Eyeless in Gaza, at the mill with slaves, Himself in bonds, under Philistian yoke.
O loss of sight, of thee I most complain ! Blind among enemies, O worse than chains, Dungeon, or beggary, or decrepit age! Light, the prime work of God, to me is extinct, And all her various objects of delight Annull'd, which might in part my grief have eased, Inferior to the vilest now become
Of man or worm: the vilest here excel me; They creep, yet see; I, dark in light, exposed To daily fraud, contempt, abuse, and wrong, Within doors or without, still as a fool, In power of others, never in my own; Scarce half I seem to live, dead more than half. O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon, Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse Without all hope of day!
O first created Beam, and thou great Word, 'Let there be light, and light was over all ;' Why am I thus bereaved thy prime decree? The sun to me is dark
And silent as the moon,
When she deserts the night,
Hid in her vacant interlunar cave. Since light so necessary is to life, And almost life itself, if it be true That light is in the soul,
She all in every part; why was the sight To such a tender ball as the eye confined, So obvious and so easy to be quench'd? And not as feeling through all parts diffused, That she might look at will through every pore? Then had I not been thus exiled from light, As in the land of darkness yet in light, To live a life half dead, a living death,
And buried but O yet more miserable! Myself my sepulchre, a moving grave, Buried, yet not exempt
By privilege of death and burial,
From worst of other evils, pains, and wrongs; But made hereby obnoxious more
To all the miseries of life,
Life in captivity
Among inhuman foes.
With God not parted from him, as was fear'd, But favouring and assisting to the end. Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail Or knock the breast; no weakness, no contempt, Dispraise, or blame, nothing but well and fair, And what may quiet us in a death so noble. Let us go find the body where it lies 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,
To fetch him hence, and solemnly attend With silent obsequy, and funeral train, Home to his father's house: there will I build him A monument, and plant it round with shade Of laurel ever green, and branching palm, With all his trophies hung, and acts inroll'd In copious legend, or sweet lyric song. Thither shall all the valiant youth resort, And from his memory inflame their breasts To matchless valour, and adventures high: The virgins also shall on feastful days Visit his tomb with flowers, only bewailing His lot unfortunate in nuptial choice, From whence captivity and loss of eyes. Chorus. All is best, though we oft doubt What th' unsearchable dispose
Of highest Wisdom brings about, And ever best found in the close. Oft he seems to hide his face, But unexpectedly returns,
And to his faithful champion hath in place Bore witness gloriously; whence Gaza mourns, And all that band them to resist
His uncontrollable intent;
His servants he with new acquist
Of true experience from this great event, With peace and consolation hath dismiss'd, And calm of mind all passion spent.
SPEECHES, OF MANOAH THE FATHER OF SAMSON AND OF THE CHORUS, ON HEARING OF HIS LAST ACHIEVEMENT AND DEATH.
Manoah. SAMSON hath quit himself Like Samson, and heroically hath finish'd A life heroic; on his enemies
Fully revenged, hath left them years of mourning, And lamentation to the Sons of Caphtor Through all Philistian bounds, to Israel Honour hath left, and freedom, let but them Find courage to lay hold on this occasion; To himself and father's house eternal fame, And which is best and happiest yet, all this
The first Scene discovers a wild Wood.
The Attendant Spirit descends or enters. BEFORE the starry threshold of Jove's court My mansion is, where those immortal shapes Of bright aërial spirits live insphered In regions mild of calm and serene air, Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot Which men call Earth, and with low-thoughted care Confined, and pester'd in this pin-fold here, Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being, Unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives, After this mortal change, to her true servants, Amongst the enthron'd gods, on sainted seats. Yet some there be that by due steps aspire To lay their just hands on that golden key That opes the palace of Eternity: To such my errand is; and but for such,
I would not soil these pure ambrosial weeds With the rank vapours of this sin-worn mould.
