Sam. That fault I take not on me, but transfer
On Israel's governours and heads of tribes,

Who, seeing those great acts which God had done
Singly by me against their conquerours,
Acknowledged not, or not at all consider'd,
Deliverance offer'd: I, on the other side,
Used no ambition to commend my deeds;

The deeds themselves, though mute, spoke loud the doer:

But they persisted deaf, and would not seem

To count them things worth notice, till at length
Their lords the Philistines with gather'd powers
Enter'd Judea seeking me, who then
Safe to the rock of Etham was retired;
Not flying, but forecasting in what place
To set upon them, what advantaged best:
Meanwhile the men of Judah, to prevent
The harass of their land, beset me round:
I willingly on some conditions came

Into their hands, and they as gladly yield me,
To the uncircumcised a welcome prey,

Bound with two cords; but cords to me were threads
Touch'd with the flame: on their whole host I flew
Unarm'd, and with a trivial weapon fell'd
Their choicest youth; they only lived who fled.
Had Judah that day join'd, or one whole tribe,
They had by this possess'd the towers of Gath,
And lorded over them whom now they serve:
But what more oft, in nations grown corrupt,
And by their vices brought to servitude,
Than to love bondage more than liberty,

q That fault, &c.

t

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Milton certainly intended to reproach his countrymen indirectly, and as plainly as he dared, with the restoration of Charles II. (which he accounted the restoration of slavery), and with the execution of the regicides. He pursues the same subject again, ver. 678 to ver. 700. I wonder how the licensers of those days let it pass.-JORTIN. It is the more to be wondered at, as some passages in his "History of England," containing indirect remarks on his country, were struck out by the licenser, in the same year. They were afterwards printed in a quarto pamphlet, in 1681; and, in the edition of his "Prose Works" in 1738, are admitted into their place in the third book of his History.-TODD.

r Used no ambition.

"Going about with studiousness and affectation to gain praise," as Mr. Richardson says; alluding to the origin of the word in Latin.-NEWTON.

Judges xv. 8.-NEWTON.

Safe to the rock of Etham, &c.

↑ But what more oft, in nations grown corrupt, &c.

Here Mr. Thyer has anticipated me, by observing that Milton is very uniform, as well as just, in his notions of liberty; always attributing the loss of it to vice and corruption of morals: but in this passage he very probably intended also a secret satire upon the English nation, which, according to his republican politics, had, by restoring the king, chosen "bondage with ease" rather than "strenuous liberty." And let me add, that the sentiment is very like that of Æmilius Lepidus the consul, in his oration to the Roman people against Sulla, preserved among the fragments of Sallust:-" Annuite legibus impositis; accipite otium cum servitio;" but for myself, "potior visa est periculosa libertas quieto servitio."-NEWTON.

Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty;
And to despise, or envy, or suspect
Whom God hath of his special favour raised
As their deliverer? if he aught begin,
How frequent to desert him," and at last
To heap ingratitude on worthiest deeds?

Cho. Thy words to my remembrance bring
How Succoth and the fort of Penuel▾
Their great deliverer contemn'd,
The matchless Gideon, in pursuit
Of Madian and her vanquish'd kings:
And how ingrateful Ephraim

W

Had dealt with Jephthah, who by argument,
Not worse than by his shield and spear,
Defended Israel from the Ammonite,
Had not his prowess quell'd their pride
In that sore battel, when so many died
Without reprieve, adjudged to death,
For want of well pronouncing Shibboleth.

Sam. Of such examples add me to the roll;

Me easily indeed mine may neglect,
But God's proposed deliverance not so.
Cho. Just are the ways of God,

And justifiable to men;

Unless there be, who think not God at all:
If any be, they walk obscure:

For of such doctrine never was there school,

But the heart of the fool,

And no man therein doctor but himself.

If he aught begin,

How frequent to desert him, &c.

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Is there any allusion here to the last ineffectual efforts of the republican general Lambert against Monk and the Restoration, when he was deserted by the people, and at last taken prisoner by his old partisan Ingoldsby?—DUNSTER.

How Succoth and the fort of Penuel, &c.

The men of Succoth, and of the tower of Penuel, refused to give loaves of bread to Gideon and his three hundred men pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian. See Judges viii. 4-9.-NEWTON.

