May compass it, shall willingly be paid

And number'd down: much rather I shall choose
To live the poorest in my tribe, than richest,
And he in that calamitous prison left.

No, I am fix'd, not to part hence without him.
For his redemption all my patrimony,

If need be, I am ready to forego

And quit: not wanting him, I shall want nothing.
CHO. Fathers are wont to lay up for their sons,
Thou for thy son art bent to lay out all:
Sons wont to nurse their parents in old age,
Thou in old age car'st how to nurse thy son,
Made older than thy age through eye-sight lost.
MAN. It shall be my delight to tend his eyes,
And view him sitting in the house ennobled
With all those high exploits by him achieved,
And on his shoulders waving down those locks,
That of a nation arm'd the strength contain'd;
And I persuade me, God had not permitted
His strength again to grow up with his hair,
Garrison'd round about him like a camp
Of faithful soldiery, were not his purpose
To use him further yet in some great service;
Not to sit idle with so great a gift

Useless, and thence ridiculous, about him.

And since his strength with eye-sight was not lost,

God will restore him eye-sight to his strength.

CHо. Thy hopes are not ill founded, nor seem vain

1480

1485

1490

1495

1500

Of his delivery, and thy joy thereon

Conceived, agreeable to a father's love,

In both which we, as next, participate.

1505

MAN. I know your friendly minds, and-O, what noise!
Mercy of Heaven! what hideous noise was that?
Horribly loud, unlike the former shout.

CHO. 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.

1490. It shall be my delight, &c. The character of a fond parent is extremely well supported in the person of Manoah quite through the whole performance, but there is in my opinion something peculiarly natural and moving in this speech. The circumstance of the old man's feeding and soothing his fancy with the thoughts of tending his son, and contemplating him ennobled with so many famous exploits, is vastly expressive of the doating fondness of an old father. Nor is the poet less to be admired for his making Manoah, under the influence of this pleasing imagination, go on still further, and flatter himself even with the

1510

hopes of God's restoring his eyes again.THYER.

1508. O, what noise! Observe with what art and judgment Milton prepares the reader for the relation of the catastrophe of this tragedy. This abrupt start of Manoah upon hearing the hideous noise, and the description of it by the Chorus in their answer, in terms so full of dread and terror, naturally fill the mind with a presaging horror proper for the occasion.-THYER. Nothing can be more impressive, more calculated to excite pity, than the revolution of Samson's fate, which is now developed.-TODD.

MAN. Of ruin indeed methought I heard the noise: 1515 O! it continues: they have slain my son.

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

MAN. Some dismal accident it needs must be:

What shall we do: stay here, or run and see?

1520

CHо. Best keep together here, lest, running thither,

We unawares run into danger's mouth.
This evil on the Philistines is fallen;

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 restored,
He now be dealing dole among his foes,
And over heaps of slaughter'd walk his way?

MAN. That were a joy presumptuous to be thought.
CHо. Yet God hath wrought things as incredible

For his people of old; what hinders now?

1525

1530

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

1535

CHо. 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.

1540

Enter MESSENGER.

MES. O, whither shall I run, or which way fly

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,

1545

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 horrour,
So in the sad event too much concern'd.

1550

MAN. 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.

MES. It would burst forth, but I recover breath

1555

And sense distract, to know well what I utter.
MAN. Tell us the sum, the circumstance defer.
MES. Gaza yet stands, but all her sons are fallen
All in a moment overwhelm'd and fallen.

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

MES. Feed on that first: there may in grief be surfeit. MAN. Relate by whom.

MES.

By Samson.

ΜΑΝ.

That still lessens

1565

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

MAN. Suspense in news is torture; speak them out.

MES. Take then the worst in brief: Samson is dead. 1570

MAN. The worst indeed! O, all my hopes 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 conceived
Hopeful of his delivery, which now proves
Abortive as the first-born bloom of spring,
Nipp'd 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?
MES. Unwounded of his enemies he fell.
MAN. Wearied with slaughter then, or how? explain.
MES. By his own hands.

ΜΑΝ.

Self-violence? what cause
Brought him so soon at variance with himself
Among his foes?

Inevitable cause,

MES.
At once both to destroy, and be destroyed.
The edifice, where all were met to see him,
Upon their heads and on his own he pull'd.

1575

1580

1585

MAN. O, lastly over-strong against thyself!
A dreadful way thou took'st to thy revenge.
More than enough we know; but while things yet
Are in confusion, give us, if thou canst,
Eye-witness of what first or last was done,
Relation more particular and distinct.

1590

1595

MES. Occasions drew me early to this city;
And as the gates I enter'd with sunrise,
The morning trumpets festival proclaim'd

Through each high street: little I had despatch'd,

son in particular, with head inclined and eyes fix'd, as if he was addressing him

1565. The reader cannot fail to observe and to feel the art of the poet, in very gradually unfolding the catastrophe.self to that God who had given him such Jos. WARTON.

1590. Occasions drew me early, &c. As I observed before, that Milton had, with great art, excited the reader's attention to this grand event, so here he is no less careful to gratify it by the relation. It Is circumstantial, as the importance of it required, but not so as to be tedious or too long, to delay our expectation. It would be found difficult, I believe, to retrench one article without making it defective, or to add one which would not appear redundant. The picture of Sam

a measure of strength, and was summing up all his force and resolution, has a very fine effect upon the imagination. Milton is no less happy in the sublimity of his description of this grand exploit, than judicious in the choice of the circumstances preceding it. The poetry rises as the subject becomes more interesting, and one may say, without extravagance, that the poet seems to exert no less force of genius in describing, than Samson does strength of body in executing.— THYER.

When all abroad was rumour'd that this day
Samson should be brought forth to show the people
Proof of his mighty strength in feats and games:
I sorrow'd at his captive state, but minded
Not to be absent at that spectacle.

The building was a spacious theatre
Half-round, on two main pillars vaulted high,
With seats, where all the lords, and each degree
Of sort, might sit in order to behold;

The other side was open, where the throng

1600

1605

On banks and scaffolds under sky might stand;
I among these aloof obscurely stood.

1610

The feast and noon grew high, and sacrifice

When to their sports they turn'd. Immediately

Had fill'd their hearts with mirth, high cheer, and wine,

Was Samson as a publick servant brought,
In their state livery clad; before him pipes
And timbrels, on each side went armed guards,
Both horse and foot, before him and behind,
Archers and slingers, cataphracts and spears.
At sight of him, the people with a shout
Rifted the air, clamouring their god with praise,
Who had made their dreadful enemy their thrall.
He, patient, but undaunted, where they led him,
Came to the place; and what was set before him,
Which without help of eye might be assay'd,
To heave, pull, draw, or break, he still perform'd
All with incredible, stupendous force;
None daring to appear antagonist.

At length for intermission sake they led him
Between the pillars; he his guide requested
(For so from such as nearer stood we heard)
As over-tired to let him lean awhile
With both his arms on those two massy pillars,
That to the arched roof gave main support.
He, unsuspicious, led him; which when Samson
Felt in his arms, with head awhile inclined,
And eyes fast fix'd he stood, as one who pray'd,
Or some great matter in his mind revolved:
At last with head erect thus cried aloud :—
Hitherto, lords, what your commands imposed
I have perform'd, as reason was, obeying,
Not without wonder or delight beheld:
Now of my own accord such other trial

I mean to show you of my strength, yet greater,

As with amaze shall strike all who behold.

This utter'd, straining all his nerves he bow'd:
As with the force of winds and waters pent,
When mountains tremble, those two massy pillars
With horrible convulsion to and fro

1619. Cataphracts: Horsemen in armour.

1615

1620

1625

1630

1635

1640

1645

He tugg'd, he shook, till down they came, and drew
The whole roof after them, with burst of thunder
Upon the heads of all who sat beneath,
Lords, ladies, captains, counsellors, or priests,
Their choice nobility and flower, not only
Of this, but each Philistian city round,
Met from all parts to solemnize this feast.
Samson, with these immix'd, inevitably
Pull'd down the same destruction on himself;
The vulgar only 'scaped who stood without.

CHO. O dearly-bought revenge, yet glorious!
Living or dying thou hast fulfill'd

The work for which thou wast foretold

To Israel, and now liest victorious

Among thy slain, self-kill'd,

Of dire necessity, whose law in death conjoin'd

1650

1655

1660

Not willingly, but tangled in the fold

1665

Thee with thy slaughter'd foes in number more
Than all thy life had slain before.

1. SEMI-CHOR. While their hearts were jocund and sublime,

Drunk with idolatry, drunk with wine,

1670

And fat regorged of bulls and goats,

Chanting their idol, and preferring

Before our Living Dread who dwells
In Silo, his bright sanctuary;

Among them he a spirit of phrenzy sent,
Who hurt their minds,

1675

2. SEMI-CHOR. But he, though blind of sight,