Paradise Regain'd

No journey of a fabbath-day, and loaded foo
Like whom the Gentiles feign to bear up Heaven.
Which fhall I first bewail,

Thy bondage or loft fight,
Prifon within prison
Infeparably dark?

1512

Thou art become (O worst imprisonment!) 155
The dungeon of thyself; thy foulons to [plain)
(Which men enjoying fight oft without caufe comA
Imprison'd now indeed,

In real darkness of the body dwells,
Shut up from outward light
T'incorporate with gloomy night;

160

and went away with them, bar and all: and posts is certainly better on this account, but perhaps Miltons might prefer post as somewhat of a fofter found.

148. Hebron, Jeat of giants?

old,] For Hebron was the city of Arba, the father of Anak, and the feat of the Anakims. Joh. XV. 13, 14. And the Anakims were giants, which come of the giants. Numb. XIII. 33. MHP

157- oft without caufe com

plain] So Milton himself corrected it, but all the editions con-f tinue the old erratum complain'd. I

162. For

For inward light alas.

Puts forth no visual beam.

O mirror of our fickle ftate,
Since man on earth unparallel'd!

The rarer thy example stands,

By how much from the top of wondrous glory,
Strongest of mortal men,

To lowest pitch of abject fortune thou art fall'n,

For him I reckon not in high estate

Whom long descent of birth

Or the sphere of fortune raises;

165

But thee whose strength, while virtue was her mate, Might have fubdued the earth,

Univerfally

172. Or the Sphere of fortune raifes;] Fortune is painted on a globe, which by her influence is in a perpetual rotation on its axis. Warburton.

178. He speaks] We have folof the others have it He fpake. T low'd Milton's own edition; moft

181. From Efbtool and Zora's

fruitful vale] Thefe were two towns of the tribe of Dan. Joh. XIX. 41. the latter the birth-place of Samfon. Judg. XIII. 2. and they were near one another. And the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan be tween Zorah and Ejbtaol, Judg. XIII. 25. And they were both fituated in the valley, Josh. XV. 33..

and

Univerfally crown'd with highest praises.

SAMSON.

I hear the found of words, their fenfe the air Diffolves unjointed ere it reach my ear.

CHORUS.

He fpeaks, let us draw nigh. Matchless in might,

181

The glory late of Ifrael, now the grief;
We come thy friends and neighbours not unknown
From Efhtaol and Zora's fruitful vale
To vifit or bewail thee, or if better,
Counsel or confolation we may bring,

Salve to thy fores; apt words have pow'r to fwage The tumors of a troubled mind,

and thefore the poet with great exactnefs fays Efbtaol and Zora's fruitful vale.

182. To vifit or bewail thee,] The poet dictated

To vifit and bewail thee: The purpose of their vifit was to bewail him; or if better, (that is if they found it more proper) to addife or comfort him. Veniebat autem ad Eumenem utrumque genus hominum, et qui propter odium fructum oculis ex ejus cafu capere vellent, [See above ver. 112. to ftare at my affliction] et qui propter veterem amicitiam colloqui confolarique cuperent. Corn. Nepos in vita Eumenis. Calton.

184.

185 And

apt words have pow'r

to fwage &c] Alluding to thefe lines in fchylus. Prom. Vinct. 377

Ουκον Προμηθά το το γινώσκεις, ότι

Οργής νόσησης εισιν ιατροι λε yu.

Or to this paffage in Menander.

Λογα γαρ εσι λυπης φαρμα

και μονον. Thyer. Or perhaps to Horace, Epift. I. I. 34.

Sunt verba et voces, quibus hunc
lenire dolorem
Poffis, et magnam morbi depo-
nere partem.
195. Yet

And are as balm to fefter'd wounds.

SAMSON.

190

Your coming, Friends, revives me, for I learn Now of my own experience, not by talk, How counterfeit a coin they are who friends Bear in their fuperfcription, (of the most I would be understood) in profp'rous days They swarm, but in adverse withdraw their head, Not to be found, though fought. Ye fee, O Friends, How many evils have inclos'd me round; 194

Yet that which was the worst now leaft afflicts me, Blindness, for had I fight, confus'd with shame, How could I once look up, or heave the head, Who like a foolish pilot have shipwrack'd

195. Yet that which was the worst now leaft afflicts me,] There is no inconfiftence in this with what he had faid before ver. 66.

but chief of all, Olofs of fight, of thee I moft complain.

When he was by himself, he confider'd his blindness as the worst of evils; but now, upon his friends coming in and feeing him in this wretched condition, it leaft afflicts me, fays he, as being fome cover to his fhame and confufion.

210. Tax not divine difpofal; &c] As this whole play, fo particularly

the part of the Chorus is written
in the very fpirit of the Ancients,
and is formed exactly according to
the precepts of Horace. De Arte
Poet. 193.

Actoris partes Chorus, officium
que virile
Defendat; neu quid medios in-
tercinat actus,

Quod non propofito conducat et
hæreat apte.

Ille bonis faveatque, et concilietur amicis ;

Et regat iratos, et amet pacare

tumentes:

Ille

200

My veffel trusted to me from above,
Gloriously rigg'd; and for a word, a tear,
Fool, have divulg'd the fecret gift of God
To a deceitful woman? tell me, Friends,
Am I not fung and proverb'd for a fool
In every street? do they not fay, how well
Are come upon him his deferts? yet why?
Immeasurable strength they might behold
In me, of wisdom nothing more than mean;
This with the other fhould, at least, have pair'd,
Thefe two proportion'd ill drove me transverse.

CHORUS.

Tax not divine difpofal; wifeft men

Have err'd, and by bad women been deceiv'd;