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Thy husband, flight me, fell me, and forego me;
How wouldst thou ufe me now, blind, and thereby
Deceivable, in most things as a child

Helpless, thence eafily contemn'd, and scorn'd,
And laft neglected? How wouldst thou infult,
When I must live uxorious to thy will
In perfect thraldom, how again betray me,
Bearing my words and doings to the lords
To glofs upon, and censuring, frown or fmile?
This jail I count the house of liberty

-940

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To thine, whofe doors my feet fhall never enter.
DAL. Let me approach at leaft, and touch thy

hand.

955

SAM. Not for thy life, left fierce remembrance wake My fudden rage to tear thee joint by joint. At diftance I forgive thee; go with that; Bewail thy falfehood, 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.

Το

DAL. I fee thou art implacable, more deaf

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

950

Thy anger, unappeafable, ftill rages,

Eternal tempeft, never to be calm'd,

Why do I humble thus myself, and fuing

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 proclains 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
In Dan, in Judah, and the bordering tribes,
To all pofterity may ftand defam'd,
With malediction mention'd, and the blot

965

970

975

Of falfhood moft unconjugal traduc'd,
But in my country, where I most desire,
In Ecron, Gaża, Afdod, and in Gath,
I fhall be nam'd among the famousest
Of women, fung at folemn feftivals,
Living and dead recorded, who, to fave

980

Her country from a fierce deftroyer, chofe
Above the faith of wedlock bands; my tomb

985

With odours vifited and annual flowers;

Not lefs renown'd than in Mount Ephraim
Jael, who with inhospitable guile

Smote Sifera fleeping, through the temples nail'd, 990
Nor fhall I count it heinous to enjoy

The public marks of honour and reward

Conferr'd upon me for the piety

Which to my country I was judg'd to have shown.
At this who ever envies or repines,

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

995

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

SAM. So let her go, God fent her to debase me,

And aggravate my folly, who committed

To fuch a viper his moft facred trust

Of fecrecy, my fatety, and my life.

1000

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CHOR. Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange

After offence returning, to regain

Love once poffefs'd, nor can be easily

Repuls'd, without much inward paffion felt,

And fecret fting of amorous remorse.

1005

SAM. Love quarrels oft in pleafing concord end,

Not wedlock treachery endang'ring life.

CHOR. It is not virtue, wifdom, valour, wit, 1010

Strength, comeliness of shape, or amplest merit,
That woman's love can win or long inherit;
But what it is, hard is to fay,

Harder to hit,

(Which way foever men refer it)
Much like thy riddle, Samfon, in one day
Or fev'n, though one should mufing fit.

If any of thefe, or all, the Timnian bride

1015

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Had not fo foon preferr'd

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

Nor both fo loofly difally'd

Their nuptials, nor this last so treacherously

Had fhorn the fatal harvest of thy head,

Is it for that fuch outward ornament

Was lavish'd on their fex, that inward gifts

Were left for hafte unfinish'd, judgement scant,
Capacity not rais'd to apprehend

Or value what is best

1020

1025

In choice, but ofteft to affect the

wrong ?

1030

Or was too much of felf-love mix'd,
Of conftancy no root enfix'd,

That either they love nothing, or not long?
Whate'er it be, to wisest men and best

Seeming at firft all heav'nly under virgin veil,
Soft, modeft, meek, demure,

1035

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

Inteltine, far within defenfive arms

A cleaving mifchief, in his way to virtue
Adverfe and turbulent, or by her charms
Draws him awry enflav'd

With dotage, and his fenfe deprav'd

To folly and fhameful deeds which ruin ends.

What pilot fo expert but needs must wreck

1040

Imbark'd with fuch a steers-mate at the helm ? 1045

Favour'd of Heav'n, who finds

One virtuous, rarely found

That in domeftic good combines:

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

Moft fhines and mott is acceptable above.

Therefore God's univerfal law
Gave to the man defpotic power
Over his female in due awe,
Nor from that right to part an hour,
Smile fhe or lour:

So fhall he leaft confufion draw

1055

On his whole life, not fway'd

By female ufurpation, or dismay'd.
But had we beft retire? I see a storm?

1060

SAM. Fair days have oft contracted wind and rain. CHOR. But this another kind of tempeft brings. SAM. Be lefs abftrufe, my riddling days are past. CHOR. Look now for no enchanting 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.

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Comes he in peace? What wind hath blown him hither I lefs conjecture than when first I saw

The fumptuous Dalila floating this way:

His habit carries peace, his brow defiance.

1071

SAM. Or peace or not, alike to me he comes. CHOR. His fraught we soon shall know, he now

arrives.

1075 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,

1080

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 displeas'd,

That I was never present on the place

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 noise
Hath walk'd about, and each limb to survey,
If thy appearance answer loud report.

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SAM. The way to know were not to fee, but taste.
HAR. Doft thou already fingle me? I thought
O that Fortune

Gyves and the mill had tam'd thee.

Had brought me to the field, where thou art fam'd
To have wrough fuch wonders with an ass's jaw;
I fhould have forc'd thee foon with other arins,
Or left thy carcase where the ass lay thrown :

1096

So had the glory of prowess been recover'd

To Palestine won by a Philistine,

From the unforeskinn'd race, of whom thou bear'st The highest name for valiant a&s; that honour, 1101 Certain to have won by mortal duel from thee,

I lofe, prevented by thy eyes put out.

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SAM. Boaft not of what thou would't have done,
What then thou would'st, thou seeft it in thy hand.
HAR. To combat with a blind man I dildain, 1106
And thou haft need much washing to be touch'd.
SAM. Such ufage as your honourable lords
Afford me, aflaffinated and betray'd,
Who durft not with their whole united powers
In fight withstand me fingle and unarm'd,
Nor in the house with chamber ambushes
Clofe-banded durft attack me, no, not fleeping,
Till they had hir'd a woman with their gold
Breaking her marriage faith to circumvent me. 1115
Therefore without feign'd fhifts let be affign'd
Some narrow place inclos'd, where fight 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,
Vaunt-brafs and greves, and gauntlet, add thy fpear,
A weaver's beam, and fev'n-times-folded fhield;
I only with an oaken staff will meet thee,
And raife fuch outcries on thy clatter'd iron,
Which long shall not withhold me from thy head,
That in a little time, while breath remains thee, 1126
Thou oft fhalt with thyfelf at Gath to boast

Again in fafety what thou would'st have done
To Samfon, but fhalt never fee Gath more,

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HAR. Thou durft not thus disparage glorious arms, Which greatest heroes have in battle worn, Their ornament and fafety, had not spells

And black enchantments, fome Magician's art,

1131

Arm'd thee or charm'd thee strong, which thou from

Heav'n

Feign'dft at thy birth was giv'n thee in thy hair, 1135 Where ftrength can leaft abide, though all thy hairs

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