In 590-598. "All otherwise," etc. Note the peculiar melancholy that breathes through this speech of Samson's, the singularly sorrowful cadence of the last five lines. reading two of these, one feels as if Milton were remembering Hamlet's soliloquy "How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Note the sudden rhymes 610-616. "But must," etc. in lines 610, 611, and lines 615, 616. lines 297, 298, and 300-306. 612. "accidents": attributes, properties. 658, 659. "with studied," etc. See previous note, 610-616. Observe the rhyme. 667-686. Again note the rhymes introduced,-lines 668, 669, 672, 673, and 674, 675. 674-704. "Nor do I name of men the common rout,” etc. It is impossible to read this passage without seeing in it a veiled reference to the trials and executions of the Regicides, and the degradation of the other chiefs of the Commonwealth, after the Restoration; and the description of Milton's own case is exact, even to the surprise that at the end of his temperate life his disease should have been gout. 688-691. "To life obscured," etc. These four lines form a peculiar rhymed stanza. See previous note, lines 300-306. 715, 716. "Tarsus," in Cilicia; "the isles of Javan," those of Greece and Ionia ; "Gadire," Gades in Spain. 720. "amber scent," i.e. the fragrance of grey amber or ambergris. See note, Par. Reg., II. 344. 759-762.." That wisest and best men," etc., Milton himself among them; whose reconciliation with his first wife, in July or August 1645, after her desertion of him for about two years, is thus described by his nephew Phillips : "One time above the rest, he making his usual visit [at the house of a relative, named Blackborough, living in St. Martin's-le-Grand], the wife was ready in another room, and on a sudden he was surprised to see one whom he thought to have never seen more, making submission, and begging pardon on her knees before him. He might probably at first make some show of aversion and rejection; but partly his own generous nature, more inclinable to reconciliation than to perseverance in anger and revenge, and partly the strong intercession of friends on both sides, soon brought him to an act of oblivion and firm league of peace for the future." The wife returned to her husband's house, and lived with him about seven years, bearing him three daughters before her death in 1652. Whether the reunion was as irksome as that described in the text can also be inferred: too probably it was. 778-789. "Was it not weakness also,” etc. The strain here much resembles that of Eve's speech to Adam, Par. Lost, IX. 1155 et seq. 840. "Knowing... by thee betrayed." See same idiom, Par. Lost, IX. 792. 936. "adder's wisdom." Ps. lviii. 4, 5. 971-974. "Fame... is double-mouthed." In Chaucer's House of Fame, and elsewhere, the fickle goddess is represented as having at her command two trumpets, one of gold and one of black brass. A blast from the first secures good renown for persons or deeds, a blast from the other ensures infamy; and no one ever knows on any particular occasion which will be blown. 973, 974. "On both his wings," etc. The rhyme in these lines is probably intentional. 988-990. "in Mount Ephraim Jael," etc. Judges iv. and v. 1010-1061. "It is not," etc. Again notice, throughout this chorus, the art of the versification, and the peculiar introduction of rhymes. 1020. "Thy paranymph," i.e. bridesman. 1034-1045. "Whate er it be," etc. Compare with this passage, so full of reference to Milton's own experience, the following from his first pamphlet on divorce: "The soberest and best-governed men are least practised in these affairs; and who knows not that the bashful muteness of a virgin may oft-times hide all the unliveliness and natural sloth which is really unfit for conversation ?" 1038, 1039. "far within defensive arms a cleaving mischief," i.e. a mischief cleaving or sticking to one far inside the armour which might defend one against ordinary mischiefs. There is an allusion to the poisoned shirt sent to Hercules by his wife Dejanira. 1048. "combines": agrees with him. et seq. 1053-1060. " Therefore God's universal law," etc. A very decisive expression of one of Milton's doctrines, expressed several times elsewhere. Compare Par. Lost, X. 144 Once (in his Tetrachordon) he admits this limitation : "Not but that particular exceptions may have place, if she exceed her husband in prudence and dexterity, and he contentedly yield; for then a superior and more natural law comes in, that the wiser should govern the less wise whether male or female." 1075. "fraught": freight, burden. 1079. "Men call me Harapha." No such individual giant is mentioned in Scripture; but see 2 Sam. xxi. 15-22. The Philistine giants mentioned there are said to be sons of a certain well-known giant in Gath called "the giant," and the Hebrew word for "the giant " there is rapha or harapha. Milton has appropriated the name to his fictitious giant, whom he makes out in the sequel (1248, 1249) to be the actual father of that brood of giants. 