T'oppose against such powerful arguments?
Only my love of thee held long debate,

And combated in silence all these reasons

With hard contest: at length that grounded

So rife and celebrated in the mouths

Of wisest men, that to the public good

[maxim,

Private respects must yield with grave authority Took full possession of me and prevail'd;

Virtue, as I thought, truth, duty, so enjoining. 870 SAMS. I thought where all thy circling wiles would end;

In feign'd religion, smooth hypocrisy.
But had thy love, still odiously pretended,
Been, as it ought, sincere, it would have taught thee
Far other reasonings, brought forth other deeds.
I before all the daughters of my tribe
And of my nation chose thee from among

My enemies, lov'd thee, as too well thou knew'st,
Too well unbosom'd all my secrets to thee,
Not out of levity, but over-power'd

8:30

By thy request, who could deny thee nothing;
Yet now am judg'd an enemy. Why then
Didst thou at first receive me for thy husband,
Then, as since then, thy country's foe profess'd?
Being once a wife, for me thou wast to leave 885
Parents and country; nor was I their subject,
Nor under their protection but my own,
Thou mine, not theirs. If aught against my life
Thy country sought of thee, it sought unjustly,
Against the law of nature, law of nations,

899

No more thy country, but an impious crew
Of men, conspiring to uphold their state

By worse than hostile deeds, violating the ends
For which our country is a name so dear;
Not therefore to be obey'd. But zeal mov'd thee;
To please thy gods thou didst it; gods unable
To acquit themselves and prosecute their foes
But by ungodly deeds, the contradiction
Of their own deity, gods cannot be;

Less therefore to be pleas'd, obey'd, or fear'd. 90
These false pretexts and varnish'd colours failing,
Bare in thy guilt how foul must thou appear?

DAL. In argument with men a woman ever Goes by the worse, whatever be her cause. SAMS. For want of words, no doubt, or lack of breath,

Witness when I was worried with thy peals.

905

DAL. I was a fool, too rash, and quite mistaken In what I thought would have succeeded best. Let me obtain forgiveness of thee, Samson, Afford me place to show what recompense Towards thee I intend for what I have misdone, Misguided; only what remains past cure Bear not too sensibly, nor still insist

910

To afflict thyself in vain. Though sight be lost, Life yet hath many solaces, enjoy'd

Where other senses want not their delights

At home in leisure and domestic ease,

915

Exempt from many a care and chance to which Eye-sight exposes daily men abroad.

920

I to the lords will intercede, not doubting
Their favourable ear, that I may fetch thee
From forth this loathsome prison-house, to abide
With me, where my redoubled love and care
With nursing diligence, to me glad office,
May ever tend about thee to old age,

92

With all things grateful cheer'd, and so supplied, That what by me thou hast lost thou least shalt miss.

SAMS. No, no; of my condition take no care; It fits not; thou and I long since are twain; Nor think me so unwary or accurst,

To bring my feet again into the snare

930

Where once I have been caught: I know thy trains

Though dearly to my cost, thy gins, and toils,
Thy fair enchanted cup and warbling charms
No more on me have power, their force is null'd,
So much of adder's wisdom I have learnt

To fence my ear against thy sorceries.

If in my flower of youth and strength, when all men Lov'd, honour'd, fear'd me, thou alone could'st

hate me

939

Thy husband, slight me, sell me, and forego me; How would'st thou use me now, blind, and thereby Deceivable, in most things as a child

Helpless, thence easily contemn'd, and scorn'd,

9.38 flower] Lucret. i. 565. Hom. II. N. 484. Virg. Æn. vii. 162. Sil. Ital. xv. 34.

And last neglected? how would'st thou insult,
When I must live uxorious to thy will
In perfect 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

945

To thine, whose doors my feet shall never enter. DAL. Let me approach at least and touch thy hand.

SAMS. Not for thy life, lest fierce remembrance

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

955

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

965

Henceforth, nor too much disapprove my own. 970 Fame if not double-fac'd is double-mouth'd,

And with contráry blast proclaims 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 falsehood 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 odours visited and annual flowers;
Not less renown'd than in Mount Ephraim
Jael, who with inhospitable guile

975

980

985

Smote Sisera sleeping through the temples nail'd. Nor shall I count it heinous to enjoy

The public marks of honour and reward

Conferr'd upon me, for the piety

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

[sting

CHOR. She's gone, a manifest serpent by her Discover'd in the end, till now conceal'd. [me, SAMS. So let her go: God sent her to debase

92 contráry] Habington's Castara, 1635, p. 116.

By virtue of a clean contráry gale.' Todd.