Cherish thy hasten'd widowhood with the gold
Of matrimonial treason: so farewel.

DAL. I see thou art implacable, more deaf 960
To prayers 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
For peace, reap nothing but repulse and hate?
with evil omen and the brand

Bid go

Of infamy upon my name denounc'd ?

To mix with thy concernments I desist
Henceforth, nor too much disapprove my own.
Fame, if not double fac'd is double mouth'd, 971
And with contrary blast proclaims 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 posterity may stand defam’d,
With malediction mention'd, and the blot
Of falshood most unconjugal traduc❜d.
But in my country where I most desire,
In Ecron, Gava, Ashdod, and in Gath,
I shall be nam'd among the famousest
Of women, sung at solemn festivals,
Living and dead recorded, who to save
Her country from a fierce destroyer, chose
Above the faith of wedlock bands, my tomb
With odors visited and annual flowers;

980

Nor 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

The public marks of honour and reward

Conferr'd upon me for the piety

991

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.

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

SAM. 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 After offence returning, to regain

Love once possess'd, nor can be easily

Repuls'd, without much inward passion felt
And secret sting of amorous remorse.

[power

SAM. Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end Not wedlock-treachery indang'ring life.

CHOR. It is not virtue, wisdom, valor, 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)

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, 1020 Successor to thy bed,

Nor both so loosely dissally'd

Their nuptials, nor this last so treacherously
Had shorn the fatal harvest of thy head.
Is it for that such outward ornament

Was lavish'd on their sex, that inward gifts
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 ? 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,

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 with ruin ends. What pilot so expert but needs must wreck Imbark'd with such a steers-mate at the helm? Favor'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, 1050
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:

So shall he least confusion draw
On his own life, not sway'd

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

1060

SAM. Fair days have oft contracted wind and rain.
CHOR. But this another kind of tempest brings.
SAM. Be less abstruse, my riddling days are past.
CHOR. Look now for no inchanting voice,nor fear
The bait of honied words; a rougher tongue
Draws hitherward, I know him by his stride,
The giant Harapha of Gath, his look
Haughty as his pile high-built and proud.
Comes he in peace ? what wind hath blown him hither
I less cenjecture than when fist I saw

The sumptuous Dalila floating this way;
His habit carries peace, his brow defiance.

1071

SAM. Or peace or not,alike to me he comes. [rives. CHOR. His fraught we soon shall know, he now arHAR. 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 renowu'd
As Og or Anak and the Emmims old
That Kiriathim held, thou know'st me now
If thou at all art known.

1080

Much I have heard

Of thy prodigious might and feats perform'd
Incredible to me, in this displeas'd,

That was never present on the place

Of those encounters, where we might have try'd
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

SAM. 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;
I should have forc'd thee soon with other arms,
Or left thy carcase 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 bearst
The highest name for valiant acts; that honor 1101
Certain to have won by mortal duel from thee,
I lose, prevented by thy eyes put out.

[but do

SAM. Boast not of what thou would'st have done What then thou would'st, thou seest it in thy hand. HAR. To combat with a blind man I disdain, And thou hast need much washing to be touch'd.