But in my country where I most desi
In Ecron, Gaza, Asdod, and in Gath,
I shall be nam'd among the famouses
Of women, sung at solemn festivals,
Living and dead recorded, who to sav
Her country from a fierce destroyer, c
Above the faith of wedlock-bands, my
With odours visited and annual flower
Not less renown'd than in Mount Eph
Jael, who with inhospitable guile
Smote Sisera sleeping through the temp
Nor shall I count it heinous to enjoy
The public marks of honour and reward
Conferr'd upon me, for the piety
Which to my country I was judg'd to ha
At this who ever envies or repines,
I leave him to his lot, and like my own.

CHOR. She's gone, a manifest serper Discover'd in the end, till now conceal'd SAMS. So let her go: God sent her t

972 contráry] Habington's Castara, 1635, p. 11 'By virtue of a clean contráry gale.'

d, without much inward passion felt ret sting of amorous remorse.

[end; . Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord llock-treachery endang'ring life.

R. It is not virtue, wisdom, valour, wit, , comeliness of shape, or amplest merit, man's love can win or long inherit; at it is, hard is to say,

to hit,

vay soever men refer it,

ke thy riddle, Samson, in one day , though one should musing sit.

v of these or all, the Timnian bride so soon preferr'd

1015

anymph, worthless to thee compar'd, 1020 or in thy bed,

so loosely disallied

ptials, nor this last so treacherously rn the fatal harvest of thy head, that such outward ornament

ish'd on their sex, that inward gifts

e] Terence, And. iii. 3. 23.

ntium iræ, amoris integratio est.' Newton.

1025

46

SAMSON AGONISTES.

Were left for haste unfinish'd, judgment
Capacity not rais'd to apprehend
Or value what is best

In choice, but oftest to affect the wrong
Or was too much of self-love mix'd,
Of constancy no root infix'd,

That either they love nothing, or not lon

Whate'er it be to wisest men and best Seeming at first all heavenly under virgin Soft, modest, meek, demure,

Once join'd, the contrary she proves, a tl
Intestine, far within defensive arms
A cleaving mischief, in his way to virtue
Adverse and turbulent, or by her charms
Draws him awry enslav'd

With dotage, and his sense deprav'd
To folly and shameful deeds which ruin e
What pilot so expert but needs must wre
Imbark'd with such a steers-mate at the h
Favour'd of heav'n who finds

One virtuous, rarely found,

That in domestic good combines :

Happy that house! his way to peace is sm But virtue, which breaks through all oppo

And all temptation can remove,

Most shines and most is acceptable above.
Therefore God's universal law
Gave to the man despotic power
Over his female in due awe,

Nor from that right to part an hour,

Smile she or lour :

So shall he least confusion draw
On his whole life, not sway'd
By female usurpation, or dismay'd.

But had we best retire? I see a storm.

1060

[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

[hither

1072

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.
SAMS. Or peace or not, alike to me he comes.
CHOR, His fraught we soon shall know, he now
[chance,
HAR. I come not, Samson, to condole thy
As these perhaps, yet wish it had not been,

arrives.

1065 Look] Euripid. Med. 771.

δεχου δὲ μὴ πρὸς ἡδονὴν λογόυς. Todd.

1066 honied] Withers' Fidelia, 1622.

1075 fraught] Tit. Andronic. iv. 2.

As the bark that hath discharg'd her fraught.'

Todd.

And Othello, act iii. sc. 3. 'Swell, bosom, with thy fraught.'

Todd.

Each other's force in camp or listed And now am come to see of whom s Hath walk'd about, and each limb to If thy appearance answer loud report The way to know were no

SAMS.

taste.

HAR. Dost thou already single me Gyves and the mill had tam'd thee.

tune

Had brought me to the field where the To have wrought such wonders with a I should have forc'd thee soon with ot Or left thy carcass where the ass lay t So had the glory of prowess been reco To Palestine, won by a Philistine From the unforeskinn'd race, of whom t The highest name for valiant acts: tha Certain to have won by mortal duel fro I lose, prevented by thy eyes put out. SAMS. Boast not of what thou wou done, but do