Horribly loud, unlike the former shout.

CHORUS.

Noise call you it or universal groan,

As if the whole inhabitation perish'd!
Blood, death, and deathful deeds are in that noise,
Ruin, destruction at the utmost point.

MANOAH.

Of ruin indeed methought I heard the noise: Oh it continues, they have slain my son. CHORUS.

Thy son is rather slaying them, that outcry From slaughter of one foe could not ascend. MANOAH.

Some dismal accident it needs must be; What shall we do, stay here or run and see? CHORUS.

Best keep together here, lest running thither
We unawares run into danger's mouth.
This evil on the Philistines is fall'n;
From whom could else a general cry be heard?
The sufferers then will scarce molest us here,
From other hands we need not much to fear.
What if his eye-sight (for to Israel's God
Nothing is hard) by miracle restor❜d,
He now be dealing dole among his foes,

1512. -inhabitation] Oxoves. Richardson.

1514. at the utmost point.] Al ultimo segno. Richardson.

1529. —be dealing dole] Distributing his gifts and portions among his enemies, from a Saxon word, says Skinner, but Mr. Upton in his remarks upon Ben

1510

1515

1520

1525

Jonson's three plays, p. 31. derives the word dole from the Greek año Tou daλu», distribuere. By the way we may observe, that the Chorus here entertains the same pleasing hope of Samson's eye-sight being by miracle restored, which he had before tacitly reproved in Manoah, and

And over heaps of slaughter'd walk his way?
MANOAH.

That were a joy presumptuous to be thought.
CHORUS.

Yet God hath wrought things as incredible For his people of old; what hinders now? MANOAH.

He can I know, but doubt to think he will; Yet hope would fain subscribe, and tempts belief. 1535 A little stay will bring some notice hither.

CHORUS.

Of good or bad so great, of bad the sooner;
For evil news rides post, while good news baits.
And to our wish I see one hither speeding,
An Hebrew, as I guess, and of our tribe.
MESSENGER.

O whither shall I run, or which way fly

1530

1536. A little stay will bring some notice hither.] The text of the first edition wants the nine lines preceding this, and the line that follows it: but they are supplied in the Errata. This line in that edition is in the part of the Chorus, as I think it ought to

1540

raged the same hope in himself, now desponds and reckons it presumptuous in another. Such changes of our thoughts are natural and common, especially in any change of our situation and circumstances. Fear and hope usually succeed each other like ague and fever. And it was not a slight observation of mankind, that could have enabled Milton to have understood and described the human passions so exactly.

Manoah who had before encou- be: and so is the next but one, in that and all the editions; though it seems to belong rather to Manoah. The line between them, which is wanting (as I just now observed) in the text of the first edition, in the Errata and in all the editions since is given to the Chorus, but the poet certainly intended both them and Manoah a share in it.

CHOR. A little stay will bring
some notice hither

Of good or bad so great.
bad the sooner;

Man. Of

For evil news rides post, while good news baits.

CHOR. And to our wish I see one hither speeding,

An Hebrew, as I guess, and of our

tribe.

Calton.

The sight of this so horrid spectacle,
Which erst my eyes beheld and yet behold?
For dire imagination still pursues me,
But providence or instinct of nature seems,
Or reason though disturb'd, and scarce consulted,
To' have guided me aright, I know not how,
To thee first reverend Manoah, and to these
My countrymen, whom here I knew remaining,
As at some distance from the place of horror,
So in the sad event too much concern'd.

MANOAH.

The accident was loud, and here before thee With rueful cry, yet what it was we hear not; No preface needs, thou seest we long to know. MESSENGER.

It would burst forth, but I recover breath And sense distract, to know well what I utter.

MANOAH.

Tell us the sum, the circumstance defer.
MESSENGER.

Gaza yet stands, but all her sons are fall'n,
All in a moment overwhelm'd and fall'n.

1552. —and here before thee] Here again the old error was carefully preserved through all the editions. In the first edition it was printed and heard before thee; but we have corrected it, as Milton himself corrected it in the table of Errata.

1554. No preface needs.] No preface is wanting. Needs is a verb neuter here as in Paradise Lost x. 80. where see the note.

1545

1550

1555

1556. And sense distract.] The word is used likewise as an adjective in Shakespeare. Julius Cæsar, act iv. sc. 4.

-With this she fell distract, And (her attendants absent) swallow'd fire.

Twelfth-Night, act v. sc. 5.

They say, poor gentleman! he's much distract.

MANOAH.

Sad, but thou know'st to Israelites not saddest 1560 The desolation of a hostile city.

MESSENGER.

Feed on that first, there may in grief be surfeit.
MANOAH.

Relate by whom.

MESSENGER.
By Samson.
MANOAH.

That still lessens

The sorrow, and converts it nigh to joy.
MESSENGER.

Ah Manoah, I refrain, too suddenly
To utter what will come at last too soon;
Lest evil tidings with too rude irruption
Hitting thy aged ear should pierce too deep.
MANOAH.

Suspense in news is torture, speak them out.
MESSENGER.

Take then the worst in brief, Samson is dead.
MANOAH.

The worst indeed, O all my hope's defeated
To free him hence! but death who sets all free
Hath paid his ransom now and full discharge.
What windy joy this day had I conceiv'd
Hopeful of his delivery, which now proves
Abortive as the first-born bloom of spring

1576. Abortive as the first-born bloom of spring &c.] As Mr. Thyer says, this similitude is to be admired for its remarkable

1565

1570

1575

justness and propriety. One cannot possibly imagine a more exact and perfect image of the dawning hope which Manoah

Nipt with the lagging rear of winter's frost!
Yet ere I give the reins to grief, say first,
How died he; death to life is crown or shame.
All by him fell thou say'st, by whom fell he,
What glorious hand gave Samson his death's wound?

1580

MESSENGER.

Unwounded of his enemies he fell.

MANOAH.

Wearied with slaughter then or how? explain.
MESSENGER.

By his own hands.

MANOAH.

Self-violence? what cause

Brought him so soon at variance with himself
Among his foes?

1

MESSENGER.
Inevitable cause

had conceived from the favourable answer he had met with from some of the Philistian lords, and of its being so suddenly extinguished by this return of ill fortune, than that of the early bloom, which the warmth of a few fine days frequently pushes forward in the spring, and then it is cut off by an unexpected return of winterly weather. As Mr. Warburton observes, this beautiful passage seems to be taken from Shakespeare, Henry

VIII. act iii. sc. 6.

This is the state of man; to-day he puts forth

The tender leaves of hopes, to morrow blossoms,

And bears his blushing honours thick upon him;

The third day comes a frost, a killing

frost;

1585