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John Milton - Samson Agonistes
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At distance I forgive thee, go with that;
Bewail thy falshood, and the pious works
It hath brought forth to make thee memorable
Among illustrious women, faithful wives:
Cherish thy hast`n`d widowhood with the gold
Of Matrimonial treason: so farewel.

Dalila: I see thou art implacable, more deaf 
To prayers, then 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 my self, and suing
For peace, reap nothing but repulse and hate?
Bid go with evil omen and the brand
Of infamy upon my name denounc`t?
To mix with thy concernments I desist
Henceforth, nor too much disapprove my own.  
Fame if not double-fac`t is double-mouth`d,
And with contrary blast proclaims most deeds,
On both his wings, one black, th` other white,
Bears greatest names in his wild aerie 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 falshood most unconjugal traduc`t.
But in my countrey 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 countrey from a fierce destroyer, chose
Above the faith of wedlock-bands, my tomb
With odours visited and annual flowers.
Not less renown`d then in Mount Ephraim,
Jael who with inhospitable guile
Smote Sisera sleeping through the Temples nail`d.  
Nor shall I count it hainous to enjoy
The public marks of honour and reward
Conferr`d upon me, for the piety
Which to my countrey I was judg`d to have shewn.
At this who ever envies or repines
I leave him to his lot, and like my own.

Chorus of Danites: She`s gone, a manifest Serpent by her sting
Discover`d in the end, till now conceal`d.

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 secresie, my safety, and my life.

Chorus of Danites: Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange power,
After offence returning, to regain
Love once possest, nor can be easily
Repuls`t, without much inward passion felt
And secret sting of amorous remorse.

Samson: Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end,
Not wedlock-trechery endangering life.

Chorus of Danites: It is not vertue, wisdom, valour, wit,
Strength, comliness of shape, or amplest merit
That womans 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 preferr`d
Thy Paranymph, worthless to thee compar`d,   
Successour in thy bed,
Nor both so loosly disally`d
Thir nuptials, nor this last so trecherously
Had shorn the fatal harvest of thy head.
Is it for that such outward ornament
Was lavish`t on thir Sex, that inward gifts
Were left for hast unfinish`t, judgment scant,
Capacity not rais`d to apprehend
Or value what is best
In choice, but oftest to affect the wrong?  
Or was too much of self-love mixt,
Of constancy no root infixt,
That either they love nothing, or not long?
What e`re it be, to wisest men and best
Seeming at first all heavenly under virgin veil,
Soft, modest, meek, demure,
Once join`d, the contrary she proves, a thorn
Intestin, far within defensive arms
A cleaving mischief, in his way to vertue
Adverse and turbulent, or by her charms   
Draws him awry enslav`d
With dotage, and his sense deprav`d
To folly and shameful deeds which ruin ends.
What Pilot so expert but needs must wreck
Embarqu`d with such a Stears-mate at the Helm?
Favour`d of Heav`n who finds
One vertuous rarely found,
That in domestic good combines:
Happy that house! his way to peace is smooth:
But vertue which breaks through all opposition,    
And all temptation can remove,
Most shines and most is acceptable above.
Therefore Gods universal Law
Gave to the man despotic power
Over his female in due awe,
Nor from that right to part an hour,
Smile she or lowre:
So shall he least confusion draw
On his whole life, not sway`d
By female usurpation, nor dismay`d.    
But had we best retire, I see a storm?

Samson: Fair days have oft contracted wind and rain.

Chorus of Danites: But this another kind of tempest brings.

Samson: Be less abstruse, my riddling days are past.

Chorus of Danites: Look now for no inchanting voice, nor fear
The bait of honied words; a rougher tongue
Draws hitherward, I know him by his stride,
The Giant Harapha of Gath, his look
Haughty as is his pile high-built and proud.
Comes he in peace? what wind hath blown him hither  
I less conjecture then when first I saw
The sumptuous Dalila floating this way:
His habit carries peace, his brow defiance.

Samson: Or peace or not, alike to me he comes.

Chorus of Danites: His fraught we soon shall know, he now arrives.

