In the Arabian woods imbost, That no second knows nor third, From out her ashy womb now teem'd, And though her body die, her fame survives A secular bird ages of lives. 1700 1705 MAN. Come, come, no time for lamentation now, Nor much more cause: Samson hath quit himself Like Samson, and heroically hath finish'd A life heroic, on his enemies 1710 Fully reveng'd, hath left them years of mourning, 1720 Or knock the breast, no weakness, no contempt, 1725 1700 imbost] Sandy's Psalms, p. 65. Lord! as the hart imbost with heat.' Quarles's Emblems, p. 290, 'imbost doth fly.' Marino's Slaugh. of the Innocents, p. 61. Whiting's Albino and Bellama, p. 107. Soak'd in his enemies' blood, and from the stream With lavers pure and cleansing herbs wash off The clotted gore. I with what speed the while, Gaza is not in plight to say us nay, Will send for all my kindred, all my friends, 1730 To fetch him hence, and solemnly attend With silent obsequy and funeral train 1735 Home to his father's house: there will I build him Of highest wisdom brings about, And ever best found in the close. Oft he seems to hide his face, But unexpectedly returns, 1733 Home] See Par. Reg. iv. 638. Home to his mother's house private return'd.' 1740 high] Hawes's Past. of Pleasure, 1554. ch. xxxii. Right high aduentures unto you shall fall.' 1740 1745 1750 Todd. And to his faithful champion hath in place Bore witness gloriously; whence Gaza mourns And all that band them to resist His uncontrollable intent: His servants he, with new acquist Of true experience from this great event, 1755 1755 acquist] Heath's Chron. of Civil Wars, fol. p. 402, 'his unjust acquists.' Todd. Note] It was the custom of the scholars who lived in the age just previous to that of Milton, and who possessed a command of poetical language, to form dramas in Latin verse from scripture Histories. Besides the two volumes of the 'Dramata Sacra;' there is the Abramus' of Th. Beza, the 'Parabata Vinctus' of Thuanus, the Christus Patiens,' the Sophom-paneas,' and the Adamus Exsul,' of Grotius, the 'Jephthas,' and Baptistes' of Buchanan, the Herodes Infanticida' of Dan. Heinsius. These I have read, probably there are others with which I am not acquainted; there are also many Italian Dramas formed on the sacred history, and our old mysteries. The Greek translation of this play by G. H. Glasse, has been pronounced to be 'a work constructed with such precision, and expressed with such elegance, as never appeared in Europe since the revival of learning.' Parr's Letters, i. P. 637. |