In Silo his bright sanctuary: Among them he a spirit of frenzy sent, And urged them on with mad desire 1675 1680 Their own destruction to come speedy upon them. So fond are mortal men Fall'n into wrath divine, As their own ruin on themselves to invite, And with blindness internal struck. 2. SEMICHOR. But he, though blind of sight, Despis'd and thought extinguish'd quite, His fiery virtue rous'd 1685 1690 Like that self-begotten bird 1669 inward] H. More, Song of the Soul 1642. c. iii. st. 9. 'Our inward eyes that they be nothing bright.' 1695 villatic] Plin. lib. xxiii. sect. 17. Villaticas alites.' Richardson. In the Arabian woods imbost, That no second knows nor third, And lay ere while a holocaust, From out her ashy womb now teem'd, And though her body die, her fame survives 1700 1705 MAN. Come, come, no time for lamentation now, Nor much more cause: Samson hath quit himself Like Samson, and heroically hath finish'd A life heroic, on his enemies 1710 Fully reveng'd, hath left them years of mourning, 1720 Or knock the breast, no weakness, no contempt, 1725 1700 imbost] Sandy's Psalms, p. 65. Lord! as the hart imbost with heat.' Quarles's Emblems, p. 290, 'imbost doth fly.' Marino's Slaugh. of the Innocents, p. 61. Whiting's Albino and Bellama, p. 107. 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 To fetch him hence, and solemnly attend With silent obsequy and funeral train 1735 Home to his father's house: there will I build him What th' unsearchable dispose Of highest wisdom brings abou., And ever best found in the close. Oft he seems to hide his face, 1733 Home] See Par. Reg. iv. 638. 'Home to his mother's house private return'd.' 1710 high] Hawes's Past. of Pleasure, 1554. ch. xxxii. 1740 1715 1750 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, 1755 1755 acquist] Heath's Chron. of Civil Wars, fol. p. 402, 'his unjust acquists.' Todd. Note] It was the custom of the scholars who lived in the age just previous to that of Milton, and who possessed a coinmand of poetical language, to form dramas in Latin verse from scripture Histories. Besides the two volumes of the 'Dramata Sacra;' there is the 'Abramus' of Th. Beza, the 'Parabata Vinctus' of Thuanus, the Christus Patiens,' the Sophom-paneas,' and the Adamus Exsul,' of Grotius, the 'Jephthas,' and 'Baptistes' of Buchanan, the Herodes Infanticida' of Dan. Heinsius. These I have read, probably there are others with which I am not acquainted; there are also many Italian Dramas formed on the sacred history, and our old mysteries. The Greek translation of this play by G. H. Glasse, has been pronounced to be 'a work constructed with such precision, and expressed with such elegance, as never appeared in Europe since the revival of learning.' Par's Letters, i. P. 637. |