Harapha of Gath: I come not Samson, to condole thy chance,
As these perhaps, yet wish it had not been,
Though for no friendly intent.  I am of Gath,
Men call me Harapha, of stock renown`d
As Og or Anak and the Emims old  
That Kiriathaim held, thou knowst me now
If thou at all art known.  Much I have heard
Of thy prodigious might and feats perform`d
Incredible to me, in this displeas`d,
That I was never present on the place
Of those encounters, where we might have tri`d
Each others force in camp or listed field:
And now am come to see of whom such noise
Hath walk`d about, and each limb to survey,
If thy appearance answer loud report.   

Samson: The way to know were not to see but taste.

Harapha of Gath: Dost thou already single me; I thought
Gives and the Mill had tam`d thee? O that fortune
Had brought me to the field where thou art fam`d
To have wrought such wonders with an Asses Jaw;
I should have forc`d thee soon with other arms,
Or left thy carkass where the Ass lay thrown:
So had the glory of Prowess been recover`d
To Palestine, won by a Philistine
From the unforeskinn`d race, of whom thou hear`st  
The highest name for valiant Acts, that honour
Certain to have won by mortal duel from thee,
I lose, prevented by thy eyes put out.

Samson: Boast not of what thou wouldst have done, but do
What then thou would`st, thou seest it in thy hand.

Harapha of Gath: To combat with a blind man I disdain
And thou hast need much washing to be toucht.

Samson: Such usage as your honourable Lords
Afford me assassinated and betray`d,
Who durst not with thir whole united powers  
In fight withstand me single and unarm`d,
Nor in the house with chamber Ambushes
Close-banded durst attaque me, no not sleeping,
Till they had hir`d a woman with their gold
Breaking her Marriage Faith to circumvent me.
Therefore without feign`d shifts let be assign`d
Some narrow place enclos`d, where sight may give thee.
Or rather flight, no great advantage on me;
Then put on all thy gorgeous arms, thy Helmet
And Brigandine of brass, thy broad Habergeon.   
Vant-brass and Greves, and Gauntlet, add thy Spear
A Weavers beam, and seven-times-folded shield.
I only with an Oak`n staff will meet thee,
And raise such out-cries on thy clatter`d Iron,
Which long shall not with-hold mee from thy head,
That in a little time while breath remains thee,
Thou oft shalt wish thy self at Gath to boast
Again in safety what thou wouldst have done
To Samson, but shalt never see Gath more.

Harapha of Gath: Thou durst not thus disparage glorious arms                   
Which greatest Heroes have in battel worn,
Thir ornament and safety, had not spells
And black enchantments, some Magicians Art
Arm`d thee or charm`d thee strong, which thou from Heaven
Feigndst at thy birth was giv`n thee in thy hair,
Where strength can least abide, though all thy hairs
Were bristles rang`d like those that ridge the back
Of chaf`t wild Boars, or ruffl`d Porcupines.

Samson: I know no Spells, use no forbidden Arts;
My trust is in the living God who gave me    
At my Nativity this strength, diffus`d
No less through all my sinews, joints and bones,
Then thine, while I preserv`d these locks unshorn,
The pledge of my unviolated vow.
For proof hereof, if Dagon be thy god,
Go to his Temple, invocate his aid
With solemnest devotion, spread before him
How highly it concerns his glory now
To frustrate and dissolve these Magic spells,
Which I to be the power of Israel`s God   
Avow, and challenge Dagon to the test,
Offering to combat thee his Champion bold,
With th` utmost of his Godhead seconded:
Then thou shalt see, or rather to thy sorrow
Soon feel, whose God is strongest, thine or mine.

Harapha of Gath: Presume not on thy God, what e`re he be,
Thee he regards not, owns not, hath cut off
Quite from his people, and delivered up
Into thy Enemies hand, permitted them
To put out both thine eyes, and fetter`d send thee  
Into the common Prison, there to grind
Among the Slaves and Asses thy comrades,
As good for nothing else, no better service
With those, thy boyst`rous locks, no worthy match
For valour to assail, nor by the sword
Of noble Warriour, so to stain his honour,
But by the Barbers razor best subdu`d.

