Were left for haste unfinish'd, judgment scant, Or value what is best In choice, but oftest to affect the wrong? Of constancy no root infix'd, That either they love nothing, or not long? Whate'er it be, to wisest men and best 1030 Seeming at first all heavenly under virgin veil, 1035 Once join'd, the contrary she proves, a thorn A cleaving mischief, in his way to virtue With dotage, and his sense deprav'd To folly and shameful deeds which ruin ends. What pilot so expert but needs must wreck, Imbark'd with such a steers-mate at the helm? Favour'd of hear'n who finds One virtuous, rarely found, That in domestic good combines : 1040 Happy that house! his way to peace is smooth; But virtue, which breaks through all opposition, And all temptation can remove, Most shines and most is acceptable above. Therefore God's universal law Gave to the man despotic power Nor from that right to part an hour, 1055 Smile she or lour: So shall he least confusion draw By female usurpation, or dismay'd. 1060 But had we best retire? I see a storm. [rain. SAMS. Fair days have oft contracted wind and CHOR. But this another kind of tempest brings. SAMS. Be less abstruse, my riddling days are past. [fear CHOR. Look now for no inchanting voice, nor The bait of honied words; a rougher tongue 1066 Draws hitherward, I know him by his stride, The giant Harapha of Gath, his look Haughty as is his pile high-built and proud. Comes he in peace? what wind hath blown him I less conjecture than when first I saw The sumptuous Dalila floating this way: His habit carries peace, his brow defiance. [hither 1072 SAMS. Or peace or not, alike to me he comes. CHOR. His fraught we soon shall know, he now [chance, arrives. HAR. I come not, Samson, to condole thy As these perhaps, yet wish it had not been, 1065 Look] Euripid. Med. 773. —δέχου δὲ μὴ πρὸς ἡδονὴν λόγους. Todd. 1066 honied] Withers' Fidelia, 1622. 'His honied words, his bitter lamentations.' Todd. 1075 fraught] Tit. Andronic. iv. 2. 'As the bark that hath discharg'd her fraught.' And Othello, act iii. sc. 3. 'Swell, bosom, with thy fraught. Todd. Though for no friendly intent. I am of Gath, As Og, or Anak, and the Emims old That Kiriathaim held; thou know'st me now If thou at all art known. Much I have heard Of thy prodigious might and feats perform'd, Incredible to me, in this displeas'd, That I was never present on the place 1080 1085 Of those encounters, where we might have tried SAMS. 1090 The way to know were not to see but taste. HAR. Dost thou already single me? I thought Gyves and the mill had tam'd thee. O that for tune Had brought me to the field where thou art fam'd I lose, prevented by thy eyes put out. 1099 SAMS. Boast not of what thou would'st have done, but do What then thou would'st; thou see'st it in thy hand. 1105 HAR. To combat with a blind man I disdain, And thou hast need much washing to be touch'd. SAMS. Such usage as your honourable lords Afford me assassinated and betray'd, Who durst not with their whole united 1110 powers Or rather flight, no great advantage on me; spear, A weaver's beam, and seven-times-folded shield, 1121 vant-brass] Fairfax's Tasso, B. xx. st. 139. 1127 To Samson, but shall never see Gath more. arms, 1130 Which greatest heroes have in battle worn, Feign'dst at thy birth was giv'n thee in thy hair, 1140 SAMS. I know no spells, use no forbidden arts; My trust is in the living God, who gave me At my nativity this strength, diffus'd No less through all my sinews, joints, and bones, Than thine, while I preserv'd these locks unshorn, The pledge of my unviolated vow. 1145 1150 For proof hereof, if Dagon be thy god, 1154 HAR. Presume not on thy God, whate'er he be, |