From out her ashy womb now teem'd, Revives, reflourishes, then vigorous most And though her body die, her fame survives darted ruin on their heads like the thunder-bearing eagle. Mr. Sympson to the same purpose proposes to read And not as evening dragon came but as an eagle &c. Mr. Thyer understands it other wise, and explains it without any alteration of the text, to which rather I incline. It is common enough among the ancient poets to meet with several similies brought in to illustrate one action, when one cannot be found that will hold in every circumstance. Milton does the same here, introducing this of the dragon merely in allusion to the order in which the Philistians were placed in the amphitheatre, and the subsequent one of the eagle to express the rapidity of that vengeance which Samson took of his enemies. 1695. -villatic fowl ;] Villa 1705 ticas alites, Flin. lib. xxiii. sect. 17. Richardson. 1695. but as an eagle &c.] In the Ajax of Sophocles it is said that his enemies, if they saw him would be terrified appear, like birds at the appearance of the vulture or eagle, ver. 167. Αλλ' ότε γαρ δη &c. The Greek verses, I think, are faulty, and as I remember, are corrected not amiss by Dawes in his Miscell. Critic. Jortin. 1700. ―imbost.] Concealed, covered. Spenser, Faery Queen, b. i. cant. iii. st. 24. A knight her met in mighty arms imbost. Richardson. 1702. a holocaust] An entire burnt-offering. Else generally only part of the beast was burnt. Richardson. 1706. her fame survives A secular bird ages of lives. MANOAH. 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 Fully reveng'd, hath left them years of mourning, And lamentation to the sons of Caphtor The construction and meaning of the whole period I conceive to be this, Virtue given for lost, like the phoenix consumed and now teemed from out her ashy womb, revives, reflourishes, and though her body die which was the case of Samson, yet her fame survives a phoenix many ages: for the comma after survives in all the editions should be omitted, as Mr. Calton has observed as well as myself. The phoenix, says he, lived a thousand years according to some, [see Bochart's Hierozoicon, pars secunda, p. 817.] and hence it is called here a secular bird. Ergo quoniam sex diebus cuncta Dei opera perfecta sunt; per secula sex, id est annorum sex millia, manere hoc statu mundum necesse est. Lactantius, Div. Inst. lib. vii. c. 14. The fame of virtue (the Semichorus saith) survives, outlives this secular bird many ages. The comma, which is in all the editions after survives, breaks the construction. 1706. Had this been the intended construction, he should rather have said "the secular "bird." But survives may be perhaps more naturally contrasted with dies; "her body 1710 "dies" but "her fame survives," i. e. continues to live, " ages of "lives." And "a secular bird” may refer to the person implied in the possessive pronoun "her," a construction common in Milton. If this be so, virtue will have been confused in the course of the passage with the bird to which it is compared, a thing not unparalleled in our author. E. This solemn introduction of the phoenix is a gross outrage of poetical propriety. It is faulty, not only as it is incongruous to the personage to whom it is ascribed, but as it is so evidently contrary to reason and nature, that it ought never to be mentioned but as a fable in a serious poem. Johnson. 1713. to the sons of Caphtor] Caphtor it should be, and not Chaptor, as in several editions: and the sons of Caphtor are Philistines, originally of the island Caphtor or Crete. The people were called Caphtorim, Cherethim, Ceretim, and afterwards Cretians. A colony of them settled in Palestine, and there went by the name of Philistim, Meadowcourt. Through all Philistian bounds; to Israel Or knock the breast, no weakness, no contempt, Soak'd in his enemies' blood, and from the stream With silent obsequy and funeral train Home to his father's house: there will I build him 1730. Will send for all my kindred, all my friends, &c.] This is founded upon what the Scripture saith, Judges xvi. 31. which the poet has finely improved. Then his brethren, and all the 1715 1720 1725 1730 1735 house of his father, came down and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burying-place of Manoah his father. To matchless valour, and adventures high: All is best, though we oft doubt, 1740 1745 Of true experience from this great event With peace and consolation hath dismiss'd, 1745. All is best, though we oft doubt, &c.] There is a great resemblance betwixt this speech of Milton's Chorus, and that of the Chorus in Eschylus's Supplices, beginning at ver. 90. Διος ίμερος ουκ ευθήρατος ετύχθη Thyer. 1755. His servants he with new acquist] It is his servant in most of the editions, but the first edition has it rightly his servants, meaning the Chorus and other persons present. Acquist, the same as acquisition, a word that 1757. With peace and consola- This moral lesson in the conclu- 66 he hath expressed in the preface, that" tragedy is of power by raising pity and fear, or terror, "to purge the mind of those " and such like passions, &c." and he exemplifies it here in Manoah and the Chorus, after their various agitations of passion, acquiescing in the divine dispensations, and thereby inculcating a most instructive lesson to the reader. As this work was not intended for the stage, it is not divided into acts; but if any critic should be disposed so to divide it, he may easily do it by beginning the second act at the entrance of Manoah, the third at the entrance of Dalila, the fourth at the entrance of Harapha, and the fifth at the entrance of the public Officer: but the stage is never empty or without persons, according to the model of the best written tragedies among the ancients. I have said in the Life of Milton, that "Bishop Atterbury had an in tention of getting Mr. Pope "to divide the Samson Agonistes "into acts and scenes, and of "having it acted by the King's "Scholars at Westminster." And see what he says to that purpose in one of his letters to Mr. Pope. "I hope you will not utterly "forget what passed in the coach "about Samson Agonistes. I "shall not press you as to time, "but some time or other, I wish 66 you would review, and polish "that piece. If upon a new "perusal of it (which I desire you to make) you think as I "do, that it is written in the very spirit of the ancients; it "deserves your care, and is capable of being improved, with little trouble, into a perfect "model and standard of tragic poetry-always allowing for "its being a story taken out of "the Bible, which is an objec"tion that at this time of day "I know is not to be got over. 66 " |