In Paradise to tempt; his snares are broke. For, though that seat of earthly bliss be failed, For Adam and his chosen sons, whom thou, A Saviour, art come down to reinstall; Where they shall dwell secure, when time shall be, Or lightning, thou shalt fall from Heaven, trod down Thus they the Son of God, our Saviour meek, TO SAMSON AGONISTES Aristot. Poet. cap. 6. Tpaywdia pípnois #pážews σnovdaias, &c.-Tragoedia est imitatio actionis seriæ, &c., per misericordiam et metum perficiens talium affectuum lustrationem. OF THAT SORT OF DRAMATIC POEM TRAGEDY, as it was anciently composed, hath been ever held the gravest, moralest, and most profitable of all other Poems; therefore said by Aristotle to be of power, by raising pity and fear, or terror, to purge the mind of those and such-like passions —that is, to temper and reduce them to just measure with a kind of delight, stirred up by reading or seeing those passions well imitated. Nor is Nature wanting in her own effects to make good his assertion; for so, in Physic, things of melancholic hue and quality are used against melancholy, sour against sour, salt to remove salt humours. Hence philosophers and other gravest writers, as Cicero, Plutarch, and others, frequently cite out of tragic poets, both to adorn and illustrate their discourse. The Apostle Paul himself thought it not unworthy to insert a verse of Euripides into the text of Holy Scripture, 1 Cor. xv. 33; and Paræus, commenting on the Revelation, divides the whole Book, as a Tragedy, into acts, distinguished each by a Chorus of Heavenly Harpings and Song between. Heretofore men in highest dignity have laboured not a little to be thought able to compose a tragedy. Of that honour Dionysius the elder was no less ambitious than before of his attaining to the tyranny. Augustus Cæsar also had begun his Ajax, but, unable to please his own judgment with what he had begun, left it unfinished. Seneca, the philosopher, is by some thought the author of those tragedies (at least the best of them) that go under that name. Gregory Nazianzen, a Father of the Church, thought it not unbeseeming the sanctity of his person to write a tragedy, which he entitled Christ Suffering. This is mentioned to vindicate Tragedy from the small esteem, or rather infamy, which in the account of many it undergoes at this day, with other common 416 Interludes; happening through the poet's error of intermixing comic stuff with tragic sadness and gravity, or introducing trivial and vulgar persons: which by all judicious hath been counted absurd, and brought in without discretion, corruptly to gratify the people. And, though ancient Tragedy use no Prologue, yet using sometimes, in case of self-defence or explanation, that which Martial calls an Epistle, in behalf of this tragedy, coming forth after the ancient manner, much different from what among us passes for best, thus much beforehand may be epistled-that Chorus is here introduced after the Greek manner, not ancient only, but modern, and still in use among the Italians. In the modelling therefore of this poem, with good reason, the Ancients and Italians are rather followed, as of much more authority and fame. The measure of verse used in the Chorus is of all sorts, called by the Greeks Monostrophic, or rather Apolelymenon, without regard had to Strophe, Antistrophe, or Epode,-which were a kind of stanzas framed only for the music, then used with the Chorus that sung; not essential to the poem, and therefore not material; or, being divided into stanzas or pauses, they may be called Allæostropha. Division into act and scene, referring chiefly to the stage (to which this work never was intended), is here omitted. It suffices if the whole drama be found not produced beyond the fifth act. Of the style and uniformity, and that commonly called the plot, whether intricate or explicit-which is nothing indeed but such œconomy, or disposition of the fable, as may stand best with verisimilitude and decorum-they only will best judge who are not unacquainted with Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the three tragic poets unequalled yet by any, and the best rule to all who endeavour to write Tragedy. The circumscription of time, wherein the whole drama begins and ends, is, according to ancient rule and best example, within the space of twenty-four hours. N HC-Vol. 4 SAMSON AGONISTES 1667-1671 THE ARGUMENT.-Samson, made captive, blind, and now in the prison at Gaza, there to labour as in a common workhouse, on festival day, in the general cessation from labour, comes forth inte the open air, to a place nigh, somewhat retired, there to sit awhil and bemoan his condition. Where he happens at length to be visited by certain friends and equals of his tribe, which make the Chorus who seek to comfort him what they can; then by his old father Manoa, who endeavours the like, and withal tells him his purpos to procure his liberty by ransom; lastly, that this feast was pro claimed by the Philistines as a day of thanksgiving for their deliver ance from the hands of Samson-which yet more troubles him Manoa then departs to prosecute his endeavour with the Philistian lords for Samson's redemption: who, in the meanwhile, is visited by other persons, and, lastly, by a public officer to require his coming to the feast before the lords and people, to play or shew his strengt in their presence. He at first refuses, dismissing the public office with absolute denial to come; at length, persuaded inwardly tha this was from God, he yields to go along with him, who came nov the second time with great threatenings to fetch him. The Choru yet remaining on the place, Manoa returns full of joyful hope t procure ere long his son's deliverance; in the midst of which dis course an Ebrew comes in haste, confusedly at first, and afterward more distinctly, relating the catastrophe-what Samson had done tthe Philistines, and by accident to himself; wherewith the Traged ends. THE PERSONS SAMSON. MANOA, the father of Samson. HARAPHA of Gath. S DALILA, his wife Chorus of Danites The Scene, before the Prison in Gaza. 'AMSON. A little onward lend thy guiding hand To these dark steps, a little further on; For yonder bank hath choice of sun or shade. There I am wont to sit, when any chance Relieves me from my task of servile toil, 418 Daily in the common prison else enjoined me, Unwholesome draught. But here I feel amends- To Dagon, their sea-idol, and forbid Times past, what once I was, and what am now. His godlike presence, and from some great act Designed for great exploits, if I must die Made of my enemies the scorn and gaze, To grind in brazen fetters under task With this heaven-gifted strength? O glorious strength, Put to the labour of a beast, debased Lower than bond-slave! Promise was that I Had been fulfilled but through mine own default? |