great threatnings to fetch him; the Chorus yet remaining on the place, Manoa returns full of joyful hope, to procure ere long his Son's deliverance: in the midst of which discourse an Hebrew comes in hafte confufedly at first; and afterward more diftinctly relating the Catastrophe, what Samfon had done to the Philiftins, and by accident to himself; wherewith the Tragedy. ends.

A d

i

Samfon.

The Perfons.

Manoa, the Father of Samson.

Dalila his Wife:

Harapha of Gath.

Publick Officer.

Messenger.

Chorus of Danites.

The Scene before the Prison in Gaza.

Samson Agonistes.

Samf. A

Little onward lend thy guiding hand To thefe dark steps, a little farther on; For yonder bank hath choice of Sun or shade, There I am wont to fit, when any chance Relieves me from my task of fervile toil, Daily in the common Prifon elfe enjoin'd me, Where I a Pris'ner chain'd, fcarce freely draw The Air imprifon'd also, close and damp, Unwholsome draught: but here I feel amends, The breath of Heav'n fresh blowing, pure and fweer, With day-spring born; here leave me to respirę. This day a folemn Feaft the people hold To Dagon their Sea-Idol, and forbid Laborious works, unwillingly this reit

9:

Their Superftition yields me; hence with leave 15-
Retiring from the pop'lar noife, I feek
This unfrequented place to find fome ease,
Eafe to the body fome, none to the mind
From reftless thoughts, that like a deadly swarm
Of hornets arm'd, no fooner found alone,

20

But rush upon me thronging, and present
Times past, what once I was, and what am now.
Owherefore was my birth from Heav'n foretold
Twice by an Angel; who at laft in fight
Of both my Parents all in flames afcended
From off the Altar, where an Offring burn'd,
As in a fiery column charioting

His God-like prefence, and from fome great act
Or benefit reveal'd to Abraham's race?
Why was my breeding order'd and prescrib'd
As of a perfon separate to God,

Defign'd for great exploits; if I must die
Betray'd, Captiv'd, and both my Eyes put out,
Made of my Enemies the fcorn and gaze;
To grind in Brazen Fetters under task

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30

35

With this Heav'n-gifted strength? O glorious ftrength
Put to the labour of a Beaft, debas'd

Lower than bondflave! Promise was that I
Should Ifrael from Philiftian yoke deliver;

Ask for this great deliv'rer now, and find him 40
Eyelefs in Gaza at the Mill with slaves,
Himself in bonds under Philiftian yoke;
Yet ftay, let me not rafhly call in doubt
Divine Prediction: what if all foretold

Had been fulfill'd but thro' mine own default, 45
Whom have I to complain of but my felf?
Who this high gift of strength committed to me,
In what part lodg'd, how easily bereft me,
Under the Seal of filence could not keep,
But weakly to a Woman must reveal it

J

O'ercome with importunity and tears.
O impotence of mind, in body strong!
But what is ftrength without a double share
Of wisdom, vaft, unwieldy, burthenfome,
Proudly fecure, yet liable to fall

By weakest fubtleties, not made to rule,
But to fubferve where wisdom bears command.
God, when he gave me strength, to shew withal
How flight the gift was, hung it in my Hair,
But Peace, I must not quarrel with the will
Of highest dispensation, which herein
Haply had ends above my reach to know:
Suffices that to me ftrength is my bane,
And proves the fource of all my miferies;
So many, and fo huge, that each apart
Would ask a life to wail, but chief of all,
Olofs of fight, of thee I most complain!
Blind among Enemies, O worse than chains,
Dungeon, or beggary, decrepit age!

Light the prime work of God to me is extinct, 70
And all her various objects of delight

Annull'd, which might in part my grief have eas'd,
Inferior to the vileft now become

Of man or worm; the vileft here excel me,
They creep, yet fee, I dark in light expos'd
To daily fraud, contempt, abuse and wrong,
Within doors, or without, ftill as a fool.
In pow'r of others, never in my own;

Scarce half I feem to live, dead more than half.

O'dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon,

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