Nor shall I count it heinous to enjoy

The publick marks of honour and reward,
Conferr'd upon me for the piety,

Which to my country I was judged to have shown.
At this whoever envies or repines,

I leave him to his lot, and like my own.

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

SAMS. 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 secresy, my safety and my life.

995

[Exit.

1000

CHO. Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange power,

After offence returning, to regain

Love once possess'd, nor can be easily

1005

Repulsed, without much inward passion felt,

And secret sting of amorous remorse.

SAMS. Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end,

Not wedlock treachery endangering life.

CHо. It is not virtue, wisdom, valour, 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 seven, though one should musing sit.

If any of these, or all, the Timnian bride
Had not so soon preferr'd

1015

Thy paranymph, worthless to thee compared,
Successour in thy bed,

1020

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 heavenly under virgin veil,
Soft, modest, meek, demure,

Once join'd, the contrary she proves, a thorn
Intestine, far within defensive arms

1003. Yet beauty, &c. This truth Milton has finely exemplified in Adam's forgiving Eve, and he had full experience of it in his own case.-NEWTON.

1035

1020. Paranymph, a bride-man, one who leads the bride to her marriage. See Judges xiv. 20.

A cleaving mischief, in his way to virtue
Adverse and turbulent, or by her charms
Draws him awry enslaved

With dotage, and his sense depraved

To folly and shameful deeds, which ruin ends.
What pilot so expert but needs must wreck,
Imbark'd with such a steers-mate at the helm?
Favour'd of Heaven, who finds

One virtuous, rarely found,

That in domestick good combines;

Happy that house! his way to peace is smooth:

But virtue, which breaks through all opposition,
And all temptation can remove,

Most shines, and most is acceptable above.
Therefore God's universal law

Gave to the man despotick power

Over his female in due awe,

Nor from that right to part an hour,

1040

1045

1050

1055

Smile she or lour:

So shall he least confusion draw

On his whole life, not sway'd

By female usurpation, nor dismay'd.

1060

But had we best retire? I see a storm.

SAMS. Fair days have oft contracted wind and rain.
CHо. But this another kind of tempest brings.

SAMS. Be less abstruse; my riddling days are past.
CHO. Look now for no enchanting voice, nor fear

1065

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 is his pile high-built and proud.

Comes he in peace? what wind hath blown him hither 1070
I less conjecture than when first I saw

The sumptuous Dalila floating this way;

His habit carries peace, his brow defiance,

SAMS. Or peace or not, alike to me he comes.

1074

CHO. His fraught we soon shall know: he now arrives.

Enter HARAPHA.

HAR. 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 renown'd
As Og, or Anak, and the Emims old

1039. A cleaving mischief. These words allude to the poisoned shirt sent to Hercules by his wife Dejanira.

1080

1068. Harapha. This character is fictitious, but is properly introduced by the poet, and not without some foundation 1046. Favour'd of Heaven, &c. If Mil-in Scripture. Arapha, or rather Rapha, ton, like Solomon and the Son of Sirach, (says Calmet) was father of the giants of satirizes the women in general, like them Raphaim.--NEWTON. too he commends the virtuous and good, and esteems a good wife a blessing from the Lord. See Prov. xviii. 22, xix. 14, and Ecclesiasticus, xxvi. 1, 2.

1075. Fraught, for freight.

1080. Og. See Deut. iii. 11, and ii. 10, 11.

That Kiriathaim held: thou know'st me now,
If thou at all art known. Much I have heard
Of thy prodigious might and feats perform'd,
Incredible to me, in this displeased,

That I was never present on the place

Of those encounters, where we might have tried
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.

SAMS. The way to know were not to see, but taste.
HAR. Dost thou already single me? I thought
Gyves and the mill had tamed thee. O, that fortune
Had brought me to the field, where thou art famed
To have wrought such wonders with an ass's jaw!
I should have forced thee soon with other arms,
Or left thy carcass where the ass lay thrown:
So had the glory of prowess been recover'd
To Palestine, won by a Philistine

1085

1090

1095

From the unforeskinn'd race, of whom thou bear'st
The highest name for valiant acts: that honour,
Certain to have won by mortal duel from thee,

1100

I lose, prevented by thy eyes put out.

SAMS. Boast not of what thou wouldst have done, but do

What then thou wouldst; thou seest it in thy hand.
HAR. To combat with a blind man I disdain;

1105

And thou hast need much washing to be touch'd.
SAMS. Such usage as your honourable lords
Afford me, assassinated and betray'd,
Who durst not with their whole united powers
In fight withstand me single and unarm'd,
Nor in the house with chamber-ambushes
Close-banded durst attack me, no, not sleeping,
Till they had hired a woman with their gold,
Breaking her marriage faith, to circumvent me.
Therefore, without feign'd shifts, let be assign'd
Some narrow place enclosed, where sight may give thee,
Or rather flight, no great advantage on me;

Then put on all thy gorgeous arms, thy helmet
And brigandine of brass, thy broad habergeon,
Vant-brass, and greves, and gauntlet; add thy spear,
A weaver's beam, and seven-times-folded shield:

I only with an oaken staff will meet thee,
And raise such outcries on thy clatter'd iron,
Which long shall not withhold me from thy head,
That in a little time, while breath remains thee,
Thou oft shalt wish thyself at Gath, to boast
Again in safety what thou wouldst have done
To Samson, but shalt never see Gath more.

1081. Kiriathaim. See Gen. xiv. 5. 1113. Close-banded, secretly leagued. 1120. Brigandine, a coat of mail: habergeon, made for the neck and shoulders:

1110

1115

1120

1125

vant-brass, (avant-bras) armor for the arms; greves, for the legs: gauntlet, an iron glove. See 1 Sam. xvii. 6.

HAR. Thou durst not thus disparage glorious arms, 1130 Which greatest heroes have in battle worn,

Their ornament and safety, had not spells

And black enchantments, some magician's art,

Arm'd thee or charm'd thee strong, which thou from
Heaven

Feign'dst at thy birth was given thee in thy hair,
Where strength can least abide, though all thy hairs
Were bristles ranged like those that ridge the back
Of chaf'd wild boars, or ruffled porcupines.

SAMS. I know no spells, use no forbidden arts:
My trust is in the Living God, who gave me
At my nativity this strength, diffused

1135

1140

No less through all my sinews, joints, and bones,

Than thine, while I preserved these locks unshorn,
The pledge of my unviolated vow.

For proof hereof, if Dagon be thy god,

1145

Go to his temple, invocate his aid

With solemnest devotion, spread before him

How highly it concerns his glory now

To frustrate and dissolve these magick spells,
Which I to be the power of Israel's God
Avow and challenge Dagon to the test,
Offering to combat thee his champion bold,
With the utmost of his godhead seconded:
Then thou shalt see, or rather, to thy sorrow,

1150

Soon feel, whose God is strongest, thine or mine.
HAR. Presume not on thy God, whate'er he be;

1155

Thee he regards not, owns not, hath cut off
Quite from his people, and deliver'd up
Into thy enemies' hand, permitted them

To put out both thine eyes, and fetter'd send thee

1160

Into the common prison, there to grind

Among the slaves and asses, thy comrades,

As good for nothing else; no better service

With those thy boisterous locks, no worthy match
For valour to assail, nor by the sword
Of noble warriour, so to stain his honour,
But by the barber's razor best subdued.

1165

SAMS. All these indignities, for such they are
From thine, these evils I deserve, and more,
Acknowledge them from God inflicted on me
Justly, yet despair not of his final pardon,
Whose ear is ever open, and his eye
Gracious to re-admit the suppliant:
In confidence whereof I once again

1170

Defy thee to the trial of mortal fight,

1175

By combat to decide whose god is God,

Thine, or whom I with Israel's sons adore.

HAR. Fair honour that thou dost thy God, in trusting

He will accept thee to defend his cause,
A murderer, a revolter, and a robber!

1180

SAMS. Tongue-doughty giant, how dost thou prove me these?
HAR. Is not thy nation subject to our lords?
Their magistrates confess'd it, when they took thee
As a league-breaker, and deliver❜d bound
Into our hands: for hadst thou not committed
Notorious murder on those thirty men
At Ascalon, who never did thee harm,

Then like a robber stripp'dst them of their robes?
The Philistines, when thou hadst broke the league,
Went up with armed powers thee only seeking,
To others did no violence nor spoil.

SAMS. Among the daughters of the Philistines

I chose a wife, which argued me no foe;

And in your city held my nuptial feast:
But your ill-meaning politician lords,

1185

1190

1195

Under pretence of bridal friends and guests,

Appointed to await me thirty spies,

Who, threatening cruel death, constrain'd the bride

To wring from me, and tell to them, my secret,

That solved the riddle which I had proposed.

1200

When I perceived all set on enmity,

As on my enemies, wherever chanced,

I used hostility, and took their spoil,

To pay my underminers in their coin.

My nation was subjected to your lords;

1205

It was the force of conquest: force with force

Is well ejected when the conquer'd can.

But I, a private person, whom my country

As a league-breaker gave up bound, presumed
Single rebellion, and did hostile acts.

1210

I was no private, but a person raised

With strength sufficient, and command from Heaven,

To free my country: if their servile minds

Me, their deliverer sent, would not receive,

But to their masters gave me up for naught,

1215

The unworthier they; whence to this day they serve.

I was to do my part from Heaven assign'd,

HAR. With thee? a man condemn'd, a slave inroll'd,

Due by the law to capital punishment?

1225

To fight with thee no man of arms will deign.

To descant on my strength, and give thy verdict?

SAMS. Cam'st thou for this, vain boaster, to survey me,

Come nearer; part not hence so slight inform'd;
But take good heed my hand survey not thee.
HAR. O Baal-zebub! can my ears unused
Hear these dishonours, and not render death?

1230