That she might look at will through every pore? Then had I not been thus exil'd from light,

As in the land of darkness yet in light,

To live a life half dead, a living death,

And buried; but O yet more miserable!
Myself my sepulchre, a moving grave,

100

Buried, yet not exempt

By privilege of death and burial

From worst of other evils, pains, and wrongs, 105

But made hereby obnoxious more

To all the miseries of life,

Life in captivity

Among inhuman foes.

But who are these; for with joint pace I hear 110
The tread of many feet steering this way?

Perhaps my enemies, who come to stare
At my affliction, and perhaps t' insult,
Their daily practice to afflict me more.

CHOR. This, this is he; softly a while,
Let us not break in upon him ;
O change beyond report, thought, or belief!
See how he lies at random, carelessly diffus'd,

115

With languish'd head unpropp'd,
As one past hope, abandon'd,
As by himself given over;
In slavish habit, ill-fitted weeds

O'er-worn and soil'd;

Or do my eyes misrepresent? can this be he,
That heroic, that renown'd,

120

125

Irresistible Samson? whom unarm'd [withstand; No strength of man or fiercest wild beast could Who tore the lion, as the lion tears the kid,

Ran on imbattled armies clad in iron,

And, weaponless himself,

130

Made arms ridiculous, useless the forgery
Of brazen shield and spear, the hammer'd cuirass,
Chalybean temper'd steel, and frock of mail

Adamantean proof;

But safest he who stood aloof,

135

When insupportably his foot advanc'd,
In scorn of their proud arms and warlike tools,
Spurn'd them to death by troops. The bold Asca-

lonite

Fled from his lion ramp, old warriors turn'd
Their plated backs under his heel ;

140

133 Chalybean] Virg. Georg. i. 58. Ov. Fast. iv. 405.

Newton.

134 Adamantean] Johnson thinks this word peculiar to

Milton. Perhaps he coined it from Ovid. Met. vii. 104. Todd.

136 insupportably] Spens. F. Q. i. vii. 11.

With huge force, and insupportable main.' Thyer.

145

Or grov'ling soil'd their crested helmets in the dust.
Then with what trivial weapon came to hand,
The jaw of a dead ass, his sword of bone,
A thousand fore-skins fell, the flower of Palestine
In Ramath-lechi, famous to this day:
Then by main force pull'd up, and on his shoulders
The gates of Azza, post, and massy bar, [bore
Up to the hill by Hebron, seat of giants old,
No journey of a Sabbath day, and loaded so;
Like whom the Gentiles feign to bear up heav'n..
Which shall I first bewail,

Thy bondage or lost sight,
Prison within prison

Inseparably dark ?

Thou art become, O worst imprisonment!

The dungeon of thyself; thy soul,

Which men enjoying sight oft without cause com

Imprison'd now indeed,

In real darkness of the body dwells,

Shut up from outward light,
T' incorporate with gloomy night!
For inward light, alas!

Puts forth no visual beam.
O mirror of our fickle state,
Since man on earth unparallel'd !
The rarer thy example stands,

[plain,

By how much from the top of wondrous glory,

165

Strongest of mortal men,

To lowest pitch of abject fortune thou art fall'n.

For him I reckon not in high estate,

Whom long descent of birth

Or the sphere of fortune raises :

170

But thee, whose strength, while virtue was her mate, Might have subdued the earth,

Universally crown'd with highest praises.

175

SAMS. I hear the sound of words, their sense the

Dissolves unjointed ere it reach my ear.

[air

CHOR. He speaks, let us draw nigh. Matchless The glory late of Israel, now the grief, (in might, We come, thy friends and neighbours not unknown, From Eshtaol and Zora's fruitful vale, To visit or bewail thee, or, if better, Counsel or consolation we may bring,

Salve to thy sores: apt words have power to swage The tumours of a troubled mind,

185 190

SAMS.. Your coming, friends, revives me, for I Now of my own experience, not by talk, [learn How counterfeit a coin they are who friends Bear in their superscription, of the most I would be understood; in prosperous days They swarm, but in adverse withdraw their head, Not to be found, though sought. Ye see, O friends, How many evils have inclos'd me round; Yet that which was the worst now least afflicts me, Blindness, for had I sight, confus'd with shame, How could I once look up, or heave the head, Who, like a foolish pilot, have shipwreck'd My vessel trusted to me from above, Gloriously rigg'd; and for a word, a tear, Fool, have divulged the secret gift of God To a deceitful woman? tell me, friends, Am I not sung and proverb'd for a fool In every street? do they not say, how well Are come upon him his deserts? yet why? Immeasurable strength they might behold In me, of wisdom nothing more than mean; This with the other should, at least, have pair'd, These two proportion'd ill drove me transverse.

200

205

CHOR. Tax not divine disposal: wisest men 210 Have err'd, and by bad women been deceiv'd; And shall again, pretend they ne'er so wise. Deject not then so overmuch thyself, Who hast of sorrow thy full load besides; Yet, truth to say, I oft have heard men wonder 215 Why thou shouldst wed Philistian women rather