Samson: All these indignities, for such they are
From thine, these evils I deserve and more,
Acknowledge them from God inflicted on me 
Justly, yet despair not of his final pardon
Whose ear is ever open; and his eye
Gracious to re-admit the suppliant;
In confidence whereof I once again
Defie thee to the trial of mortal fight,
By combat to decide whose god is God,
Thine or whom I with Israel`s Sons adore.

Harapha of Gath: Fair honour that thou dost thy God, in trusting
He will accept thee to defend his cause,
A Murtherer, a Revolter, and a Robber.  

Samson: Tongue-doubtie Giant, how dost thou prove me these?

Harapha of Gath: Is not thy Nation subject to our Lords?
Thir Magistrates confest it, when they took thee
As a League-breaker and deliver`d bound
Into our hands: for hadst thou not committed
Notorious murder on those thirty men
At Askalon, who never did thee harm,
Then like a Robber stripdst them of thir robes?
The Philistines, when thou hadst broke the league,
Went up with armed powers thee only seeking,                       
To others did no violence nor spoil.

Samson: Among the Daughters of the Philistines
I chose a Wife, which argu`d me no foe;
And in your City held my Nuptial Feast:
But your ill-meaning Politician Lords,
Under pretence of Bridal friends and guests,
Appointed to await me thirty spies,
Who threatning cruel death constrain`d the bride
To wring from me and tell to them my secret,
That solv`d the riddle which I had propos`d. 
When I perceiv`d all set on enmity,
As on my enemies, where ever chanc`d,
I us`d hostility, and took thir spoil
To pay my underminers in thir coin.
My Nation was subjected to your Lords.
It was the force of Conquest; force with force
Is well ejected when the Conquer`d can.
But I a private person, whom my Countrey
As a league-breaker gave up bound, presum`d
Single Rebellion and did Hostile Acts. 
I was no private but a person rais`d
With strength sufficient and command from Heav`n
To free my Countrey; if their servile minds
Me their Deliverer sent would not receive,
But to thir Masters gave me up for nought,
Th` unworthier they; whence to this day they serve.
I was to do my part from Heav`n assign`d,
And had perform`d it if my known offence
Had not disabl`d me, not all your force:
These shifts refuted, answer thy appellant 
Though by his blindness maim`d for high attempts,
Who now defies thee thrice to single fight,
As a petty enterprise of small enforce.

Harapha of Gath: With thee a Man condemn`d, a Slave enrol`d,
Due by the Law to capital punishment?
To fight with thee no man of arms will deign.

Samson: Cam`st thou for this, vain boaster, to survey me,
To descant on my strength, and give thy verdit?
Come nearer, part not hence so slight inform`d;
But take good heed my hand survey not thee.                        
Harapha of Gath: O Baal-zebub! can my ears unus`d
Hear these dishonours, and not render death?

Samson: No man with-holds thee, nothing from thy hand
Fear I incurable; bring up thy van,
My heels are fetter`d, but my fist is free.

Harapha of Gath: This insolence other kind of answer fits.

Samson: Go baffl`d coward, lest I run upon thee,
Though in these chains, bulk without spirit vast,
And with one buffet lay thy structure low,
Or swing thee in the Air, then dash thee down                      
To the hazard of thy brains and shatter`d sides.

Harapha of Gath: By Astaroth e`re long thou shalt lament
These braveries in Irons loaden on thee.

Chorus of Danites: His Giantship is gone somewhat crestfall`n,
Stalking with less unconsci`nable strides,
And lower looks, but in a sultrie chafe.

Samson: I dread him not, nor all his Giant-brood,
Though Fame divulge him Father of five Sons
All of Gigantic size, Goliah chief.

Chorus of Danites: He will directly to the Lords, I fear,  
And with malitious counsel stir them up
Some way or other yet further to afflict thee.

Samson: He must allege some cause, and offer`d fight
Will not dare mention, lest a question rise
Whether he durst accept the offer or not,
And that he durst not plain enough appear`d.
Much more affliction then already felt
They cannot well impose, nor I sustain;
If they intend advantage of my labours
The work of many hands, which earns my keeping  
With no small profit daily to my owners.
But come what will, my deadliest foe will prove
My speediest friend, by death to rid me hence,
The worst that he can give, to me the best.
Yet so it may fall out, because thir end
Is hate, not help to me, it may with mine
Draw thir own ruin who attempt the deed.

Chorus of Danites: Oh how comely it is and how reviving
To the Spirits of just men long opprest!
When God into the hands of thir deliverer 
Puts invincible might
To quell the mighty of the Earth, th` oppressour,
The brute and boist`rous force of violent men
Hardy and industrious to support
Tyrannic power, but raging to pursue
The righteous and all such as honour Truth;
He all thir Ammunition
And feats of War defeats
With plain Heroic magnitude of mind
And celestial vigour arm`d,   
Thir Armories and Magazins contemns,
Renders them useless, while
With winged expedition
Swift as the lightning glance he executes
His errand on the wicked, who surpris`d
Lose thir defence distracted and amaz`d.
But patience is more oft the exercise
Of Saints, the trial of thir fortitude,
Making them each his own Deliverer,
And Victor over all    
That tyrannie or fortune can inflict,
Either of these is in thy lot,
Samson, with might endu`d
Above the Sons of men; but sight bereav`d
May chance to number thee with those
Whom Patience finally must crown.
This Idols day hath bin to thee no day of rest,
Labouring thy mind
More then the working day thy hands,
And yet perhaps more trouble is behind.     
For I descry this way
Some other tending, in his hand
A Scepter or quaint staff he bears,
Comes on amain, speed in his look.
By his habit I discern him now
A Public Officer, and now at hand.
His message will be short and voluble.

Public Officer: Ebrews, the Pris`ner Samson here I seek.

Chorus of Danites: His manacles remark him, there he sits.

Public Officer: Samson, to thee our Lords thus bid me say;
This day to Dagon is a solemn Feast,
With Sacrifices, Triumph, Pomp, and Games;
Thy strength they know surpassing human rate,
And now some public proof thereof require
To honour this great Feast, and great Assembly;
Rise therefore with all speed and come along,
Where I will see thee heartn`d and fresh clad
To appear as fits before th` illustrious Lords.

Samson: Thou knowst I am an Ebrew, therefore tell them,
Our Law forbids at thir Religious Rites  
My presence; for that cause I cannot come.

Public Officer: This answer, be assur`d, will not content them.

Samson: Have they not Sword-players, and ev`ry sort
Of Gymnic Artists, Wrestlers, Riders, Runners,
Juglers and Dancers, Antics, Mummers, Mimics,
But they must pick me out with shackles tir`d,
And over-labour`d at thir publick Mill,
To make them sport with blind activity?
Do they not seek occasion of new quarrels
On my refusal to distress me more,   
Or make a game of my calamities?
Return the way thou cam`st, I will not come.

Public Officer: Regard thy self, this will offend them highly.

Samson: My self? my conscience and internal peace.
Can they think me so broken, so debas`d
With corporal servitude, that my mind ever
Will condescend to such absurd commands?
Although thir drudge, to be thir fool or jester,
And in my midst of sorrow and heart-grief
To shew them feats, and play before thir god, 
The worst of all indignities, yet on me
Joyn`d with extream contempt? I will not come.

Public Officer: My message was impos`d on me with speed,
Brooks no delay: is this thy resolution?

Samson: So take it with what speed thy message needs.

Public Officer: I am sorry what this stoutness will produce.

Samson: Perhaps thou shalt have cause to sorrow indeed.

Chorus of Danites: Consider, Samson; matters now are strain`d
Up to the highth, whether to bold or break;
He`s gone, and who knows how he may report 
Thy words by adding fuel to the flame?
Expect another message more imperious,
More Lordly thund`ring then thou well wilt bear.

Samson: Shall I abuse this Consecrated gift
Of strength, again returning with my hair
After my great transgression, so requite
Favour renew`d, and add a greater sin
By prostituting holy things to Idols;
A Nazarite in place abominable
Vaunting my strength in honour to thir Dagon? 
Besides, how vile, contemptible, ridiculous,
What act more execrably unclean, prophane?

