On hostile ground, none daring my affront;
Then, swollen with pride, into the snare I fell
Of fair fallacious looks, venereal trains,
Soften'd with pleasure and voluptuous life,
At length to lay my head and hallow'd pledge
Of all my strength in the lascivious lap
Of a deceitful concubine, who shore me,
Like a tame wether, all my precious fleece,
Then turn'd me out ridiculous, despoil'd,
Shaven, and disarm'd among mine enemies.

540

Cho. Desire of wine, and all delicious drinks, Which many a famous warrior overturns, Thou couldst repress; nor did the dancing ruby, Sparkling out-pour'd, the flavour or the smell, Or taste that cheers the heart of gods and men, Allure thee from the cool crystalline stream. Sams. Wherever fountain or fresh current flow'd Against the eastern ray, translucent, pure With touch ethereal of heaven's fiery rod, I drank, from the clear milky juice allaying Thirst, and refresh'd; nor envied them the grape Whose heads that turbulent liquor fills with fumes. Cho. O madness, to think use of strongest wines, And strongest drinks, our chief support of health, When God, with these forbidden, made choice to rear His mighty champion, strong above compare, Whose drink was only from the liquid brook!

550

Sams. But what avail'd this temperance, not com

Against another object more enticing?

What boots it at one gate to make defence,
And at another to let in the foe,

Effeminately vanquish'd? by which means,

[plete

560

Now blind, dishearten'd, shamed, dishonour'd, puell'd To what can I be useful, wherein serve

My nation, and the work from Heaven imposed,
But to sit idle on the household hearth,
A burdenous drone; to visitants a gaze,
Or pitied object, these redundant locks,
Robustious to no purpose, clustering down,
Vain monument of strength; till length of years
And sedentary numbness craze my limbs
To a contemptible old age obscure ?

570

Here rather let me drudge, and earn my bread,

Till vermin, or the draff of servile food,
Consume me, and oft-invocated death

Hasten the welcome end of all my pains.

[gift

Man. Wilt thou then serve the Philistines with that

Which was expressly given thee to annoy them?
Better at home lie bed-rid, not only idle,
Inglorious, unemploy'd, with age outworn.
But God, who caused a fountain, at thy prayer,
From the dry ground to spring, thy thirst to allay
After the brunt of battle, can as easy

Cause light again within thine eyes to spring,
Wherewith to serve him better than thou hast :
And I persuade me so; why else this strength
Miraculous yet remaining in those locks?
His might continues in thee not for naught,
Nor shall his wondrous gifts be frustrate thus.

580

Sams. All otherwise to me my thoughts portend,590 That these dark orbs no more shall treat with light, Nor the other light of life continue long, But yield to double darkness nigh at hand: So much I feel my genial spirits droop, My hopes all flat, nature within me seems In all her functions weary of herself; My race of glory run, and race of shame, And I shall shortly be with them that rest.

600

Man. Believe not these suggestions which proceed From anguish of the mind and humours black, That mingle with thy fancy. I, however, Must not omit a father's timely care

To prosecute the means of thy deliverance

By ransom, or how else; meanwhile be calm,

And healing words from these thy friends admit. [Exit. Sams. O, that torment should not be confined

To the body's wounds and sores,

With maladies innumerable

In heart, head, breast, and reins;

But must secret

passage

find

610

To the inmost mind,

There exercise all his fierce accidents,

And on her purest spirits prey,

As on entrails, joints, and limbs,

With answerable pains, but more intense,
Though void of corporal sense.

My griefs not only pain me,

As a lingering disease,

But, finding no redress, ferment and rage;

Nor less than wounds immedicable

Rankle, and fester, and gangrene,

To black mortification.

Thoughts, my tormentors, arm'd with deadly stings, Mangle my apprehensive tenderest parts,

Exasperate, exulcerate, and raise

Dire inflammation, which no cooling herb
Or medicinal liquor can assuage,
Nor breath of vernal air from snowy Alp.
Sleep hath forsook and given me o'er

To death's benumbing opium as my only cure:
Thence faintings, swoonings of despair,

And sense of Heaven's desertion.

620

630

I was his nursling once, and choice delight,
His destined from the womb,

Promised by heavenly message twice descending.
Under his special eye

Abstemious I grew up, and thrived amain;
He led me on to mightiest deeds,

Above the nerve of mortal arm,

Against the uncircumcised, our enemies :
But now hath cast me off as never known,
And to those cruel enemies,

Whom I, by his appointment, had provoked,
Left me all helpless, with the irreparable loss
Of sight, reserved alive to be repeated

The subject of their cruelty or scorn.
Nor am I in the list of them that hope;
Hopeless are all my evils, all remediless :
This one prayer yet remains, might I be heard,
No long petition; speedy death,

The close of all my miseries, and the balm.

Cho. Many are the sayings of the wise, In ancient and in modern books enroll'd, Extolling patience as the truest fortitude; And to the bearing well of all calamities, All chances incident to man's frail life, Consolatories writ

640

650

With studied argument, and much persuasion sought, Lenient of grief and anxious thought:

But with the afflicted, in his pangs, their sound

Little prevails, or rather seems a tune

Harsh, and of dissonant mood from his complaint:

Unless he feel within

Some source of consolation from above,

Secret refreshings, that repair his strength,

And fainting spirits uphold.

660

God of our fathers! what is man,

That thou, towards him, with hand so various,

Or might I say contrarious,

Temper'st thy providence through his short course,670 Not evenly, as thou rulest

The angelic orders, and inferior creatures mute,

Irrational and brute ?

Nor do I name of men the common rout,

That, wandering loose about,

Grow up

and perish, as the summer fly,

Heads without name, no more remembered;
But such as thou hast solemnly elected,

With gifts and graces eminently adorn'd,
To some great work, thy glory,

And people's safety, which in part they effect:
Yet toward these, thus dignified, thou oft,
Amidst their height of noon,

680

Changest thy countenance, and thy hand, with no regard

Of highest favours past

From thee on them, or them to thee of service.

Nor only dost degrade them, or remit

To life obscured, which were a fair dismission,

But throw'st them lower than thou didst exalt them

Unseemly falls in human eye,

Too grievous for the trespass or omission;

Oft leavest them to the hostile sword
Of heathen and profane, their carcasses

To dogs and fowls a prey, or else captived;

[high; 690

Or to the unjust tribunals, under change of times,
And condemnation of the ungrateful multitude.
If these they 'scape, perhaps in poverty,

With sickness and disease, thou bow'st them down,
Painful diseases and deform'd,

In crude old age;

700