Of strength, again returning with my hair,
After my great transgression; so requite
Favour renewed, and add a greater sin
By prostituting holy things to idols?
A Nazarite in place abominable,

Vaunting my strength in honour to their Dagon!
Besides, how vile, contemptible, ridiculous,
What act more execrably unclean, profane!

Chor. Yet with this strength thou serv'st the
Philistines,

Idolatrous, uncircumcised, unclean.

And for a life who will not change his purpose?
(So mutable are all the ways of men;)
Yet this be sure, in nothing to comply
Scandalous or forbidden in our law.

Off. I praise thy resolutions: doff these links:
By this compliance thou wilt win the lords
To favour, and perhaps to set thee free.

Sams. Brethren, farewell; your company along
I will not wish, lest it perhaps offend them
To see me girt with friends: and how the sight
Of me, as of a common enemy,

Sams. Not in their idol-worship, but by labour So dreaded once, may now exasperate them,
Honest and lawful, to deserve my food

Of those who have me in their civil power.

I know not: lords are lordliest in their wines;
And the well-feasted priest then soonest fired

Chor. Where the heart joins not, outward acts With zeal, if aught religion seem concerned; defile not.

No less the people, on their holy-days,

Sams. Where outward force constrains, the Impetuous, insolent, unquenchable :

sentence holds,

But who constrains me to the temple of Dagon,
Not dragging? The Philistine lords command.
Commands are no constraints. If I obey them,
I do it freely, venturing to displease
God for the fear of man, and man prefer,
Set God behind; which in his jealousy
Shall never, unrepented, find forgiveness.
Yet that he may dispense with me, or thee,
Present in temples at idolatrous rites
For some important cause thou need'st not doubt.
Chor. How thou wilt here come off surmounts
my reach.

San.s. Be of good courage; I begin to feel
Some rousing motions in me, which dispose
To something extraordinary my thoughts.
I with this messenger will go along,
Nothing to do, be sure, that may dishonour
Our law, or stain my vow of Nazarite.
If there be aught of presage in the mind,
This day will be remarkable in my life
By some great act, or of my days the last.

Happen what may, of me expect to hear
Nothing dishonourable, impure, unworthy
Our God, our law, my nation, or myself,
The last of me or no I can not warrant. [Exit.]
Chor. Go, and the Holy One

Of Israel be thy guide

To what may serve his glory best, and spread his

name

Great among the heathen round:

Send thee the angel of thy birth, to stand
Fast by thy side, who from thy father's field
Rode up in flames after his message told
Of thy conception, and be now a shield
Of fire; that Spirit, that first rushed on thee
In the camp of Dan,

Be efficacious in thee now at need!
For never was from Heaven imparted
Measure of strength so great to mortal seed,
As in thy wondrous actions hath been seen.—
But wherefore comes old Manoah in such haste
With youthful steps? much livelier than erewhile
He seems; supposing here to find his son,

Chor. In time thou hast resolved, the man re- Or of him bringing to us some glad news?
turns.

[Enter] Officer.

Off. Samson, this second message from our lords
To thee I am bid say. Art thou our slave,
Our captive, at the public mill our drudge,
And darest thou at our sending and command
Dispute thy coming? come without delay;
Or we shall find such engines to assail
And hamper thee, as thou shalt come of force,
Though thou wert firmlier fastened than a rock.
Sams. I could be well content to try their art,
Which to no few of them would prove pernicious,
Yet, knowing their advantages too many,
Because they shall not trail me through their
streets

Like a wild beast, I am content to go.
Masters' commands come with a power resistless
To such as owe them absolute subjection;

[Enter] Manoah.

Was not at present here to find my son,

By order of the lords now parted hence
To come and play before them at their feast.

I heard all as I came, the city rings, .

And numbers thither flock: I had no will,
Lest I should see him forced to things unseemly.
But that which moved my coming now, was chiefly
To give ye part with me what hope I have
With good success to work his liberty.

Chor. That hope would much rejoice us to par-
take

With thee; say, reverend sire, we thirst to hear.
Man. I have attempted one by one the lords,
Either at home, or through the high street passing,
With supplication prone and father's tears,

To accept of ransom for my son, their prisoner.
Some much averse I found and wondrous harsh,
Contemptuous, proud, set on revenge and spite,
That part most reverenced Dagon and his priests;
Others more moderate seeming, but their aim
Private reward, for which both God and state
They easily would set to sale: a third
More generous far and civil, who confessed
They had enough revenged; having reduced
Their foe to misery beneath their fears,
The rest was magnanimity to remit,
If some convenient ransom were proposed.—
What noise or shout was that? it tore the sky.
Chor. Doubtless the people shouting to behold
Their once great dread, captive, and blind before
them,

Or at some proof of strength before them shown.
Man. His ransom, if my whole inheritance
May compass it, shall willingly be paid
And numbered down: much rather I shall choose
To live the poorest in my tribe, than richest,
And he in that calamitous prison left.
No, I am fixed not to part hence without him.
For his redemption all my patrimony,
If need be, I am ready to forego

And quit; not wanting him, I shall want no-
thing.

We unawares run into danger's mouth.
This evil on the Philistines is fallen;
From whom could else a general cry be heard?
The sufferers then will scarce molest us here
From other hands we need not much to fear.
What if, his eyesight (for to Israel's God
Nothing is hard) by miracle restored,
He now be dealing dole among his foes,
And over heaps of slaughtered walk his way?
Man. That were a joy presumptuous to be
thought.

Chor. Yet God hath wrought things as incre-
dible

For his people of old; what hinders now?
.Man. He can, I know, but doubt to think he
will;

Yet hope would fain subscribe, and tempts belief.

Chor. Of good or bad so great, of bad the sooner;
For evil news rides post, while good news baits.
And to our wish I see one hither speeding,
An Hebrew, as I guess, and of our tribe.

[Enter] Messenger.

Chor. Fathers are wont to lay up for their sons, | A little stay will bring some notice hither.
Thou for thy son art bent to lay out all;
Sons wont to nurse their parents in old age,
Thou in old age carest how to nurse thy son,
Made older than thy age through eyesight lost.
Man. It shall be my delight to tend his eyes.
And view him sitting in the house, ennobled
With all those high exploits by him achieved,
And on his shoulders waving down those locks
That of a nation armed the strength contained:
And I persuade me, God had not permitted
His strength again to grow up with his hair,
Garrisoned round about him like a camp
Of faithful soldiery, were not his purpose
To use him further yet in some great service;
Not to sit idle with so great a gift

• Useless, and thence ridiculous about him.
And since his strength with eyesight was not lost,
God will restore him eyesight to his strength.

Chor. Thy hopes are not ill founded, nor seem

vain

Of his delivery, and thy joy thereon
Conceived agreeable to a father's love,
In both which we, as next, participate.

Man. I know your friendly minds and-O what
noise!-

Mess. O whither shall I run, or which way fly
The sight of this so horrid spectacle,
Which erst my eyes beheld and yet behold?
For dire imagination still pursues me.
But providence or instinct of nature seems,
Or reason though disturbed, and scarce consulted,
To have guided me aright I know not how,
To thee first, reverend Manoah, and to these
My countrymen, whom here I knew remaining,
As at some distance from the place of horror,
So in the sad event too much concerned.

Man. The accident was loud, and here before

thee

With rueful cry, yet what it was we hear not;
No preface needs, thou seest we long to know.

Mess. It would burst forth, but I recover breath
And sense distract, to know well what I utter.
Man. Tell us the sum, the circumstance defe".
Mess. Gaza yet stands, but all her sons are fallen,

Mercy of heaven, what hideous noise was that? All in a moment overwhelmed and fallen.
Horribly loud, unlike the former shout.

Chor. Noise call you that, or universal groan,
As if the whole inhabitation perished!

Blood, death, and deathful deeds are in that noise,
Ruin, destruction at the utmost point.

Man. Sad, but thou know'st to Israelites not saddest

The desolation of a hostile city.

Mess. Feed on that first; there may in grief ne

surfeit.

Mun. Relate by whom.

Mess.

Man.

By Samson.

That still lessens
The sorrow, and converts it nigh to joy.
Mess. Ah, Manoah, I refrain too suddenly
To utter what will come at last too soon;
Lest evil tidings, with too rude irruption
Hitting thy aged ear, should pierce too deep.
Man. Suspense in news is torture; speak them

out.

Mess. Take then the worst in brief, Samson is dead.

Had filled their hearts with mirth, high cheer, and
wine,
When to their sports they turned. Immediately
Was Samson as a public servant brought,
In their state livery clad; before him pipes
And timbrels, on each side went armed guards,
Both horse and foot, before him and behind
Archers, and slingers, cataphracts, and spears.
At sight of him the people with a shout
Rifted the air, clamouring their god with praise
Who had made their dreadful enemy their thrall
He patient, but undaunted, where they led him,

Man. The worst indeed! O all my hopes de- Came to the place; and what was set before him,

feated

'I'o free him hence! but death, who sets all free,
Hath paid his ransom now and full discharge.
What windy joy this day had I conceived
Hopeful of his delivery, which now proves
Abortive as the first-born bloom of spring
Nipt with the lagging rear of winter's frost!
Yet ere I give the reins to grief, say first,
How died he; death to life is crown or shame.
All by him fell, thou sayest; by whom fell he?
What glorious hand gave Samson his death's

At once both to destroy and be destroyed;
The edifice, where all were met to see him,
Upon their heads and on his own he pulled.

Man. O lastly overstrong against thyself!
A dreadful way thou took'st to thy revenge.
More than enough we know; but while things yet
Are in confusion, give us, if thou canst,
Eyewitness of what first or last was done,
Relation more particular and distinct.

Mess. Occasions drew me early to this city;
And, as the gates I entered with sunrise,
The morning trumpets festival proclaimed
Through each high street: little I had despatched,
When all abroad was rumoured that this day
Samson should be brought forth, to show the people
Proof of his mighty strength in feats and games;
I sorrowed at his captive state, but minded
Not to be absent at that spectacle.
The building was a spacious theatre
Half-round, on two main pillars vaulted high,
With seats where all the lords, and each degree
Of sort, might sit in order to behold;
The other side was open, where the throng
On banks and scaffolds under sky might stand;
I among these aloof obscurely stood.
The feast and noon grew high, and sacrifice

Which without help of eye might be assayed,
To heave, pull, draw, or break, he still performed
All with incredible, stupendous force,
None daring to appear antagonist.

At length for intermission sake they led him
Between the pillars; he his guide requested
(For so from such as nearer stood we heard)
As overtired to let him lean a while
With both his arms on those two massy pillars,
That to the arched roof gave main support.
He, unsuspicious, led him; which, when Samson
Felt in his arms, with head a while inclined,
And eyes fast fixed he stood, as one who prayed,
Or some great matter in his mind revolved:
At last, with head erect, thus cried aloud;
'Hitherto, lords, what your commands imposed
I have performed, as reason was, obeying,
Not without wonder or delight beheld:
Now of my own accord such other trial

I mean to show you of my strength, yet greater,
As with amaze shall strike all who behold.'
This uttered, straining all his nerves he bowed
As with the force of winds and waters pent,
When mountains tremble, those two massy pillars
With horrible convulsion to and fro
He tugged, he shook, till down they came, and drew
The whole roof after them with burst of thunder
Upon the heads of all who sat beneath,
Lords, ladies, captains, counsellors, or priests,
Their choice nobility and flower, not only
Of this but each Philistian city round,
Met from all parts to solemnize this feast.
Samson, with these immixed, inevitably
Pulled down the same destruction on himself;
The vulgar only scaped who stood without.

Chor. O dearly-bought revenge, yet glorious!
Living or dying thou hast fulfilled

The work for which thou wast foretold
To Israel, and now liest victorious
Among thy slain, self-killed,

Not willingly, but tangled in the fold
Of dire necessity, whose law in death conjoined
Thee with thy slaughtered foes, in number more
Than all thy life hath slain before.

