Among illustrious women, faithful wives :
Cherish thy hasten'd widowhood with the gold
Of matrimonial treason: so farewel.

965

97

DAL. I see thou art implacable, more deaf 960 To prayers than winds and seas, yet winds to seas Are reconcil'd at length, and sea to shore : Thy anger, unappeasable, still rages, Eternal tempest never to be calm'd. Why do I humble thus myself, and suing For peace, reap nothing but repulse and hate? Bid go with evil omen and the brand Of infamy upon my name denounc'd? To mix with thy concernments I desist Henceforth, nor too much disapprove my own. Fame if not double-fac'd is double mouth'd, And with contrary blast proclames most deeds; On both his wings, one black, the other white, Bears greatest names in his wild aery flight. My name perhaps among the circumcis'd In Dan, in Judah, and the bordering tribes, To all posterity may stand defam'd, With malediction mention'd, and the blot Of falshood most unconjugal traduc'd. But in my country where I most desire, In Ecron, Gaza, Asdod, and in Gath, I shall be nam'd among the famousest Of women, sung at solemn festivals, Living and dead recorded, who to save Her country from a fierce destroyer, chose Above the faith of wedlock-bands, my tomb With odors visited and annual flowers;

975

980

985

Not less renown'd than in Mount Ephraim
Jael, who with inhospitable guile

Smote Sisera sleeping through the temples nail'd.

Nor shall I count it hainous to enjoy

The public marks of honor and reward

Conferr'd upon me for the piety

991

Which to my country I was judg'd to' have shown.

At this who ever envies or repines,

I leave him to his lot, and like my own.

995

CHOR. She's gone, a manifest serpent by her sting

Discover'd in the end, till now conceal'd.

SAM. So let her go, God sent her to debase me,

And aggravate my folly, who committed

To such a viper his most sacred trust

Of secrecy, my safety, and my life.

1000

[power,

CHOR. Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange

After offense returning, to regain

Love once possess'd, nor can be easily
Repuls'd, without much inward passion felt
And secret sting of amorous remorse.

1005

SAM. Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end,

Not wedlock-treachery indang'ring life.

CHOR. It is not virtue, wisdom, valor, wit, 1010 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 soever men refer it)
Much like thy riddle, Samson, in one day

Or sev'n, though one should musing sit.

1015

If any of these or all, the Timnian bride

Had not so soon preferr'd

Thy paranymph, worthless to thee compar'd, 1020

Successor in thy bed,

Nor both so loosly disally'd

Their nuptials, nor this last so treacherously

Had shorn the fatal harvest of thy head.

Is it for that such outward ornament

1025

Was lavish'd on their sex, that inward gifts
Were left for haste unfinish'd, judgment scant,

Capacity not rais'd to apprehend

Or value what is best

In choice, but oftest to affect the wrong? 1030
Or was too much of self-love mix'd,

Of constancy 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, modest, meek, demure,

Once join'd, the contrary she proves, a thorn
Intestin, far within defensive arms
A cleaving mischief, in his way to virtue
Adverse and turbulent, or by her charms
Draws him awry inslav'd

1040

With dotage, and his sense deprav'd
To folly' and shameful deeds which ruin ends.
What pilot so expert but needs must 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 domestic good combines :
Happy that house! his way to peace is smooth :
But virtue which breaks through all opposition, 1050
And all temptation can remove,

Most shines and most is acceptable above.

Therefore God's universal law

Gave to the man despotic power
Over his female in due awe,
Nor from that right to part an hour,
Smile she or lour :

1055

So shall he least confusion draw
On his whole life, not sway'd
By female usurpation, or dismay'd.

1060

But had we best retire, I see a storm?
SAM. Fair days have oft contracted wind and rain.
CHOR. But this another kind of tempest brings.
SAM. Beless abstruse, 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 stride,

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 less conjecture than when first I saw
The sumptuous Dalila floting this way:
His habit carries peace, his brow defiance.

1071

SAM. Or peace or not, alike to me he comes. [rives.
CHOR. His fraught we soon shall know, he now ar-
HAR. I come not, Samson, to condole thy chance,

As these perhaps, yet wish it had not been,
Volume III.

L

But I to enemies reveal'd, and should not :

Nor should'st thou have trusted that to woman's

frailty:

786

Ere I to thee, thou to thyself wast cruel.
Let weakness then with weakness come to parle
So near related, or the same of kind,
Thine forgive mine; that men may censure thine
The gentler, if severely thou exact not
More strength from me than in thyself was found.
And what if love, which thou interpret'st hate,
The jealousy of love, powerful of sway
In human hearts, nor less in mind towards thee,
Caus'd what I did? I saw thee mutable

791

796

Of fancy, fear'd lest one day thou would'st leave me
As her at Timna, sought by all means therefore
How to indear, and hold thee to me firmest:
No better way I saw than by' impórtuning
To learn thy secrets, get into my power
The key of strength and safety: thou wilt say,
Why then reveal'd? I was assur'd by those
Who tempted me, that nothing was design'd
Against thee but safe custody and hold :
That made for me; I knew that liberty
Would draw thee forth to perilous enterprises,
While I at home sat full of cares and fears, 805

Wailing thy absence in my widow'd bed;
Here I should still enjoy thee day and night
Mine and Love's prisoner, not the Philistines,

Whole to myself, unhazarded abroad,

Fearless at home of partners in my love.

800

810