From forth this loathsome prison-house, to abide
With me, where my redoubled love and care
With nursing diligence, to me glad office,
May ever tend about thee to old age

925 With all things grateful chear’d, and so supply'd, That what by me thou' hast lost thou least shalt miss.

SAMS. No, no, of my condition take no care; It fits not; thou and I long since are twain : Nor think me so unwary or accursid,

930 To bring my feet again into the snare Where once I have been caught; I know thy trains Though dearly to my cost, thy gins, and toils ; Thy fair inchanted cup, and warbling charms No more on me have power, their force is nullid, 935 So much of adder's wisdom I have learn'd To fence my ear against thy sorceries. If in my flower of youth and

strength, when all men Lov'd, honor'd, fear'd me, thou alone could'st hate me Thy husband, slight me, fell me, and forego me; 940 How wouldst thou use me now, blind, and thereby Deceivable, in most things as a child Helpless, thence easily contemn’d, and scorn'd, And last neglected ? How wouldst thou insult, When I must live uxorious to thy will

945 In perfe&t thraldom, how again betray me, Bearing my words and doings to the lords To gloss upon, and censuring, frown or smile ? This jail I count the house of liberty To thine, whose doors my feet shall never enter. 950 DAL. Let me approach at least, and touch thy hand.

Sams.

Sams. Not for thy life, left fierce remembrance wake My sudden rage to tear thee joint by joint. At distance I forgive thee, go with that; Bewail thy falshood, and the pious works 955 It hath brought forth to make thee memorable Among illustrious women, faithful wives : Cherish thy hasten’d widowhood with the gold Of matrimonial treason : so farewel.

DAL. I see thou art implacable, more deaf 960 To prayers, than winds and seas, yet winds to seas Are reconcil'd at length, and fea to fhore : Thy anger, unappeasable, ftill rages, Eternal tempeft never to be calm’d. Why do I humble thus myself, and suing 965 For peace, reap nothing but repulse and hate ? Bid go with evil omen and the brand Of infamy upon my name denounc'd ? To mix with thy concernments I desist Henceforth, nor too much disapprove my own. 970 Fame if not double-fac'd is double-mouth'd, And with contrary blast proclames most deeds; On both his wings, one black, the other white, Bears greatest names in his wild

aery flight. My name perhaps among the circumcis'd

975 In Dan, in Judah, and the bordering tribes, To all posterity may stand defam’d, With malediction mention'd, and the blot Of falfhood most unconjugal traduc'd. But in my country where I most desire, In Ecron, Gaza, Asdod, and in Gath,

I Mall

980

D4

I shall be nam’d among the famousest
Of women, sung at solemn festivals,
Living and dead recorded, who, to save
Her country from a fierce destroyer, chose

985
Above the faith of wedlock-bands, my tomb
With odors visited and annual flowers ;
Not less renown’d than in mount Ephraim
Jael, who with inhospitable guile
Smote Sisera Neeping through the temples nail'd. 990
Nor shall I count it hainous to enjoy
The public marks of honor and reward,
Conferr'd upon me, for the piety
Which to my country I was judg’d to' have shown.
At this whoever envies or repines,

995 I leave him to his lot, and like my own.

Cho. She's gone, a manifest serpent by her sting Discover'd in the end, till now conceal’d.

Sams. So let her go, God sent her to debase me, And aggravate my folly, who committed To such a viper his most facred trust Of secrefy, my safety, and my life.

Cho. Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange After offense returning, to regain

(power, Love once poffess’d, nor can be easily

1005 Repuls d, without much inward passion felt And secret sting of amorous remorse.

SAMS. Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end, Not wedlock-treachery indangering life.

Cho. It is not virtue, wisdom, valor, wit, Strength, comeliness of shape, or ampleft merit

That

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That woman's love can win or long inherit;
But what it is, 'hard is to say,
Harder to hit,
(Which way soever men refer it)
Much like thy riddle, Samson, in one day
Or seven, though one should musing sit.

If any of these or all, the Timnian bride
Had not so soon preferr'd
Thy paranymph, worthless to thee compar'd,
Successor in thy bed,
Nor both so loolly disally'd
Their nuptials, nor this last so treacherously
Had forn the fatal harvest of thy head.
Is it for that such outward ornament
Was lavish'd on their sex, that inward gifts
Were left for haste unfinish'd, judgment scant,
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 long?

Whate'er it be, to wiseft men and best
Seeming at first all heav'nly under virgin veil,
Soft, modest, meek, demure,
Once join'd, the contrary she proves, a thorn
Intestin, far within defensive arms
A cleaving mischief, in his way to virtue
Adverse and turbulent, or by her charms
Draws him

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With dotage, and his sense depravid
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 ?

1045
Favor'd of Heav'n who finds
One virtuous rarely found,
That in domestic good combines :
Happy that house! his way to peace is smooth:
But virtue, which breaks through all opposition, 1050
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,

1055 Nor from that right to part an hour, Smile The or lour : So shall he least confusion draw On his whole life, not sway'd By female usurpation, or dismay’d.

1060 But had we best retire, I fee a storm?

Sams. Fair days have oft contracted wind and rain, Cho. But this another kind of tempest brings. Sams. Be less abstruse, my riddling days are past.

Cho. Look now for no inchanting voice, nor fear The bait of honied words; a rougher tongue 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 hither I less conjecture than when first I saw

The