Bound, and to torment sent before their time.
Hail Son of the most High, heir of both worlds,
Queller of Satan, on thy glorious work
Now enter, and begin to save mankind.

Thus they the Son of GOD our Saviour meek Sung victor, and from heav'nly feast refresh'd Brought on his way with joy; he unobserved Home to his mother's house private return'¿.

Over temp
True In

In the bos
Conceivir
In fleshly
Wand'ri
Habit, or
The Son
Against
And thi
Trao
With a

Supplan

Tempta:
And fre

He bere

In Para
For thot
A fairer
For Adr
A Sario
Where th

Of tempt
Bet thon

Rele in t
Or Night':
Under Hi

Thy woun
By this re

No trimi
Thy bold

To dread t

Shall chas
From thy
Thee and

Samson Agonistes.

A DRAMATIC POEM.

THE AUTHOR,

JOHN MILTON.

* “ Τραγωδία μίμησις πράξεως σπουδαίας,” &ς.

ARISTOT. Poet. c. vi.

"Tragoedia et imitatio actionis seriæ, &c. per misericordiam et metum perficiens talium affectuum lustrationem,"

7

hath been ever held the gravest, moralest, pes, herefore suit by Aristotle to be of power, purge the mind of those and such like them a just measure with a kind of delight, Suns well imitated. Nor is nature wanting 2etton, for so in physic things of melancholic against sour, salt to remove salt

at their gravest writers, as Cicero, Plutarch, and pets, both to adorn and illustrate their sal hargit it not unworthy to insert a verse Senpaire, I Cor. xv. 31,1 and Paræus, comA whole book, as a tragedy, into acts, diswarpings and song between. Heretofore 206 & little to be thought able to compose a 4e elder was no less ambitious, than before of Cesar also had begun his "Ajax," but with what he had begun, left it unfinished. ght the author of those tragedies, at least me. Gregory Nazianzen, a father of the We sanctity of his person to write a tragedy, This is mentioned to vindicate tragedy from In the account of many it undergoes at happening through the poet's error of nd gravity, or introducing trivial and been counted absurd, and brought in eople. And though ancient tragedy of self-defence, or explanation, that this tragedy coming forth after the

ost abhorrence. It was probably on this
defence of tragedy, to justify himself for

nt manner, much different from what among us passes for best, thus much rehand may be epistled: that Chorus is here introduced after the Greek iner, not ancient only but modern, and still in use among the Italians. In the delling therefore of this poem, with good reason, the ancients and Italians are her followed, as of much more authority and fame. The measure of verse used the chorus is of all sorts, called by the Greeks Monostrophic, or rather Apolelyenon, without regard had to Strophe, Antistrophe, or Epode, which were a kind f 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 Alloostropha. 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 economy, 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.