Let me obtain forgiveness of thee, Samson,
Afford me place to lhew what recompence
Towards thee I intend for what I have misdone,
Misguided; only what remains past cure 3"
Bear not too sensibly, nor still insist
T'afflict thy self in vain: though sight be lost,
Life
yet
hach many solaces, enjoy'd
Where other senses want not their delights
At home in leisure and domestick ease,
Exempt from many a care and chance to which
Eye-light exposes daily men abroad.
I to the Lords will intercede, not doubting
Their favourable car, that I
may fetch thee
From forth this loathsom prison-house, tabide
With me, where my redoubld love and care
With nursing diligence, to me glad office,
May ever tend about thee to old
age With all things grateful cheard, and so supply'ds That what by me thou hast loft thou least fhalt mifs.
Samf. No, no, of my condition take no care;
It fits not; thou and I long since are twain;
Nor think-me so unwary or accurft
To bring my feet again into the snare
Where
Where once I have been caught; I know thy trains
Though dearly to my cost, thy ginns, and toyls;
Thy fair enchanted cup, and warbling charms
No more on me have pow'r, their force is null'd,
So much of Adders wisdom I have learnt
To fence my ear against thy Sorceries.
If in my flower of youth and strength; when all mien
Loy'd, honour'd, fear'd me, thou alone could'st hate
Thy Husband, slight me, fell me, and forgo me;
[me
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 :
In perfect thraldom, how again betray me,
Bearing my words and doings to the Lords
To gloss upon, and censuring, frown or smile?
This Goal I count the House of Liberty
To thine, whose doors my feet shall never enter.
Dal. Let me approach at least and touch thy hand.
Sams. Not for thy life, lest fierce remembrance My sudden rage to tear thee joint by joint. [wake At distance I forgive thee, go with that;
Bewail thy falfhood; and the pious works
It hath brought forth to make thee memorable
Among illustrious Women, faithful Wives:
Cherish thy hastn’d widowhood with the gold
Of Matrimonial treason: so farewell.
Dal. I see thou art implacable, more deaf
To pray’rs than winds and seas, yet winds to seas
Are reconcild at length, and sea to shore:
Thy anger unappeafable, still rages,
Eternal Tempest never to be calm’d.
Why do I humble thus my self, and suing
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.
Fame if not double-fac'd is double-mouth'd
And with contrary blast proclaims most deeds,
On both his Wings, one black, the other white,
Bears greatest names in his wild aerie flight.
My name perhaps among the Circumcis'd
In Dan, in Judah, and the bordering Tribes,
To all posterity may stand defam'd,
With malediction mention'd, and the blot
Of fallhood most unconjugal traduc'd.
But in my country where I most desire,
In Ecron, Gaza, Afdod, and in Gath
I shall be nam'd among the famousest
Of Women, fung at folemn festivals,
Living and dead recorded, who to save
Her country from a fierce destroyer, chofe
Above the faith of wedlock-bands, my tomb
With odours visited and annual flow rs,
Not less renown'd than in Mount Ephraim,
Jael, who with inhospitable guile
Smote Sisera sleeping through the Temples nail'd.
Nor shall I count it heinous to enjoy
The publick marks of honour and reward
Conferr'd upon me, for the piety
Which to my country I was judg'd to have thewn.
At this who ever envies or repines
I leave him to his lot, and like my own.
Chor. She's gone, a manifest Serpent by her sting Discover'd in the end, till now conceal'd.
Sams. So let her go, God fent her to debase me, And aggravate my folly, who committed
Το
To such a viper his most facred trust
Of secresie, my safety, and my life.
Chor. Yet beauty, though injurious, hath ftrange After offence returning, to regain
[pow'r, Love once posseft, nor can be easily Repulft, without much inward passion felt And secret fting of amorous remorse.
Sams. Love quarrels oft in pleasing concord end. Not wedlock-treachery endangʻring life.
Chor. It is not virtue, wisdom, valour, wit,
Strength, comliness of shape, or ampleft merit
That Woman's love can win or long inherit;
But what it is, hard is to say,
Harder to bit,
(Which way soever Men refer it)
Much like thy riddle, Samson, in one day
Or seven, though one should musing fit ;
If any of these or all, the Timnian bride
Had not so soon preferr'd
Thy Paranymph, worthlefs to chee compar'd
Successor in thy Bed,
Nor both so loofly disally'd
Their nuptials, nor this last so treacherously
Had
|