550

I drank, from the clear milky juice allaying Thirst, and refresh'd; nor envied them the grape, Whose heads that turbulent liquor fills with fumes. CHOR. O madness, to think use of strongest wines

And strongest drinks our chief support of health, When God with these forbidden made choice to rear His mighty champion, strong above compare, Whose drink was only from the liquid brook.

SAMS. But what avail'd this temperance, not complete

Against another object more enticing?

What boots it at one gate to make defence, 560
And at another to let in the foe,

Effeminately vanquish'd? by which means,
Now blind, dishearten'd, sham'd, dishonour'd,
To what can I be useful, wherein serve
My nation, and the work from heav'n impos'd, 565
But to sit idle on the household hearth,

[quell'd,

A burd'nous drone; to visitants a gaze,
Or pitied object, these redundant locks
Robustious to no purpose clust'ring down,
Vain monument of strength, till length of years 570
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

569 Robustious] Drayton's Baron's Warrs, 1627. c. v. st. 85.

• Cast from my seat, in some robustious course.' Todd.

575

Consume me, and oft invocated death
Hasten the welcome end of all my pains. [that gift
MAN. Wilt thou then serve the Philistines with
Which was expressly giv'n thee to annoy them?
Better at home lie bedrid, not only idle,

580

Inglorious, unemploy'd, with age outworn.
But God, who caus'd 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; 585
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.

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

297 race] May's Cleopatra, p. 48.

'My race of life, and glory is not run.'

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: mean while be calm,
And healing words from these thy friends admit.
SAMS. O that torment should not be confin'd

To the body's wounds and sores,
With maladies innumerable

In heart, head, breast, and reins;
But must secret passage find

610

To th' inmost mind,

There exercise all his fierce accidents,

And on her purest spirits prey,

As on entrails, joints, and limbs,
With answerable pains, but more intense,

615

Though void of corporal sense.

My griefs not only pain me

As a ling'ring disease,

But, finding no redress, ferment and rage,
Nor less than wounds immedicable

620

[stings,

Rankle, and fester, and gangrene,

To black mortification.

Thoughts my tormentors, arm'd with deadly Mangle my apprehensive tenderest parts, Exasperate, exulcerate, and raise

Dire inflammation, which no cooling herb,

Or medicinal liquor can asswage,

605 healing] Eurip. Hippol. v. 478.

Todd

625

Εἰσὶν δ ̓ ἐπὼδαι, καὶ λόγοι θελκτήριοι. 627 Medicinal] Milton always spells this word 'Medcinal.'

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: 638
Thence faintings, swoonings of despair,
And sense of heav'n's desertion.

I was his nursling once, and choice delight,
His destin'd from the womb,

Promis'd by heavenly message twice descending: Under his special eye

Abstemious I grew up, and thriv'd amain;

He led me on to mightiest deeds,

Above the nerve of mortal arm,

Against the uncircumcised, our enemies:
But now hath cast me off as never known,

640

And to those cruel enemies,

Whom I by his appointment had provok'd,
Left me all helpless with th' irreparable loss

Of sight, reserv'd alive to be repeated

645

The subject of their cruelty and scorn.

Nor am I in the list of them that hope;
Hopeless are all my evils, all remediless;
This one prayer yet remains, might I be heard,
No long petition, speedy death,

The close of all my miseries, and the balm.

CHOR. Many are the sayings of the wise, In ancient and in modern books enroll'd, Extolling patience as the truest fortitude; And to the bearing well of all calamities, All chances incident to man's frail life, Consolatories writ

650

655

With studied argument, and much persuasion Lenient of grief and anxious thought: [sought, But with th' afflicted in his pangs their sound 660 Little prevails, or rather seems a tune

Harsh and of dissonant mood from his complaint;
Unless he feel within

Some source of consolation from above,
Secret refreshings, that repair his strength, 665
And fainting spirits uphold.

God of our fathers, what is man!
That thou towards him with hand so various,
Or might I say contrarious,
Temper'st thy providence through his short course,
Not ev'nly, as thou rul'st

669

Th' angelic orders and inferior creatures mute,
Irrational and brute.

Nor do I name of men the common rout,

That wand'ring loose about

675

Grow up and perish, as the summer fly,
Heads without names no more remember'd,

But such as thou hast solemnly elected,
With gifts and graces eminently adorn'd

To some great work, thy glory,

680

And people's safety, which in part they effect : Yet toward these thus dignified, thou oft

669 contrarious] Chaucer, Leg. of Dido, 435.

'Sens that the goddess ben contrarious to me.'

376

Todd.

summer fly] Hen. VI. P. iii., act ii. sc. vi. 'The common people swarm like summer flies.' Todd.