From anguish of the mind and humours black,

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.

SAMSON.

Oh! that torment should not be confined

To the body's wounds and sores,

With maladies innumerable,

In heart, head, breast, and reins;

But must secret passage find

To the 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 lingering disease,

600

610

τὴν δηξιθύμων ἐκπεφυκυῖαν παθῶν
μελαγχόλων τε τῆς φρενὸς φαντασμάτων·
ἐμοὶ δὲ δεῖ, λύτροισιν εἴτ ̓ ἄλλῳ τρόπῳ,
ἐλευθεροῦν σε, καιρίαν σπουδὴν πατρί·
τὰ μὲν παρόντα στέρξον εὐκήλῳ φρενὶ,
δέχου δὲ μύθους τῶν φίλων θελκτηρίους.

ΣΑΜΨΩΝ.

φεῦ, φεῦ,

τάδε μὴ 'ν κραδίαις καὶ

στήθεσι καὶ κεφαλαῖς μόναις πεσόντα

ἀνάριθμα μελῶν ἄχη,

ψυχᾶς βάθος ἄγνωστον

κρυφαίαις εἰσόδοις

ἐπελθεῖν,

σ ̓ ἔνεστιν καθαρώτατα

στρεβλοῦντ ̓ αἰνοτάταις δύαις,
ὡς κατ ̓ ἄρθρα καὶ ἔντερα,
ἀλγίω δ ̓ ἔτι καρτερεῖν,
εἰ καὶ σώματος ἔξεδρα.
οὐδ ̓ ὀδύναις μόνον

ὡς χρονίας νόσου δέδηγμαι·

620

630

F

But, finding no redress, ferment and rage;

Nor less than wounds immedicable

Rankle, and fester, and gangrene,

To black mortification.

Thoughts, my tormentors, armed with deadly stings,

Mangle my apprehensive tenderest parts,

Exasperate, exulcerate, and raise

Dire inflammation, which no cooling herb

Or medicinal liquor can assuage,

Nor breath of vernal air from snowy Alp.

Sleep hath forsook and given me o'er

To death's benumbing opium as my only cure ;

Thence faintings, swoonings of despair,

And sense of Heaven's desertion.

I was His nursling once, and choice delight,

His destined from the womb,

620

630

ἐξανθοῦντα πυώδεσι

φλυκταίναις πυρετοῦ, ζέσαντ ̓
ἀνίατα σέσηπεν ἕλκη

σφακέλῳ κελαίνῳ·

ἃ δὲ καλχαίνω, σίνος ἐν ψυχῇ

μέγα κεντρομανὲς, τὸ μάλιστ ̓ αὐτᾶς εὐαίσθητον δεινὰ διασπᾷ,

καὶ καταμύσσει φρένας οἰστροδόνους, καύματ ̓ ἐγείρανθ ̓, οἷς ἂν ἐπῳδὰς οὐ πάρεχοι ποτὸν εὐμενὲς, οὐ φυτὰ κηλητήρια,

βουνῶν τ ̓ αὖραι χιονωδῶν.

ὕπνος βλεφάρων φροῦδος ἀπέστη, καὶ νηπενθὲς θανάτου δῶρον

μόνον αὔταρκες

παπαί, παπαι,

κάρτα δύσελπις καὶ φρέν ̓ ἀθυμῶν

ἐπτοιήθην θεομισὴς,
ὃς ή

τὸ πάλαι τοῦ Σεμνοῦ,

οἷά τις εὐφιλόπαις ἔθρεψε τέκνον,

640

650

Promised by heavenly message twice descending.

Under his special eye

Abstemious I grew up, and thrived 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 provoked,
Left me all helpless, with the irreparable loss
Of sight, reserved alive to be repeated
The subject of their cruelty or scorn.

Nor am I in the list of them that hope;

Hopeless are all my evils, all remediless.

640

This one prayer yet remains, might I be heard,

650

No long petition, speedy death,

The close of all my miseries, and the balm.