1 Semichor. While their hearts were jocund and
sublime

Through all Philistian bounds; to Israel
Honour hath left, and freedom, let but them
Find courage to lay hold on this occasion;
To himself and father's house eternal fame;
And, which is best and happiest yet, all this
With God not parted from him, as was feared,
But favouring and assisting to the end.
Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail
Or knock the breast; no weakness, no contempt,
Dispraise, or blame; nothing but well and fair,
And what may quiet us in a death so noble.

Their own destruction to come speedy upon them. Let us go find the body, where it hes

Man. Come, come; no time for lamentation Bore witness gloriously; whence Gaza mourns,

Comus

A MASK.

PRESENTED AT LUDLOW CASTLE, 1643, BEFORE

JOHN, EARL OF BRIDGEWATER,

THEN PRESIDENT OF WALES.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

JOHN LORD VISCOUNT BRACKLEY,†
Son and Heir-Apparent to the Earl of Bridgewater, &c.
MY LORD,

THIS poem, which received its first occasion of
birth from yourself and others of your noble family,
and much honour from your own person in the
performance, now returns again to make a final
dedication of itself to you. Although not openly
acknowledged by the author, yet it is a legitimate
offspring, so lovely and so much desired, that the
often copying of it hath tired my pen to give my
several friends satisfaction, and brought me to a
necessity of producing it to the public view; and
now to offer it up in all rightful devotion to those
fair hopes, and rare endowments of your much pro-
mising youth, which give a full assurance, to all
that know you, of a future excellence. Live,
sweet Lord, to be the honour of your name, and
-eceive this as your own, from the hands of him,
who hath by many favours been long obliged to
your most honoured parents, and as in this repre-
sentation your attendant Thyrsis, so now in all
real expression, your faithful and most humble
servant,
H. LAWES.

THE PERSONS.

The Attendant Spirit, afterwards in the habit of Thyrsis.
Comus with his Crew.

The Lauy.

First Brother.

Second Brother.

Sabrina, the Nymph.

THE CHIEF PERSONS, WHO Presented, wERE

The Lord Brackley.

Mr. Thomas Egerton, his brother.

The Lady Alice Egerton.

COMUS.

The first scene discovers a wild Wood.
THE ATTENDANT SPIRIT descends or enters.

BEFORE the starry threshold of Jove's court
My mansion is, where those immortal shapes

• This is the dedication to Lawes's edition of the Mask, 1637. The first Brother in the Mask. Warton.

Of bright aërial spirits live insphered
In regions mild of calm and serene air,
Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot,
Which men call Earth; and, with low-thoughted

care

Confined and pester'd in this pin-fold here,
Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being,
Unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives,
After this mortal change, to her true servants,
Amongst the enthroned gods on sainted seats.
Yet some there be, that by due steps aspire
To lay their just hands on that golden key,
That opes the palace of Eternity:
To such my errand is; and, but for such,
I would not soil these pure ambrosial weeds
With the rank vapours of this sin-worn mould.

But to my task. Neptune, besides the sway
Of every salt flood, and each ebbing stream,
Took in by lot 'twixt high and nether Jove
Imperial rule of all the sea-girt isles,
That, like to rich and various gems, inlay
The unadorn'd bosom of the deep:
Which he, to grace his tributary gods,
By course commits to several government,
And gives them leave to wear their sapphire

crowns,

And wield their little tridents: but this Isle,
The greatest and the best of all the main,
He quarters to his blue-hair'd deities;
And all this tract that fronts the falling sun
A noble Peer of mickle trust and power
Has in his charge, with temper'd awe to guide
An old and haughty nation, proud in arms:
Where his fair offspring, nursed in princely lore,
Are coming to attend their father's state,
And new-entrusted sceptre: but their way
Lies through the perplex'd paths of this drear
wood,

The nodding horror of whose shady brows
Threats the forlorn and wandering passenger;
And here their tender age might suffer peril,
But that by quick command from sovereign Jove
I was despatch'd for their defence and guard:
And listen why; for I will tell you now
What never yet was heard in tale or song,
From old or modern bard, in hall or bower.

Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape
Crush'd the sweet poison of misused wine,

⚫'t never appeared under Milton's name, till the year 1645. After the Tuscan mariners transforu.'d.