Thoughts my tormentors arm’d with deadly stings
Mangle my apprehensive tendereft parts,
Exasperate,' exulcerate, and raise

625
Dire inflammation, which no cooling herb
Or medicinal liquor can affwage,
Nor breath of vernal air from snowy Alp.
Sleep hath forfook and giv'n me o'er
To death's benumming opium as my only cure : 630
Thence faintings, swoonings of despair,
And sense of Heav'n's defertion.

I was his nurfling once and choice delight, His destin'd from the womb, Promis'd by heav'nly message twice descending.' 635 Under his special eye Abstemious I grew up and thriv'd amain; He led me on to mightiest deeds Above the nerve of mortal arm Against th' uncircumcis’d, our enemies : 640 But now hath cast me off as never known, And to those cruel enemies, Whom I by his appointment had provok’d, Left me all helpless with th' irreparable lofs of sight, reserv'd alive to be repeated The subject of their cruelty or scorn. Nor am I in the list of them that hope; Hopeless are all my evils, all remediless; This one prayer yet remains, might I be heard, No long petition, speedy death, The close of all my miseries, and the balın.

เ Cho. Many are the sayings of the wise

645

650

695

665

In ancient and in modern books inroll’d,
Extolling patience as the truest fortitude:
And to the bearing well of all calamities,
All chances incident to man's frail life,
Consolotaries writ
With study'd argument, and much persuasion fought
Lenient of grief and anxious thought :
But with th' afflicted in his pangs their found 660
Little prevails, or rather seems a tune
Harsh, and of dissonant mood from his complaint;
Unless he feel within
Some source of consolation from above,
Secret refreshings, that repair his strength,
And fainting spirits uphold.

God of our fathers, what is man!
That thou tow'ards him with hand so various,
Or might I say contrarious,
Temper’st thy providence through his short course, 670
Not ev'nly, as thou rul'st
Th’angelic orders and inferior creatures mate,
Irrational and brute.
Nor do I name of men the common rout,
That wandering locfe about
Grow up and perish, as the summer flie,
Heads without name no more remember'd,
But such as thou hast solemnly elected,
With gifts and graces eminently adorn'd
To some great work, thy glory,

680 And people's safety, which in part they'effect : Yet toward these thuş dignify’dy, thou oft

675

Amidst their highth of noon
Changest thy count'nance, and thy hand with no regard
Of highest favors past

685 From thee on them, or them to thee of service.

Nor only dost degrade them, or remit
To life obscur'd, which were a fair dismission,
But throw'st them lower than thou didst exalt them high,
Unseemly falls in human eye,

690
Too grievous for the trespass or omission;
Oft leav'st them to the hostile sword
Of Heathen and profane, their carcases
To dogs and fowls a prey, or else captív'd ;
Or to th' unjust tribunals, under change of times, 695
And condemnation of th' ingrateful multitude.
If these they scape, perhaps in poverty
With sickness and disease thou bow'st them down,
Painful diseases and deform’d,
In crude old-age;

700
Though not disordinate, yet causeless suffering
The punishment of diffolute days: in fine,
Just or unjust alike seem miserable,
For oft alike both come to evil end.

So deal not with this once thy glorious champion,
The image of thy ftrength, and mighty minifter.
What do I beg? how hast thou dealt already?
Behold him in this state calamitous, and turn
His labors, for thou canst, to peaceful end.

But who is this, what thing of sea or land ?
Female of sex it seems,
That so bedeck’d, ornate, and gay,

Comes

710

Comes this way failing
Like a stately ship
Of Tarsus, bound for th’iles

715
Of Javan or Gadire
With all her bravery on, and tackle trim,
Sails fill’d, and streamers waving,
Courted by all the winds that hold them play,
An amber fent of odorous perfume

720 Her.harbinger, a damsel train behind; Some rich Philistian matron she may seem, And now at nearer view, no.other certain Than Dalila thy wife.

(near me. SAMs. My Wife, my Traitress, let her not come Cho. Yet on she moyes, now stands, and eyes thes

fix'd,
About t' have spoke, but now, with head declin'd
Like a fair flower surcharg'd with dew, she weeps,
And words address'd seem into tears dissolv’d,
Wetting the borders of her filken veil :

730 But now again she makes address to speak.

DAL. With doubtful feet and wavering resolution I came, ftill dreading thy displeafure, Samson, Which to have merited, without excuse, I cannot but acknowledge; yet if tears

735 May expiate (though the fact more evil drew In the perverse event than I foresaw) My penance hath not Nacken'd, though my pardon No

way assur'd. But conjugal affection, Prevailing over fear and timorous doubt,

740 Hath led me on desirous to behold

Once

Once more thy face, and know of thy estate,
If ought in my ability may serve
To lighten what thou suffer'it, and appeare
Thy mind with what amends is in my power, 745
Though late, yet in fome part to recompense
My rash but more unfortunate misdeed.

SAMS. Out, out, Hyæna ; these are thy wonted arts,'
And arts of every woman false like thee,
To break ail faith, all vows, deceive, Betray, 750
Then as repentant to submit; beseech,
And reconcilement move-with feign'd remorse,
Confėss, and promise wonders in her change,
Not truly penitent, but chief to try
Her husband, how far urg'd his patience bears, 755
His virtue or weakness which way to assail:
Then with more cautious and inftructed skill
Again' tranfgresles, and again submits";
That wiseft and best men full oft beguil'd
With goodness principled not to reject

760 The penitent; *but ever to forgive, Are drawn to wear out miserable days, Intangled with a pois'nous bosom snake, If not by quick destruction soon cut off As I by thee, to ages an example.

765 DAL. Yet hear me, Samson; not that I endevor To lessen extenuate my offense, But that on th’ other side if it be weigh'd By' itself, with aggravations not surcharg'd, Of 'else with just allowance counterpois do 770 I may, if poslible, thy pardon find

The