Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/355

 And he in that calamitous prison left. 1480

No, I am fixed not to part hence without him.

For his redemption all my patrimony,

If need be, I am ready to forgo

And quit. Not wanting him, I shall want

nothing.

Chor. Fathers are wont to lay up for their sons ;

Thou for thy son art bent to lay out all:

Sous wont to nurse their parents in old age;

Thou in old age car'st how to nurse thy son,

Made older than thy age through eye-sight

lost.

Man. It shall be my delight to tend his eyes, 1490

And view him sitting in his house, en- nobled

With all those high exploits by him achieved,

And on his shoulders waving down those locks

That of a nation armed the strength con- tained.

And I persuade me God hath not per- mitted

His strength again to grow up with his hair

Garrisoned round about him like a camp

Of faithful soldiery, were not his purpose

To use him further yet in some great ser- vice

Not to sit idle with so great a gift 1500

Useless, and thence ridiculous, about him.

And, since his strength with eye-sight was not lost,

God will restore him eye - sight to his

strength.

Chor. Thy hopes are not ill founded, nor seem vain,

Of his delivery, and thy joy thereon

Conceived, agreeable to a father's love;

In both which we, as next, participate. Man. I know your friendly minds, and . . . O, what noise !

Mercy of Heaven ! what hideous noise was that?

Horribly lond, unlike the former shout. 15 10 Chor. Noise call you it, or universal groan,

As if the whole inhabitation perished ?

Blood, death, and deathful deeds, are in that noise,

Ruin, destruction at the utmost point.

��Man. Of ruin indeed methought I heard the noise.

Oh ! it continues; they have slain my son. Chor. Thy son is rather slaying them: that outcry

From slaughter of one foe could not as- cend.

Man. Some dismal accident it needs must be.

What shall we do stay here, or run and see ? 1520

Chor. Best keep together here, lest, run- ning thither,

We unawares run into danger's mouth.

This evil on the Philistines is fallen:

From whom could else a general cry be heard ?

The sufferers, then, will scarce molest us here;

From other hands we need not much to fear.

What if, his eye-sight (for to Israel's God

Nothing is hard) by miracle restored,

He now be dealing dole among his foes,

And over heaps of slaughtered walk his

way ? I53 o

Man. That were a joy presumptuous to

be thought.

Chor. Yet God hath wrought things as incredible

For his people of old ; what hinders now ? Man. He can, I know, but doubt to think he will;

Yet hope would fain subscribe, and tempts belief.

A little stay will bring some notice hither. Chor. Of good or bad so great, of bad the sooner;

For evil news rides post, while good news baits.

And to our wish I see one hither speed- ing

An Ebrew, as I guess, and of our tribe. Messenger. O, whither shall I run, or which way fly 1541

The sight of this so horrid spectacle,

Which erst my eyes beheld, and yet be- hold ?

For dire imagination still pursues me.

But providence or instinct' of nature seems,

Or reason, though disturbed and scarce consulted,

To have guided me aright, I know not how,

To thee first, reverend Manoa, and to these

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