Chorus of Danites: Yet with this strength thou serv`st the Philistines,
Idolatrous, uncircumcis`d, unclean.

Samson: Not in thir Idol-worship, but by labour
Honest and lawful to deserve my food
Of those who have me in thir civil power.

Chorus of Danites: Where the heart joins not, outward acts defile not

Samson: Where outward force constrains, the sentence holds:
But who constrains me to the Temple of Dagon,
Not dragging? the Philistian Lords command.
Commands are no constraints.  If I obey them,
I do it freely; venturing to displease
God for the fear of Man, and Man prefer,
Set God behind: which in his jealousie
Shall never, unrepented, find forgiveness.
Yet that he may dispense with me or thee
Present in Temples at Idolatrous Rites
For some important cause, thou needst not doubt.

Chorus of Danites: How thou wilt here come off surmounts my reach.             

Samson: Be of good courage, I begin to feel
Some rouzing motions in me which dispose
To something extraordinary my thoughts.
I with this Messenger will go along,
Nothing to do, be sure, that may dishonour
Our Law, or stain my vow of Nazarite.
If there be aught of presage in the mind,
This day will be remarkable in my life
By some great act, or of my days the last.

Chorus of Danites: In time thou hast resolv`d, the man returns.                

Off: Samson, this second message from our Lords
To thee I am bid say. Art thou our Slave,
Our Captive, at the public Mill our drudge,
And dar`st thou at our sending and command
Dispute thy coming? come without delay;
Or we shall find such Engines to assail
And hamper thee, as thou shalt come of force,
Though thou wert firmlier fastn`d then a rock.

Samson: I could be well content to try thir Art,
Which to no few of them would prove pernicious.
Yet knowing thir advantages too many,
Because they shall not trail me through thir streets
Like a wild Beast, I am content to go.
Masters commands come with a power resistless
To such as owe them absolute subjection;
And for a life who will not change his purpose?
(So mutable are all the ways of men)
Yet this be sure, in nothing to comply
Scandalous or forbidden in our Law.

Public Officer: I praise thy resolution, doff these links: 
By this compliance thou wilt win the Lords
To favour, and perhaps to set thee free.

Samson: Brethren farewel, your company along
I will not wish, lest it perhaps offend them
To see me girt with Friends; and how the sight
Of me as of a common Enemy,
So dreaded once, may now exasperate them
I know not. Lords are Lordliest in thir wine,
And the well-feasted Priest then soonest fir`d
With zeal, if aught Religion seem concern`d:   
No less the people on thir Holy-days
Impetuous, insolent, unquenchable;
Happ`n what may, of me expect to hear
Nothing dishonourable, impure, unworthy
Our God, our Law, my Nation, or my self,
The last of me or no I cannot warrant.

Chorus of Danites: Go, and the Holy One
Of Israel be thy guide
To what may serve his glory best, and spread his name
Great among the Heathen round:    
Send thee the Angel of thy Birth, to stand
Fast by thy side, who from thy Fathers field
Rode up in flames after his message told
Of thy conception, and be now a shield
Of fire; that Spirit that first rusht on thee
In the camp of Dan
Be efficacious in thee now at need.
For never was from Heaven imparted
Measure of strength so great to mortal seed,
As in thy wond`rous actions Hath been seen.
But wherefore comes old Manoa in such hast
With youthful steps? much livelier than e`re while
He seems: supposing here to find his Son,
Or of him bringing to us some glad news?

Manoah: Peace with you brethren; my inducement hither
Was not at present here to find my Son,
By order of the Lords new parted hence
To come and play before them at thir Feast.
I heard all as I came, the City rings
And numbers thither flock, I had no will,  
Lest I should see him forc`t to things unseemly.
But that which moved my coming now, was chiefly
To give ye part with me what hope I have
With good success to work his liberty.

Chorus of Danites: That hope would much rejoyce us to partake
With thee; say reverend Sire, we thirst to hear.

