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

[quell'd,

My nation, and the work from heav'n impos'd, 565
But to sit idle on the household hearth,
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

560 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

580

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, 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.
MAN. Believe not these suggestions, which
proceed

595

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: 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

To th' inmost mind,

There exercise all his fierce accidents,
And on her purest spirits prey,

610

As on entrails, joints, and limbs,

With answerable pains, but more intense,
Though void of corporal sense.

615

My griefs not only pain me

As a ling'ring disease,

But, finding no redress, ferment and rage,

Nor less than wounds immedicable

Rankle, and fester, and gangrene,

To black mortification.

620

[stings,

Thoughts my tormentors, arm'd with deadly

Mangle my apprehensive tenderest parts,

Exasperate, exulcerate, and raise

625

Dire inflammation, which no cooling herb,

Or medicinal liquor can asswage,

605 healing] Eurip. Hippol. v. 478.

Εἰσὶν δ ̓ ἐπώδαι, καὶ λόγοι θελκτήριοι.

Todd

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,
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
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

640

645

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,
And fainting spirits uphold.

God of our fathers, what is man!

That thou towards him with hand so various,
Or might I say contrarious,

665

669

Temper'st thy providence through his short course,

Not ev'nly, as thou rul'st

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

Nor do I name of men the common rout,

That wand'ring loose about

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,

675

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.