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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 sepulchre, a moving grave,
Bury'd, yet not exempt

By privilege of death and burial

109

From worst of other evils, pains and wrongs, 105

But made hereby obnoxious more

To all the miseries of life,

Life in captivity

Among inhuman foes.

But who are these? for with joint pace I hear
The tread of many feet steering this way;
Perhaps my enemies who come to stare
At my affliction, and perhaps to' insult,
Their daily practice to afflict me more.

CHOR. This, this is he; softly a while,

Let us not break in upon him;

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

As one past hope, abandon'd,

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115

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And by himself given over;

In slavish habit, ill-fitted weeds

O'er-worn and soil'd;

Or do my eyes misrepresent? Can this be he,

That heroic, that renown'd,

Irresistible Samson? whom unarm'd

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No strength of man,or fiercest wild beast could with

stand;

Hiij

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

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Of brazen shield and spear, the hammer'd cuirass, Chalybean temper'd steel, and frock of mail

Adamantean proof;

But safest he who stood aloof,

When insupportably his foot advanc'd,

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In scorn of their proud arms and warlike tools, Spurn'd them to death by troops. The bold Ascalo

nite

Fled from his lion ramp, old warriors turn'd
Their plated backs under his heel;

140

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

A thousand fore-skins fell, the flower of Palastine,
In Ramath-lechi famous to this day.

145 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, seat of giants old, No journey of a sabbath-day, and loaded so; Like whom the Gentiles feign to bear up Heav'n. Which shall I first bewail,

Thy bondage or lost sight,

Prison within prison

Inseparably dark?

151

Thou art become (O worst imprisonment!) 155

The dungeon of thyself; thy soul

[plain)

(Which men enjoying sight oft without cause com

mprison'd now indeed,

In real darkness of the body dwells,
Shut up from outward light

To' incorporate with gloomy night;
For inward light, alas!

Puts forth no visual beam.

O mirror of our fickle state,

Since man on earth unparallel'd!

The rarer thy example stands,

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

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165

To lowest pitch of abject fortune thou art fall'n,
For him I reckon not in high estate

Whom long descent of birth

Or the sphere of fortune raises;

70

But thee whose strength, while virtue was her mate,

Might have subdued the earth,

Universally crown'd with highest praises.

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SAM. I hear the sound of words, their sense the

[air

Dissolves unjointed ere it reach my ear.
CHOR. He speaks, let us draw nigh. Matchless
The glory late of Israel, now the grief; [in might,
We come thy friends and neighbours not unknown
From Eshtaol and Zora's fruitful vale,

To visit or bewail thee, or if better,

Counsel or consolation we may bring,

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Salve to thy sores; apt words have power to swage

The tumors of a troubled mind,

And are as balm to fester'd wounds.

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The Persons.

SAMSON.

MANOAH, the Father of Samson.

DALILA, his Wife.

HARAPHA of Gath.

Public Officer..

Messenger.

Chorus of Danites.

The SCENE before the Prison in Gaza.

The Argument.

Samson made captive, blind, and now in the prison at Gaza, there to labor as in a common workhouse, on a festival day, in the general cessation from labor, comes forth into the open air, to a place nigh, somewhat retir'd, there to sit awhile and bemoan his condition. Where he happens at length to be visited by certain friends and equals of his Tribe, which make the Chorus, who seek to comfort him what they can; then by his old father Manoah, who endevors the like, and withal tells him his purpose to procure his liberty by ransom; lastly, that this feast was proclam'd by the Philistines as a day of thanksgiving for their deliverance from the hands of Samson, which yet more troubles him. Manoah then departs to prosecute his endevor with the Philistine lords for Samson's redemption; who in the mean while is visited by other persons; and lastly by a public officer to require his coming to the feast before the lords and people, to play or show his strength in their presence; he at first refuses, dismissing the public officer with absolute denial to come; at length persuaded inwardly that this was from God, he yields to go along with him, who came now the second time with great threatnings to fetch him: the Chorus yet remaining on the place, Manoah returns full of joyful hope, to procure ere long his son's deliverance in the midst of which discourse an Hebrew comes in haste, confusedly at first, and afterwards more distinctly relating the catastrophe, what Samson had done to the Philistines, and by accident to himself; wherewith the tragedy ends.

r

SAMSON.

A LITTLE onward lend thy guiding hand
To these dark steps, a little further on;
For yonder bank hath choice of sun or shade:
There I am wont to sit, when any chance
Relieves me from my task of servile toil,
Daily' in the common prison else injoin'd me,
Where I a prisoner chain'd, scarce freely draw
Volume III.

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