Manoah: I have attempted one by one the Lords
Either at home, or through the high street passing,
With supplication prone and Fathers tears
To accept of ransom for my Son thir pris`ner, 
Some much averse I found and wondrous harsh,
Contemptuous, proud, set on revenge and spite;
That part most reverenc`d Dagon and his Priests,
Others more moderate seeming, but thir aim
Private reward, for which both God and State
They easily would set to sale, a third
More generous far and civil, who confess`d
They had anough reveng`d, having reduc`t
Thir foe to misery beneath thir fears,
The rest was magnanimity to remit,  
If some convenient ransom were propos`d.
What noise or shout was that? it tore the Skie.

Chorus of Danites: Doubtless the people shouting to behold
Thir once great dread, captive, & blind before them,
Or at some proof of strength before them shown.

Manoah: His ransom, if my whole inheritance
May compass it, shall willingly be paid
And numberd down: much rather I shall chuse
To live the poorest in my Tribe, then richest,
And he in that calamitous prison left.
No, I am fixt not to part hence without him.
For his redemption all my Patrimony,
If need be, I am ready to forgo
And quit: not wanting him, I shall want nothing.

Chorus of Danites: Fathers are wont to lay up for thir Sons,
Thou for thy Son art bent to lay out all;
Sons wont to nurse thir Parents in old age,
Thou in old age car`st how to nurse thy Son,
Made older then thy age through eye-sight lost.

Manoah: It shall be my delight to tend his eyes,   
And view him sitting in the house, enobl`d
With all those high exploits by him atchiev`d,
And on his shoulders waving down those locks,
That of a Nation arm`d the strength contain`d:
And I perswade me God had not permitted
His strength again to grow up with his hair
Garrison`d round about him like a Camp
Of faithful Souldiery, were not his purpose
To use him further yet in some great service,
Not to sit idle with so great a gift   
Useless, and thence ridiculous about him.
And since his strength with eye-sight was not lost,
God will restore him eye-sight to his strength.

Chorus of Danites: Thy hopes are not ill founded nor seem vain
Of his delivery, and thy joy thereon
Conceiv`d, agreeable to a Fathers love,
In both which we, as next participate.

Manoah: I know your friendly minds and — O what noise!
Mercy of Heav`n what hideous noise was that!
Horribly loud unlike the former shout.  

Chorus of Danites: Noise call you it or universal groan
As if the whole inhabitation perish`d,
Blood, death, and deathful deeds are in that noise,
Ruin, destruction at the utmost point.

Manoah: Of ruin indeed methought I heard the noise,
Oh it continues, they have slain my Son.

Chorus of Danites: Thy Son is rather slaying them, that outcry
From slaughter of one foe could not ascend.

Manoah: Some dismal accident it needs must be;
What shall we do, stay here or run and see?

Chorus of Danites: Best keep together here, lest running thither
We unawares run into dangers mouth.
This evil on the Philistines is fall`n
From whom could else a general cry be heard?
The sufferers then will scarce molest us here,
From other hands we need not much to fear.
What if his eye-sight (for to Israels God
Nothing is hard) by miracle restor`d,
He now be dealing dole among his foes,
And over heaps of slaughter`d walk his way?                        

Manoah: That were a joy presumptuous to be thought.

Chorus of Danites: Yet God hath wrought things as incredible
For his people of old; what hinders now?

Manoah: He can I know, but doubt to think be will;
Yet Hope would fain subscribe, and tempts Belief.
A little stay will bring some notice hither.

Chorus of Danites: Of good or bad so great, of bad the sooner;
For evil news rides post, while good news baits.
And to our wish I see one hither speeding,
An Ebrew, as I guess, and of our Tribe.                            

Messenger: O whither shall I run, or which way flie
The sight of this so horrid spectacle
Which earst my eyes beheld and yet behold;
For dire imagination still persues me.
But providence or instinct of nature seems,
Or reason though disturb`d, and scarse consulted
To have guided me aright, I know not how,
To thee first reverend Manoa, and to these
My Countreymen, whom here I knew remaining,
As at some distance from the place of horrour,                     
So in the sad event too much concern`d.

Manoah: The accident was loud, & here before thee
With rueful cry, yet what it was we hear not,
No Preface needs, thou seest we long to know.

Messenger: It would burst forth, but I recover breath
And sense distract, to know well what I utter.

