5 There I am wont to sit, when any chance To Dagon their sea-idol, and forbid Their superstition yields me; hence with leave thought the same in the two pieces, and I am sure the Greek tragedy can have no pretence to be esteemed better, but only because it is two thousand years older. 13. To Dagon their sea-idol,] For Milton both here and in the Paradise Lost follows the opinion of those, who describe this idol 15 20 25 as part man, part fish, i. 462. Dagon his name, sea monster, upward man And downward fish. 24. Twice by an angel,] Once to his mother, and again to his father Manoah and his mother both, and the second time the angel ascended in the flame of the altar. Judges xiii. 3, 11, 20. His god-like presence, and from some great act Design'd for great exploits; if I must die 30 With this heav'n-gifted strength? O glorious strength Had been fulfill'd but through mine own default, 28. —and from some great act,] Mr. Sympson says that the true reading is -as from some great act; but the poet would hardly say As in a fiery column &c. as from some great act &c; and therefore we may retain and, and as may be understood though not expressed, As in a fiery column charioting &c. and as from some great act &c. 33. Betray'd, captiv'd,] It should be pronounced with the accent upon the last syllable, as afterwards, ver. 694. 35 40 45 To dogs and fowls a prey, or else captiv'd. I think we commonly pronounce tion as Milton. Spenser, Faery and b. iii. cant. i. st. 2. But the captiv'd Acrasia he sent : and Fairfax, cant. xix. s. 95. Free was Erminia, but captiv'd her heart. In what part lodg'd, how easily bereft me, But weakly to a woman must reveal it, By weakest subtleties, not made to rule, But to subserve where wisdom bears command! 50 55 God, when he gave me strength, to show withal 53. But what is strength without Of wisdom, &c.] Ovid, Met. xiii. 363. Tu vires sine mente geris -tu tantum corpore prodes, 60 65 70 69. or decrepit age!] So it is printed in the first edition; the later editors have omitted or, concluding I suppose that it made the verse a syllable too long. Mr. Calton proposes to Nos animo; quantoque ratem qui read temperat &c. Hor. Od. iii. iv. 65. Jortin. Vis consill expers mole ruit sua. -beggary in decrepit age! Want joined to the weaknesses of helpless age, says he, would render it a very real misery. And all her various objects of delight Annull'd, which might in part my grief have eas'd, Of man or worm; the vilest here excel me, Without all hope of day! O first created beam, and thou great Word, Why am I thus bereav'd thy prime decree? And silent as the moon, When she deserts the night Hid in her vacant interlunar cave. 87. And silent as the moon, &c.] There cannot be a better note on this passage than what Mr. Warburton has written on this verse of Shakespeare, 2 Henry VI. act i. sc. 8. Deep night, dark night, the silent of the night. The silent of the night is a classical expression, and means an interlunar night-amica silentia luna. So Pliny, Inter omnes verò convenit, utilissime in coitu ejus sterni, quem diem alii interlunii, alii silentis lunæ appellant. lib. xvi. cap. 39. In imitation of this language, Milton says, VOL. III. The sun to me is dark, 75 80 85 89. Hid in her vacant interlunar cave.] Silens luna is the moon at or near the change, and in conjunction with the sun. Plin. i. lib. xvi. c. 89. The interlunar cave is here called vacant, quia luna ibi vacat opere et ministerio suo, because the moon is idle, and useless, and makes no return of light. Meadow court. Alluding, I suppose, to the same notion, which he has a R 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 90 So obvious and so easy to be quench'd? 95 And not as feeling through all parts diffus'd, That she might look at will through every pore? Then had I not been thus exil'd from light, As in the land of darkness, yet in light, By privilege of death and burial Where light and darkness in per- Lodge and dislodge by turns. 90. Since light so necessary is to life, &c.] This intermixing of his philosophy very much weakens the force and pathos of Samson's complaint, which in the main is excellent, but I think not altogether so fine as the poet's lamentation of his own blindness at the beginning of the third book of the Paradise Lost; so much better does every body write from his own feeling and experience, than when he imagines only what another would -say upon the same occasion. 100 |