.
The aria "Total eclipse" - Samson mourning his blindness - is among Handel's most profound expressions of suffering, the sustained low note on "no sun, no moon" communicating the depth of sensory deprivation and spiritual darkness. Psalm 88's lament of the utterly forsaken ("I am confined and cannot escape; my eyes are dim with grief") provides the Psalm background for Samson's condition.
Creator and Legacy
Samson was the oratorio that re-established Handel's reputation after the Messiah's mixed initial London reception. Its combination of dramatic power, profound emotional expression, and explicit Christian typology (Samson as Christ-figure) made it a central text of the English Handelian tradition. The aria "Let the bright seraphim" (soprano and trumpet) became one of the most beloved concert pieces in the repertoire independently of the oratorio.