Wand'ring the wilderness, whatever place,
Habit, or state, or motion,, ftill expreffing
The Son of God, with god-like force endu'd
Against th' attempter of thy Father's throne,
And thief of Paradife; him long of old
Thou didst debel, and down from heaven caft
With all his army, now thou haft aveng'd
Supplanted Adam, and by vanquishing
Temptation, haft regain'd loft Paradise,
And frustrated the conqueft fraudulent :
He never more henceforth will dare fet foot
In Paradife to tempt; his fnares are broke:
For though that feat of earthly blifs be fail'd,
A fairer Paradife is founded now

For Adam and his chofen fons, whom thou
A Saviour, art come down to re-inftall

Where they shall dwell fecure, when time fhall be,
Of tempter and temptation without fear.

But thou, infernal ferpent, fhalt not long
Rule in the clouds; like an autumnal star,

Or lightning, thou fhalt fall from heav'n, trod down
Under his feet: For proof, ere this thou feel'st
Thy wound, yet not thy last and deadliest wound
By this repulfe receiv'd, and hold'st in hell
No triumph; in all her gates Abaddon rues
Thy bold attempt; hereafter learn with awe
To dread the Son of God: He all unarm'd
Shall chafe thee with the terror of his voice
From thy demoniac holds, poffeffion foul,
Thee and thy legions; yelling they fhall fly,
And beg to hide them in a herd of fwine,
Left he command them down into the deep

68

PARADISE, etc.

IV. 632.

Bound, and to torment fent before their time. Hail Son of the Most High, heir of both worlds, Queller of Satan, on thy glorious work

Now enter, and begin to fave mankind.

Thus they the Son of God our Saviour meek Sung victor, and from heav'nly feast refresh'd Brought on his way with joy; he unobferv'd Home to his mother's house private return'd.

THE END.

SAMSON AGONISTES,

A

DRAMATIC POEM.

The AUTHOR

JOHN MILTO N.

Tragoedia eft imitatio actionis feriae, etc. per mifericordiam et metum perficiens talium affectuum luftrationem. ARISTOT. Poet. Cap. 6.

E 3

DRAMATIC POEM

WHICH IS CALLED

TRAGEDY.

RAGEDY, as it was anciently compos'd, hath been ever held the graveft, moraleft, and most profitable of all other poems: Therefore faid by Aristotle to be of power, by raising pity and fear, or terror, to purge the mind of thofe and fuch like paffions, that is, to temper and reduce them to just measure with a kind of delight, ftirr'd up by reading or seeing thofe paffions well imitated. Nor is Nature wanting in her own effects to make good his affertion: For fo in phyfic, things of melancholic hue and quality are used against melancholy, four against four, salt to remove falt humours. Hence philofophers and other graveft writers, as Cicero, Plutarch, and others, fre

poets, both to adorn and The apostle Paul him

quently cite out of tragic illuftrate their difcourfe. felf thought it not unworthy to infert a verfe of Euripides into the text of Ho ly Scripture, i Cor. xv. 33. and l'araeus.commenting on the Revelation, divides the whole book as a tragedy, into acts diftinguifh'd each by a chorus of heavenly harpings, and fong between. Heretofore men in higheft dignity have laboured not a little to be thought able to compofe a trage dy. Of that honour Dionyfius the elder was no less ambitious, than: