Of fair fallacious looks, venereal trains, At length to lay my head and hallow'd pledge 535 Of a deceitful concubine, who shore me CHO. Defire of wine and all delicious drinks, 540 Which many a famous warrior overturns, 550 SAMS. Wherever fountain or fresh current flow'd SAMS. But what avail'd this temp❜rance, not com Against another object more enticing? What boots it at one gate to make defense, Effeminately vanquifh'd? by which means, [plete 560 Now Now blind, dishearten'd, fham'd, difhonor'd, quell'd, To what can I be useful, wherein serve My nation, and the work from Heav'n impos'd, 565 A burd'nous drone; to vifitants a gaze, Vain monument of ftrength; till length of years 570 To a contemptible old-age obfcure? Here rather let me drudge and earn my bread, Till vermin or the draff of fervile food Confume me, and oft-invoked death Haften the welcome end of all my pains. 575 MAN. Wilt thou then ferve the Philistines with that Which was exprefly giv'n thee to annoy them? [gift Better at home lie bed-rid, not only idle, Inglorious, unemploy'd, with age outworn, After the brunt of battel, can as easy Caufe light again within thy eyes to spring, 58a Wherewith to serve him better than thou haft; 585 His might continues in thee not for nought, SAMS. All otherwife to me my thoughts portend, That these dark orbs no more shall treat with light, Nor th' other light of life continue long, But But yield to double darkness nigh at hand: 595 MAN. Believe not these fuggeftions, which proceed From anguish of the mind and humors black, That mingle with thy fancy, I however To profecute the means of thy deliverance 600 By ransome, or how else: mean while be calm, To the body's wounds and fores, With maladies innumerable In heart, head, breast and reins; But muft fecret paffage find To th' inmoft mind, There exercise all his fierce accidents, And on her purest spirits prey, 610 As on entrails, joints, and limbs, With answerable pains, but more intense, 615 Though void of corporal fenfe. My griefs not only pain me As a lingring disease, But finding no redress, ferment and rage, Nor less than wounds immedicable To black mortification. 620 Thoughts Thoughts my tormentors arm'd with deadly stings Dire inflammation, which no cooling herb Nor breath of vernal air from fnowy Alp. 625 To death's benumming opium as my only cure: 630 Thence faintings, fwoonings of despair, And fenfe of Heav'n's desertion. I was his nurfling once and choice delight, His deftin'd from the womb, Promis'd by heav'nly message twice defcending. 635 Under his special eye Abftemious I grew up and thriv'd amain; He led me on to mightiest deeds Above the nerve of mortal arm Whom I by his appointment had provok'd, This one prayer yet remains, might I be heard, The close of all my miferies, and the balm. CHO. Many are the fayings of the wife 640 645 650 + In ancient and in modern books inroll'd, And to the bearing well of all calamities, All chances incident to man's frail life, 655 With ftudy'd argument, and much persuasion sought But with th' afflicted in his pangs their found Little prevails, or rather seems a tune Harsh, and of diffonant mood from his complaint; Unless he feel within Some fource of confolation from above, 660 Secret refreshings, that repair his ftrength, 665 And fainting fpirits uphold. God of our fathers, what is man! That thou towards him with hand so various, Or might I fay contrarious, Temper'ft thy providence through his fhort course, 670 Not ev'nly, as thou rul❜st Th' angelic orders and inferior creatures mute, Irrational and brute. Nor do I name of men the common rout, That wandering loose about Grow To fome great work, thy glory, And people's fafety, which in part they' effect: 675 680 Amidft |