- the brunt of battle, can as easy

e light again within thy eyes to spring, rewith to serve him better than thou hast; 585 I persuade me so; why else this strength culous yet remaining in those locks? might continues in thee not for nought, shall his wondrous gifts be frustrate thus. Ms. All otherwise to me my thoughts portend, these dark orbs no more shall treat with light, h' other light of life continue long, wield to double darkness nigh at hand: uch I feel my genial spirits droop, opes all flat, nature within me seems her functions weary of herself, ace of glory run, and race of shame, I shall shortly be with them that rest. IN. Believe not these suggestions, which proceed

595

anguish of the mind and humours black, 600

ace] May's Cleopatra, p. 48.

'My race of life, and glory is not run.'

That mingle with thy fancy. I however
Must not omit a father's timely care

To prosecute the means of thy deliverance
By ransom or how else: mean while be cal
And healing words from these thy friends a
SAMS. O that torment should not be con
To the body's wounds and sores,

With maladies innumerable

In heart, head, breast, and reins;
But must secret passage find

To th' inmost mind,

There exercise all his fierce accidents,

And on her purest spirits prey,

As on entrails, joints, and limbs,

With answerable pains, but more intense,

Though void of corporal sense.

My griefs not only pain me

As a ling'ring disease,

But, finding no redress, ferment and rage, Nor less than wounds immedicable

Rankle, and fester, and gangrene,

To black mortification.

[sti

Thoughts my tormentors, arm'd with dea Mangle my apprehensive tenderest parts, Exasperate, exulcerate, and raise

Dire inflammation, which no cooling herb, Or medicinal liquor can asswage,

695 healing] Eurip. Hippol. v. 478.

Εἰσὶν δ ̓ ἐπώδαι, καὶ λόγοι θελκτήριοι.

Tod

627 Medicinal] Milton always spells this word Medcin

SAMSON AGONISTES.

Nor breath of vernal air from snowy Alp.
Sleep hath forsook and given me o'er

31

To death's benumbing opium as my only cure: 638 Thence faintings, swoonings of despair,

And sense of heav'n's desertion.

I was his nursling once, and choice delight, His destin'd from the womb,

Promis'd by heavenly message twice descending:

Under his special eye

Abstemious I grew up, and thriv'd amain;

He led me on to mightiest deeds,

Above the nerve of mortal arm,

Against the uncircumcised, our enemies :
But now hath cast me off as never known,
And to those cruel enemies,

Whom I by his appointment had provok❜d,
Left me all helpless with th' irreparable loss
Of sight, reserv'd alive to be repeated
The subject of their cruelty and scorn.
Nor am I in the list of them that hope;
Hopeless are all my evils, all remediless;
This one prayer yet remains, might I be heard,
No long petition, speedy death,

The close of all my miseries, and the balm.
CHOR. Many are the sayings of the wise,
In ancient and in modern books enroll'd,
Extolling patience as the truest fortitude;
And to the bearing well of all calamities,
All chances incident to man's frail life,
Consolatories writ

640

645

650

655

God of our fathers, what is man! That thou towards him with hand so va Or might I say contrarious,

Temper❜st thy providence through his sh Not ev'nly, as thou rul'st

Th' angelic orders and inferior creature Irrational and brute.

Nor do I name of men the common rou That wand'ring loose about

Grow up and perish, as the summer fly, Heads without names no more remember But such as thou hast solemnly elected, With gifts and graces eminently adorn'd To some great work, thy glory,

And people's safety, which in part they Yet toward these thus dignified, thou of

SAMSON AGONISTES.

Amidst their height of noon,

333

Changest thy countenance, and thy hand with no

regard

Of highest favours past

From thee on them, or them to thee of service.

Nor only dost degrade them, or remit

685

To life obscur'd, which were a fair dismission,
But throw'st them lower than thou didst exalt them

high,

Unseemly falls in human eye,

Too grievous for the trespass of omission;
Oft leav'st them to the hostile sword

Of heathen and profane, their carcasses

690

To dogs and fowls a prey, or else captív'd ; 694
Or to the unjust tribunals, under change of times,
And condemnation of the ingrateful multitude.
If these they scape, perhaps in poverty

With sickness and disease thou bow'st them down,
Painful diseases and deform'd,

In crude old age:

Though not disordinate, yet causeless suff'ring
The punishment of dissolute days: in fine,
Just or unjust, alike seem miserable,

For oft alike both come to evil end.

700

So deal not with this once thy glorious champion, The image of thy strength, and mighty minister. What do I beg ? how hast thou dealt already!

694 dogs] Hom. Il. i. 4. Newton.

700 crude] Premature, coming before its time, as Cruda funera' in Statius. Jortin.