Manoah: Tell us the sum, the circumstance defer.

Messenger: Gaza yet stands, but all her Sons are fall`n,
All in a moment overwhelm`d and fall`n.

Manoah: Sad, but thou knowst to Israelites not saddest                
The desolation of a Hostile City.

Messenger: Feed on that first, there may in grief be surfet.

Manoah: Relate by whom.
                      Messenger: By Samson.

Manoah: That still lessens
The sorrow, and converts it nigh to joy.

Messenger: Ah Manoa I refrain, too suddenly
To utter what will come at last too soon;
Lest evil tidings with too rude irruption
Hitting thy aged ear should pierce too deep.

Manoah: Suspense in news is torture, speak them out.

Messenger: Then take the worst in brief, Samson is dead.               

Manoah: The worst indeed, O all my hope`s defeated
To free him hence! but death who sets all free
Hath paid his ransom now and full discharge.
What windy joy this day had I conceiv`d
Hopeful of his Delivery, which now proves
Abortive as the first-born bloom of spring
Nipt with the lagging rear of winters frost.
Yet e`re I give the rains to grief, say first,
How dy`d he? death to life is crown or shame.
All by him fell thou say`st, by whom fell he,  
What glorious band gave Samson his deaths wound?

Messenger: Unwounded of his enemies he fell.

Manoah: Wearied with slaughter then or how? explain.

Messenger: By his own hands.
                       Manoah: Self-violence? what cause
Brought him so soon at variance with himself
Among his foes?
                Messenger: Inevitable cause
At once both to destroy and be destroy`d;
The Edifice where all were met to see him
Upon thir heads and on his own he pull`d.

Manoah: O lastly over-strong against thy self! 
A dreadful way thou took`st to thy revenge.
More than anough we know; but while things yet
Are in confusion, give us if thou canst,
Eye-witness of what first or last was done,
Relation more particular and distinct.

Messenger: Occasions drew me early to this City,
And as the gates I enter`d with Sun-rise,
The morning Trumpets Festival proclaim`d
Through each high street: little I had dispatch`t
When all abroad was rumour`d that this day   
Samson should be brought forth to shew the people
Proof of his mighty strength in feats and games;
I sorrow`d at his captive state, but minded
Not to be absent at that spectacle.
The building was a spacious Theatre
Half round on two main Pillars vaulted high,
With seats where all the Lords and each degree
Of sort, might sit in order to behold,
The other side was op`n, where the throng
On banks and scaffolds under Skie might stand;
I among these aloof obscurely stood.
The Feast and noon grew high, and Sacrifice
Had fill`d thir hearts with mirth, high chear, and wine,
When to thir sports they turn`d.  Immediately
Was Samson as a public servant brought,
In thir state Livery clad; before him Pipes
And Timbrels, on each side went armed guards,
Both horse and foot before him and behind
Archers, and Slingers, Cataphracts and Spears.
At sight of him the people with a shout   
Rifted the Air clamouring thir god with praise,
Who had made thir dreadful enemy thir thrall.
He patient but undaunted where they led him.
Came to the place, and what was set before him
Which without help of eye, might be assay`d,
To heave, pull, draw, or break, he still perform`d
All with incredible, stupendious force,
None daring to appear Antagonist.
At length for intermission sake they led him
Between the pillars; he his guide requested  
(For so from such as nearer stood we heard)
As over-tir`d to let him lean a while
With both his arms on those two massie Pillars
That to the arched roof gave main support.
He unsuspitious led him; which when Samson
Felt in his arms, with head a while enclin`d,
And eyes fast fixt he stood, as one who pray`d,
Or some great matter in his mind revolv`d.
At last with head erect thus cryed aloud,
Hitherto, Lords, what your commands impos`d   
I have perform`d, as reason was, obeying,
Not without wonder or delight beheld.
Now of my own accord such other tryal
I mean to shew you of my strength, yet greater;
As with amaze shall strike all who behold.
This utter`d, straining all his nerves he bow`d,
As with the force of winds and waters pent,
When Mountains tremble, those two massie Pillars
With horrible convulsion to and fro,
He tugg`d, he shook, till down they came and drew  
The whole roof after them, with burst of thunder
Upon the heads of all who sate beneath,
Lords, Ladies, Captains, Councellors, or Priests,
Thir choice nobility and flower, not only
Of this but each Philistian City round
Met from all parts to solemnize this Feast.
Samson with these immixt, inevitably
Pulld down the same destruction on himself;
The vulgar only scap`d who stood without.

