and this he conceives to be not the Sanfone of Rofelli; but a Rappresentazione of the fifteenth century. I am informed by the fame gentleman, that, in or about the year 1622, appeared the following French drama, which might also have influenced the English poet in the choice of Samfon: "Tragedie nouvelle de Samfon le fort; contentant fes victoires, & fa prife par la trahison de fon épouse Dalila, qui lui coupa fes cheveux, & le livra aux Philiftins, defquels il occit trois mille à fon trefpas: En quatre actes. 8vo. fans date." I muft not omit to mention the Sanfone of Ferrante Pallavicino, in three books, published at Venice in 1655, into which Milton might perhaps have looked. Probably, among the Autos Sacramentales or religious tragedies of the Spanish, a Sumfon may exift. His hiftory is particularly noticed, and part of it defcribed in a Sonnet, in the celebrated Spanish paftoral, La Conftante Amarillis, edit. Lyon. 1614, p. 166. "Sanfon fe mira y duda, &c." Among a variety of facred poems in different Latin metres, the acts of Samfon are defcribed in nearly four hundred elegant hexameters in the Judices Populi Ifraelitici, Autore Pantaleone Candido, Auftriaco, printed at Bafil in 1570, p. 301-315. Phillips, Milton's nephew, calls Candidus "the chief of thofe that are fam'd for an elegant ftyle in Latin verfe." Theat. Poet. 145. Phillips alfo, in his lift of modern Poets, notices "Hieronymus Zieglerus, a writer of divers tragicomedies, and other dramatick pieces out of the Old and New Teftament; as his Protoplastus, Immolation of Ifaac, Nomothefia, SAMSON, Heli, &c." Theat. Poct. p. 73. The drama of Samfon was published, as I have already noticed, Auguftæ, 1547, 8vo. But Milton is not to be traced in it. In our own language likewife, an elaborate Historie of Samfon was published, in 1632, by Quarles; in which, among several extravagances indeed of imagery and expreffion, are fome fpirited paffages: I will cite the defcription of Samfon enraged, when he found that his bride had difcovered his riddle, edit. 1632, p. 327.

"When the next Day had heav'd his golden head
"From the foft pillow of his fea-greene bed;
"And, with his rifing glory, had possest

"The fpatious borders of the enlighten'd Eaft;
"Samfon arofe; and, in a rage, went downe

"(By Heaven directed) to a neighbouring towne :

"His choller was inflam'd, and from his eye "The fudden flashes of his wrath did flye; "Paleneffe was in his cheekes; and, from his breath, "There flew the fierce embassadours of death; "He heav'd his hand, and where it fell, it flew, &c."

TODD.

APPENDIX TO SAMSON AGONISTES,

containing plans of other fubjects,

intended for TRAGEDIES by Milton: From his own MS, in Trinity College, Cambridge.

SCRIPTURE SUBJECTS..

OTHER TRAGEDIES.

i. The Flood. [See No. iii. below.]

ii. Abram in Egypt.

iii. The Deluge.

iv. Sodom.

Y. Dinah. Vide Eufeb. Præparat. Evangel. lib. ix. cap. xxii.

Many of thefe fubjects in Milton's hands would have made glorious Tragedies. And one cannot enough lament that the prejudices of his age thould have difcouraged him from giving us more of these dramas; for the execution of which he was, both by nature and art, fupremely accomplished. There is, in the fpecimen he has given us, a fimplicity and dignity united, of which we have no example in modern Tragedy. His Samfon is at once the difgrace of his own age and of ours. HURD.

Thefe numerous Scripture subjects justify a remark made by Mr. Warton, that Milton early leaned towards religious subjects for plays, and wished to turn the drama into the scriptural channel: He accordingly, in his Reason of Ch. Gov. against Prelacy, written in 1641, tempers his praise of Sophocles and Euripides with recommending Solomon's Song; and adds, that "the Apocalypfe of Saint John is the majestick image of a high and stately tragedy, thutting up and intermingling her folemn fcenes and acts with a feven-fold chorus of hallelujabs and harping fymphonies." Profe-Works, edit. 1698, vol. i. 61.

TODD.

