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An Introduction to the Prose and Poetical Works of John Milton: Comprising All the Autobiographic Passages in His Works, the More Explicit Presentations of His Ideas of True Liberty.Milton, John

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An Introduction to the Prose and Poetical Works of John Milton: Comprising All the Autobiographic Passages in His Works, the More Explicit Presentations of His Ideas of True Liberty.

Name: An Introduction to the Prose and Poetical Works of John Milton: Comprising All the Autobiographic Passages in His Works, the More Explicit Presentations of His Ideas of True Liberty.
Author: Milton, John

Milton, John

English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700; English prose literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700; Milton, John, 1608-1674; Poets, English -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- Biography

_Dalila._ I see thou art implacable, more deaf              960
     To prayers than winds and seas; yet winds to seas
     Are reconciled at length, and sea to shore:
     Thy anger, unappeasable, still rages,
     Eternal tempest never to be calmed.
     Why do I humble thus myself, and, suing                     965
     For peace, reap nothing but repulse and hate?
     Bid go with evil omen, and the brand
     Of infamy upon my name denounced.
     To mix with thy concernments I desist
     Henceforth, nor too much disapprove my own.                 970
     Fame, if not double-faced, is double-mouthed,
     And with contráry blast proclaims most deeds;
     On both his wings, one black, the other white,
     Bears greatest names in his wild aery flight.
     My name, perhaps, among the Circumcised                     975
     In Dan, in Judah, and the bordering tribes,
     To all posterity may stand defamed,
     With malediction mentioned, and the blot
     Of falsehood most unconjugal traduced.
     But in my country, where I most desire,                     980
     In Ecron, Gaza, Asdod, and in Gath,
     I shall be named among the famousest
     Of women, sung at solemn festivals,
     Living and dead recorded, who, to save
     Her country from a fierce destroyer, chose                  985
     Above the faith of wedlock-bands; my tomb
     With odours visited and annual flowers;
     Not less renowned than in mount Ephraim
     Jael, who, with inhospitable guile,
     Smote Sisera sleeping, through the temples nailed.          990
     Nor shall I count it heinous to enjoy
     The public marks of honour and reward
     Conferred upon me for the piety
     Which to my country I was judged to have shown.
     At this whoever envies or repines,                          995
     I leave him to his lot, and like my own.

     _Chorus._ She's gone—a manifest serpent by her sting
     Discovered in the end, till now concealed.

     _Samson._ So let her go. God sent her to debase me,
     And aggravate my folly, who committed                      1000
     To such a viper his most sacred trust
     Of secrecy, my safety, and my life.

     _Chorus._ Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange power,
     After offence returning, to regain
     Love once possessed, nor can be easily                     1005
     Repulsed, without much inward passion felt,
     And secret sting of amorous remorse.

     _Samson._ Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end,
     Not wedlock-treachery endangering life.

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