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Then by main force pull'd up, and on his shoulders

bore

The gates of Azza, post, and massy bar,

Up to the hill by Hebron, seat of giants old,

No journey of a sabbath-day, and loaded so;

Like whom the Gentiles feign to bear up Heaven. 150 Which shall I first bewail,

Thy bondage, or lost sight,

Prison within prison

Inseparably dark?

Thou art become (O worst imprisonment !)

The dungeon of thyself; thy soul,

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(Which men enjoying sight oft without cause com

plain,)

Imprison'd now indeed,

In real darkness of the body dwells,

Shut up from outward light

T' incorporate with gloomy night;

For inward light, alas!

Puts forth no visual beam.

O mirror of our fickle state,

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Since man on earth, unparallel'd!

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The rarer thy example stands,

By how much from the top of wondrous glory,

Strongest of mortal men,

To lowest pitch of abject fortune thou art fall'n.

For him I reckon not in high estate

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Whom long descent of birth,

Or the sphere of fortune, raises;

But thee whose strength, while virtue was her mate, Might have subdued the earth,

Universally crown'd with highest praises.

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Sams. I hear the sound of words; their sense the air

Dissolves unjointed ere it reach my car.

Chor. He speaks, let us draw nigh. Matchless in might,

The glory late of Israel, now the grief;

We come, thy friends and neighbours not unknown, From Eshtaol and Zora's fruitful vale,

To visit or bewail thee; or, if better,

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Counsel or consolation we may bring,

Salve to thy sores; apt words have pow'r to swage The tumours of a troubled mind,

And are as balm to fester'd wounds.

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Sams. Your coming, Friends, revives me, for I learn Now of my own experience, not by talk, How counterfeit a coin they are who friends Bear in their superscription, (of the most I would be understood;) in prosp'rous days They swarm, but in adverse withdraw their head, Not to be found, though sought. Ye see, O Friends, How many evils have enclos'd me round:

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Yet that which was the worst now least afflicts me, 195
Blindness; for had I sight, confus'd with shame,
How could I once look up, or heave the head,
Who, like a foolish pilot, have shipwreck'd
My vessel trusted to me from above,
Gloriously rigg'd; and for a word, a tear,
Fool! have divulg'd the secret gift of God
To a deceitful woman? tell me, Friends,
Am I not sung and proverb'd for a fool
In every street? do they not say, how well
Are come upon him his deserts? yet why?
Immeasurable strength they might behold
In me, of wisdom nothing more than mean;
This with the other should, at least, have pair'd,
These two, proportion'd ill, drove me transverse.
Chor. Tax not divine disposal; wisest men
Have err'd, and by bad women been deceiv'd;
And shall again, pretend they ne'er so wise.
Deject not then so overmuch thyself,

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Who hast of sorrow thy full load besides :

Yet, truth to say, I oft have heard men wonder

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Why thou shouldst wed Philistian women rather
Than of thine own tribe fairer, or as fair,
At least of thy own nation, and as noble.

Sams. The first I saw at Timna, and she pleas'd
Me, not my parents, that I sought to wed
The daughter of an infidel: they knew not
That what I motion'd was of God: I knew

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From intimate impúlse, and therefore urg'd
The marriage on; that by occasion hence
I might begin Israel's deliverance,
The work to which I was divinely call'd.
She proving false, the next I took to wife
(0 that 1 never had! fond wish too late)
Was in the vale of Sorec, Dalila,

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That specious monster, my accomplish'd snare.
I thought it lawful from my former act,

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And the same end; still watching to oppress
Israel's oppressors: of what now I suffer
She was not the prime cause, but I myself,

Who, vanquish'd with a peal of words, (O weakness!) Gave up my fort of silence to a woman.

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Chor. In seeking just occasion to provoke The Philistine, thy country's enemy,

Thou never wast remiss, I bear thee witness:
Yet Israël still serves with all his sons.

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Sams. That fault I take not on me, but transfer

On Israel's governors, and heads of tribes,

Who, seeing those great acts which God had done
Singly by me against their conquerors,
Acknowledg'd not, or not at all consider'd,
Deliverance offer'd: I on th' other side
Us'd no ambition to commend my deeds;

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The deeds themselves, though mute, spoke loud the doer:

But they persisted deaf, and would not seem

To count them things worth notice, till at length 250
Their lords the Philistines with gather'd pow'rs
Enter'd Judea seeking me, who then

Safe to the rock of Etham was retir'd;
Not flying, but fore-casting in what place
To set upon them, what advantag'd best:
Meanwhile the men of Judah, to prevent
The harass of their land, beset me round;

I willingly on some conditions came

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Into their hands, and they as gladly yield me

To the uncircumcis'd a welcome prey,

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Bound with two cords; but cords to me were threads

Touch'd with the flame: on their whole host I flew
Unarm'd, and with a trivial weapon fell'd

Their choicest youth; they only liv'd who fled.
Had Judah that day join'd, or one whole tribe,
They had by this possess'd the tow'rs of Gath,
And lorded over them whom they now serve:`
But what more oft, in nations grown corrupt,
And by their vices brought to servitude,
Than to love bondage more than liberty,
Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty;
And to despise, or envy, or suspect

Whom God hath of his special favour rais'd
As their deliverer; if he aught begin,

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And how ingrateful Ephraim

Had dealt with Jephtha, who by argument,
Not worse than by his shield and spear,
Defended Israel from the Ammonite,
Had not his prowess quell'd their pride
In that sore battle, when so many dy'd
Without reprieve, adjudg'd to death,
For want of well pronouncing Shibboleth.
Sams. Of such examples add me to the roll;

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Me easily indeed mine may neglect,

But God's propos'd deliverance not so.

Chor. Just are the ways of God,

And justifiable to men;

Unless there be who think not God at all:

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If any be, they walk obscure;

For of such doctrine never was there school,

But the heart of the fool,

And no man therein doctor but himself.

Yet more there be, who doubt his ways not just, 300 As to his own edfets found contradicting,

Then give the reins to wand'ring thought,
Regardless of his glory's diminution;
Till, by their own perplexities involv'd,
They ravel more, still less resolv'd,
But never find self satisfying solution.

As if they would confine th' Interminable,

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And tie him to his own prescript,

Who made our laws to bind us, not himself,
And hath full right t' exempt

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Whom so it pleases him by choice

From national obstriction, without taint

Of sin, or legal debt;

For with his own laws he can best dispense.

He would not else, who never wanted means, 315

Nor in respect of th' enemy just cause,

To set his people free,

Have prompted this heroic Nazarite,

Against his vow of strictest purity,

To seek in marriage that fallacious bride,
Unclean, unchaste.

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Down, reason, then; at least, vain reasonings, down;

Though reason here aver,

That moral verdict quits her of unclean:

Unchaste was subsequent, her stain not his.

But see here comes thy reverend sire

With careful step, locks white as down,
Old Manoah: advise

Forthwith how thou ought'st to receive him.

Sams. Ay me, another inward grief, awak'd With mention of that name, renews th' assault.

[Enter] Manoah.

$25

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Man. Brethren and men of Dan, for such ye seem, Though in this uncouth place; if old respect, As I suppose, tow'ards your once glory'd friend, My son, now captive, hither hath inform'd Your younger feet, while mine cast back with age Came lagging after; say if he be here.

Chor. As signal now in low dejected state, As erst in high'est, behold him where he lies.

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