But made hereby obnoxious more

To all miseries of life,

Life in captivity

Among inhuman foes.

But who are these? for with joint pace I hear 110
The tread of many feet fteering this way;
Perhaps my enemies who come to flare
At my affliction, and perhaps t' infult,
Their daily practice to afflict me more.
Chor. This, this is he; foftly a while,

Let us not break in upon him;

O change beyond report, thought, or belief!
See how he lies at random, carelefly diffus'd,
With languish'd head unpropt,

As one paft hope, abandon'd,

And by himself giv'n over;

In flavish habit, ill-fitted weeds

O'er-worn and foil'd; .

Or do my eyes misrepresent? Can this be he,

That heroic, that renown'd,

Irrefiftible Samfon? whom unarm'd

115

120

125 (withstand;

No ftrength of man, or fierceft wild beaft could

Who tore the lion, as the lion tears the kid,

Ran on imbattel'd armies clad in iron,

And weaponless himself,

Made arms ridiculous, ufelefs the forgery

130

Of brazen shield and spear, the hammer'd cuirass, Chaly'bean temper'd fleel, and frock of mail

Ada

Adamantean proof;

But safest he who flood aloof,

When infupportably his foot advanc'd,

135

In fcorn of their proud arms and warlike tools, Spurn'd them to death by troops. The bold AscaloFled from his lion ramp, old warriors turn'd (nite Their plated backs under his heel;

140

Or grov'ling foil'd their crested helmets in the dust. Then with what trivial weapon came to hand, The jaw of a dead ass, his sword of bone,

A thousand fore-fkins fell, the flow'r of Palestine, In Ramath-lechi famous to this day.

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Then by main force pull'd up, and on his shoulders The gates of Azza, poft, and massy bar,

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

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

(bore

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

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Thy bondage or loft fight,

Prison within prison

Infeparably dark?

Thou art become (O worst imprisonment!)

The dungeon of thyfelf; thy foul

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For inward light alas

Puts forth no visual beam.

O mirror of our fickle ftate,
Since man on earth unparrallel'd!

The rarer thy example stands,

By how much from the top of wondrous glory,
Strongest of mortal men,

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

For him I reckon not in high estate

Whom long defcent of birth

Or the sphere of fortune raises;

170

But thee whose strength, while virtue was her mate, Might have fubdu'd the earth,

Univerfally crown'd with highest praises.

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Samf. I hear the found of words, their sense the Dissolves unjointed ere it reach my ear.

(air

Chor. He speaks, let us draw nigh. Matchlefs in The glory late of Ifrael, now the grief; (might, We come thy friends and neighbours not unknown From Efhtaol and Zora's fruitful vale

To vifit or bewail thee, or if better,
Counsel or confolation we may bring,

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Salve to thy fores; apt words have pow'r to fwage The tumors of a troubled mind,

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Samf. Your coming, Friends, revives me, for I

And are as balm to fefter'd wounds.

Now of my own experience, not by talk,
How counterfeit a coin they are who friends

(learn

Bear in their superscription, (of the most

190

I would be understood) in prosp'rous days
They swarm, but in adverse withdraw their head,
Not to be found, though fought. Ye fee, O Friends,
How many evils have inclos'd me round; 194
Yet that which was the worst now leaft afflicts me,
Blindness, for had I fight, confus'd with fhame,
How could I once look up, or heave the head,
Who like a foolish pilot have fhipwreck'd
My veffel trusted to me from above,

Gloriously rigg'd; and for a word, a tear,
Fool, have divulg'd the fecret gift of God
To a deceitful woman? tell me, Friends,
Am I not fung and proverb'd for a fool

In

· 200

205

every street? do they not fay, how well Are come upon him his deferts? yet why? Immeasurable ftrength they might behold In me, of wisdom nothing more than mean; This with the other fhould, at least, have pair'd, These two proportion'd ill drove me transverse.

Chor. Tax not divine difpofal; wisest men Have err'd, and by bad women been deceiv'd; And shall again, pretend they ne'er fo wise. Deject not then fo overmuch thyself,

Who haft of forrow thy full load besides ;

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Yet truth to say, I oft have heard men wonder 215 Why thou shouldst wed Philiftian women rather Than of thine own tribe fairer, or as fair,

At

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At least of thy own nation, and as noble.
Samf. The firft I faw at Timna, and fhe pleas'd
Me, not my parents, that I fought to wed
The daughter of an infidel: they knew not
That what I motion'd was of God; I knew
From intimate impulfe, and therefore urg'd
The marriage on; that by occasion hence
I might begin Ifrael's deliverance,
The work to which I was divinely call'd.
She proving false, the next I took to wife
(O that I never had! fond wish too late,)
Was in the vale of Sorec, Dalila,

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That specious monster, my accomplish'd fnare. 230
I thought it lawful from
my former act,

And the fame end; ftill watching to opprefs
Ifrael's oppreffors: 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 filence to a woman.

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Chor. In feeking juft occafion to provoke

The Philiftine, thy country's enemy,

Thou never waft remifs, I bear thee witness:
Yet Ifraël ftill ferves with all his fons.

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

On Ifrael'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 confider'd 245

O 2

De