Page images
PDF
EPUB

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.

CHORUS.

She is gone,-a manifest serpent by her sting,
Discovered in the end, till now concealed.

SAMSON.

So let her go. God sent her to debase me,
And aggravate my folly, who committed
To such a viper his most sacred trust

Of secrecy, my safety and my life.

CHORUS.

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,

1000

ἀνθέων ἐτησίοισι καρποῦσθαι φοραῖς,
οὐ γάρ τι μᾶλλον Ἠφραημιτῶν χοροὶ
κλήζουσ ̓ Ἰάλην, τὴν πάλαι κακόξενον
ἥλοις διανταίοισιν ὑπνῶσσον κάρα
τῷ Σισέρᾳ τρήσασαν, ἀθεμίστῳ δόλῳ·
οὐδ' αἴσχρ ̓ ἔμοιγε τὰκ πόλεως ἡγήσομαι,
ἀλλ ̓ ἀντίμισθα τῶν πεπραγμένων γέρα,
ὡς θεοσεβής τε καὶ πάτρας εὐεργέτις.
τῆς ἧς τύχης ὂναιθ ̓, ὃς ἂν τούτων φθονοῖ,
ὡς αἰνεσάσης, οἷς συνεζεύχθην, ἐμοῦ.

ΧΟΡΟΣ.

1030

1039

αὐτόδηλος ὡς δράκαινα, τῶν μάλ' εὖ κεκρυμμένων ἐς τὰ νῦν κέντρων ἕκατι, φροῦδος ἐκ δόμων γυνή. ΣΑΜΨΩΝ.

οὐδ ̓ ἐμοῦγ ̓ ἄκοντός ἐστιν, ὅντιν ̓ αἰκίᾳ τόσῃ κάρτα μωρον ὄντ ̓ ἐλέγξων, τήνδ' ἐπίηλεν Θεός, τὴν ἔχιδναν, ᾗ τὸ κρυπτόν μοι παρηγγυημένον ῥύσιον γέρας παρῆκα, τὸν ἐμὸν ἐκρίψας βίον.

ΧΟΡΟΣ.

ἀλλ ̓ ὅμως δεινὸν σθένουσαν ἴσμεν εὔμορφον χάριν, δυσμενῆ τλᾶσαν κατελθεῖν, τόν τ ̓ ἔρωτα τὸν πάλαι ἀναφέρειν, τὸ δ ̓ οὔτις ἀνδρῶν ῥᾳδίως ἂν ἐκβάλοι·

And secret sting of amorous remorse.

SAMSON.

Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end,

Not wedlock-treachery endangering life.

CHORUS.

It is not virtue, wisdom, valour, wit,

ΙΟΙΟ

Strength, comeliness of shape, or amplest merit,

That woman's love can win or long inherit;

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 compared,
Successor in thy bed,

Nor both so loosely disallied

Their nuptials, nor this last so treacherously

1020

καὶ λαθών, κέντρον ξύνοιδε δηξίθυμον ἱμέρου. 1049

ΣΑΜΨΩΝ.

ζυγομαχήσασιν θαμίζουσ ̓ ἐν φίλοις ξυναλλαγαί· ἕτερόν ἐστιν ἡ προδοῦσα, καν γάμοις ἀνδροφθόρος. ΧΟΡΟΣ.

ἀρετὴν οὐ φημ ̓ οὐδέ τιν ̓ ἀλκὴν, οὐδ ̓ εὐτραπέλου δῶρον γλώσσης, οὐδ ̓ εὐειδὲς σώμα μεγασθενές, οὐδ ̓ ὁπόσον κλέος, ἦτορ δαμάσαι τὸ γυναικεῖον· τί δ ̓ ἂν εἴη τοῦτ ̓ εὔστοχος ἄν τις μόγις ἐξεύροι πάντοσ ̓ ἐρευνῶν, εἴτε πανήμερον εἴθ ̓ ἑφθήμερον, ὡς οἱ τὸ πάλαι καλχαίνοντες

τὰ σὰ δείν ̓ αἰνίγματα, Σάμψων. τούτων γ ̓ ἕνεκ ̓ οὐκ εὐμαρὲς οὕτω τὴν νυὸν οὐκ ἦν τὴν ἀπὸ Τίμνας σοῦ προελέσθαι τὸν πολὺ χείρω λέκτρων μετέχειν, τὸν παρανύμφιον οὐδ ̓ αὖ γαμικῶν ῥεῖ ̓ ἐλύθησαν θεσμοὶ σπονδῶν, οὐδ ̓ αὖ Δηλιλη αἱμύλ ̓ ἔδρασεν, μοιρόκραντον

1060

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,
Capacity not raised to apprehend

Or value what is best

In choice, but oftest to affect the wrong?

Or was too much of self-love mixed,

Of constancy no root infixed,

That either they love nothing, or not long?
Whate'er it be, to wisest men and best,
Seeming at first all heavenly under virgin veil,
Soft, modest, meek, demure,

Once joined, the contrary she proves, a thorn
Intestine, far within defensive arms

A cleaving mischief, in his way to virtue

1030

Adverse and turbulent; or by her charms

1040

Draws him awry enslaved

With dotage, and his sense depraved

To folly and shameful deeds, which ruin ends.

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »