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SAMS. Wherever fountain or fresh current flow'd
Against the eastern ray, translucent, pure
With touch ethereal of Heaven's fiery rod,
I drank, from the clear milky juice allaying
Thirst, and refresh'd; nor envied them the grape,
Whose heads that turbulent liquor fills with fumes.
CHо. O, madness, to think use of strongest wines
And strongest drinks our chief support of health,
When God with these forbidden made choice to rear
His mighty champion, strong above compare,
Whose drink was only from the liquid brook.

SAMS. But what avail'd this temperance, not complete
Against another object more enticing?

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What boots it at one gate to make defence,
And at another to let in the foe,

Effeminately vanquish'd? by which means,

Now blind, dishearten'd, shamed, dishonour'd, quell'd,
To what can I be useful, wherein serve

My nation, and the work from Heaven imposed,

But to sit idle on the household hearth,

A burdenous drone; to visitants a gaze,

Or pitied object; these redundant locks,

Robustious to no purpose, clustering down,

Vain monument of strength; till length of years
And sedentary numness craze my limbs

To a contemptible old age obscure?

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Here rather let me drudge and earn my bread;

Till vermin, or the draff of servile food,

Consume me, and oft-invocated death

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Hasten the welcome end of all my pains.

MAN. Wilt thou then serve the Philistines with that gift

Which was expressly given thee to annoy them?

Better at home lie bed-rid, not only idle,

Inglorious, unemployed, with age outworn.

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But God, who caused a fountain at thy prayer

From the dry ground to spring, thy thirst to allay
After the brunt of battel; can as easy
Cause light again within thy eyes to spring,
Wherewith to serve him better than thou hast;
And I persuade me so: why else this strength
Miraculous yet remaining in those locks?
His might continues in thee not for naught,
Nor shall his wondrous gifts be frustrate thus.
SAMS. All otherwise to me my thoughts portend,

553. O, madness, &c. Milton exemplified, in his life, the truth of these noble lines, being a singular example of teinperance and abstemiousness.

557. Whose drink. Judges xiii. 7. 581. Caused a fountain. See Judges xv. 18, 19. Milton differs from our translation, which says that "God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw;" Milton,

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that "he caused a fountain from the dry ground to spring;" and herein he follows the Chaldee paraphrase and the best commentators, who understand it that God made a cleft in some part of the ground or rock, in the place called Lehi: this word signifying both a jaw and a place so called.-NEWTON.

That these dark orbs no more shall treat with light,
Nor th' other light of life continue long,
But yield to double darkness nigh at hand:
So much I feel my genial spirits droop,
My hopes all flat, Nature within me seems
In all her functions weary of herself;
My race of glory run, and race of shame;
And I shall shortly be with them that rest.

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MAN. Believe not these suggestions, which proceed

From anguish of the mind and humours black,
That mingle with thy fancy. I however
Must not omit a father's timely care

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To prosecute the means of thy deliverance

By ransom, or how else: meanwhile be calm,

And healing words from these thy friends admit.

SAMS. O, that torment should not be confined
To the body's wounds and sores,

With maladies innumerable

In heart, head, breast, and reins;

But must secret passage find

To the inmost mind,

There exercise all his fierce accidents,

And on her purest spirits prey,

As on entrails, joints, and limbs,

With answerable pains, but more intense,

Though void of corporal sense.

My griefs not only pain me

As a lingering disease,

But, finding no redress, ferment and rage;
Nor less than wounds immedicable

Rankle, and fester, and gangrene,

To black mortification.

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[Exit.

Thoughts, my tormentors, arm'd with deadly stings,
Mangle my apprehensive tenderest parts,

Exasperate, exulcerate, and raise

Dire inflammation, which no cooling herb

Or med'cinal liquor can asswage,

Nor breath of vernal air from snowy Alp.
Sleep hath forsook and given me o'er

To death's benumming opium as my only cure:
Thence faintings, swoonings of despair,
And sense of Heaven's desertion.

594. So much I feel, &c. Here Milton, in the person of Samson, describes exactly his own case-what he felt and what he thought in some of his melancholy hours: he could not have written 80 well, but from his own feeling and experience; and the very flow of the verses is melancholy, and excellently adapted to the subject. As Mr. Thyer expresses it, There is a remarkable solemnity and air of melancholy in the very sound of these

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ུ་ ཧྥེ་ སྤྱི་ ཕྱི

verses; and the reader will find it very difficult to pronounce them without that grave and serious tone of voice which is proper for the occasion.-NEWTON.

627. Med'cinal, for medicinal, as Milton spells it also in his prose works.

628. Alp, from the Greek alpos, "white," means any mountain "white" with snow. It is now particularly appropriated to the celebrated mountains of Switzerland.

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I was his nursling once, and choice delight,

His destined from the womb,

Promised by heavenly message twice descending:
Under his special eye

Abstemious I grew up, and thriv'd amain :
He led me on to mightiest deeds,

Above the nerve of mortal arm,

Against the uncircumcised, our enemies:

But now hath cast me off as never known,
And to those cruel enemies,

Whom I by his appointment had provoked,
Left me all helpless, with the irreparable loss
Of sight, reserved alive to be repeated
The subject of their cruelty or scorn.
Nor am I in the list of them that hope:
Hopeless are all my evils, all remediless:
This one prayer yet remains, might I be heard,
No long petition, speedy death,

The close of all my miseries, and the balm.
CHO. Many are the sayings of the wise,
In ancient and in modern books inroll'd,
Extolling patience as the truest fortitude;
And to the bearing well of all calamities,
All chances incident to man's frail life,
Consolatories writ

With studied argument, and much persuasion sought,

Lenient of grief and anxious thought:

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But with the afflicted in his pangs their sound

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Little prevails, or rather seems a tune

Harsh, and of dissonant mood from his complaint;

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Temper'st thy providence through his short course,
Not evenly, as thou rulest

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The angelick orders, and inferiour creatures mute,

Irrational and brute.

