Didst thou at first receive me for thy husband,
Then, as since then, thy country's foe profess'd?
Being once a wife, for me thou wast to leave
Parents and country; nor was I their subject,
Nor under their protection, but my own,
Thou mine, not theirs if aught against my life
Thy country sought of thee, it sought unjustly,
Against the law of nature, law of nations;
No more thy country, but an impious crew
Of men conspiring to uphold their state

885

890

By worse than hostile deeds, violating the ends

For which our country is a name so dear;

Not therefore to be obey'd. But zeal mov'd thee;

895

To please thy gods thou didst it; gods, unable

To acquit themselves and prosecute their foes
But by ungodly deeds, the contradiction
Of their own deity, gods cannot be:

Less therefore to be pleas'd, obey'd, or fear'd,

900

These false pretexts, and varnish'd colours, failing,

Bare in thy guilt, how foul must thou appear?
Dal. In argument with men a woman ever

Goes by the worse whatever be her cause.

Sams. For want of words no doubt, or lack of breath; 905

Witness when I was worried with thy peals.

Dal. I was a fool, too rash, and quite mistaken

In what I thought would have succeeded best.

Let me obtain forgiveness of thee, Samson;
Afford me place to show what recompense
Towards thee I intend for what I have misdone,
Misguided; only what remains past cure
Bear not too sensibly, nor still insist

910

To afflict thyself in vain: though sight be lost,

Life yet hath many solaces, enjoy'd

915

Where other senses want not their delights

At home in leisure and domestic ease,

Exempt from many a care and chance, to which
Eye-sight exposes daily men abroad.

I to the lords will intercede, not doubting

920

With all things grateful cheer'd, and so supplied,

That, what by me thou hast lost, thou least shalt miss.

Sams. No, no; of my condition take no care;

It fits not; thou and I long since are twain:

Nor think me so unwary or accurs❜d,

To bring my feet again into the snare

Where once I have been caught: I know thy trains,
Though dearly to my cost, thy gins, and toils;
Thy fair enchanted cup, and warbling charms,

930

No more on me have pow'r; their force is null'd; 935 So much of adder's wisdom I have learn'd,

To fence my ear against thy sorceries.

940

If in my flower of youth and strength, when all men
Lov'd, honour'd, fear'd me, thou alone couldst hate me
Thy husband, slight me, sell me, and forego me;
How wouldst thou use me now, blind, and thereby
Deceivable, in most things as a child
Helpless, thence easily contemn'd, and scorn'd,
And last neglected? how wouldst thou insult,
When I must live uxorious to thy will
In perfect thraldom? how again betray me,
Bearing my words and doings to the lords
To gloss upon, and, censuring, frown or smile?
This jail I count the house of liberty

To thine, whose doors my feet shall never enter.

945

950

Dal. Let me approach at least, and touch thy hand. Sams. Not for thy life, lest fierce remembrance wake My sudden rage to tear thee joint by joint. At distance I forgive thee; go with that; Bewail thy falsehood, and the pious works It hath brought forth to make thee memorable Among illustrious women, faithful wives! Cherish thy hasten'd widowhood with the gold Of matrimonial treason! so farewell.

955

Dal. I see thou art implacable, more deaf

960

To pray'rs than winds and seas; yet winds to seas

Are reconcil'd at length, and sea to shore :

Thy anger, unappeasable, still rages,

Eternal tempest, never to be calm'd.

Why do I humble thus myself, and, suing

965

For peace, read nothing but repulse and hate;

Bid go with evil omen, and the brand
Of infamy upon my name denounc'd?
To mix with thy concernment I desist
Henceforth, nor too much disapprove my own.
Fame, if no double-fac'd, is double-mouth'd,
And with contráry blast proclaims most deeps;
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 posterity may stand defam'd,
With malediction mention'd and the blot,
Of falsehood most unconjugal traduc'd.
But in my country, where I most desire,
In Ecron, Gaza, Asdod, and in Gath,
I shall be nam'd among the famousest
Of women, sung at solemn festivals,
Living and dead recorded, who, to save

970

975

980

Her country from a fierce destroyer, chose

985

Above the faith of wedlock-bands; my tomb

With odours visited and annual flowers;

Not less renown'd than in mount Ephraim

Jael, who with inhospitable guile

Smote Sisera sleeping, through the temples nail'd.
Nor shall I count it heinous to enjoy

990

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 whoever envies or repines;

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

995

[Exit.

Chor. She's gone, a manifest serpent by her sting
Discover'd in the end, till now conceal'd.

Sams. So let her go; God sent her to debase me,
And aggravate my folly, who committed
To such a viper his most sacred trust

Of secrecy, my safety, and my life.

1000

Chor. Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange power, After offence returning, to regain

Love once possess'd, nor can be easily

1005

Repuls'd without much inward passion felt,

And secret sting of amorous remorse.

Sams. Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end,

Not wedlock-treachery endang'ring life.

Chor. It is not virtue, wisdom, 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 say,

Harder to hit

(Which way soever men refer it),

1015

Much like thy riddle, Samson, in one day

Or sev'n, though one should musing sit.

If any of these, or all, the Timnian bride Had not so soon preferr'd

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

1020

In choice, but oftest to affect the wrong?

1030

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

Seeming at first all heav'nly under virgin veil,
Soft, modest, meek, demure,

1035

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

What pilot so expert but needs must wreck

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

1045

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,

Smile she or lour:

1050

1055

So shall he least confusion draw

On his whole life, not sway'd

By female usurpation, or dismay'd.

But had we best retire? I see a storm.

Chor. But this another kind of tempest brings.

1060

Sams. Fair days have oft contracted wind and rain.

Sams. Be less abstruse; my riddling days are past. Chor. Look now for no enchanting voice, nor fear 1065 The bait of honey'd words; a rougher tongue

Draws hitherward; I know him by his stride,
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 1070 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

arrives.

Enter Harapha.

1075

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 stock renown'd
As Og, or Anak, and the Emims old

1080

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

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.

1090

Sams. 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 fortune Had brought me to the field, where thou art fam'd To have wrought such wonders with an ass's jaw! 1095

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,

From the unforeskinn'd race, of whom thou bear'st 1100
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.

1110

Sams. Boast not of what thou wouldst have done, but do What then thou wouldst; thou seest 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 their whole united powers 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 enclos'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-brace and greaves, and gauntlet, add thy spear, 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,

1115

1120

Which long shall not withhold me from thy head, 1125
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
To Samson, but shalt 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 enchantments, some magician's art,

Arm'd thee or charm'd thee strong, which thou from heaven
Feign'dst at thy hirth was giv'n thee in thy hair, 1135
Where strength can least abide, though 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,

1145

Go to his temple, invocate his aid

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,
Offering to combat thee his champion bold,
With th' utmost of his godhead seconded:
Then thou shalt see, or rather, to thy sorrow,

1150