(power,
Chor. Yet beauty, though injurious, hath ftrange After offense returning, to regain Love once poffefs'd, nor can be easily
To fuch a viper his most sacred trust
Of fecrefy, my fafety, and my life.
Repuls'd, without much inward passion felt
And fecret fting of amorous remorse.
Sams. Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end, Not wedlock-treachery indang'ring life.
Chor. It is not virtue, wisdom, valor, wit, Strength, comeliness of shape, or ampleft merit 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 fev'n, though one fhould musing fit.
If any of these or all, the Timnian bride
Had not fo foon preferr'd
Thy paranymph, worthless to thee compar'd, 1020 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, judgment fcant,
Capacity not rais'd to apprehend
Or value what is best
In choice, but oftest to affect the wrong?
Or was too much of felf-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
Seeming at first all heav'nly under virgin veil, 1035
Soft, modeft, meek, demure,
Once join'd, the contrary fhe proves, a thorn
Inteftin, far within defenfive arms
A cleaving mischief, in his way to virtue
Adverse and turbulent, or by her charms
Draws him awry inflay'd
With dotage, and his fense deprav'd
To folly' and fhameful deeds which ruin ends.
What pilot fo expert but needs must wreck
Imbark'd with such a steers-mate at the helm? 1045
Favor'd of Heav'n who finds
And all temptation can remove,
Moft fhines and moft is acceptable above.
Therefore God's universal law
Gave to the man defpotic power
Over his female in due awe,
Nor from that right to part an hour,
One virtous rarely found,
That in domestic good combines:
Happy that houfe! his way to peace is smooth:
But virtue which breaks through all oppofition, 1050
Smile fhe or lour:
So fhall he least confufion draw
On his whole life, not fway'd
By female ufurpation, or dismay'd.
But had we best retiré, I see a storm?
Sams. Fair days have oft contracted wind and rain.
Chor. But this another kind of tempest brings.
Sams. Be lefs abftrufe, my riddling days are past.
Chor. Look now for no inchanting voice, nor fear
The bait of honied words; a rougher tongue 1066
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 saw
1071
The sumptuous Dalila floting this way:
His habit carries peace, his brow defiance.
Sams. Or peace or not, alike to me he comes. 1704
Chor. His fraught we soon shall know, he now arrives.
Har. I come not, Samson, 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 flock 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,
I 3
1085
That I was never present on the place
Of thofe encounters, where we might have try'd
Each other's force in camp or listed field:
And now am come to fee of whom fuch noise
Hath walk'd about, and each limb to furvey,
If thy appearance answer loud report.
1090
Sams. The way to know were not to see but tafte.
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;
I fhould have forc'd thee foon wifh other arms, 1096
Or left thy carcass where the ass lay thrown:
So had the glory' of prowess been recover'd
To Palestine, won by a Philistine
From the unforeskin'd race, of whom thou bear'st 1100
The highest name for valiant acts; that honor
Certain to' have won by mortal duel from thee,
I lose, prevented by thy eyes put out.
(but do
Sams. Boaft not of what thou wouldst have done,
What then thou wouldst, thou seest it in thy hand. 1106
Har. To combat with a blind man I disdain,
And thou haft need much washing to be touch'd.
Sams. Such ufage as your honorable lords
Afford me' affaffinated and betray'd,
Who durft not with their whole united
In fight withstand me single and unarm'd,
Nor in the house with chamber ambushes
Close-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 shifts 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 brafs, thy broad habergeon, 1120
Vant-brass and greves, and gauntlet, add thy spear,
A weaver's beam, and fev'n-times-folded fhield,
I only with an oaken-staff will meet thee,
And raise fuch outcries on thy clatter'd iron, 1124
Which long shall not withhold me from thy head,
That in a little time while breath remains thee,
Thou oft fhalt wish thyself at Gath to boast
Again in fafety what thou wouldst have done
To Samfon, but shalt never fee Gath more.
Har. Thou durft not thus disparage glorious arms,
Which greateft heroes have in battel worn, 1131
Their ornament and safety, had not spells
And black inchantments, fome magician's art,
Arm'd thee or charm'd thee ftrong, which thou from
Heaven
Feign'dft at thy birth was giv'n thee in thy hair, 1135 Where ftrength can leaft abide, though all thy hairs Were briftles rang'd like thofe that ridge the back Of chaf'd wild boars, or ruffled porcupines.
Sams. I know no spells, use no forbidden arts;
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