And how ungrateful Ephraim, &c.

Jephthah subdued the children of Ammon; and he is said to have "defended Israel by argument not worse than by arms," on account of the message which he sent unto the king of the children of Ammon, Judges, xi. 15-27. For his victory over the Ammonites, the Ephraimites envied and quarrelled with him; and threatened to burn his house with fire: but Jephthah and the men of Gilead smote Ephraim, and took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites, and there slew those of them who could not rightly pronounce the word Shibboleth; and there fell at that time two-and-forty thousand of them. See Judges xii. 1-6.-NEWTON.

But the heart of the fool.

Alluding to Psalm xvi. 1. And the sentiment is not very unlike that of a celebrated divine: The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God: and who but a fool would have said so?"-NEWTON.

y And no man therein doctor but himself.

There is something rather too quaint and fanciful in this conceit; and it appears the

Yet more there be, who doubt his ways not just,
As to his own edicts found contradicting,

Then give the reins to wandering thought,
Regardless of his glory's diminution; z
Till, by their own perplexities involved,
They ravel more, still less resolved,

But never find self-satisfying solution.

As if they would confine the Interminable,

And tie him to his own prescript,

Who made our laws to bind us, not himself,
And hath full right to exempt

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Whom so it pleases him by choice

From national obstriction, without taint

Of sin, or legal debt;

For with his own laws he can best dispense.

He would not else, who never wanted means,

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Nor in respect of the enemy just cause,

To set his people free,

Have prompted this heroick Nazarite,

Against his vow of strictest purity,"

To seek in marriage that fallacious bride,

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Unclean, unchaste.

Down, reason, then; at least, vain reasonings, down;

Though reason here aver,

>That moral verdict quits her of unclean:"

But see, here comes thy reverend sire

Unchaste was subsequent; her stain not his.

With careful steps, locks white as down,
Old Manoah: advise

Forthwith how thou oughtst to receive him.

Sam. Ay me! Another inward grief, awaked
With mention of that name, renews the assault.

Enter MANOAH.

Man. Brethren and men of Dan, for such ye seem,
Though in this uncouth place; if old respect,

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worse, as this speech of the Chorus is of so serious a nature, and filled with so many deep and solemn truths.-THYER.

z His glory's diminution.

This expression is strong, as anciently understood. Cic. "de Orat." ii. 39:-"Majestatem populi Romani minuere" is the same as "crimen læse majestatis." And Corn. Nepos, "Ages." iv. "religionem minuere" is "violare."-RICHARDSON.

a Vow of strictest purity.

Not a vow of celibacy, but of strictest purity from Mosaical and legal uncleanness.-. WARBURTON.

b That moral verdict quits her of unclean.

That is, by the law of nature a Philistine woman was not unclean, yet the law of Moses held her to be so. I do not know why the poet thought fit to make his hero scepticize on a point, as irreconcileable to reason, which may be very well accounted for by the best rules of human prudence and policy. The institution of Moses was to keep the Jewish people distinct and separate from the nations: this the lawgiver effected by a vast variety of means; one of which was to hold all other nations under a legal impurity; the best means of preventing intermarriages with them.-WARBURTON.

As I suppose, towards your once gloried friend,
My son, now captive, hither hath inform'd
Your younger feet, while mine cast back with age
Came lagging after; say if he be here.

Cho. As signal now in low dejected state,
As erst in highest, behold him where he lies.
Man. O miserable change! is this the man,
That invincible Samson, far renown'd,
The dread of Israel's foes, who with a strength
Equivalent to angels, walk'd their streets,
None offering fight; who single combatant
Duel'd their armies rank'd in proud array,
Himself an army, now unequal match
To save himself against a coward arm'd
At one spear's length! O ever-failing trust
In mortal strength! and, O, what not in man
Deceivable and vain? Nay, what thing good
Pray'd for, but often proves our woe, our bane?
I pray'd for children, and thought barrenness
In wedlock a reproach; I gain'd a son.
And such a son as all men hail'd me happy :-
Who would be now a father in my stead?
O, wherefore did God grant me my request,
And as a blessing with such pomp adorn'd?
Why are his gifts desirable, to tempt

Our earnest prayers; then, given with solemn hand
As graces, draw a scorpion's tail behind? •
For this did the angel twice descend? for this
Ordain'd thy nurture holy, as of a plant f

c While mine cast back with age.