Nor do I name of men the common rout,

That, wandering loose about,

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Grow up and perish, as the summer-fly,

Heads without name, no more remember'd;
But such as thou hast solemnly elected,
With gifts and graces eminently adorn'd,
To some great work, thy glory,

And people's safety, which in part they effect:
Yet toward these thus dignified, thou oft

658. Sought: Collected studiously or with pains.

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Amidst their highth of noon,

Changest thy countenance, and thy hand, with no regard
Of highest favours past

From thee on them, or them to thee of service.

Nor only dost degrade them, or remit

To life obscured, which were a fair dismission;

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But throw'st them lower than thou didst exalt them high;
Unseemly falls in human eye,

Too grievous for the trespass or omission;

Oft leavest them to the hostile sword

Of heathen and profane, their carcasses

To dogs and fowls a prey, or else captiv'd;

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Or to the unjust tribunals, under change of times,

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And condemnation of the ingrateful multitude.
If these they 'scape, perhaps in poverty

With sickness and disease thou bow'st them down,
Painful diseases and deform'd,

In crude old age;

Though not disordinate, yet causeless suffering

The punishment of dissolute days: in fine,

Just or unjust, alike seem miserable,

For oft alike both come to evil end.

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So deal not with this once thy glorious champion,
The image of thy strength, and mighty minister.
What do I beg? how hast thou dealt already!
Behold him in this state calamitous, and turn
His labours, for thou canst, to peaceful end.

But who is this, what thing of sea or land?
Female of sex it seems,

That so bedeck'd, ornate, and gay,
Comes this way sailing

Like a stately ship

Of Tarsus, bound for the isles

Of Javan or Gadire

With all her bravery on, and tackle trim,
Sails fill'd, and streamers waving,

695. Or to the unjust tribunals. Here, no doubt, Milton reflected upon the trials and sufferings of his party after the Restoration; and probably he might have had in mind particularly the case of Sir Harry Vane, whom he has so highly celebrated in one of his sonuets.

697. If these they 'scape, &c. This was his own case: he escaped with life, but lived in poverty; and though he was always strictly sober and temperate, yet he was much afflicted with the gout and other "painful diseases in crude old age," when he was not yet a very old man. Crude is used for premature, and coming before his time.

708. Behold him in this state, &c. The concluding verses of this beautiful Chorus appear to me particularly affecting, from the persuasion that Milton, in com

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posing them, addressed the last two immediately to Heaven, as a prayer for himself. If the conjecture of this appli cation be just, we may add, that never was the prevalence of a righteous prayer more happily conspicuous: and let me here remark, that however various the opinions of men may be concerning Milton's political character, the integrity of his heart appears to have secured to him the favour of Providence; since it pleased the Giver of all good not only to turn his labours to a peaceful end, but to irradiate his declining life with the most abundant portion of those pure and sublime mental powers, for which he had constantly and fervently prayed, as the choicest bounty of Heaven.-HAYLEY.

715. Isles of Javan: Greece. Gadire: Gadez, Cadiz.

Courted by all the winds that hold them play,
An amber scent of odorous perfume
Her harbinger, a damsel train behind:
Some rich Philistian matron she may seem;
And now, at nearer view, no other certain
Than Dalila thy wife.

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SAMS. My wife! my traitress: let her not come near me.
CHO. Yet on she moves, now stands and eyes thee fix'd,
About to have spoke; but now, with head declined,
Like a fair flower surcharged with dew, she weeps,
And words address'd seem into tears dissolved,
Wetting the borders of her silken veil:

But now again she makes address to speak.

Enter DALILA.

DAL. With doubtful feet and wavering resolution

Which to have merited, without excuse,

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I came, still dreading thy displeasure, Samson;

I cannot but acknowledge; yet, if tears

May expiate, (though the fact more evil drew

In the perverse event than I foresaw,)

My penance hath not slacken'd, though my pardon

No way assured. But conjugal affection,

Prevailing over fear and timorous doubt,
Hath led me on, desirous to behold

Once more thy face, and know of thy estate,
If aught in my ability may serve

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To lighten what thou suffer'st, and appease
Thy mind with what amends is in my power,
Though late, yet in some part to recompense

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My rash, but more unfortunate misdeed.

SAMS. Out, out, hyæna! these are thy wonted arts,

And arts of every woman false like thee,

To break all faith, all vows, deceive, betray,
Then as repentant to submit, beseech,

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And reconcilement move with feign'd remorse,
Confess, and promise wonders in her change:
Not truly penitent, but chief to try

Her husband, how far urged his patience bears,
His virtue or weakness which way to assail:
Then with more cautious and instructed skill
Again transgresses, and again submits;
That wisest and best men, full off beguiled,

732. With doubtful feet. The scene be- | tween Samson and Dalila is drawn up with great judgment and particular beauty. One cannot conceive a more artful, soft, and persuasive eloquence, than that which is put into the mouth of Dalila; nor is the part of Samson less to be admired for that stern and resolute firmness which runs through it. What also gives both parts a great additional

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beauty, is their forming so fine a contrast to each other.-THYER.

748. The Hyana is a creature somewhat like a wolf, and is said to imitate a human voice so aptly as to draw people to it, and then devour them.-NEWTON.

759. That wisest and best men, &c. Milton had reason to lament that excess of indulgence with which he forgave and received again his disobedient and long

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