SAMSON. 560 575 Hasten the welcome end of all my pains. MANOAH. Wilt thou then serve the Philistines with that gift shave his head. See Numb. vi. 569. -clust'ring] See the notes Amos ii. 12. Richardson. on Par. Lost, iv. 303. E. 566. But to sit idle on the 571. -craze my limbs] He household hearth, &c.] It is sup- uses the word crare much in posed, with probability enough, the same manner as in the Parathat Milton chose Samson for his dise Lost, xii. 210. where see the subject, because he was fellow- note; and I would always resufferer with him in the loss of commend it to the reader, when his eyes; however one may ven- an uncommon word especially ture to say, that the similitude of occurs in two or more different their circumstances in this respect places, to compare the places has enriched the poem with seve- together for the better underral very pathetic descriptions of standing of our author. the misery of blindness. Thyer. 580 585 Which was expressly giv'n thee to annoy them? SAMSON. 581. But God who caus'd a jaw: but Milton says that God fountain at thy prayer caused a fountain from the dry From the dry ground to spring, ground to spring: and herein he &c.] follows the Chaldee paraphrast Judges xv. 18, 19. And he was and the best commentators, who sore athirst, and called on the understand it that God made a Lord, and said, Thou hast given cleft in some part of the ground this great deliverance into the hand or rock, in the place called Lehi, of thy servant, and now shall I Lehi signifying both a jaw and a die for thirst, and fall into the place so called. hund of the uncircumcised ? But 588. His might continues &c.] God clave an hollow place that A fine preparative, which raises was in the jaw, and there came our expectation of some great water thereout; and when he had event to be produced by his drunk, his spirit came again, and strength. Warburton. he revived. We see that Milton 594. So much I feel my genial differs from our translation. Our spirits droop, &c.] Here Milton translation says that God clave in the person of Samson describes an hollow place that was in the exactly his own case, what he My hopes all flat, nature within me seems 595 In all her functions weary of herself, My race of glory run, and race of shame, And I shall shortly be with them that rest. MANOAH. Believe not these suggestions which proceed From anguish of the mind and humours black, 600 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 calm, And healing words from these thy friends admit. 605 SAMSON. O that torment should not be confin'd To the body's wounds and sores, With maladies innumerable In heart, head, breast, and reins ; felt, and what he thought in duces Satan in the shape of a some of his melancholy hours. toad at the ear of Eve. iv. 804. He could not have wrote so well Or if, inspiring venom, he might taint but from his own feeling and Th' animal spirits &c. experience, and the very flow of the verses is melancholy, and ex So again in the Mask, cellently adapted to the subject. As Mr. Thyer expresses it, there And settlings of a melancholy blood. is a remarkable solemnity and Thyer. air of melancholy in the very 606. O that torment should not sound of these verses, and the be confin'd &c.] Milton, no doubt, reader will find it very difficult was apprehensive that this long to pronounce them without that description of Samson's grief and grave and serious tone of voice misery might grow tedious to which is proper for the occasion. the reader, and therefore here 600. -and humours black, with great judgment varies both That mingle with thy fancy.] his manner of expressing it and This very just notion of the the versification. These sudden mind or fancy's being affected, starts of impatience are very naand as it were tainted, with the tural to persons in such circumvitiated humours of the body, stances, and this rough and unMilton had before adopted in his equal measure of the verses is Paradise Lost, where he intro- very well suited to it. Thyer. 'tis but the lees 610 615 But must secret passage find My griefs not only pain me 620 625 623. Thoughts my tormentors than as we commonly pronounce arm'd with deadly stings it medicinal with the accent upon Mangle &c.] the last syllable but two, or This descriptive imagery is fine med'cinal as Milton has used it and well pursued. The idea is in the Mask. The same musical taken from the effects of poison- pronunciation occurs in Shakeous salts in the stomach and speare. Othello, act v. sc. 10. bowels, which stimulate, tear, Drop tears as fast as the Arabian inflame, and exulcerate the tender fibres, and end in a mortification, Their medicinal gum. which he calls death's benumbing 628. --from snowy Alp.] He opium, as in that stage the pain uses Alp for mountain in general , Warburton. as in the Paradise Lost, ii. 620. 627. Or medicinal liquor can O'er asswage,] Here medicinal is pro- many a frozen, many a fiery Alp. nounced with the accent upon Alp in the strict etymology of the last syllable but one, as in the word signifies a mountain Latin: which is more musical white with snow. We have in trees is over. 630 635 Sleep hath forsook and giv'n me o'er I was his nursling once, and choice delight, 640 645 deed appropriated the name to &c.] This part of Samson's the high mountains which sepa- speech is little more than a reperate Italy from France and Ger- tition of what he had said before, many; but any high mountain ver. 23. may be so called, and so Sido O wherefore was my birth from nius Apollinaris calls mount heav'n foretold Athos, speaking of Xerxes cut- Twice by an angel &c. ting through it, Carmen ii. 510. But yet it cannot justly be imcui ruptus Athos, cui remige Medo puted as a fault to our author. Turgida sylvosam currebant vela per Grief though eloquent is not tied Alpem. to forms, and is besides apt in And the old Glossary interprets its own nature frequently to recur Alps by ognólinna high mountains. to and repeats its source and 633 1 was his nursling once object. Thyer. |