And what may quiet us in a death so noble. 1725 Soak'd in his enemies' blood, and from the stream With lavers pure and cleansing herbs wash off The clotted gore. I with what speed the while (Gaza is not in plight to say us nay) Will send for all my kindred, all my friends, 1730 Home to his father's house: there will I build him A monument, and plant it round with shade 1735 1740 Chor. All is best, though we oft doubt What th' unsearchable dispose 1745 1730. This circumstance is founded on Judg. xvi. 31. To the lovers of the classical drama, Samson Agonistes is full of beauty; its regularity, the clearness and solemnity of its diction, the pathos of Manoah's character, and the well-sustained Feverity of Samson's, are all calculated to secure their admiration. But it is not the generality of readers who can see beauty in propriety, or feel sympathy with passion which is more strong than vehement; and to these this poem will always fail of interest. COMUS, A MASK: Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634, before the Earl of Bridgewater, then President of Wales. THE PERSONS. The attendant Spirit, Comus with his crew. The Lady. First Brother. Sabrina, the Nymph. The chief persons who presented were, The Lord Brackley. Mr. Thomas Egerton, his brother. The first Scene discovers a wild wood. The attendant Spirit descends or enters. BEFORE the starry threshold of Jove's court Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot, 5 Which men call Earth, and with low thoughted care 10 1. This exquisite little drama is, next to Paradise Lost, te most splendid offspring of Milton's genius. Never were the leliest graces of natural description more felicitously employed, or the union of what is beautiful in the moral and imaginative of poetry anore complete. To lay their just hands on that golden key To such my errand is: and but for such, 15 20 Which he to grace his tributary gods By course commits to several government, 25 And gives them leave to wear their sapphire crowns, And wield their little tridents: but this isle, The greatest and the best of all the main, 30 35 40 I was dispatch'd for their defence and guard ; 45 50 48. The Tuscan Mariners; they were transformed by Bacchus, whom they had angered, into ships and dolphins.-See Ovid, Met. iii. 8. The story of Circe and her transformations is well known.-Homer, Odyss. x. Whoever tasted, lost his upright shape, And downward fell into a grovelling swine :) This nymph, that gazed upon his clust'ving locks, With ivy berries wreath'd, and his blithe youth, 55 Had by him, ere he parted thence, a son Much like his father, but his mother more, Whom therefore she brought up, and Comus named; At last betakes him to this ominous wood, Offering to every weary traveller 60 64 [taste 70 To quench the drought of Phoebus, which as they 75 80 I shoot from heav'n, to give him safe convoy, As now I do but first I must put off These my sky robes spun out of Iris woof, 85 Who, with his soft pipe, and smooth-dittied song, 90 But I hear the tread Of hateful steps. I must be viewless now. 60. Celtic and Iberian field; France and Spain. Comus enters with a charming rod in one hand, his glass in the other; with him a rout of monsters, headed like sundry sorts of wild beasts, but otherwise like men and women, their apparel glittering; they come in making a riotous and unruly noise, with torches in their hands. Com. The star that bids the shepherd fold, Now the top of Heav'n doth hold, Of his chamber in the East. Lead in swift round the months and years. The sounds and seas, with all their finny drove, 115 Now to the moon in wavering morrice move; And on the tawny sands and shelves Trip the pert faeries and the dapper elves. The wood-nymphs deck'd with daisies trim, 120 93. It would be impossible, perhaps, to find a more exquisite piece of musical versification than the following. The beauty and variety of the imagery are equally unsurpassed. 199. It would be useless to point out the many trifling alterations which appear in the manuscript and first editions of this poem: a few, however, are worth observing, and among them, that of this lite, which originally stood And quick law with her scrupulous head. 117. Tawny; originally, yellow. |