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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