Though in this uncouth place; if old respect, As I suppose, towards your once gloried friend, My son, now captive, hither hath inform'd Your younger feet, while mine cast back with age Came lagging after; say if he be here!
Chorus. As signal now in low dejected state, As erst in highest, behold him where he lies.
Manoah. O miserable change! is this the man, That invincible Samson, far renown'd,
The dread of Israel's foes, who with a strength Equivalent to Angels walk'd their streets, None offering fight; who single combatant Duell'd their armies rank'd in proud array, Himself an army, now unequal match To save himself against a coward arm'd At one spear's length. O ever-failing trust In mortal strength! and oh! what not in man Deceivable and vain? Nay, what thing good Pray'd for, but often proves our woe, our bane? I pray'd for children, and thought barrenness In wedlock a reproach; I gain'd a son, And such a son as all men hail'd me happy; Who would be now a father in my stead? O wherefore did God grant me my request And as a blessing with such pomp adorn'd? Why are his gifts desirable, to tempt
Our earnest prayers, then, given with solemn hand As graces, draw a scorpion's tail behind?
For this did the Angel twice descend? for this Ordain'd thy nurture holy, as of a plant Select, and sacred, glorious for a while, The miracle of men; then in a hour Ensnar'd, assaulted, overcome, led bound, Thy foes' derision, captive, poor, and blind, Into a dungeon thrust, to work with slaves? Alas! methinks whom God hath chosen once To worthiest deeds, if he through frailty err, He should not so o'erwhelm, and as a thrall Subject him to so foul indignities,
Be it but for honour's sake of former deeds.
Samson. Appoint not heavenly disposition, Father; Nothing of all these evils hath befall'n me But justly; I myself have brought them on, Sole author I, sole cause: If aught seem vile, As vile hath been my folly, who have profan'd The mystery of God given me under pledge Of vow, and have betray'd it to a woman, A Canaanite, my faithless enemy. This well I knew, nor was at all surpris'd, But warn'd by oft experience: Did not she Of Timna first betray me, and reveal The secret wrested from me in her highth Of nuptial love profess'd, carrying it straight To them who had corrupted her, my spies, And rivals? In this other was there found More faith, who also in her prime of love,
Spousal embraces, vitiated with gold, Though offer'd only, by the scent conceiv'd Her spurious first-born, treason against me? Thrice she assay'd with flattering prayers and sighs : And amorous reproaches, to win from me
My capital secret, in what part my strength Lay stor❜d, in what part summ'd, that she might know;
Thrice I deluded her, and turn'd to sport Her importunity, each time perceiving How openly, and with what impudence
She purpos'd to betray me, and (which was worse Than undissembled hate) with what contempt She sought to make me traitor to myself;
Yet the fourth time, when, mustering all her wiles, With blandish'd parlies, feminine assaults, Tongue-batteries, she surceas'd not, day nor night, To storm me over-watch'd, and wearied out, At times when men seek most repose and rest, I yielded, and unlock'd her all my heart, Who, with a grain of manhood, well resolv'd, Might easily have shook off all her snares; But foul effeminacy held me yok'd Her bond-slave; O indignity, O blot To honour and religion! servile mind Rewarded well with servile punishment ! The base degree to which I now am fallen, These rags, this grinding is not yet so base
As was my former servitude, ignoble, Unmanly, ignominious, infamous,
True slavery, and that blindness worse than this, That saw not how degenerately I serv'd.
Manoah. I cannot praise thy marriage-choices,
Rather approv'd them not; but thou didst plead Divine impulsion prompting how thou might'st Find some occasion to infest our foes.
I state not that; this I am sure, our foes Found soon occasion thereby to make thee Their captive, and their triumph; thou the sooner Temptation found'st, or over-potent charms, To violate the sacred trust of silence
Deposited within thee; which to have kept Tacit, was in thy power: true; and thou bear'st Enough, and more, the burden of that fault; Bitterly hast thou paid, and still art paying, That rigid score. A worse thing yet remains ; This day the Philistines a popular feast Here celebrate in Gaza; and proclaim Great pomp, and sacrifice, and praises loud, si To Dagon, as their God who hath deliver'd 9 Thee, Samson, bound and blind into their hands, Them out of thine, who slew'st them many a slain. So Dagon shall be magnified, and God, Besides whom is no God, compar'd with idols, Disglorified, blasphem'd, and had in scorn
By the idolatrous rout amidst their wine; Which to have come to pass by means of thee, Samson, of all thy sufferings think the heaviest, Of all reproach the most with shame that ever Could have befallen thee and thy father's house.
Samson. Father, I do acknowledge and confess That I this honour, I this pomp, have brought To Dagon, and advanc'd his praises high Among the Heathen round; to God have brought Dishonour, obloquy, and op'd the mouths
Of idolists, and atheists; have brought scandal To Israel, diffidence of God, and doubt In feeble hearts, propense enough before, To waver, or fall off and join with idols; Which is my chief affliction, shame and sorrow, The anguish of my soul, that suffers not Mine eye to harbour sleep, or thoughts to rest. This only hope relieves me, that the strife With me hath end; all the contést is now "Twixt God and Dagon; Dagon hath presum❜d, Me overthrown, to enter lists with God, His deity comparing and preferring.
Before the God of Abraham. He, be sure, Will not connive, or linger, thus provok'd, But will arise, and his great name assert: Dagon must stoop, and shall ere long receive Such a discomfit, as shall quite despoil him Of all these boasted trophies won on me,
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