This day to Dagon is a folemn feast, SAMSON. 1311 1315 Thou know'ft I am an Hebrew, therefore tell them, Our Law forbids at their religious rites My prefence; for that cause I cannot come. OFFICER. 1320 This answer, be affur'd, will not content them. SAMSON. Have they not fword-players, and every fort Of gymnic artifts, wrestlers, riders, runners, Juglers and dancers, antics, mummers, mimics, 1325 But they must pick me out with shackles tir'd, And over-labor'd at their public mill On my refusal to diftrefs me more, Or make a game Return the way of my calamities? thou cam'ft, I will not come. OFFICER. Regard thyself, this will offend them highly. SAMSON. Myfelf? my conscience and internal peace. Can they think me fo broken, fo debas'd With corporal fervitude, that my mind ever 1330 1335 Will condescend to such abfurd commands? My message was impos'd on me with speed, 1347. Perhaps thou shalt bave caufe to forrow indeed.] Here the catastrophe is anticipated, as before ver. 1266, Brooks - it may with mine Draw their own ruin who attempt the deed. And Brooks no delay: is this thy refolution? SAMSON. 1344 So take it with what speed thy meffage needs. OFFICER. I am forry what this ftoutnefs will produce. Perhaps thou shalt have cause to forrow' indeed. Confider, Samfon; matters now are ftrain'd Up to the highth, whether to hold or break; gone, Thy words by adding fuel to the flame? Expect another meffage more imperious, More lordly thund'ring than thou well wilt bear, SAMSON. Shall I abuse this confecrated gift Of ftrength, again returning with my hair And fuch anticipations are ufual with the best dramatic writers, who knowing their own plan open it by degrees, and drop fuch hints 1355 A as cannot be perfectly comprehended, till they are fully explain'd by the event. The fpeaker himself can only be fuppofed to have fome general A Nazarite in place abominable 1361 Vaunting my ftrength in honor to their Dagon? Yet with this ftrength thou ferv'ft the Philistines, Idolatrous, uncircumcis'd, unclean. SAMSON. Not in their idol-worship, but by labor Honeft and lawful to deferve my food Of those who have me in their civil power. CHORUS. 1365 Where the heart joins not, outward acts defile not. SAMSON. Where outward force conftrains, the fentence holds. But who constrains me to the temple' of Dagon, 1370 Not dragging? the Philiftian lords command. Commands are no constraints. If I obey them, general meaning, and not a diftinct conception of all the particulars, fomewhat like the high-prieft in the Gofpel, who prophecied without his knowing it. 1377. Yet that he may difpenfe &c] Milton here probably had in view the ftory of Naaman the Sy Thyer. 1384. I with this messenger will go along,] With what meffenger? It was not exprefsly faid before that the meffenger was com I do it freely, vent'ring to displease God for the fear of Man, and Man prefer, Set God behind: which in his jealoufy 1375 Shall never, unrepented, find forgiveness. For fome important caufe, thou need'st not doubt. CHORUS. How thou wilt here come off furmounts my SAMSON. Be of good courage, I begin to feel Some rousing motions in me which dispose I with this meffenger will go along, ing; it was implied indeed in what the Chorus had said, How wilt thou here come off furmounts my reach : and this might very well be underftood by a man, who could fee the meffenger coming as well as reach. 1381 1385 By the Chorus, but feems hardly a fufficient intimation to a blind man, unless we fuppofe him to know that the meffenger was coming by the fame impulfe that he felt roufing him to fomething extraordinary. 1404. Mafter's |