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To such a viper his most facred trust

Of fecrefy, my fafety, and my life.

(power,

Chor. Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange

After offense returning, to regain

Love once poffefs'd, nor can be easily

Repuls'd, without much inward paffion felt

And fecret fting of amorous remorse.

1005

Sams. Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end, Not wedlock-treachery indang'ring life.

Chor. It is not virtue, wisdom, valor, wit, 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 foever men refer it)

Much like thy riddle, Samfon, in one day

Or fev'n, though one should musing fit.

If any of these or all, the Timnian bride

Had not fo foon preferr'd

ΙΟΙΟ

1015

Thy paranymph, worthless to thee compar'd, 1020 Succeffor in thy bed,

Nor both fo loosly disally'd

Their nuptials, nor this last so treacherously

Had fhorn the fatal harvest of thy head.

Is it for that fuch outward ornament

1025

Was lavish'd on their sex, that inward gifts

Were left for hafle unfinish'd, judgment fcant,

Capacity not rais'd to apprehend

Or value what is best

In choice, but ofteft to affect the wrong?
Or was too much of felf-love mix'd,
Of conftancy no root infix'd,

That either they love nothing, or not long?

Whate'er it be, to wisest men and best

1030

Seeming at first all heav'nly under virgin veil, 1035
Soft, modeft, meek, demure,

Once join'd, the contrary fhe proves, a thorn
Inteftin, far within defensive arms

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

With dotage, and his sense deprav'd

To folly' and shameful deeds which ruin ends.
What pilot fo expert but needs must wreck

1040

Imbark'd with such a steers-mate at the helm? 1045

Favor'd of Heav'n who finds

One virtous rarely found,

That in domestic good combines:

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

And all temptation can remove,

Most shines and moft is acceptable above.

Therefore God's universal law

Gave to the man defpotic power

Over his female in due awe,

1055

Nor from that right to part an hour,

Smile fhe or lour:

So fhall he least confufion draw

On his whole life, not sway'd

By female ufurpation, or dismay'd.

But had we best retire, I see a storm?

1060

Sams. Fair days have oft contracted wind and rain.
Chor. But this another kind of tempest brings.
Sams. Be lefs abftrufe, my riddling days are past.
Chor. Look now for no inchanting voice, nor fear
The bait of hcnied words; a rougher tongue 1066
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 first I saw

The sumptuous Dalila floting this way:
His habit carries peace, his brow defiance.

1071

Sams. Or peace or not, alike to me he comes. 1704 Chor. His fraught we foon fhall know, he now arrives. Har. I come not, Samfon, 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

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 difpleas'd,
I 3

1080

That

That I was never prefent on the place

Of those encounters, where we might have try'd
Each other's force in camp or listed 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.

1085

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Sams. The way to know were not to see but taste.
Har. Dost 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;
I should have forc'd thee foon wish other arms, 1096
Or left thy carcafs where the afs lay thrown:
So had the glory' of prowess been recover'd
To Palestine, won by a Philiftine

From the unforeskin'd race, of whom thou bear'st 1100
The highest name for valiant acts; that honor
Certain to' have won by mortal duel from thee,
I lose, prevented by thy eyes put out.

(but do

Sams. Boaft not of what thou wouldft have done, What then thou wouldst, thou seeft it in thy hand. 1106

Har. To combat with a blind man I disdain, And thou haft 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 1110 In fight withstand me single and unarm’d,

Nor in the house with chamber ambushes

Clofe

Close-banded durft attack me, no not sleeping,
Till they had hir'd a woman with their gold
Breaking her marriage faith to circumvent me. 1115
Therefore without feign'd fhifts 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 brass, thy broad habergeon, 1120
Vant-brass and greves, and gauntlet, add thy fpear,
A weaver's beam, and sev'n-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 fafety what thou wouldst have done
To Samfon, but shalt never fee Gath more.

1124

1131

Har. Thou durft not thus disparage glorious arms, Which greatest heroes have in battel worn, Their ornament and fafety, had not spells

And black inchantments, fome magician's art,

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

Heaven

Feign'dft at thy birth was giv'n thee in thy hair, 1135 Where ftrength can least abide, though all thy hairs Were briftles rang'd like those that ridge the back Of chaf'd wild boars, or ruffled porcupines.

Sams. I know no spells, use no forbidden arts;

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