But to my task. Neptune, besides the sway Of every salt-flood, and each ebbing stream, Took in by lot 'twixt high and nether Jove, Imperial rule of all the sea-girt isles, That like to rich and various gems inlay The unadorned bosom of the deep, Which he to grace his tributary gods
By course commits to several government, 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, He quarters to his blue-hair'd deities; And all this tract that fronts the falling sun, A noble peer of mickle trust and power Has in his charge, with temper'd awe to guide An old and haughty nation proud in arms : Where his fair offspring, nursed in princely lore, Are coming to attend their father's state, And new-entrusted sceptre; but their way Lies through the perplex'd paths of this drear wood, The nodding horror of whose shady brows Threats the forlorn and wandering passenger ; And here their tender age might suffer peril, But that by quick command from sovereign Jove I was despatch'd for their defence and guard ; And listen why; for I will tell you now What never yet was heard in tale or song, From old or modern bard, in hall or bower. Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape Crush'd the sweet poison of misused wine, After the Tuscan mariners transform'd, Coasting the Tyrrhene shore, as the winds listed, On Circe's island fell: (Who knows not Circe, The daughter of the Sun? whose charmed cup Whoever tasted, lost his upright shape, And downward fell into a groveling swine) This nymph, that gazed upon his clust'ring locks With ivy berries wreath'd, and his blythe youth, 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, Who ripe, and frolic of his full-grown age, Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields, At last betakes him to this ominous wood, And in thick shelter of black shades imbower'd, Excels his mother at her mighty art, Offering to every weary traveller His orient liquor in a crystal glass, To quench the drought of Phoebus, which as they (For most dotaste, through fond intemp'rate thirst) Soon as the potion works, their human count'nance, Th' express resemblance of the gods, is changed Into some brutish form of wolf or bear, Or ounce or tiger, hog or bearded goat, All other parts remaining as they were; And they, so perfect is their misery, Not once perceive their foul disfigurement, But boast themselves more comely than before, And all their friends and native home forget, To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty.
Therefore, when any favour'd of high Jove Chances to pass through this advent'rous glade, Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star
I shoot from heaven to give him safe convoy, As now I do but first I must put off These my sky-robes, spun out of Iris' woof, And take the weeds and likeness of a swain That to the service of this house belongs, Who with his soft pipe, and smooth-dittied song, Well knows to still the wild winds when they roar, And hush the waving woods; nor of less faith, And in this office of his mountain watch, Likeliest, and nearest to the present aid Of this occasion. But I hear the tread
Of hateful steps. I must be viewless now. 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 glistering; they come in, making a riotous and unruly noise, with torches in their hands. Comus. The star that bids the shepherd fold, Now the top of heaven doth hold, And the gilded car of Day, His glowing axle doth allay In the steep Atlantic stream, And the slope sun his upward beam Shoots against the dusky pole, Pacing toward the other goal Of his chamber in the East. Meanwhile, welcome Joy and Feast, Midnight Shout and Revelry, Tipsy Dance, and Jollity. Braid your locks with rosy twine, Dropping odours, dropping wine. Rigour now is gone to bed, And Advice with scrupulous head, Strict Age, and sour Severity,
With their grave saws in slumber lie. We that are of purer fire Imitate the starry quire,
Who in their nightly watchful spheres, Lead in swift round the months and years. The sounds and seas, with all their finny drove, Now to the moon in wavering morrice move;
And on the tawny sands and shelves Trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves. By dimpled brook and fountain brim,
The wood-nymphs, deck'd with daisies trim, Their merry wakes and pastimes keep : What hath night to do with sleep? Night hath better sweets to prove, Venus now wakes, and wakens Love. Come, let us our rites begin, 'Tis only day-light that makes sin, Which these dun shades will ne'er report.- Hail, goddess of nocturnal sport,
Dark-veil'd Cotytto! t' whom the secret flame Of midnight torches burns; mysterious dame ! That ne'er art call'd, but when the dragon womb Of Stygian darkness spets her thickest gloom, And makes one blot of all the air, Stay thy cloudy ebon chair,
Wherein thou ridest with Hecate, and befriend Us thy vow'd priests, till utmost end
Of all thy dues be done, and rone left out;
Ere the blabbing eastern scout,
The nice morn on the Indian steep From her cabin'd loophole peep, And to the tell-tale sun descry Our conceal'd solemnity.
Come, knit hands, and beat the ground In a light fantastic round.
Break off, break off, I feel the different pace Of some chaste footing near about this ground. Run to your shrouds, within these brakes and trees; Our number may affright: some virgin sure (For so I can distinguish by mine art) Benighted in these woods. Now to my charms, And to my wily trains: I shall ere long Be well stock'd with as fair a herd as grazed About my mother Circe. Thus I hurl My dazzling spells into the spungy air, Of power to cheat the eye with blear illusion, And give it false presentments, lest the place And my quaint habits breed astonishment, And put the damsel to suspicious flight; Which must not be, for that's against my course : I under fair pretence of friendly ends, And well-placed words of glozing courtesy, Baited with reasons not unplausible, Wind me into the easy-hearted man, And hug him into snares. When once her eye Hath met the virtue of this magic dust, I shall appear some harmless villager, Whom thrift keeps up about his country gear. But here she comes; I fairly step aside, And hearken, if I her business here.
Lady. This way the noise was, if mine ear be true, My best guide now; methought it was the sound Of riot and ill-managed merriment, Such as the jocund flute, or gamesome pipe, Stirs up among the loose unletter'd hinds, When for their teeming flocks, and granges full, In wanton dance they praise the bounteous Pan, And thank the gods amiss. I should be loth To meet the rudeness and swill'd insolence Of such late wassailers; yet O, where else Shall I inform my unacquainted feet In the blind mazes of this tangled wood? My brothers, when they saw me wearied out With this long way, resolving here to lodge Under the spreading favour of these pines, Stept, as they said, to the next thicket side, To bring me berries, or such cooling fruit As the kind hospitable woods provide. They left me then, when the grey-hooded Even, Like a sad votarist in palmer's weed,
Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phoebus' wain. But where they are, and why they came not back, Is now the labour of my thoughts; 'tis likeliest They had engaged their wand'ring steps too far,
And envious darkness, ere they could return, Had stole them from me; else, O thievish Night, Why wouldst thou, but for some felonious end, In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars That Nature hung in heaven, and fill'd their lamps With everlasting oil, to give due light
To the misled and lonely traveller? This is the place, as well as I may guess, Whence even now the tumult of loud mirth Was rife and perfect in my list'ning ear; Yet nought but single darkness do I find. What might this be? A thousand fantasies Begin to throng into my memory,
Of calling shapes, and beck'ning shadows dire, And airy tongues that syllable men's names On sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses. These thoughts may startle well, but not astound The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended By a strong-siding champion, Conscience.- O welcome pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope, Thou hovering Angel, girt with golden wings, And thou, unblemish'd form of Chastity! I see ye visibly, and now believe That He, the Supreme Good, t' whom all things ill Are but as slavish officers of vengeance, Would send a glist'ring guardian, if need were, To keep my life and honour unassail'd. Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud Turn forth her silver lining on the night?
I did not err; there does a sable cloud Turn forth her silver lining on the night, And casts a gleam over this tufted grove. I cannot halloo to my brothers, but Such noise as I can make to be heard farthest I'll venture ; for my new enliven'd spirits Prompt me; and they perhaps are not far off.
Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph, that livest unseen Within thy airy shell,
By slow Meander's margent green,
And in the violet-embroider'd vale,
Where the love-lorn nightingale Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well; Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair That likest thy Narcissus are? O if thou have
Hid them in some flow'ry cave,
Tell me but where,
Sweet queen of parly, daughter of the Sphere; So mayst thou be translated to the skies,
And give resounding grace to all Heaven's harmonies.
Comus. Can any mortal, mixture of earth's mould, Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment? Sure something holy lodges in that breast, And with these raptures moves the vocal air To testify his hidden residence: How sweetly did they float upon the wings Of silence, through the empty vaulted night, At every fall smoothing the raven down
Of darkness till it smiled!
I have oft heard My mother Circe, with the Sirens three, Amidst the flow'ry-kirtled Naiades, Culling their potent herbs and baleful drugs, Who as they sung, would take the prison'd soul, And lap it in Elysium; Scylla wept, And chid her barking waves into attention, And fell Charybdis murmur'd soft applause : Yet they in pleasing slumber lull'd the sense, And in sweet madness robb'd it of itself, But such a sacred and home-felt delight, Such sober certainty of waking bliss,
I never heard till now. I'll speak to her, And she shall be my queen. Hail, foreign wonder! Whom certain these rough shades did never breed, Unless the goddess that in rural shrine
Dwell'st here with Pan, or Sylvan, by blest song Forbidding every bleak unkindly fog
To touch the prosp'rous growth of this tall wood. Lady. Nay, gentle shepherd, ill is lost that praise That is address'd to unattending ears; Not any boast of skill, but extreme shift How to regain my sever'd company, Compell'd me to awake the courteous Echo To give me answer from her mossy couch. Comus. What chance, good lady, hath bereft you thus ?
Lady. Dim darkness and this leafy labyrinth. Comus. Could that divide you from near-usher- ing guides?
Lady. They left me weary on a grassy turf. Comus. By falsehood, or discourtesy, or why? Lady. To seek i' th' valley some cool friendly
Comus. And left your fair side all unguarded, lady?
What readiest way would bring me to that place? Comus. Due west it rises from this shrubby point. Lady. To find out that, good shepherd, I suppose, In such a scant allowance of star-light, Would over-task the best land-pilot's art, Without the sure guess of well-practised feet. Comus. I know each lane, and every alley green, Dingle, or bushy dell of this wild wood, And every bosky bourn from side to side, My daily walks and ancient neighbourhood; And if your stray attendants be yet lodged, Or shroud within these limits, I shall know Ere morrow wake, or the low-roosted lark From her thatch'd pallet rouse; if otherwise, I can conduct you, lady, to a low But loyal cottage, where you may be safe Till further quest.
Lady. Shepherd, I take thy word, And trust thy honest offer'd courtesy, Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds With smoky rafters, than in tap'stry halls, And courts of princes, where it first was named, And yet is most pretended: in a place Less warranted than this, or less secure,
I cannot be, that I should fear to change it.
Eye me, blest Providence, and square my trial To my proportion'd strength. Shepherd, lead on.
My sister is not so defenceless left
As you imagine; she has a hidden strength Lady. They were but twain, and purposed quick Which you remember not.
Comus. Perhaps forestalling Night prevented 'Tis Chastity, my brother, Chastity :
Lady. As smooth as Hebe's their unrazor'd lips. Comus. Two such I saw, what time the labour'd In his loose traces from the furrow came, And the swinkt hedger at his supper sat ; I saw them under a green mantling vine That crawls along the side of yon small hill, Plucking ripe clusters from the tender shoots. Their port was more than human as they stood; I took it for a faëry vision
Of some gay creatures of the element, That in the colours of the rainbow live, And play i' th' plighted clouds. I was awe-struck, And as I pass'd, I worshipp'd ; if those you seek, It were a journey like the path to heaven, To help you find them.
She that has that is clad in cómplete steel, And like a quiver'd nymph, with arrows keen, May trace huge forests, and unharbour'd heaths, Infamous hills and sandy perilous wilds, Where through the sacred rays of Chastity, No savage fierce, bandit, or mountaineer, Will dare to soil her virgin purity: Yea there, where very desolation dwells, By grots, and caverns shagg'd with horrid shades, She may pass on with unblench'd majesty, Be it not done in pride, or in presumption. Some say no evil thing that walks by night, In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen, Blue meagre hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost, That breaks his magic chains at curfew time, No goblin or swart fairy of the mine, Hath hurtful power o'er true virginity. Do ye believe me yet, or shall I call Antiquity from the old schools of Greece, To testify the arms of Chastity ? Hence had the huntress Dian her dread bow, Fair silver-shafted queen, for ever chaste, Wherewith she tamed the brinded lioness
And spotted mountain pard, but set at nought The frivolous bolt of Cupid; gods and men Fear'd her stern frown, and she was Queen o' th' Woods.
What was that snaky-headed Gorgon shield, That wise Minerva wore, unconquer'd virgin, Wherewith she freezed her foes to cóngeal'd stone, But rigid looks of chaste austerity,
And noble grace that dash'd brute violence With sudden adoration, and blank awe? So dear to Heaven is saintly Chastity, That when a soul is found sincerely so, A thousand liveried angels lacquey her, Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt, And in clear dream and solemn vision, Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear, Till oft converse with heavenly habitants Begin to cast a beam on th' outward shape, The unpolluted temple of the mind, And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence, Till all be made immortal.
Listen where thou art sitting
Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave, In twisted braids of lilies knitting
The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair; Listen, for dear Honour's sake, Goddess of the Silver lake,
Listen and save;
Listen and appear to us, In name of great Oceanus ;
By th' earth-shaking Neptune's mace, And Tethys' grave majestic pace; By hoary Nereus' wrinkled look, And the Carpathian wizard's hook; By scaly Triton's winding shell, And old sooth-saying Glaucus' spell; By Leucothea's lovely hands, And her son that rules the strands; By Thetis' tinsel-slipper'd feet, And the songs of Sirens sweet; By dead Parthenope's dear tomb, And fair Ligea's golden comb, Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks, Sleeking her soft alluring locks; By all the nymphs that nightly dance Upon thy streams, with wily glance; Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy head From thy coral-paven bed,
And bridle in thy headlong wave, Till thou our summons answer'd have.
THE DANCES ENDED, THE SPIRIT EPILOGUIZES.
Spirit. To the ocean now I fly, And those happy climes that lie Where Day never shuts his eye, Up in the broad fields of the sky: There I suck the liquid air, All amidst the gardens fair
Of Hesperus and his daughters three, That sing about the golden tree: Along the crisped shades and bowers Revels the spruce and jocund Spring; The Graces, and the rosy-bosom'd Hours, Thither all their bounties bring; That there eternal Summer dwells, And west-winds with musky wing About the cedar'd alleys fling Nard and cassia's balmy smells. Iris there with humid bow
Waters the odorous banks, that blow Flowers of more mingled hue Than her purfled scarf can shew, And drenches with Elysian dew (List, mortals, if your ears be true) Beds of hyacinth and roses, Where young Adonis oft reposes, Waxing well of his deep wound In slumber soft, and on the ground Sadly sits th' Assyrian queen; But far above, in spangled sheen, Celestial Cupid, her famed son, advanced, Holds his dear Psyche sweet intranced, After her wand'ring labours long, Till free consent the gods among Make her his eternal bride,
And from her fair unspotted side Two blissful twins are to be born, Youth and Joy; so Jove hath sworn. But now my task is smoothly done, I can fly, or I can run
Quickly to the green earth's end, Where the bow'd welkin slow doth bend, And from thence can soar as soon To the corners of the moon.
Mortals that would follow me, Love Virtue, she alone is free: She can teach ye how to climb Higher than the sphery chime; Or if Virtue feeble were,
Heaven itself would stoop to her.
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