midft of which difcourfe an Hebrew comes in hafle, confufedly at firft, and afterward more diftin&ly, relating the catastrophe, what Samfon had done to the Philistines, and by accident to himself; wherewith the tragedy ends.

THE PERSONS.

SAMSON.

MANOAH, the Father of Samfon.

DALILA, his Wife.

HARAPHA of Gath.

Publick Officer.

Messenger.

Chorus of Danites.

The Scene before the Prifon in Gaza.

SAMSON AGONISTES *.

Samfon, [Attendant leading him.]

A Little onward lend thy guiding hand
To thefe dark steps, a little further on ;

* Samfon Agoniftes] That is, Samfon an actor; Samfon, being reprefented in a play. Aywuchs, ludio, hiftrio, actor fcenicus. NEWTON.

'Aywns is here rather athleta. The fubject of the drama is Samfon brought forth to exhibit his athletick powers. See ver. 1314. That fuch was Milton's intended sense of Agonistes, may further be collected from his ufe of the word antagonist, ver. 1628. Besides, as Milton entitled his Samson a tragedy, he certainly never adjoined the word Agonistes to fignify Samfon represented in a play. But this diftinguishing title of Agonistes is, in fact, applied in conformity to the ancient ufage of the tragick poets, who often, in the titles of their pieces, limited their hero to the immediate fituation in which they found him. Among the remaining tragedies of Efchylns we have the ПIPOMнOETE AEEMNTHE, Prometheus CHAINED, in a state of punishment ; which title of AEEMNTHƐ was intended to diftinguish it from a preceding drama, on the fubject of his offence, entitled ПPOмнΘΕΥΣ ΠΥΡΦΟΡΟΣ; and from a fubfequent one, ΠΡΟΜΗΘΕΥΣ ΑΥΟΜΕΝΟΣ, which completed the fubject in reprefenting his releafe. The ancients had very commonly a feries of plays on the progreffive parts of the fame fubject. Milton had alfo defigned a previous part of Samfon's ftory as a tragedy, under the title of Samfon Πυρσοφόρος οι Υβρισης, Samfon after his firft marriage revenging himself on the Philistines. So that Agonistes, when first adopted by Milton as a title, was moft probably meant to diftinguish it from the preceding drama on a previous part of Samfon's ftory. DUNSTER.

In the application of Agonistes to Sumfon, Milton might be thought to have followed the authority of Hieronymus Zieglerus,

5

For yonder bank hath choice of fun or shade:
There I am wont to fit, when any chance
Relieves me from my task of fervile toil,
Daily in the common prifon elfe enjoin'd me,
Where I, a prifoner chain'd, scarce freely draw
The air imprison'd also, close and damp,
Unwholefome draught: but here I feel amends,
The breath of Heaven fresh blowing, pure and
fweet,
With day-fpring born; here leave me to respire.—
This day a folemn feaft the people hold

10

if credit could be given to Lauder, who pretends that Ziegler wrote a tragedy, with this characteristick title, printed at Augfburg, in 1547. I find Ziegler's tragedy of Samfon, published indeed in the first volume of Dramata Sacra, Aug. 1547, but not with the title of Agonistes, nor even with a single admission of the word into it! TODD.

Ver. 1. A little onward &c.] Milton, after the example of the Greek tragedians, whom he profeffes to imitate, opens his drama with introducing one of its principal perfonages explaining the story upon which it is founded. THYER.

Ibid. A little onward lend thy guiding hand

ver. 841.

To thefe dark fteps,] So Tirefias in Euripides, Phania,

Ηγε πάροιθε, θύγατες, ὡς ΤΥΦΛΩ ΠΟΔΙ κ. τ. λ.

RICHARDSON

Ver. 3. For yonder bank] The scene of this tragedy is much the fame as that of Oidines inì Kohar in Sophocles, where blind Oedipus is conducted in like manner, and represented fitting upon a little hill near Athens: but yet I think there is scarcely a fingle thought the fame in the two pieces, and I am fure the Greek tragedy can have no pretence to be esteemed better, but only because it is two thoufand years older. NEWTON.

14

To Dagon their fea-idol, and forbid
Laborious works; unwillingly this reft
Their fuperftition yields me; hence with leave
Retiring from the popular noife, I feek
This unfrequented place to find fome ease,
Eafe to the body fome, none to the mind
From reftless thoughts, that, like a deadly fwarm
Of hornets arm'd, no fooner found alone,
But rush upon me thronging, and present
Times paft, what once I was, and what am now.

20

Ver. 13. To Dagon their fea-idol,] Milton, as doctor Newton obferves, both here and in the Paradife Loft, follows the opinion of thofe, who defcribe this idol as part man, part fish, B. i. 462. Some alfo defcribe the idol as part woman, and part fish:

"Definit in pifcem mulier formosa superne,"

according to Calmet; but fee Selden on this subject, and particularly the elaborate account of Dagon in the Curiofitates Inaudite Jacobi Gaffarelli, Hamb. 1676, p. 46–57, Nota; to which a reprefentation of the idol is prefixed. TODD.

Ver. 19. From reftlefs thoughts, that, like a deadly fwarm

Of hornets arm'd, &c.] Compare ver. 623. And fuch alfo is the exclamation of Macbeth, A. iii. S. ii. "O, full of fcorpions is my mind!" But Milton's whole expreffion refembles a paffage in Sidney's Arcadia, 13th edit. p. 164. “A new fwarm of thoughts flinging her mind." See alfo Poems at the end of Shakspeare's Poems, 12mo. Printed by T. Cotes. An allegorical allufion of melancholy thoughts to bees.

"Come, you warmes of thoughts, and bring

"To this crazie hive of mine,

"Not your hony, but your fting;

Ver. 22.

"Naked I my heart refigne." TODD

what once I was, and what am now.] As

in Par. Loft, Book iv. 23.