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This is very artfully and properly introduced, to account for the Chorus coming to Samson before Manoah; for it is not to be supposed that any of his friends should be more concerned for his welfare, or more desirous to visit him, than his father.-Newton.

d 0 miserable change, &c.

This speech of Manoah is, in my opinion, very beautiful in its kind. The thoughts are exactly such as one may suppose would occur to the mind of the old man, and are expressed with an earnestness and impatience very well suited to that anguish of mind he must be in, at the sight of his son under such miserable, afflicting circumstances. It is not at all unbecoming the pious, grave character of Manoah, to represent him, as Milton does, even complaining and murmuring at this "disposition" of Heaven, in the first bitterness of his soul. Such sudden starts of infirmity are ascribed to some of the greatest personages in Scripture; and it is agreeable to that well-known maxim, that religion may regulate, but can never eradicate natural passions and affections.-THYER.

• Then, given with solemn hand

As graces, draw a scorpion's tail behind?

He has raised this beautiful imagery on the following text, Luke xi. 12 :-"If a son shall ask of his father an egg, will he offer him a scorpion ?" He was not always so happy.-WARBurton.

He has been peculiarly happy in the use of this imagery. Thus again:-"A most deadly and scorpion-like gift," "Prose Works," vol. i. p. 304, ed. 1698. Again, in his "Tetrachordon :"-" It is man's perverse cooking, who hath turned this bounty of God into a scorpion." Ibid. p. 335.-TODD.

i As of a plant.

This is a frequent scriptural metaphor. See Isaiah v. 7, liii. 2. Homer describes

Select, and sacred, glorious for a while,
The miracle of men; then in an hour
Ensnared, assaulted, overcome, led bound,s
Thy foes' derision, captive, poor, and blind,
Into a dungeon thrust, to work with slaves?
Alas! methinks whom God hath chosen once
To worthiest deeds, if he through frailty err,
He should not so o'erwhelm, and as a thrall
Subject him to so foul indignities,
Be it but for honour's sake of former deeds.
Sam. Appoint" not heavenly disposition, father:
Nothing of all these evils hath befallen me
But justly; I myself have brought them on,
Sole authour I, sole cause: if aught seem vile,
As vile hath been my folly, who have profaned
The mystery of God given me under pledge
Of vow, and have betray'd it to a woman,
A Canaanite, my faithless enemy.
This well I knew, nor was at all surprised,
But warn'd by oft experience; did not she
Of Timna first betray me, and reveal
The secret wrested from me in her highth
Of nuptial love profess'd, carrying it straight
To them who had corrupted her, my spies,
And rivals? In this other was there found
More faith, who also in her prime of love,
Spousal embraces, vitiated with gold,
Though offer'd only, by the scent conceived.
Her spurious first-born, treason against me?1

Thrice she assay'd with flattering prayers and sighs,

And amorous reproaches, to win from me

My capital secret ; in what part my strength

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Thetis thus speaking of her son Achilles, "Il." xviii. 57. Theocritus also speaks in similar language of Hercules, "Idyll." xxiv. 101.-DUNSTER.

Ensnared, assaulted, overcome, led bound.

The succession of participles renders the description more pathetic, as in ver. 563:Now blind, dishearten'd, shamed, dishonour'd, quell'd.

An example of similar effect occurs in the poet's description of the fallen angels, after their defeat, "Paradise Lost," b. vi. 851:

Of their wonted vigour drain'd, Exhausted, spiritless, afflicted, fallen.-TODD. h Appoint.

That is, arraign, summon to answer.-WARBURTON.

Perhaps limit, or direct; or rather, according to an old acceptation of the word, blame, lay the fault upon. See Barret's "Alvearie," 1580. Todd.

My capital secret, &c.

Appoynt," col. 2, No. 497.

I am afraid this is an intended pun; if so, it is a most indefensible expression; and yet resembling what is said, "Paradise Lost," b. xii. 383 :

Needs must the serpent now his capital bruise
Expect with pain;

where the reference certainly is to the seed of the woman bruising the head of the serpent.-DUNSTER.