Of fair fallacious looks, venereal trains,
Soften’d with pleasure and voluptuous life;
At length to lay my head and hallow'd pledge 535
Of all my strength in the lascivious lap
Of a deceitful concubine, who shore me
Like a tame wether, all my precious fleece,
Then turn'd me out ridiculous, despoild,
Shav'n, and disarm'd among mine enemies.

540 Cho. Defire of wine and all delicious drinks, Which many

a famous warrior overturns, Thou couldft repress, nor did the dancing ruby Sparkling, out-pour'd, the flavor, or the smell, Or taste that chears the heart of Gods and men, 545 Allure thee from the cool crystallin stream.

Sams. Wherever fountain or fresh current flow'd Against the eastern ray, tranflucent, pure With touch ethereal of Heav'n's fiery rod, I drank, from the clear milky juice allaying

550 Thirst, and refresh'd; nor envy'd them the grape Whose heads that turbulent liquor fills with fumes.

Cho. O madness, to think use of strongest wines And strongest drinks our chief support of health, When God with these forbidd’n made choice to rear His mighty champion, strong above compare, Whose drink was only from the liquid brook!

Sams. But what avail'd this temp’rance, not comAgainst another object more enticing ? (plete What boots it at one gate to make defense,

560 And at another to let in the foe, Effeminately vanquifh'd ? by which means,

Now

Now blind, dishearten'd, sham’d, dishonor'd, quell’d,
To what can I be useful, wherein serve
My nation, and the work from Heav'n impos’d, 565
But to fit idle on the houshold hearth,
A burd'nous drone; to visitants a gaze,
Or pity'd object, these redundant locks
Robustious to no purpose clustering down,
Vain monument of strength; till length of years 570
And sedentary numness craze my limbs
To a contemptible old-age obscure ?
Here rather let me drudge and earn my bread,
Till vermin or the draff of servile food
Consume me, and oft-invoked death

575 Haften the welcome end of all my pains.

MAN. Wilt thou then serve the Philistines with that Which was exprefly giv'n thee to annoy them? [gift Better at home lie bed-rid, not only idle, Inglorious, unemploy'd, with age outworn. 58a But God, who caus'd a fountain at thy prayer From the dry ground to spring, thy thirft t' allay After the brunt of battel, can as easy Cause light again within thy eyes to spring, Wherewith to serve him better than thou haft; 585 And I persuade me fo; why else this strength Miraculous yet remaining in those locks? His might continues in thee not for nought, Nor shall his wondrous gifts be frustrate thus,

SAMS. All otherwise to me my thoughts portend, That these dark orbs no more shall treat with light, Nor th' other light of life continue long,

But

But yield to double darkness nigh at hand:
So much I feel my genial spirits droop,
My hopes all flat, nature within me seems

595
In all her functions weary of herself,
My race of glory run, and race of shame,
And I shall shortly be with them that reft.

MAN. Believe not these suggestions, which proceed
From anguish of the mind and humors black, 600
That mingle with thy fancy, I however
Must not omit a father's timely care
To prosecute the means of thy deliverance
By ransome, or how else: mean while be calm,
And healing words from these thy friends admit. 605

SAMS. O that torment should not be confin'd
To the body's wounds and fores,
With maladies innumerable
In heart, head, breast and reins;
But muft secret paffage find

610
To th' inmoft mind,
There exercise all his fierce accidents,
And on her purest spirits prey,
As on entrails, joints, and limbs,
With answerable pains, but more intense,
Though void of corporal sense.

My griefs not only pain me
As a lingring disease,
But finding no redress, ferment and rage,
Nor less than wounds immedicable

620 Rankle, and fefter, and gangrene, To black mortification.

Thoughts

615

625

Thoughts my tormentors arm’d with deadly stings
Mangle my apprehensive tendereft parts,
Exasperate, exulcerate, and raise
Dire inflammation, which no cooling herb
Or medicinal liquor can afswage,
Nor breath of vernal air from snowy Alp.
Sleep hath forsook and giv'n me o'er
To death's benumming opium as my only cure: 630
Thence faintings, fwoonings of despair,
And sense of Heav'n's desertion,

I was his nursling once and choice delight,
His destin'd from the womb,
Promis'd by heav'nly message twice descending. 635
Under his special eye
Abftemious I ew up and thriv'd amain ;
He led me on to mightieft deeds
Above the nerve of mortal arm
Against th' uncircumcis'd, our enemies :
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 loss
Of fight, resery'd alive to be repeated

645 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 balm.

Cho. Many are the sayings of the wife

640

650

In ancient and in modern books inroll’d,
Extolling patience as the trueft fortitude :
And to the bearing well of all calamities,

655
All chances incident to man's frail life,
Consolatories writ
With study'd argument, and much persuasion fought
Lenient of grief and anxious thought:
But with th' afflicted in his pangs their sound 660
Little prevails, or rather seems a tune
Harth, and of diffonant mood from his complaint;
Unless he feel within
Some source of consolation from above,
Secret refreshings, that repair his strength,

665 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'ft thy providence through his short course, 670 Not ev’nly, as thou rul'st Th’angelic orders and inferior creatures mute, Irrational and brute. Nor do I name of men the common rout, That wandering loose about Grow up and perish, as the summer flie, Heads without name no more remember'de 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 thus dignify'd, thou oft

Amidst

675