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I fhall be nam'd among the famousest
Of women, sung at solemn festivals,
Living and dead recorded, who, to save
Her country from a fierce destroyer, chose
Above the faith of wedlock-bands, my tomb
With odors visited and annual flowers;
Not lefs renown'd than in mount Ephraim

Jael, who with inhofpitable guile

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Smote Sifera fleeping through the temples nail'd. 990 Nor fhall I count it hainous to enjoy

The public marks of honor and reward,

Conferr'd upon me, for the piety

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

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

CHO. She's gone, a manifeft ferpent by her sting Discover'd in the end, till now conceal'd.

SAMS. So let her go, God fent her to debase me, And aggravate my folly, who committed

To fuch a viper his moft facred trust

Of fecrefy, my fafety, and my life.

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CHO. Yet beauty, though injurious, hath ftrange

After offense returning, to regain

Love once poffefs'd, nor can be eafily
Repuls'd, without much inward paffion felt

And secret sting of amorous remorse.

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SAMS. Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end,

Not wedlock-treachery indangering life.

CHO. It is not virtue, wisdom, valor, wit, Strength, comeliness of shape, or amplest merit

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That

That woman's love can win or long inherit;
But what it is, hard is to say,

Harder to hit,

(Which way foever men refer it)

Much like thy riddle, Samfon, in one day
Or feven, though one should musing fit.

If any of thefe or all, the Timnian bride
Had not fo foon preferr'd

Thy paranymph, worthless to thee compar'd,
Succeffor in thy bed,

Nor both fo loosly disally'd

Their nuptials, nor this last so treacherously

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In choice, but ofteft to affect the wrong?
Or was too much of felf-love mix'd,

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Of conftancy no root infix'd,

That either they love nothing, or not long?

Whate'er it be, to wifeft men and best

Seeming at first all heav'nly under virgin veil,
Soft, modeft, meek, demure,

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Once join'd, the contrary she proves, a thorn
Inteftin, far within defenfive arms

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

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With dotage, and his fenfe deprav'd

To folly' and fhameful deeds which ruin ends.
What pilot fo expert but needs must wreck
'Imbark'd with fuch a fteers-mate at the helm ?

Favor'd of Heav'n who finds

One virtuous rarely found,

That in domeftic good combines :

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Happy that houfe! his way to peace is smooth : 'But virtue, which breaks through all oppofition, 1050

And all temptation can remove,

Moft fhines and moft is acceptable above.

Therefore God's univerfal law

Gave to the man defpotic power

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But had we beft retire, I fee a storm?

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

SAMS. Be lefs abftrufe, my riddling days are past.

CHO. Look now for no inchanting voice, nor fear The bait of honied words; a rougher tongue Draws hitherward, I know him by his ftride, 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 I lefs conjecture than when firft I faw

The

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The fumptuous Dalila floting this way:

His habit carries peace, his brow defiance.

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

CHO. His fraught we foon fhall know, he now arrives. HAR. I come not, Samfon, to condole thy chance, As thefe 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

That Kiriathaim held, thou know'ft 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 difpleas'd,
That I was never prefent on the place

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Of thofe encounters, where we might have try'd
Each other's force in camp or lifted field;

And now am come to fee of whom fuch noise
Hath walk'd about, and each limb to survey,
If thy appearance answer loud report.

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SAMS. The way to know were not to see but taste.
HAR. Doft thou already single me? I thought
Gyves and the mill had tam'd thee. O that fortune
Had brought me to the field, where thou art fam'd
To' have wrought fuch wonders with an ass's jaw; 1095
I should have forc'd thee foon with other arms,
Or left thy carcafs where the afs lay thrown:
So had the glory' of prowefs been recover'd
To Palestine, won by a Philistine,

From the unforeskin'd race, of whom thou bear'st 1100
The highest name for valiant acts; that honor

Certain

Certain to' have won by mortal duel from thee,
I lofe, prevented by thy eyes put out.

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SAMS. Boaft not of what thou wouldst have done, but What then thou wouldft, thou seeft it in thy hand. HAR. To combat with a blind man I disdain, And thou hast need much washing to be touch'd. SAMS. Such ufage as your honorable lords Afford me' affaffinated and betray'd, Who durft not with their whole united powers In fight withstand me single and unarm'd, Nor in the houfe with chamber ambyfhes Clofe-banded durft attack me, no not fleeping Till they had hir'd a woman with their gold Breaking her marriage faith to circumvent me. Therefore without feign'd shifts let be affign'd Some narrow place inclos'd, where fight may give thee, Or rather flight, no great advantage on me; Then put on all thy gorgeous arms, thy helmet And brigandine of brafs, 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 fuch outcries on thy clatter'd iron,

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Which long fhall not withhold me from thy head, 1125
That in a little time while breath remains thee,

Thou oft fhalt wish thyself at Gath to boast
Again in fafety what thou wouldst have done
To Samfon, but fhalt never fee Gath more.
HAR. Thou durft not thus difparage glorious arms,
Which greatest heroes have in battle worn,

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