So they are termed in Milton's MS Thofe, which relate to Paradife Løst, have been given at the end of that poem. Tonn.

vi. Thamar Cuophorufa. Where Juda is found to have been
the author of that crime, which he condemned in
Tamar: Tamar excus'd in what the attempted.

vii. The Golden Calfe, or The Massacre in Horeb.

viii. The Quails. Num. xi.

ix. The Murmurers. Num. xiv.

x. Corah, Dathan, &c. Num. xvi, xvii.

xi. Moabitides. Num. xxv. [See No. Iv. below.]

xii. Achan. Jofhue vii, and viii.

xiii. Jofuah in Gibeon. Jofh. x.

xiv. Gideon Idoloclaftes. Judg. vi. vii.
xv. Gideon pursuing. Judg. viii.

xvi. Abimelech the Ufurper. Judg. ix.

xvii. SAMSON MARRIING, or in Ramach Lechi. Judg. xv.
xviii. SAMSON PURSOPHORUs, or Hybristes, or Dagonalia.

Judg. xvi.

xix. Comazontes, or The Benjaminites, or The Rioters. Judg.
xix, xx, xxi.

xx. Theriftria, a Paftoral, out of Ruth.

xxi. Eliade, Hophni and Phinehas. I Sam. i, ii, iii, iv. Be-
ginning with the first overthrow of Ifrael by the Phi-

liftines; interlac't with Samuel's vifion concerning
Elie's family.

xxii. Jonathan refcued. I Sam. xiv.

xxiii. Doeg fundering. I Sam. xxii.

xxiv. The sheep-fhearers in Carmel, a Paftoral. I Sam. xxv.

xxv. Saul in Gilboa. I Sam. xxviii, xxxi.

xxvi. David revolted. I Sam. from the xxvii. chap. to the xxxi.

xxvii. David adulterous. II Sam. c. xi, xii.

xxviii. Tamar. II Sam. xiii.

xxix. Achitophel. II Sam. xv, xvi, xvii, xviii.

xxx. Adoniah. I Reg. ii.

xxxi. Solomon Gynæcocratumenus, or Idolomargus, aut Thyfiazufœ»

I Reg. xi.

xxxii. Rehoboam. 1 Reg. xii. Wher is difputed of a politick

religion.

xxxiii. Abias Therfæus. I Reg. xiv. The queen, after much difpute, as the last refuge, fent to the profet Ahias of Shilo; receavs the meffage. The Epitafis, in that shee, hearing the child shall die, as she comes home, refufes to return, thinking thereby to elude the oracle. The former part is spent in bringing the fick prince forth. as it were defirous to shift his chamber and couch, as dying men ufe; his father telling him what facrifice he had fent for his health to Bethel and Dan; his fearleffneffe of death, and putting his father in mind to fet [fend] to Ahiah. The Chorus of the Elders of Ifrael bemoning his virtues bereft them, and at another time wondring why Jeroboam, being bad himself, fhould fo grieve for his fon that was good, &c. xxxiv. Imbres, or The Showers. I Reg. xviii, xix. xxxv. Naboth ovxoparráμeros. I Reg. xxi.

xxxvi. Ahab. I Reg. xxii. Beginning at the fynod of fals profets: Ending with relation of Ahab's death: His

bodie brought. Zedechiah flain by Ahab's friends for his feducing. (See Lavater, II Chron. xviii.) Xxxvii. Elias in the mount. II Reg. i. 'Opußárns. Or, better, Elias Polemistes.

xxxviii. Elifeus Hudrochóos. II Reg. iii. Hudrophantes. Aquator. xxxix. Elifeus Adorodocétas.

xl. Elifaus Menutes, five in Dothaimis. II Reg. vi.
xli. Samaria Liberata. II Reg. vii.

xlii. Achabai Cunoborwmeni. II Reg. ix. The Scene, Jefrael.

Beginning, from the watchman's discovery of Jehu,
till he go out. In the mean while, meffage of things
paffing brought to Jefebel, &c. Laftly, the 70 heads
meffage brought of

of Ahab's fons brought in, and
Ahaziah's brethren flain on the way. Chap. x.

xliii. Jehu Belicola. II Reg. x.

xliv. Athaliah. II Reg. xi.

xlv. Amaziah Doryalotus. II Reg. xiv. H Chron. xxv. xlvi. Hezechias woλignμvos. II Reg. xviii. ix. Hefechia

befeiged. The wicked hypocrify of Shebna, (spoken of in the xi. or thereabout of Ifaiah,) and the com