Or value what is beft
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
Seeming at first all heav'nly under virgin veil, 1035
Soft, modeft, meek, demure,
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 inflav'd
With dotage, and his sense deprav'd,
To folly' and shameful deeds which ruin ends. What pilot fo expert but needs muft wreck Imbark'd with such a steers-mate at the helm? 1045
Favor'd of Heav'n who finds
One virtuous rarely found,
That in domeftic good combines :
Happy that house! his way to peace is smooth:
So fhall he leaft confufion draw
On his whole life, not sway'd
By female ufurpation, or difmay'd.
But had we beft retire, I see a storm?
Samf. Fair days have oft contracted wind and rain.
Chor. But this another kind of tempest brings.
Samf. Be lefs abftrufe, my riddling days are past.
Chor. Look now for no inchanting voice, nor fear
The bait of honied 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.
Samf. Or peace, or not, alike to me he comes. Cho. His fraught we foon shall 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.
Men cali me Harapha, of stock renown'd
As Og or Anak and the Emims old
That Kiriathim 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 present on the place
Of those 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 noife
Hath walk'd about, and each limb to survey,
If thy appearance answer loud report.
Samf. The way to know were not to fee 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;
I should have forc'd thee foon wish other arms, 1096
Or left thy carcass where the afs lay thrown:
So had the glory' of prowess been recover'd
To Palestine, won by a Philistine
From the unforeskin'd race, of whom thou bear'st
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
Samf. Boast not of what thou wouldst have done,
What then thou wouldft, thou seeft it in thy hand.
Har. To combat with a blind man I disdain,
And thou haft need much washing to be touch'd.
Samf. Such usage 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
Close-banded durft attack me, no not fleeping,
Till they had hir'd a woman with their gold
Breaking her marriage faith to circumvent me. 1115
Therefore without feign'd shifts let be assign'd
Some narrow place inclos'd, where fight may give
Or rather flight, no great advantage on me; (thee,
Then put on all thy gorgeous arms, thy helmet
And brigandine of brafs, thy broad habergeon, 1120
Vant-brass and greves, and gauntlet, add thy fpear,
A weaver's beam, and seven-times-folded fhield,
I only with an oaken-staff will meet thee,
And raise such outcries on thy clatter'd iron, 1124
Which long shall not withhold me from thy head,
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 battel worn, 1131
Their ornament and safety, had not spells
And black inchantments, fome magician's art,
Arm'd thee or charm'd thee ftrong, which thou
from Heaven
Feign'dft at thy birth was giv'n thee in thy hair, 1135
Where strength can least abide, though all thy hairs
Were bristles rang'd like those that ridge the back
Of chaf'd wild boars, or ruffled porcupines.
Samf. I know no spells, use no forbidden arts;
My truft is in the living God, who gave me 1140 At my nativity this ftrength, diffus'd
No lefs through all my finews, joints and bones,
Than thine, while I preferv'd these locks unshorn,
The pledge of my unviolated vow.
For proof hereof, if Dagon be thy God,
Go to his temple invocate his aid
With folemnest devotion, spread before him
How highly it concerns his glory now
To fruftrate and diffolve thefe magic fpells,
Which I to be the power of Ifrael's God
Avow, and challenge Dagon to the test,
Offering to combat thee his champion bold,
With th' utmost of his Godhead feconded:
Then thou shalt fee, or rather to thy forrow 1154
Soon feel, whofe God is strongest, thine or mine.
Har. Presume not on thy God, whate'er he be,
Thee he regards not, owns not, hath cut off
Quite from his people, and deliver'd up
Into thy enemies hand, permitted them
To put out both thine eyes, and fetter'd fend thee Into the common prifon, there to grind
Among the flaves and asses thy comrades,
As good for nothing else, no better service
With those thy boift'rous locks, no worthy match
For valor to assail, nor by the sword
Of noble warrior, fo to ftain his honor,
But by the barber's razor best subdued.
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