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, 1735 Will send for all my kindred, all my friends, 1730 1740 From whence captivity and loss of eyes. CHOR. All is best, though we oft doubt, 1745 What th' unsearchable dispose Of highest wisdom brings about, And ever best found in the close. Oft he seems to hide his face, 1750 1788 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.' Todd. And to his faithful champion hath in place And all that band them to resist His uncontrollable intent: His servants he, with new acquist 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. |