SAMSON AGONISTES
��And last neglected ! How would'st them
insult,
When I must live uxorious to thy will In perfet thraldom ! how again betray me, Bearing my words and doings to the lords To gloss upon, and, censuring, frown or
smile !
This gaol I count the house of Liberty To thine, whose doors my feet shall never enter. 950
Dal. Let me approach at least, and touch
thy hand.
Sams. Not for thy life, lest fierce remem- brance wake
My sudden rage to tear thee joint by joint. At distance I forgive thee; go with that; Bewail thy falsehood, and the pious works It hath brought forth to make thee mem- orable
Among illustrious women, faithful wives; Cherish thy hastened widowhood with the
gold
Of matrimonial treason: so farewell. Dal. I see thou art implacable, more deaf 960
To prayers than winds and seas. Yet
winds to seas
Are reconciled at length, and sea to shore : Thy anger, unappeasable, still rages, Eternal tempest never to be calmed. 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 denounced ? To mix with thy concernments I desist Henceforth, nor too much disapprove my own. 970
Fame, if not double - faced, is double- mouthed, And with contrary blast proclaims most
deeds; On both his wings, one black, the other
white,
Bears greatest names in his wild aerie flight. My name, perhaps, among the Circumcised In Dan, in Judah, and the bordering Tribes, To all posterity may stand defamed, With malediction mentioned, and the blot Of falsehood most unconjugal traduced. But in my country, where I most desire, 980 In Ecron, Gaza, Asdod, and in Gath, I shall be named 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 odours visited and annual flowers; Not less renowned than in Mount Ephraim Jael, who, with inhospitable guile, Smote Sisera sleeping, through the temples nailed. 990
Nor shall I count it heinous to enjoy The public marks of honour and reward Conferred upon me for the piety Which to my country I was judged to have
shewn.
At this whoever envies or repines, I leave him to his lot, and like my own. Chor. She 's gone a manifest Serpent
by her sting
Discovered in the end, till now concealed. Sams. So .let her go. God sent her to
debase me,
And aggravate my folly, who committed 1000 To such a viper his most sacred trust Of secrecy, my safety, and my life.
Chor. Yet beauty, though injurious, hath
strange power,
After offence returning, to regain Love once possessed, nor can be easily Repulsed, without much inward passion felt, And secret sting of amorous remorse. Sams. Love-quarrels oft in pleasing con- cord end;
Not wedlock-treachery endangering life. Chor. It is not virtue, wisdom, valour,
wit, ioio
Strength, comeliness of shape, or amplest merit,
That woman's love can win, or long in- herit;
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 seven though one should musing sit. If any of these, or all, the Timnian bride
Had not so soon preferred
Thy Paranymph, worthless to thee com- pared, 1020
Successor in thy bed,
Nor both so loosely disallied
Their nuptials, nor this last so treacher- ously
Had shorn the fatal harvest of thy head.
Is it for that such outward ornament
Was lavished on their sex, that inward gifts
Were left for haste unfinished, judgment scant,
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