145

Or grov'ling soil'd their crested helmets in the dust.
Then with what trivial weapon came to hand,
The jaw of a dead ass, his sword of bone,
A thousand fore-skins fell, the flower of Palestine
In Ramath-lechi, famous to this day:
Then by main force pull'd up, and on his shoulders
The gates of Azza, post, and massy bar, [bore
Up to the hill by Hebron, seat of giants old,
No journey of a Sabbath day, and loaded so;
Like whom the Gentiles feign to bear up heav'n.
Which shall I first bewail,

Thy bondage or lost sight,

Prison within prison

Inseparably dark?

Thou art become, O worst imprisonment!

The dungeon of thyself; thy soul,

Which men enjoying sight oft without cause com

Imprison'd now indeed,

In real darkness of the body dwells,

Shut up from outward light,
T' incorporate with gloomy night!
For inward light, alas!

Puts forth no visual beam.

O mirror of our fickle state,
Since man on earth unparallel'd !
The rarer thy example stands,

[plain,

By how much from the top of wondrous glory,

165

Strongest of mortal men,
To lowest pitch of abject fortune thou art fall'n.

For him I reckon not in high estate,

Whom long descent of birth

170

Or the sphere of fortune raises :
But thee, whose strength, while virtue was her mate,
Might have subdued the earth,

Universally crown'd with highest praises. 175

SAMS. I hear the sound of words, their sense the Dissolves unjointed ere it reach my ear. [air CHOR. He speaks, let us draw nigh. Matchless The glory late of Israel, now the grief, [in might, We come, thy friends and neighbours not unknown, From Eshtaol and Zora's fruitful vale, To visit or bewail thee, or, if better,

Counsel or consolation we may bring,

Salve to thy sores: apt words have power to swage The tumours of a troubled mind,

And are as balm to fester'd wounds.

185

179 glory] Fletcher's Pisc. Eclogues, 1633, p. 27. 'his glory late, but now his shame.' Todd.

184 Salve to thy sores] This is one of the most common expressions in old English poetry. See Southwell's Mæonia, p. 21. Park's note to Heliconia, Part 1, p. 186. Billingsley's Divine Raptures, p. 67. Smith's Chloris, 1597. Byrd's Psalms, p. 11. Lydgate's Troy, p. 220. Gascoigne's Works, p. 14. 177.230.247. Beaumont's Psyche, c. xiii. st. 225; and Ellis's Specimens, ii. p. 15.

184 apt words] Æsch. Prom. Vinct. ver. 377. Hor. Epist. i.

i. 34.

Sunt verba et voces, quibus hunc lenire dolorem
Possis, et magnam morbi deponere partem.'

Thyer and Newton.

190

SAMS. Your coming, friends, revives me, for I Now of my own experience, not by talk, [learn How counterfeit a coin they are who friends Bear in their superscription, of the most I would be understood; in prosperous days They swarm, but in adverse withdraw their head, Not to be found, though sought. Ye see, O friends, How many evils have inclos'd me round; Yet that which was the worst now least afflicts me, Blindness, for had I sight, confus'd with shame, How could I once look up, or heave the head, Who, like a foolish pilot, have shipwreck'd My vessel trusted to me from above, Gloriously rigg'd; and for a word, a tear, Fool, have divulged the secret gift of God To a deceitful woman? tell me, friends, Am I not sung and proverb'd for a fool In every street? do they not say, how well Are come upon him his deserts? yet why? Immeasurable strength they might behold In me, of wisdom nothing more than mean; This with the other should, at least, have pair'd, These two proportion'd ill drove me transverse.

200

205

CHOR. Tax not divine disposal: wisest men 210 Have err'd, and by bad women been deceiv'd; And shall again, pretend they ne'er so wise. Deject not then so overmuch thyself, Who hast of sorrow thy full load besides; Yet, truth to say, I oft have heard men wonder 215 Why thou shouldst wed Philistian women rather

220

225

Than of thine own tribe fairer, or as fair,
At least of thy own nation, and as noble.
SAMS. The first I saw at Timna, and she pleas'd
Me, not my parents, that I sought to wed
The daughter of an infidel. They knew not
That what I motion'd was of God; I knew
From intimate impulse, and therefore urg'd
The marriage on; that by occasion hence
I might begin Israel's deliverance,
The work to which I was divinely call'd.
She proving false, the next I took to wife,
O that I never had! fond wish too late!
Was in the vale of Sorec, Dalila,
That specious monster, my accomplish'd snare. 230
I thought it lawful from my former act,
And the same end, still watching to oppress
Israel's oppressors. Of what now I suffer
She was not the prime cause, but I myself,
Who, vanquish'd with a peal of words, O weakness!
Gave up my fort of silence to a woman.

CHOR. In seeking just occasion to provoke
The Philistine, thy country's enemy,
Thou never wast remiss, I bear thee witness:
Yet Israel still serves with all his sons.

240

SAMS. That fault I take not on me, but transfer On Israel's governors, and heads of tribes, Who, seeing those great acts which God had done Singly by me against their conquerors, Acknowledg'd not, or not at all consider'd Deliverance offer'd. I on the other side

245

Us'd no ambition to commend my deeds, [doer;
The deeds themselves, tho' mute, spoke loud the
But they persisted deaf, and would not seem
To count them things worth notice, till at length
Their lords the Philistines with gather'd powers
Enter'd Judea seeking me, who then
Safe to the rock of Etham was retir'd,
Not flying, but forecasting in what place
To set upon them, what advantag'd best.
Meanwhile the men of Judah, to prevent
The harass of their land, beset me round;
I willingly on some conditions came
Into their hands, and they as gladly yield me
To the uncircumcis'd a welcome prey,
Bound with two cords: but cords to me were

threads

255

260

Touch'd with the flame. On their whole host I flew
Unarm'd, and with a trivial weapon fell'd
Their choicest youth; they only liv'd who fled.
Had Judah that day join'd, or one whole tribe, 265
They had by this possess'd the towers of Gath,
And lorded over them whom now they serve:
But what more oft in nations grown corrupt,
And by their vices brought to servitude,
Than to love bondage more than liberty,
Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty;
And to despise, or envy, or suspect
Whom God hath of his special favour rais'd

253 Etham] Judges xv. 8. Newton.

270