In what part lodg'd, how eafily bereft me,
Under the feat of filence could not keep,

But weakly to a woman must reveal it.

His foliloquy is interrupted by a chorus or company of men of his own tribe, who condole his miferies, extenuate his fault, and conclude with a folemn viadication of divine juftice. So that at the conclusa of the first act there is no defign laid, no difcovery made, nor any difpofition formed towards the fubfequent event.

In the fecond at, Manoah, the father of Sama, comes to feek his fon, and, being fhewn him by the chorus, breaks out into lamentations of his mifery, and comparifons of his prefent with his former ftate, reprefenting to him the ignominy which his religion fuffers, by the feftival this day celebrated in honour of Dagen, to whom the idolaters afcribed his overthrow.

-Thou bear'ft

Enough, and more, the burthen of that fault;
Bitterly haft thou paid and ftill art paying
That rigid fcore. A worfe thing yet remains,
This day the Philifines a pop'lar feast
Here celebrate in Gaza; and proclaim
Great pomp and facrifice, and praifes loud
To Dagon, as their God, who hath deliver'd
Thee, Samfon, bound and blind into their hands,
Them out of thine, who flew'ft them many a flain.

Samfon, touched with this reproach, makes a reply equally penitential and pious, which his father confiders as the effufion of prophetick confidence.

Samfin.

Will not connive or linger thus provok'd,
But will arife and his great name affert :
Dagon muft ftoop, and fhall ere long receive.
Such a difcomfit, as fhall quite defpoil him
Of all these boafted trophies won on me.

Manoah. With caufe this hope relieves thee, and thefe words

I as a prophecy receive; for God,

Nothing more certain, will not long defer

To vindicate the glory of his name.

This part of the dialogue, as it might tend to animate or exafperate Samfon, cannot, I think, be cenfured as wholly fuperfluous; but the fucceeding difpute, in which Samfon contends to die, and which his father breaks off, that he may go to folicit his release, is only valuable for its own beauties, and has no tendency to introduce any thing that follows it.

The next event of the drama is the arrival of Dalilah, with all her graces, artifices, and allurements. This produces a dialogue, in a very high degree ele. gant and instructive, from which she retires, after she has exhausted her perfuafions, and is no more feen nor heard of; nor has her vifit any effect but that of raifing the character of Samfon.

In the fourth act enters Harapha, the giant of Gath, whofe name had never been mentioned before, and who has now no other motive of coming, than to fee the man whofe ftrength and actions are fo loudly celebrated:

VOL. VI.

F

Haraph.

Of thy prodigious might, and feats perform'd
Incredible to me; in this difpleas'd,

That I was never prefent in the place

Of those encounters, where we might have tried
Each others force in camp or lifted fields:

And now am come to fee of whom fuch noife
Hath walk'd about, and each limb to furvey,
If thy appearance anfwer loud report.

Samjon challenges him to the combat; and, after an interchange of reproaches, elevated by repeated defiance on one fide, and imbittered by contemptuous infults on the other, Harapha retires; we then hear it determined, by Samfon and the chorus, that no confequence good or bad will proceed from their interview:

Chorus. He will directly to the lords, I fear,
And with malicious counfel ftir them up

Some way or other farther to afflict thee.

Samf. He muft allege fome caufe, and offer'd fight
Will not dare mention, left a question rife,

Whether he durft accept the offer or not;

And that he durft not, plain enough appear'd.

At laft, in the fifth act, appears a meffenger from the lords affembled at the feftival of Dagen, with a fummons by which Samon is required to come and entertain them with fome proof of his itrength. Samjen, after a fhort expoftulation, dismiffes him with a firin and refolute refufal; but during the abfence of the meffenger, having a while defended the propriety of his conduct, he at last de

clares

clares himself moved by a fecret impulfe to comply, and utters fome dark prefages of a great event to be brought to pafs by his agency, under the direction of Providence:

Samf. Be of good courage; I begin to feel
Some roufing motions in me, which difpofe
To fomething extraordinary my thoughts.
I with this messenger will go along,
Nothing to do, be fure, that may dishonour
Our law, or stain my vow of Nazarite.
If there be ought of prefage in the mind,
This day will be remarkable in my life

By fome great act, or of my days the lait.

While Samfon is conducted off by the meffenger, his father returns with hopes of fuccefs in his folicitation, upon which he confers with the chorus till their dialogue is interrupted, firft by a fhout of triumph, and afterwards by fcreams of horror and agony. As they stand deliberating where they thall be fecure, a man who had been prefent at the fhow enters, and relates how Samfon, having prevailed on his guide to fuffer him to lean against the main pillars of the theatrical edifice, tore down the roof upon the fpectators and himself:

-Those two maffy pillars,

With horrible confufion, to and fro,

He tugg'd, he fhook, till down they came, and drew
The whole roof after them, with burft of thunder,
Upon the heads of all who fat beneath-

-Samfon with thefe immixt, inevitably
Pull'd down the fame deftruction on himfelf.

This is undoubtedly a juft and regular catastrophe, and the poem, therefore, has a beginning and an eni which Ariftotle himself could not have difapproved; but it must be allowed to want a middle, fince nothing paffes between the first act and the laft, that either haftens or delays the death of Samfon. The whole drama, if its fuperfluities were cut off, would fcarcely fill a fingle act; yet this is the tragedy which ignorance has admired, and bigotry applauded.

NUMB. 140. SATURDAY, July 20, 1751.

IT

Quis tam Lucili fautor inepte eft,

Ut non hoc fateatur.

What doating bigot, to his faults fo blind,
As not to grant me this, can Milton find?

H:

Tis common, fays Bacon, to defire the end without enduring the means. Every member of fociety feels and acknowledges the neceffity of detecting crimes, yet fcarce any degree of virtue or reputation is able to fecure an informer from publick hatred. The learned world has always admitted the usefulness of critical difquifitions, yet he that attempts to fhew, however modeftly, the failures of a celebrated writer, fhall furely irritate his admirers, and incur the imputation of envy, captioufnefs, and malignity.

With this danger full in my view, I fhall proceed to examine the fentiments of Milton's tragedy, which,

though