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 wisest men and best

1030

Seeming at first all heavenly under virgin veil, 1035
Soft, modest, meek, demure,

Once join'd, the contrary she proves, a thorn
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

1040

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 ? Favour'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, 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,

1055

Smile she 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 see a storm? [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.

1075 fraught] Tit. Andronic. iv. 2.

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

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

Todd.

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'st 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 displeas'd,

That I was never present on the place

1080

1085

Of those encounters, where we might have tried
Each other's force in camp or listed field:
And now am come to see of whom such noise
Hath walk'd about, and each limb to survey,
If thy appearance answer loud report.

SAMS.

1090

The way to know were not to see but

taste.

HAR. Dost thou already single me? I thought Gyves and the mill had tam'd thee. O that for

tune

Had brought me to the field where thou art fam'd
To have wrought such wonders with an ass's jaw!
I should have forc'd thee soon with other arms,
Or left thy carcass where the ass lay thrown;
So had the glory of prowess been recover'd
To Palestine, won by a Philistine

1099

From the unforeskinn'd race, of whom thou bear'st
The highest name for valiant acts: that honour
Certain to have won by mortal duel from thee,
I lose, prevented by thy eyes put out.

SAMS. Boast not of what thou would'st have done, but do

What then thou wouldst, thou see'st it in thy

hand.

1105

HAR. To combat with a blind man I disdain, And thou hast need much washing to be touch'd. SAMS. Such usage as your honourable lords Afford me assassinated and betray'd,

Who durst not with her whole united powers 1110
In fight withstand me single and unarm'd,
Nor in the house with chamber ambushes
Close-banded durst attack me, no not sleeping,
Till they had hir'd a woman with their gold,
Breaking her marriage faith to circumvent me.
Therefore without feign'd shifts let be assign'd
Some narrow place inclos'd, where sight may
give thee,

Or rather flight, no great advantage on me;
Then put on all thy gorgeous arms, thy helmet
And brigandine of brass, thy broad habergeon,
Vant-brass and greves, and gauntlet, add thy

spear,

1121

A weaver's beam, and seven-times-folded shield,
I only with an oaken staff will meet thee,
And raise such outcries on thy clatter'd iron,
Which long shall not withhold me from thy head,
That in a little time, while breath remains thee,
Thou oft shalt wish thyself at Gath to boast
Again in safety what thou wouldst have done

1121 vant-brass] Fairfax's Tasso, B. xx. st. 139.
His shield was pierc'd, his vant-brace cleft and split.'
Newton.

To Samson, but shall never see Gath more.
HAR. Thou durst not thus disparage glorious

arms,

1130

Which greatest heroes have in battle worn,
Their ornament and safety, had not spells
And black enchantment, some magician's art,
Arm'd thee, or charm'd thee strong, which thou
from heav'n

Feign'dst at thy birth was giv'n thee in thy hair,
Where strength can least abide, tho' all thy hairs
Were bristles rang'd like those that ridge the back
Of chaf'd wild boars or ruffled porcupines.

SAMS. I know no spells, use no forbidden arts; My trust is in the living God, who gave me 1140 At my nativity this strength, diffus'd

No less through all my sinews, joints, and bones,
Than thine, while I preserv'd these locks unshorn,
The pledge of my unviolated vow.

For proof hereof, if Dagon be thy god,
Go to his temple, invocate his aid

1145

1150

With solemnest devotion, spread before him
How highly it concerns his glory now
To frustrate and dissolve these magic spells,
Which I to be the power of Israel's God
Avow, and challenge Dagon to the test,
Off'ring to combat thee his champion bold,
With th' utmost of his godhead seconded:
Then thou shalt see, or rather to thy sorrow
Soon feel, whose God is strongest, thine or mine.

HAR. Presume not on thy God, whate'er he be,