To matchless valour, and adventures high: All is best, though we oft doubt, 1740 1745 Of true experience from this great event With peace and consolation hath dismiss'd, 1745. All is best, though we oft doubt, &c.] There is a great resemblance betwixt this speech of Milton's Chorus, and that of the Chorus in Eschylus's Supplices, beginning at ver. 90. Διος ίμερος ουκ ευθήρατος ετύχθη &c. to ver. 109. Thyer. 1755. His servants he with new acquist] It is his servant in most of the editions, but the first edition has it rightly his servants, meaning the Chorus and other persons present. Acquist, the same as acquisition, a word that 1757. With peace and consola- This moral lesson in the conclu- 66 he hath expressed in the preface, that "tragedy is of power by raising pity and fear, or terror, "to purge the mind of those " and such like passions, &c." and he exemplifies it here in Manoah and the Chorus, after their various agitations of passion, acquiescing in the divine dispensations, and thereby inculcating a most instructive lesson to the reader. As this work was not intended for the stage, it is not divided into acts; but if any critic should be disposed so to divide it, he may easily do it by beginning the second act at the entrance of Manoah, the third at the entrance of Dalila, the fourth at the entrance of Harapha, and the fifth at the entrance of the public Officer: but the stage is never empty or without persons, according to the model of the best written tragedies among the ancients. I have said in the Life of Milton, that "Bishop Atterbury had an in "tention of getting Mr. Pope "to divide the Samson Agonistes "into acts and scenes, and of "having it acted by the King's "Scholars at Westminster." And see what he says to that purpose in one of his letters to Mr. Pope. "I hope you will not utterly "forget what passed in the coach "about Samson Agonistes. I "shall not press you as to time, "but some time or other, I wish you would review, and polish "that piece. If upon a new "perusal of it (which I desire you to make) you think as I "do, that it is written in the "very spirit of the ancients; it "deserves your care, and is ca"pable of being improved, with "little trouble, into a perfect "model and standard of tragic poetry-always allowing for "its being a story taken out of "the Bible, which is an objec"tion that at this time of day "I know is not to be got over." Chorus bewails, and tells the ix. good Adam hath lost. Act V. Moabitides, Numb. xxv. Achan, Josh. vii. and viii. Joshua in Gibeon, Josh. x. Gideon Idoloclastes, Judg. vi. Gideon pursuing, Judg. viii. Samson pursophorus, or Hybristes, or Samson marrying or in Ramath Lechi, Judg. xv. Dagonalia, Judg. xvi. Comazontes, or the Benjaminites, or the Rioters, Judg. xix. xx. xxi. Theristria, a pastoral out of Ruth. Eliade, Hophni and Phinehas, Sam. i. ii. iii. iv. beginning with the first overthrow of Israel by the Philistines, interlaced with Samuel's vision concerning Eli's family. Jonathan rescued, 1 Sam. xiv. Doeg slandering, 1 Sam. xxii. The Sheepshearers in Carmel, a pastoral, 1 Sam. xxv. Saul in Gilboa, 1 Sam. xxviii. xxxi. David revolted, 1 Sam. xxvii. to xxxi. |