Which argues over-just, and self-displeased
For self-offence, more than for God offended.
Reject not then what offered means who knows
But God hath set before us to return thee
Home to thy country and his sacred house?
Where thou mayest bring thy offerings, to avert
His further ire, with prayers and vows renewed.

Sams. His pardon I implore; but as for life,
To what end should I seek it?-when in strength
All mortals I excelled, and great in hopes,
With youthful courage, and magnanimous thoughts
Of birth from Heaven foretold, and high exploits,
Full of divine instinct, after some proof

Of acts indeed heroic, far beyond

The sons of Anak, famous now and blazed,
Fearless of danger, like a petty god

I walked about, admired of all and dreaded
On hostile ground, none daring my affront:—
Then, swollen with pride, into the snare I fell
Of fair fallacious looks, venereal trains,

6

514. Which argues over-just, &c.] Which argues a man to be righteous overmuch' in his own esteem, as making a merit of choosing to be punished.

516. What offered means] This expression is objective to hath set; the object of the verb reject' is the complex noun sentence, What offered means (who knows but) God hath set before us,' that is, appointed or designed for us.

521. As for life.] This expression may be parsed by supplying the verb matters after the adverbial conjunction as.

523. And great.] And was

great.

515

520

525

530

525. Of birth, &c.] Of birth and high exploits foretold from Heaven.

526. Full.] And full.

529. Fearless.] And fearless. 530. Admired of all.] Wondered at by all.

531. My affront.] My encounter; my confronting attitude. So in Shaksp. Hamlet, iii. 1, 'That he, as 'twere by accident, may here affront Ophelia;' and in A Winter's Tale, v. 1, Unless another, as like Hermione as is her picture, affront his eye.'

533. Venereal trains.] Artifices of Venus. A train is a

snare.

Softened with pleasure and voluptuous life;
At length to lay my head and hallowed pledge
Of all my strength in the lascivious lap
Of a deceitful concubine, who shore me,
Like a tame wether, all my precious fleece,
Then turned me out ridiculous, despoiled,
Shaven, and disarmed among mine enemies.

Chor. Desire of wine and all delicious drinks,
Which many a famous warrior overturns,
Thou couldest repress; nor did the dancing ruby,
Sparkling, out-poured, the flavour, or the smell,
Or taste, that cheers the hearts of gods and men,
Allure thee from the cool crystalline stream.

Sams. Wherever fountain or fresh current flowed
Against the eastern ray translucent, pure
With touch ethereal of Heaven's fiery rod,
I drank, from the clear milky juice allaying
Thirst, and refreshed; nor envied them the grape
Whose head that turbulent liquor fills with fumes.
Chor. O madness! to think use of strongest wines
And strongest drinks our chief support of health;

535

540

545

550

fiery rod,' in allusion to the rod
of Moses which made water start
into view out of the dark bosom
of the rock. In Comus, 340, we
have the expression Long-
levelled rule of streaming light.'
Perhaps in the Suppliants of
Milton's favourite Euripides, 7.
650, we have the origin of our
poet's conception :-

Λαμπρὰ μὲν ἀκτὶς ἡλίου, κανὼν σαφής,
Εβαλλε γαίαν :

that is, the bright ray of the
sun, clear rule, impinged upon
the earth.

550. Milky juice.] As it were the milk of the earth's bosom.

When God with these forbidden made choice to rear 555

His mighty champion, strong above compare,

Whose drink was only from the liquid brook.

Sams. But what availed this temperance, not complete Against another object more enticing?

What boots it at one gate to make defence,

And at another to let in the foe,

Effeminately vanquished? by which means,

Now blind, disheartened, shamed, dishonoured, quelled,
To what can I be useful? wherein serve

My nation, and the work from Heaven imposed?

But to sit idle on the household hearth,
A burdenous drone; to visitants a gaze,

Or pitied object; these redundant locks,
Robustious to no purpose, clustering down,
Vain monument of strength; till length of years
And sedentary numbness craze my limbs,
To a contemptible old age obscure.

Here rather let me drudge and earn my bread;

Till vermin, or the draff of servile food,

Consume me, and oft-invocated death

Hasten the welcome end of all my pains.

560

565

570

575

Man. Wilt thou then serve the Philistines with that gift

Which was expressly given thee to annoy them?

Better at home lie bed-rid, not only idle,

Inglorious, unemployed, with age outworn.

580

But God who caused a fountain at thy prayer
From the dry ground to spring, thy thirst to allay
After the brunt of battle, can as easy

Cause light again within thy eyes to spring,
Wherewith to serve him better than thou hast.
And I persuade me so; why else this strength
Miraculous yet remaining in those locks?
His might continues in thee not for nought,
Nor shall his wondrous gifts be frustrate thus.

585

Sams. All otherwise to me my thoughts portend:
That these dark orbs no more shall treat with light,
Nor the other light of life continue long,
But yield to double darkness nigh at hand;
So much I feel my genial spirits droop,

590

My hopes all flat, Nature within me seems
In all her functions weary of herself;
My race of glory run, and race of shame,
And I shall shortly be with them that rest.

595

Man. Believe not these suggestions, which proceed

From anguish of the mind, and humours black

600

That mingle with thy fancy. I, however,
Must not omit a father's timely care
To prosecute the means of thy deliverance,
By ransom or how else. Meanwhile be calm,

582. From the dry ground.] Milton here follows an approved commentary on Judges xv. 19, which regards the fountain as opened in some part of Lehi, the place, not in Lehi, the jaw-bone, from which the place got its name, 582. Frustrate.] See note on 7. 31.

600. Humours black.] Melancholy, which literally signifies black bile, was one of the four humours anciently supposed to constitute human temperament;

the others being phlegm, blood, and choler. Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, quotes an opinion of Galen that the mind sometimes by reason of 'dark, obscure, gross fumes ascending from black humours, is in continual darkness, fear, and sorrow; divers terrible monstrous fictions in a thousand shapes and apparitions occur, with violent passions, by which the brain and phantasy are troubled and eclipsed.'

And healing words from these thy friends admit.

605

Sams. Oh! that torment should not be confined

But, finding no redress, ferment and rage;

Nor less than wounds immedicable

620

Rankle, and fester, and gangrene,

To black mortification.

Thoughts, my tormentors, armed with deadly stings,

Mangle my apprehensive tenderest parts,

Exasperate, exulcerate, and raise

Dire inflammation, which no cooling herb
Or medicinal liquor can assuage,
Nor breath of vernal air from snowy Alp.
Sleep hath forsook and given me o'er

To death's benumbing opium as my only cure;

612. Accidents.] Accidental means or modes of affliction.

615. Answerable pains.] Corresponding pains.

620. Nor less, &c.] Nor do they less rankle, &c., than immedicable wounds. Immedicabile vulnus' is an expression in Ovid, Met. x. 189.

624. Mangle.] Torture. In Shaksp. Romeo and Juliet, iii. 3,

625

630