Among the heathen round; to God have brought 455 Mine eye to harbour sleep, or thoughts to rest. 460 Before the God of Abraham. He, be sure, MANOAH. 465 470 With cause this hope relieves thee, and these words I as a prophecy receive; for God, Nothing more certain, will not long defer To vindicate the glory of his name 475 Dagon's worshippers is artfully presignified, as the death of Samson is in other places; but Manoah, as it was natural, accepts the good omen, without thinking of the evil that is to follow. Against all competition, nor will long To some Philistian lords, with whom to treat 480 By pains and slaveries, worse than death inflicted 485 On thee, who now no more canst do them harm. SAMSON. Spare that proposal, father, spare the trouble Of that solicitation; let me here, As I deserve, pay on my punishment; And expiate, if possible, my crime, How heinous had the fact been, how deserving All friendship, and avoided as a blab, The mark of fool set on his front? But I God's counsel have not kept, his holy secret Presumptuously have publish'd, impiously, 500. That Gentiles in their parables condemn &c.] Alluding to the story of Tantalus, who for revealing the secrets of the gods was condemned to pains in hell. Cicero Tusc. Disp. iv. 16. 490 495 500 poetæ impendere apud inferos saxum Tantalo faciunt ob scelera, animique impotentiam, et superbiloquentiam. Euripides assigns the same punishment, and for the same reason. Orestes 8. To their abyss and horrid pains confin❜d. Be penitent and for thy fault contrite, His pardon I implore; but as for life, To what end should I seek it? when in strength ότι θεοις ανθρωπος ων Κοινης τραπέζης αξίωμ' έχων ισον, Ακόλαστον εσχε γλωσσαν, αισχίστην νόσου. Mr. Warburton's remark is, that "the ancient mystagogues taught, "that the Gods punished both "the revealers and the violators 505 510 515 520 With youthful courage and magnanimous thoughts The sons of Anak, famous now and blaz'd, I walk'd about, admir'd of all and dreaded CHORUS. Desire of wine and all delicious drinks, Which many a famous warrior overturns, Thou could'st repress, nor did the dancing ruby 531. none daring my affront.] None daring to contend with me, and meet me face to face, according to the etymology of the word. See the note on Paradise Lost, ix. 330. 535. -hallow'd pledge] This is the genuine reading of the first edition; in most of the others it is absurdly corrupted into hollow pledge. 538. all my precious fleece,] Read of my precious fleece. Thus in Paradise Lost, i. 596. the sun in a mist is shorn of his beams: 525 530 535 540 and ix. 1059. Samson from the harlot-lap waked shorn of his strength. Meadowcourt. 543. nor did the dancing ruby &c.] The poet here probably alludes to Prov. xxiii. 31. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. 543. Compare Comus, 672. -behold this cordial julep here, That flames, and dances in his crystal bounds. T. Warton. Sparkling, out-pour'd, the flavour, or the smell, SAMSON. Wherever fountain or fresh current flow'd 545 550 O madness, to think use of strongest wines And strongest drinks our chief support of health, When God with these forbidd'n made choice to rear 555 His mighty champion, strong above compare, Whose drink was only from the liquid brook. 545. Or taste that cheers the heart of Gods and men,] Taken from Judg. ix. 13. -wine which cheereth God and man. Milton says Gods, which is a just paraphrase, meaning the hero-gods of the heathen. Jotham is here speaking to an idolatrous city, that ran a whoring after Baalim, and made Baal-berith their God: a God sprung from among men, as may be partly collected from his name, as well as from divers other circumstances of the story. Hesiod in a similar expression says, that the vengeance of the fates pursued the crimes of Gods and men. Theog. v. 220. Λιτ' ανδρων σε θεωντε &c. Warburton. Gods and men is the reading of |