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To their abyss and horrid pains confined.

505

510

Man. Be penitent and for thy fault contrite, But act not in thy own affliction, Son: Repent the sin, but if the punishment Thou canst avoid, self-preservation bids; Or th' execution leave to high disposal, And let another hand, not thine, exact Thy penal forfeit from thyself; perhaps God will relent, and quit thee all his debt; Who ever more approves, and more accepts (Best pleased with humble' and filial submission) Him who imploring mercy sues for life, Than who self-rigorous chooses death as due : Which argues over-just, and self-displeased For self-offence, more than for God offended. Reject not then what offer'd means; who knows But God hath sent before us, to return thee Home to thy country and his sacred house, Where thou mayst bring thy offerings, to avert His further ire, with pray'rs and vows renew'd? 520 Sam. His pardon I implore; but as for life, To what end should I seek it? when in strength All mortals I excell'd, and great in hopes

515

With youthful courage and magnanimous thoughts Of birth from Heav'n foretold and high exploits, 525 Full of divine instinct, after some proof

Or acts indeed heroic, far beyond

The sons of Anak, famous now and blazed,
Fearless of danger, like a petty god,

I walk'd about admired of all, and dreaded
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.
Chor. Desire of wine and all delicious drinks,

530

535

540

538. Of is to be understood before all, &c. 541. Allusion is here made to the strictness of living imposed

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, 545 Allure thee from the cool crystalline stream,

550

Sam. Wherever fountain or fresh current flow'd Against the eastern ray, translucent, pure With touch ethereal of Heav'n's fiery rod, I drank, from the clear milky juice allaying Thirst, and refresh'd; nor envy'd them the grape Whose heads that turbulent liquor fills with fumes. Chor. 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. Sam. But what avail'd this temp'rance, not comAgainst 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,

556

[plete

560

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

My nation, and the work from Heav'n imposed, 565
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 clust'ring down,

Vain monument of strength; till length of years 570
And sedentary numbness craze my limbs

To a contemptible old age obscure?

Here rather let me drudge and earn my bread,

Till vermin, or the draff of servile food,

Consume me, and oft-invocated death

575

Hasten the welcome end of all my pains.

Man. Wilt thou then serve the Philistines with that gift

Which was expressly given thee to annoy them?

by the Nazarite's vow, which Samsou kept in all respects, but in bis marriage with a strange woman.

545. Judges ix. 13. Gods here means the false gods of the hea then cities, or the conquerors and great men, so called in honour of their famous deeds.

571. Craze, so used Par. Lost, xii. 210.

Better at home lie bed-rid, not only idle,

Inglorious, unemploy'd, with age out-worn.

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

580

Cause light again within thy eyes to spring, Wherewith to serve him better than thou hast; 585 And I persuade me so; why else this strength Miraculous yet remaining in those locks?

His might continues in thee not for nought,
Nor shall his wondrous gifts be frustrate thus.

589

Sam. All otherwise to me my thoughts portend, That these dark orbs no more shall treat with light, Nor th' 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.

595

Mun. Believe not these suggestions which proceed From anguish of the mind and humours black, 600 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. 605

Sam. 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

To th' inmost mind,

610

There exercise all his fierce accidents,

And on her purest spirits prey,

As on entrails, joints, and limbs,

With answerable pains, but more intense,

615

581. There is a difference between this account of the fountain which rose in answer to Samson's prayer, and that which is given in our translation of the Scripture. In the latter it is said the water sprang from the cleft jaw, but by most of the commentators it is said, that as the word translated jaw is the proper nanie of a spot of ground, it should not in this place be translated in the sense given in our version.

Though void of corporal sense.

My griefs not only pain ine

As a lingering disease,

But, finding no redress, ferment and rage;

Nor less than wounds immedicable

Rankle, and fester, and gangrene,

To black mortification.

620

Thoughts my tormentors arm'd with deadly stings

Mangle my apprehensive tenderest parts,
Exasperate, exulcerate, and raise

625

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,

630

And sense of Heav'n's desertion.

I was his nursling once and choice delight,

His destined from the womb,

Promised by heav'nly message twice descending. 635 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 th' uncircumcised, our enemies:

640

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 th' irreparable loss
Of sight, reserved alive to be repeated
The subject of their cruelty or scorn.

645

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,

650

The close of all my miseries, and the balm.
Chor. Many are the sayings of the wise
In ancient and in modern books inroll'd,
Extolling patience as the truest fortitude:
And to the bearing well of all calamities,
All chances incident to man's frail life,

628. Alp, here used as a general name for mountains:
see also Par. Lost, ii. 628.

655

Consolatories writ

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

But with th' afflicted in his pangs their sound
Little prevails, or rather seems a tune

660

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.

665

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, Not evenly, as thou rul'st

671

Th' angelic orders and inferior creatures mute,

Irrational and brute?

Nor do I name of men the common rout,

That, wand'ring loose about,

675

Grow up and perish as the summer fly,

Heads without name no more remember'd;

But such as thou hast solemnly elected,

With gifts and graces eminently adorn'd

To some great work, thy glory,

650

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

Changest thy count'nance, and thy hand with no Of highest favours past

[regard

From thee on them, or them to thee of service. 686 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 cye,

Too grievous for the trespass or omission;

Oft leavest them to the hostile sword

Of Heathen and profane, their carcases

To dogs and fowls a prey, or else captived;

[high,

691

Or to the unjust tribunals, under change of times, And condemnation of th' ungrateful multitude. 698 If these they 'scape, perhaps in poverty

638. Fraught is proposed by Warburton, instead of sought. 661. Ecclus. xxii. 6.

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