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Affailant on the perched roofts,

And nests in order rang'd

Of tame villatic fowl; but as an eagle

His cloudlefs thunder bolted on their heads.

So virtue giv'n for loft,

Deprefs'd, and overthrown, as feem'd,

Like that self-begotten bird

In the Arabian woods imboft,

That no fecond knows nor third,
And lay ere while a holocauft,

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From out her ashy womb now teem'd,

Revives, reflorifhes, then vigorous most

When moft unactive deem'd,

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And though her body die, her fame furvives

A fecular bird ages of lives.

MANO A Н.

Come, come, no time for lamentation now, Nor much more caufe; Samfon hath quit himself Like Samfon, and heroicly hath finish'd

A life heroic on his enemies

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Fully

out her afhy womb, revives, reflorishes, and though her body die which was the cafe of Samfon, yet her fame furvives a phoenix many ages for the comma after furvives in all the editions fhould be omitted, as Mr. Calton has obferved as well as myfelf. The phœnix, fays he, liv'd a thousand years ac Hierozoicon. Pars fecunda, p.817 1 cording to fome [See Bochart's and hence it is called here a fecular bird. Ergo quoniam fex diebus cuneta Dei opera perfecta funt; per fecula fex, id eft annorum sex millia, manere hoc ftatu mundum neceffe eft. Lactantius Div. Inft. Lib. 7. 6. 14. The fame of virtue (the Semichorus faith) Jurvives, outlives this fecular bird many ages. The comma, which is in all the editions after survives, breaks the construction.

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years

of mourning,

Fully reveng'd, hath left them
And lamentation to the fons of Caphtor
Through all Philiftian bounds, to Ifrael
Honor hath left, and freedom, let but them
Find courage to lay hold on this occafion;
To' himself and father's houfe eternal fame;
And which is best and happiest yet, all this
With God not parted from him, as was fear'd,
But favoring and affifting to the end.
Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail

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Or knock the breaft, no weakness, no contempt,
Difpraise, 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

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Sok'd in his enemies blood, and from the stream
With lavers pure and cleanfing herbs wash off
The clotted gore. I with what speed the while
(Gaza is not in plight to fay us nay)

1713.to the fons of Caphtor] Caphtor it should be, and not Chaptor as in feveral editions: and the fons of Caphtor are Philistines, originally of the iland Caphtor or Crete. The people were called Caphtorim, Cherethim, Ceretim, and afterwards Cretians. A colony

Will

of them fettled in Palestine, and there went by the name of Philiftim. Meadowcourt.

1730. Will fend for all my kin

dred, all my friends, &c] This is founded upon what the Scripture faith, Judg. XVI. 31. which the poet has finely improved. Then

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Will fend for all my

kindred, all

my friends,

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To fetch him hence, and folemnly attend

With filent obfequy and funeral train

Home to his father's houfe: 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 fong.
Thither shall all the valiant youth resort,
And from his memory inflame their breafts
To matchless valor, and adventures high:
The virgins also shall on feastful days
Vifit his tomb with flow'rs, only bewailing
His lot unfortunate in nuptial choice,
From whence captivity and loss of eyes.
CHORUS.

All is beft, though we oft doubt,
What th' unfearchable dispose

his brethren, and all the house of his father, came down and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Efhtaol in the burying-place of Manaoh his fa

ther.

1745. All is beft, though we oft doubt, &c] There is a great

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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 witnefs gloriously; whence Gaza mourns
And all that band them to refift

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His uncontrollable intent;

His fervants he with new acquist

Of true experience from this great event
With peace and confolation hath dismist,
And calm of mind all paffion spent.

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1755. His fervants he with new acquift] It is bis fervant in most of the editions, but the first edition has it rightly his fervants, meaning the Chorus and other" perfons prefent. Acquift, the fame as acquifition, a word that may be found in Skinner, but I do not remember to have met with it elfewhere.

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1755

of which he hath expreffed in the preface, that "tragedy is of power by raising pity and fear, or terror, to purge the mind of those and fuch like paffions, &c." and he exemplifies it here in Manoah and the Chorus, after their various agitations of paffion, acquiefcing in the divine difpenfations, and thereby inculcating a moft inftructive leffon to the reader. As this work was not intended for the ftage, it is not divided into acts, but if any critic fhould be difpofed fo to divide it, he may eafily do it by beginning the fecond 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 ftage

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