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May compass it, shall willingly be paid

And number'd down: much rather I shall choose
To live the poorest in my tribe, than richest,
And he in that calamitous prison left.

No, I am fix'd not to part hence without him.
For his redemption all my patrimony,

If need be, I am ready to forego

And quit: not wanting him I shall want nothing.

CHORUS.

Fathers are wont to lay up for their sons,
Thou for thy son art bent to lay out all:
Sons wont to nurse their parents in old age,
Thou in old age car'st how to nurse thy son,
Made older than thy age through eye-sight lost.
MANOAH.

It shall be my delight to tend his eyes,
And view him sitting in the house, ennobled
With all those high exploits by him achiev'd,
And on his shoulders waving down those locks,
That of a nation arm'd the strength contain❜d:
And I persuade me God had not permitted

1490. It shall be my delight &c.] The character of a fond parent is extremely well supported in the person of Manoah quite through the whole per formance; but there is in my opinion something particularly natural and moving in this speech. The circumstance of the old man's feeding and soothing his fancy with the thoughts of tending his son and contemplating him ennobled with so many famous exploits is vastly expressive

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of the doating fondness of an old father. Nor is the poet less to be admired for his making Manoah under the influence of this pleasing imagination go still further, and flatter himself even with the hopes of God's restoring his eyes again. Hope as naturally arises in the mind in such a situation, as doubts and fears do when it is overclouded with gloominess and melancholy. Thyer.

His strength again to grow up with his hair
Garrison'd round about him like a camp
Of faithful soldiery, were not his purpose
To use him further yet in some great service,
Not to sit idle with so great a gift

Useless, and thence ridiculous about him.

And since his strength with eye-sight was not lost,
God will restore him eye-sight to his strength..

CHORUS.

Thy hopes are not ill founded nor seem vain Of his delivery, and thy joy thereon

Conceiv'd, agreeable to a father's love,

In both which we, as next, participate.

MANOAH.

I know your friendly minds and-O what noise! Mercy of heav'n, what hideous noise was that!

1504. Thy hopes are not ill

founded nor seem vain Of his delivery,] This is very proper and becoming the gravity of the Chorus, as much as to intimate that his other hopes were fond and extravagant. And the art of the poet cannot be sufficiently admired in raising the hopes and expectations of his persons to the highest pitch just before the dreadful catastrophe. How great and how sudden is the change from good to bad! The one renders the other more striking and affecting.

1508. -and-O what noise! &c.] It must be very pleasing to the reader to observe with what art and judgment Milton prepares him for the relation of the

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catastrophe of this tragedy. This abrupt start of Manoah upon hearing the hideous noise, and the description of it by the Chorus in their answer, in terms so full of dread and terror, naturally fill the mind with a presaging horror proper for the occasion. This is still kept up by their suspense and reasoning about it, and at last raised to a proper pitch by the frighted and distracted manner of the Messenger's coming in, and his hesitation and backwardness in telling what had happened. What gives it the greater strength and beauty is the sudden transition from that soothing and flattering prospect with which Manoah was entertaining his thoughts to a scene so totally opposite. Thyer.

Horribly loud, unlike the former shout.

CHORUS.

Noise call you it or universal groan,

As if the whole inhabitation perish'd!

Blood, death, and deathful deeds are in that noise,
Ruin, destruction at the utmost point.

MANOAH.

Of ruin indeed methought I heard the noise: Oh it continues, they have slain my son.

CHORUS.

Thy son is rather slaying them, that outcry From slaughter of one foe could not ascend. MANOAH.

Some dismal accident it needs must be; What shall we do, stay here or run and see?

CHORUS.

Best keep together here, lest running thither We unawares run into danger's mouth.

This evil on the Philistines is fall'n ;

From whom could else a general cry be heard?
The sufferers then will scarce molest us here,
From other hands we need not much to fear.
What if his eye-sight (for to Israel's God
Nothing is hard) by miracle restor❜d,
He now be dealing dole

1512. Richardson.

among

inhabitation] Oxoven.

1514. at the utmost point.] Al ultimo segno. Richardson.

1529. —be dealing dole] Distributing his gifts and portions among his enemies, from a Saxon word, says Skinner, but Mr. Upton in his remarks upon Ben

his foes,

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Jonson's three plays, p. 31. derives the word dole from the Greek año Tov dieλuv, distribuere. By the way we may observe, that the Chorus here entertains the same pleasing hope of Samson's eye-sight being by miracle restored, which he had before tacitly reproved in Manoah, and

And over heaps of slaughter'd walk his way?

MANOAH.

That were a joy presumptuous to be thought.
CHORUS.

Yet God hath wrought things as incredible
For his people of old; what hinders now?

MANOAH.

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He can I know, but doubt to think he will; Yet hope would fain subscribe, and tempts belief. 1535 A little stay will bring some notice hither.

CHORUS.

Of good or bad so great, of bad the sooner; For evil news rides post, while good news baits. And to our wish I see one hither speeding, bet An Hebrew, as I guess, and of our tribe.

MESSENGER.

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O whither shall I run, or which way fly Manoah who had before encouraged the same hope in himself, now desponds and reckons it presumptuous in another. Such changes of our thoughts are natural and common, especially in any change of our situation and circumstances. Fear and hope usually succeed each other like ague and fever. And it was not a slight observation of mankind, that could have enabled Milton to have understood and described the human passions so exactly.

be: and so is the next but one, in that and all the editions; though it seems to belong rather to Manoah. The line between them, which is wanting (as I just now observed) in the text of the first edition, in the Errata and in all the editions since is given to the Chorus, but the poet certainly intended both them and Manoah a share in it.

1536. A little stay will bring some notice hither.] The text of the first edition wants the nine lines preceding this, and the line that follows it: but they are supplied in the Errata. This line in that edition is in the part of the Chorus, as I think it ought to

CHOR. A little stay will bring some notice hither

Of good or bad so great. MAN. Of bad the sooner;

For evil news rides post, while good news baits.

CHOR. And to our wish I see one

hither speeding,

An Hebrew, as I guess, and of our tribe.

Calton.

The sight of this so horrid spectacle,

Which erst my eyes beheld and yet behold?
For dire imagination still pursues me.
But providence or instinct of nature seems,
Or reason though disturb'd, and scarce consulted,
To' have guided me aright, I know not how,
To thee first reverend Manoah, and to these
My countrymen, whom here I knew remaining,
As at some distance from the place of horror,
So in the sad event too much concern'd.
MANOAH.

The accident was loud, and here before thee
With rueful cry, yet what it was we hear not;
No preface needs, thou seest we long to know.
MESSENGER.

It would burst forth, but I recover breath And sense distract, to know well what I utter.

MANOAH.

Tell us the sum, the circumstance defer.

MESSENGER.

Gaza yet stands, but all her sons are fall❜n, All in a moment overwhelm'd and fall'n.

1552. and here before thee] Here again the old error was carefully preserved through all the editions. In the first edition it was printed and heard before thee; but we have corrected it, as Milton himself corrected it in the table of Errata.

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1556. And sense distract.] The word is used likewise as an adjective in Shakespeare. Julius Cæsar, act iv. sc. 4.

With this she fell distract, And (her attendants absent) swallow'd fire.

1554. No preface needs,] No Twelfth-Night, act v. sc. 5.

preface is wanting. Needs is a verb neuter here as in Paradise Lost x. 80. where see the note.

They say, poor gentleman! he's

much distract.

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