Sam. Your coming, friends, revives me; for I learn
Now of my own experience, not by talk,
How counterfeit a coin they are who friends
Bear in their superscription (of the most

I would be understood): in prosperous days
They swarm, but in advérse withdraw their head,
Not to be found, though sought.

Ye see, O friends!

How many evils have inclosed me round;

Yet that which was the worst now least afflicts me,
Blindness, for had I sight, confused with shame,
How could I once look up, or heave the head,
Who, like a foolish pilot, have shipwrecked
My vessel trusted to me from above,
Gloriously rigged; and for a word, a tear,
Fool! have divulged the secret gift of God
To a deceitful woman? tell me, friends,
Am I not sung and proverbed for a fool
In every street? do they not say, How well
Are come upon him his deserts? yet why?
Immeasurable strength they might behold
In me,-of wisdom nothing more than mean;
This with the other should at least have paired,
These two proportioned ill drove me transverse.

Chor. Tax not divine disposal; wisest men
Have erred, and by bad women been deceived;
And shall again, pretend they ne'er so wise.
Deject not then so overmuch thyself,
Who hast of sorrow thy full load besides;
Yet, truth to say, I oft have heard men wonder
Why thou shouldst wed Philistian women rather
Than of thine own tribe fairer, or as fair,-
At least of thy own nation,-and as noble.

Sam. The first I saw at Timna, and she pleased
Me; not my parents, that I sought to wed
The daughter of an infidel: they knew not
That which I motioned was of God; I knew
From intimate impúlse, and therefore urged
The marriage on; that by occasion hence
I might begin Israel's deliverance,
The work to which I was divinely called.

She proving false, the next I took to wife (0 that I never had! fond wish too late!) Was in the vale of Sorec, Dalila,—

That specious monster, my accomplished snare!
I thought it lawful from my former act,

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And the same end; still watching to oppress

Israel's oppressors; of what now I suffer

She was not the prime cause, but I myself,

Who, vanquished with a peal of words, (O weakness!)
Gave up my fort of silence to a woman.

Chor. In seeking just occasion to provoke

The Philistine, thy country's enemy,

Thou never wast remiss, I bear thee witness:
Yet Israël still serves with all her sons.

Sam. That fault I take not on me, but transfer

On Israel's governors, and heads of tribes,

Who, seeing those great acts, which God had done
Singly by me against their conquerors,

Acknowledged not, or not at all considered
Deliverance offered: I, on the other side,
Used no ambition to commend my deeds,-

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The deeds themselves, though mute, spoke loud the doer;

But they persisted deaf, and would not seem
To count them things worth notice, till at length
Their lords the Philistines, with gathered powers,
Entered Judea seeking me, who then
Safe to the rock of Etham was retired;
Not flying, but forecasting in what place
To set upon them,—what advantage best :
Meanwhile the men of Judah, to prevent
The harass of their land, beset me round:

I willingly, on some conditions, came

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Into their hands, and they as gladly yield me

To the uncircumcised a welcome prey,

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Bound with two cords; but cords to me were threads

Touched with the flame: on their whole host I flew

Unarmed, and with a trivial weapon felled
Their choicest youth; they only lived who fled.
Had Judah that day joined, or one whole tribe,
They had by this possessed the towers of Gath,,

And lorded over them whom they now serve:
But what more oft, in nations grown corrupt,
And by their vices brought to servitude,
Than to love bondage more than liberty,--
Bondage with ease, than strenuous liberty;
And to despise, or envy, or suspect

Whom God hath, of his special favour, raised
As their deliverer; if he aught begin,

How frequent to desert him, and at last

To heap ingratitude on worthiest deeds!

Chor. Thy words to my remembrance bring

How Succoth and the fort of Penuel

Their great deliverer contemned,
The matchless Gideon, in pursuit
Of Madian and her vanquished kings;
And how ingrateful Ephraim

Had dealt with Jephtha, who by argument,
Not worse than by his shield and spear,
Defended Israel from the Ammonite,
Had not his prowess quelled their pride
In that sore battle, when so many died,
Without reprieve adjudged to death,

For want of well pronouncing “Shibboleth.”

Sam. Of such examples add me to the roll:

Me easily indeed mine may neglect,

But God's proposed deliverance not so.
Chor. Just are the ways of God,

And justifiable to men!

Unless there be, who think not God at all:

If any be, they walk obscure;

For of such doctrine never was there school,

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But the heart of the fool,

And no man therein doctor but himself.

Yet more there be who doubt his ways not just,

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As to his own edícts found contradicting,

Then give the reins to wandering thought,
Regardless of his glory's diminution;
Till, by their own perplexities involved,
They ravel more, still less resolved,
But never find self-satisfying solution.

As if they would confine the interminable,

And tie him to his own prescript,

Who made our laws to bind us, not himself,

And hath full right to exempt

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Whom so it pleases him, by choice,

From national obstriction, without taint

Of sin, or legal debt;

For with his own laws he can best dispense.

He would not else who never wanted means,

Nor in respect of the enemy just cause,

To set his people free

Have prompted this heroic Nazarite,

Against his vow of strictest purity,

To seek in marriage that fallacious bride,

Unclean, unchaste.

Down reason then! at least vain reasonings down!

Though reason here aver

That moral verdict quits her of unclean:

Unchaste was subsequent,-her stain not his.

But see! here comes thy reverend sire

With careful step, locks white as down,
Old Manoah: advise

Forthwith how thou oughtst to receive him.

Sam. Ay me! another inward grief, awaked With mention of that name, renews the assault.

Enter MANOAH.

Brethren and men of Dan! for such ye seem,
Though in this uncouth place; if old respect,
As I suppose, towards your once gloried friend,
My son now captive, hither hath informed
Your younger feet, while mine cast back with age
Came lagging after; say if he be here?

Chor. As signal now in low dejected state,
As erst in highest, behold him where he lies.
Man. O miserable change! is this the man,
That invincible Samson, far renowned,
The dread of Israel's foes, who with a strength
Equivalent to angels walked their streets,
None offering fight: who, single combatant,

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Duelled their armies ranked in proud array,
Himself an army,—now unequal match
To save himself against a coward armed
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
Prayed for, but often proves our woe, our bane!
I prayed for children, and thought barrenness
In wedlock a reproach; I gained a son,
And such a son as all men hailed me happy ;-
Who would be now a father in my stead!
Oh! wherefore did God grant me my request,
And, as a blessing, with such pomp adorned?

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Why are his gifts desirable, to tempt

Our earnest prayers,—then, given with solemn hand

As graces, draw a scorpion's tail behind?

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For this did the angel twice descend? for this
Ordained thy nurture holy, as of plant
Select, and sacred?-glorious for a while,
The miracle of men! then, in an hour,
Insnared, 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,—

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Be it but for honour's sake of former deeds.

Sam. Appoint not heavenly disposition, father!

Nothing of all these evils hath befallen 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 profaned
The mystery of God given me under pledge
Of vow, and have betrayed it to a woman,-

A Canaanite,-my faithless enemy.
This well I knew, nor was at all surprised,
But warned by oft experience: did not she
Of Timna first betray me, and reveal
The secret wrested from me in her height

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