Chorus of Danites: O dearly-bought revenge, yet glorious! 
Living or dying thou hast fulfill`d
The work for which thou wast foretold
To Israel and now ly`st victorious
Among thy slain self-kill`d
Not willingly, but tangl`d in the fold
Of dire necessity, whose law in death conjoin`d
Thee with thy slaughter`d foes in number more
Then all thy life had slain before.

Semichorus: While thir hearts were jocund and sublime
Drunk with Idolatry, drunk with Wine,  
And fat regorg`d of Bulls and Goats,
Chaunting thir Idol, and preferring
Before our living Dread who dwells
In Silo his bright Sanctuary:
Among them he a spirit of phrenzie sent,
Who hurt thir minds,
And urg`d them on with mad desire
To call in hast for thir destroyer;
They only set on sport and play
Unweetingly importun`d 
Their own destruction to come speedy upon them.
So fond are mortal men
Fall`n into wrath divine,
As thir own ruin on themselves to invite,
Insensate left, or to sense reprobate,
And with blindness internal struck.

Semichorus: But he though blind of sight,
Despis`d and thought extinguish`t quite,
With inward eyes illuminated
His fierie vertue rouz`d   
From under ashes into sudden flame,
And as an ev`ning Dragon came,
Assailant on the perched roosts,
And nests in order rang`d
Of tame villatic Fowl; but as an Eagle
His cloudless thunder bolted on thir heads.
So vertue giv`n for lost,
Deprest, and overthrown, as seem`d,
Like that self-begott`n bird
In the Arabian woods embost,   
That no second knows nor third,
And lay e`re while a Holocaust,
From out her ashie womb now teem`d
Revives, reflourishes, then vigorous most
When most unactive deem`d,
And though her body die, her fame survives,
A secular bird ages of lives.

Manoah: Come, come, no time for lamentation now,
Nor much more cause, Samson hath quit himself
Like Samson, and heroicly hath finish`d  
A life Heroic, on his Enemies
Fully reveng`d, hath left them years of mourning,
And lamentation to the Sons of Caphtor
Through all Philistian bounds. To Israel
Honour hath left, and freedom, let but them
Find courage to lay hold on this occasion,
To himself and Fathers house eternal fame;
And which is best and happiest yet, all this
With God not parted from him, as was feard,
But favouring and assisting to the end. 
Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail
Or knock the breast, no weakness, no contempt,
Dispraise, or blame, nothing but well and fair,
And what may quiet us in a death so noble.
Let us go find the body where it lies
Sok`t in his enemies blood, and from the stream
With lavers pure and cleansing herbs wash off
The clotted gore.  I with what speed the while
(Gaza is not in plight to say us nay)
Will send for all my kindred, all my friends        
To fetch him hence and solemnly attend
With silent obsequie and funeral train
Home to his Fathers house: there will I build him
A Monument, and plant it round with shade
Of Laurel ever green, and branching Palm,
With all his Trophies hung, and Acts enroll`d
In copious Legend, or sweet Lyric Song.
Thither shall all the valiant youth resort,
And from his memory inflame thir breasts
To matchless valour, and adventures high:      
The Virgins also shall on feastful days
Visit his Tomb with flowers, only bewailing
His lot unfortunate in nuptial choice,
From whence captivity and loss of eyes.

Chorus of Danites: All is best, though we oft doubt,
What th` unsearchable dispose
Of highest wisdom brings about,
And ever best found in the close.
Oft he seems to hide his face,
But unexpectedly returns     
And to his faithful Champion hath in place
Bore witness gloriously; whence Gaza mourns
And all that band them to resist
His uncontroulable intent,
His servants he with new acquist
Of true experience from this great event
With peace and consolation hath dismist,
And calm of mind all passion spent.
Source
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