1

955

SAMS. Not for thy life, left fierce remembrance wake
My fudden rage to tear thee joint by joint.
At distance I forgive thee, go with that;
Bewail thy falfhood, and the pious works
It hath brought forth to make thee memorable
Among illuftrious women, faithful wives :
Cherish thy haften'd widowhood with the gold
Of matrimonial treafon : fo farewel.

DAL. I fee thou art implacable, more deaf

To prayers, than winds and feas, yet winds to feas
Are reconcil'd at length, and fea to fhore :

Thy anger, unappeasable, ftill rages,

Why do I humble thus myself, and fuing

Eternal tempeft never to be calm'd.

960

965

For peace, reap nothing but repulfe and hate?
Bid go with evil omen and the brand
Of infamy upon my name denounc'd ?
To mix with thy concernments I defift
Henceforth, nor too much difapprove my own.
Fame if not double-fac'd is double-mouth'd,
And with contrary blaft proclames moft 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

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

D 4

970

975

980

I fhall

I fhall be nam'd among the famousest
Of women, fung at folemn festivals,
Living and dead recorded, who, to fave
Her country from a fierce destroyer, chofe
Above the faith of wedlock-bands, my tomb
With odors vifited and annual flowers;

Not lefs renown'd than in mount Ephraim
Jael, who with inhofpitable guile

985

Smote Sifera fleeping through the temples nail'd.
Nor fhall 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,

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

CHO. She's gone, a manifeft ferpent by her fting Difcover'd in the end, till now conceal'd.

SAMS. So let her go, God fent her to debafe me, And aggravate my folly, who committed

To fuch a viper his moft facred truft

Of fecrefy, my fafety, and my life.

990

995

1000

CHO. Yet beauty, though injurious, hath ftrange

After offense returning, to regain

Love once poffefs'd, nor can be easily

Repuls'd, without much inward paffion felt

And fecret fting of amorous remorse.

[power,

1005

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

CHO. It is not virtue, wifdom, valor, wit, Strength, comelinefs of shape, or amplest merit

1010

That

That woman's love can win or long inherit;
But what it is, hard is to say,

Harder to hit,

(Which way foever men refer it)

Much like thy riddle, Samfon, in one day
Or feven, though one fhould mufing fit.

If any of theie or all, the Timnian bride
Had not fo foon preferr'd

Thy paranymph, worthlefs to thee compar'd,
Succeffor in thy bed,

Nor both fo loofly difally'd

Their nuptials, nor this laft fo treacherously

1015

1020

Had thorn the fatal harveft of thy head.
Is it for that fuch outward ornament

Was lavish'd on their fex, that inward gifts

Capacity not rais'd to apprehend

Were left for hafte unfinish'd, judgment cant,

Or value what is bett

In choice, but ofteft to affect the wrong?
Or was too much of felf-love mix'd,
Of conítancy no root infix'd,

That either they love nothing, or not long?

1025

1030

Whate'er it be, to wifeft men and best
Seeming at firft all heav'nly under virgin veil,
Soft, modeft, meek, demure,

1035

end,

1010

That

Once join'd, the contrary the proves, a thorn
Inteftin, far within defenfive arms
A cleaving mitchief, in his way to virtue
Adverfe and turbulent, or by her charms
Draws him awry inflav'd

1040

With

With dotage, and his fenfe deprav'd

To folly' and fhameful deed's which ruin ends.
What pilot fo expert but needs must wreck
Imbark'd with fuch a fteers-mate at the helm ?

Favor'd of Heav'n who finds

One virtuous rarely found,

That in domeftic good combines :

1045

Happy that houfe! his way to peace is smooth :
But virtue, which breaks through all oppofition, 1050
And all temptation can remove,

Moft fhines and moft is acceptable above.

Therefore God's univerfal law

Gave to the man defpotic power

But had we beft retire, I fee a storm?

SAMS. Fair days have oft contracted wind and rain. CHO. But this another kind of tempeft brings. SAMS. Be lefs abftrufe, 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 ftride, 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 lefs conjecture than when firft I faw

The

The fumptuous Dalila floting this way:

His habit carries peace, his brow defiance.

SAMS. Or peace or not, alike to me he comes.

CHO. His fraught we foon fhall know, he now arrives. HAR. I come not, Samfon, to condole thy chance, As these perhaps, yet wish it had not been,

Though for no friendly intent. I am of Gath,
Men call me Harapha, of stock renown'd
As Og or Anak and the Emims old

That Kiriathaim held, thou know'ft 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 difpleas'd,
That I was never present on the place

1080

1085

Of those encounters, where we might have try'd
Each other's force in camp or lifted field;

And now am come to fee of whom fuch noife
Hath walk'd about, and each limb to furvey,
If thy appearance answer loud report.

1090

SAMS. The way to know were not to fee but taste. HAR. Doft thou already single me? I thought Gyves and the mill had tam'd thee. O that fortune Had brought me to the field, where thou art fam'd To' have wrought fuch wonders with an afs's jaw; 1095 I should have forc'd thee foon with other arms, Or left thy carcass where the ass lay thrown: So had the glory' of prowefs been recover'd To Palestine, won by a Philistine,

From the unforeskin'd race, of whom thou bear'ft 1100 The highest name for valiant acts; that honor