1080, 1081. " Og. . . Anak . the Emims Kiriathaim." Deut. iii. II, ii. 10, II; Gen. xiv. 5. 66 1120, 1121. "brigandine," coat of mail; "habergeon," mail for the neck and shoulders; "vant-brace," mail for the arms; 'greaves," leg-armour; "gauntlet," glove of mail. II22. "A weaver's beam": Goliath's weapon, whose armour also Milton had just remembered. I Sam. xvii. 5-7. 1162. "comrades,” accented on the second syllable. 1195-1200. "your ill-meaning politician lords," etc. Judges xiv. 10-18. Milton follows Jewish tradition in supposing the thirty bridal friends there mentioned to have been spies appointed by the Philistines. I222. challenges. "thrice": for the third time, as was the custom in 1224-1226. "With thee," etc. Criminals and persons of servile condition were disqualified for "the proof of arms," or trial by combat. 1231. "O Baal-zebub!" Harapha fitly swears by this God, "the God of Ekron" (2 Kings i. 16); and again (1242) by the Phoenician goddess Astaroth. 1235. "My heels are fettered," etc. Throughout the 2 E greater part of the play Samson is to be conceived, as this VOL. III. line informs us, chained or fettered at the ankles, though still so that he could walk slowly; but not handcuffed. 1238. "bulk without spirit vast," i.e. vast bulk without spirit the first three words almost forming one compound noun. 1248, 1249. See previous note, line 1079, and see again 2 Sam. xxi. 15-22, for the fates of four of the five giants whom Milton takes the liberty of making sons of his Harapha. Their brother Goliath had previously been killed by David. As Samson's death, in the Biblical chronology, was eighty years before David's accession, Milton must have taken poetic licence in making the five giants killed in David's time full-grown in Samson's. 1308. "Ebrews." So spelt in the original edition. The word occurs three times in Sams. Ag., and each time so; it occurs but twice besides in the poetry (Far. Reg., IV. 336, and Ps. cxxxvi. 50), both times as an adjective, and both times with the H. 1461-1471. "Some much averse," etc. One may detect here a glance at the different degrees of vengefulness among the Royalists after the Restoration, and so a peculiar significance in the hint that the most vengeful of all were those that most reverenced Dagon and his priests.' 1512. "inhabitation": community or inhabitants. Shakespeare (Macb. IV. 1) :—— 66 دو 'Though the yesty waves Confound and swallow navigation up." So 1525, 1526. "The sufferers," etc. Is the rhyme here intentional? "What if. 1527-1535. and tempts belief." These nine lines are omitted in their proper place in the original edition, but printed on a page at the end, with a direction where to insert them. 1529. "dole." The word has two meanings, --a portion Idealt out (as in "a beggar's dole"), and sorrow or grief (Lat. doleo). The two are combined here. 66 1537. Of good or bad," etc. This line also is not in its proper place in the original edition, but comes as an omission at the end. It seems to me that it may have been an afterthought with Milton to break up what was at first a continuous speech of the Chorus, by inserting ten additional lines, distributed between the Chorus and Manoa, so as to prolong the suspense before the messenger arrives. Originally the Chorus ran on continuously thus: A little stay will bring some notice hither, For evil news rides fast, while good news baits. The sense is here complete; but the addition of the ten lines, and their distribution between Manoa and the Chorus, are certainly an improvement. 1540. "An Ebrew." See note, line 1308. 1605-1610. "The building was," etc. Imagine as follows:-There is a large semicircular covered space or amphitheatre, with tiers of seats, the roof supported by two pillars rising about mid-point of the diameter of the semicircle. There is no wall at this diameter, but only these two pillars. Standing near them, therefore, Samson would look in upon the lords and others of high rank occupying the tiers of seats in the covered space, while behind him, in an open and uncovered space, and seeing only his back, would be the poorer and seatless rabble. 1608. "sort," mark, distinction. 1619. "cataphracts," mailed horsemen. 1627. "stupendious." See Par. Lost, X. 351, and note there. 1645. "strike," an ironical play on the word. 1674. "Silo." Another instance of Milton's dislike of the sound sh. Ir Samson's time the Tabernacle and the Ark were in Shiloh Josh xviii. 1). 1686. "struck." See note, Ode Nat. 95. 1692-1696. "And as an evening dragon came," etc. The violent change of metaphor, the dragon becoming an eagle within four lines, has caused some to suspect an error of the text. But is not the violence intentional? The blind Samson came among the assembled and seated Philistines like an evening dragon among tame fowl perched on their roosts, a fearful object certainly, but on the ground and darkly groping his way, so that he can only get at them by some chance spring forward and upward. Knowing this, though fluttered, they are on their guard against that possi |