Assailant on the perched roosts,
And nests in order rang'd

Of tame villatic fowl; but as an eagle
His cloudless thunder bolted on their heads.

So virtue giv'n for lost,

Depress'd, and overthrown, as seem'd,
Like that self-begotten bird

In the Arabian woods imbost,

That no second knows nor third,
And lay ere while a holocaust,
From out her ashy womb now teem'd,
Revives, reflourishes, then vigorous most
When most unactive deem'd,
And though her body die, her fame survives

darted ruin on their heads like the thunder-bearing eagle. Mr. Sympson to the same purpose proposes to read

And not as evening dragon came but as an eagle &c.

Mr. Thyer understands it other wise, and explains it without any alteration of the text, to which rather I incline. It is common enough among the ancient poets to meet with several similies brought in to illustrate one action, when one cannot be found that will hold in every circumstance. Milton does the same here, introducing this of the dragon merely in allusion to the order in which the Philistians were placed in the amphitheatre, and the subsequent one of the eagle to express the rapidity of that vengeance which Samson took of his enemies.

1695. villatic fowl ;] Villa

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A secular bird ages of lives.

MANOAH.

Come, come, no time for lamentation now;
Nor much more cause; Samson hath quit himself
Like Samson, and heroically hath finish'd
A life heroic, on his enemies

Fully reveng'd, hath left them years of mourning,
And lamentation to the sons of Caphtor

The construction and meaning of the whole period I conceive to be this, Virtue given for lost, like the phoenix consumed and now teemed from out her ashy womb, revives, reflourishes, and though her body die which was the case of Samson, yet her fame survives a phoenix many ages: for the comma after survives in all the editions should be omitted, as Mr. Calton has observed as well as myself. The phoenix, says he, lived a thousand years according to some, [see Bochart's Hierozoicon, pars secunda, p. 817.] and hence it is called here a secular bird. Ergo quoniam sex diebus cuncta Dei opera perfecta sunt; per secula sex, id est annorum sex millia, manere hoc statu mundum necesse est. Lactantius, Div. Inst. lib. vii. c. 14. The fame of virtue (the Semichorus saith) survives, outlives this secular bird many ages. The comma, which is in all the editions after survives, breaks the construction.

1706. Had this been the intended construction, he should rather have said "the secular "bird." But survives may be perhaps more naturally contrasted with dies; "her body

1710

Through all Philistian bounds; to Israel
Honour hath left, and freedom, but let 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 fear'd,
But favouring and assisting to the end.
Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail
Or knock the breast, no weakness, no contempt,
Dispraise, or blame, nothing but well and fair,
And what may quiet us in a death so noble.
Let us go find the body where it lies
Soak'd in his enemies' blood, and from the stream
With lavers pure and cleansing herbs wash off
The clotted gore. I with what speed the while
(Gaza is not in plight to say us nay)

Will send for all my kindred, all my friends,
To fetch him hence, and solemnly attend
With silent obsequy and funeral train
Home to his father's house: there will I build him
A monument, and plant it round with shade
Of laurel ever green, and branching palm,
With all his trophies hung, and acts inroll'd
In copious legend, or sweet lyric song.
Thither shall all the valiant youth resort,
And from his memory inflame their breasts

1

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dred, all my friends, &c.] This is founded upon what the Scripture saith, Judges xvi. 31. which the poet has finely improved. Then his brethren, and all the

1780. Will send for all my kin-house of his father, came down and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burying-place of Manoah his father.

To matchless valour, and adventures high:
The virgins also shall on feastful days
Visit his tomb with flow'rs, only bewailing
His lot unfortunate in nuptial choice,
From whence captivity and loss of eyes.
CHORUS.

All is best, though we oft doubt,
What th' 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 dismiss'd,
And calm of mind all passion spent.

1745. All is best, though we oft doubt, &c.] There is a great resemblance betwixt this speech of Milton's Chorus, and that of the Chorus in Eschylus's Supplices, beginning at ver. 90.

Διος ίμερος ουκ ευθήρατος ετύχθη
&c. to ver. 109.

Thyer.

1755. His servants he with new acquist] It is his servant in most of the editions, but the first edition has it rightly his servants, meaning the Chorus and other persons present. Acquist, the

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"tention of getting Mr. Pope "to divide the Samson Agonistes "into acts and scenes, and of

he hath expressed in the preface, that "tragedy is of power by "raising pity and fear, or terror, 66 to purge the mind of those "and such like passions, &c." and he exemplifies it here in Manoah and the Chorus, after their various agitations of passion, acquiescing in the divine" dispensations, and thereby inculcating a most instructive lesson to the reader. As this work was not intended for the stage, it is not divided into acts; but if any critic should be disposed so to divide it, he may easily do it by beginning the second act at the entrance of Manoah, the third at the entrance of Dalila, the fourth at the entrance of Harapha, and the fifth at the entrance of the public Officer: but the stage is never empty or without persons, according to the model of the best written tragedies among the ancients. I have said in the Life of Milton, that "Bishop Atterbury had an in

having it acted by the King's "Scholars at Westminster." And see what he says to that purpose in one of his letters to Mr. Pope. "I hope you will not utterly

forget what passed in the coach "about Samson Agonistes. I "shall not press you as to time, "but some time or other, I wish 66 you would review, and polish "that piece. If upon a new "perusal of it (which I desire

you to make) you think as I "do, that it is written in the

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very spirit of the ancients; it "deserves your care, and is ca"pable of being improved, with "little trouble, into a perfect "model and standard of tragic "poetry-always allowing for "its being a story taken out of "the Bible, which is an objec"tion that at this time of day "I know is not to be got over."