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.

by John Milton

Samson. Spare that proposal, father; spare the trouble

Of that solicitation. Let me here,

As I deserve, pay on my punishment,

And expiate, if possible, my crime, 490

Shameful garrulity. To have revealed

Secrets of men, the secrets of a friend,

How heinous had the fact been, how deserving

Contempt and scorn of all—to be excluded

All friendship, and avoided as a blab, 495

The mark of fool set on his front!