In pow'r of others, never in my own;

Scarce half I seem to live, dead more than half.
O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon,
Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse

Without all hope of day!

O first created Beam, and thou great Word,
Let there be light, and light was over all;

Why am I thus bereav'd thy prime decree?
The fun to me is dark

And filent as the moon,

When she deserts the night

Hid in her vacant interlunar cave.
Since light fo neceffary is to life,

And almost life itself, if it be true

That light is in the foul,

She all in every part; why was the sight
To fuch a tender ball as th' eye confin'd,

So obvious and fo easy to be quench'd?
And not as feeling through all parts diffus'd,
That she might look at will through every pore?
Then had I not been thus exil'd from light,
As in the land of darkness yet in light,
To live a life half dead, a living death,
And bury'd; but O yet more miserable!
Myself, my fepulchre, a moving grave,
Bury'd, yet not exempt

By privilege of death and burial

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100

From worst of other evils, pains and wrongs, 105

But

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 steering this way;
Perhaps my enemies who come to flare
At my affliction, and perhaps t' insult,
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 mifreprefent? Can this be he,

That heroic, that renown'd,

Irrefiftible Samfon? whom unarm'd

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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, useless the forgery

130

Of brazen fhield and fpear, the hammer'd cuirafs, Chaly'bean temper'd fteel, and frock of mail

Ada

Adamantean proof;

But fafeft he who flood aloof,

When insupportably his foot advanc'd,

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

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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 fword of bone,

145

A thousand fore-fkins fell, the flow'r of Palestine,
In Ramath-lechi famous to this day.
Then by main force pull'd up, and on his shoulders
The gates of Azza, post, and massy bar, (bore
Up to the hill by Hebron, feat of giants old,
No journey of a fabbath-day, and loaded so ;
Like whom the Gentiles feign to bear up Heaven.
Which fhall I firft bewail,

;

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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 ftands,

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 eftate

Whom long defcent of birth

Or the sphere of fortune raises;

170

But thee whofe ftrength, 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 Diffolves unjointed ere it reach my ear.

(air

Chor. He fpeaks, 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,

And are as balm to fefter'd wounds.

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

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

O

(learn

Bear

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

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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 every street? do they not fay, how well
Are come upon him his deserts? yet why?
Immeasurable strength 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.

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Chor. Tax not divine difpofal; wisest men 210 Have err'd, and by bad women been deceiv'd; And shall again, pretend they ne'er so wife. Deject not then so overmuch thyself,

Who haft of forrow thy full load befides;

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

At