O firft-created Beam, and thou great Word,

Let there be light, and light was over all; Why am I thus bereav'd thy prime decree ? 'The fun to me is dark

And filent as the moon,

85

When she deferts the night

Hid in her vacant interlunar cave.
Since light fo neceffary is to life,

90

And almoft life itself, if it be true

That light is in the foul,

She all in every part; why was the fight
To fuch a tender ball as th' eye confin'd,

So obvious and fo eafy to be quench'd?

And not, as feeling, through all parts diffus'd,

95

That she might look at will through every pore?

Then had I not been thus exil'd from light,
As in the land of darkness yet in light,
To live a life half dead, a living death,
And bury'd; but O yet more miserable!
Myself, my fepulchre, a moving grave,
Bury'd, yet not exempt

By privilege of death and burial

From worft of other evils, pains and wrongs,

But made hereby obnoxious more

To all the miseries of life,

Life in captivity

Among inhuman foes.

But who are these? for with joint pace I hear
The tread of many feet steering this way;

Perhaps my enemies who come to stare

100

105

110

At my affliction, and perhaps t' infult,
Their daily practice to afflict me more.
CHOR. This, this is he; foftly a while,
Let us not break in upon him;

O change beyond report, thought, or belief!
See how he lies at random, carelefly diffus'd,
With languish'd head unpropt,

As one past hope, abandon'd,

115

120

And by himself given over;

In flavish habit, ill fitted weeds

O'er-worn and foil'd;

Or do my eyes misrepresent? Can this be he,

That heroic, that renown'd,

Irrefiftible Samfon? whom unarm'd

125

No ftrength of man, or fierceft wild beast could withstand;

Who tore the lion, as the lion tears the kid,

Ran on imbattel'd armies clad in iron,

And weaponless himself,

Made arms ridiculous, useless the forgery

Of brazen fhield and spear, the hammer'd cuirass,
Chalybean temper'd fteel, and frock of mail

Adamantean proof;

But fafeft he who stood aloof,

When infupportably his foot advanc'd,

In fcorn of their proud arms and warlike tools,

130

135

Spurn'd them to death by troops. The bold Afcalonite Fled from his lion ramp, old warriors turn'd

Their plated backs under his heel;

Or grov'ling foil'd their crefted helmets in the duft. Then with what trivial weapon came to hand,

140

The

The jaw of a dead afs, his fword of bone,

A thousand fore-fkins fell, the flower of Palestine,
In Ramath-lechi famous to this day.

1 145

Then by main force pull'd up, and on his shoulders bore The gates of Azza, post, and maffy bar,

Up to the hill by Hebron, seat of giants old,

No journey of a fabbath-day, and loaded fo;

Like whom the Gentiles feign to bear up Heaven. 150 Which fhall I first bewail,

Thy bondage or loft fight,

Prifon within prifon

Infeparably dark?

Thou art become (O worst imprisonment!)

The dungeon of thyfelf; thy foul

155

(Which men enjoying fight oft without cause complain)

By how much from the top of wondrous glory,

Strongest of mortal men,

To lowest pitch of abject fortune thou art fall'n.

For him I reckon not in high estate

170

Whom long descent of birth

Or the sphere of fortune raises;

But

But thee whofe ftrength, while virtue was her mate,
Might have fubdued the earth,

Univerfally crown'd with highest praises.

175

SAMS. I hear the found of words, their sense the air ere it reach my ear.

Diffolves unjointed

CHO. He fpeaks, let us draw nigh. Matchless in The glory late of Ifrael, now the grief;

[might, We come thy friends and neighbours not unknown 180 From Efhtaol and Zora's fruitful vale,

To vifit or bewail thee, or if better,

Counfel or confolation we may bring,

Salve to thy fores; apt words have pow'r to fwage

The tumors of a troubled mind,

And are as balm to fester'd wounds.

185

[learn

190

SAMS. Your coming, Friends, revives me, for I
Now of my own experience, not by talk,
How counterfeit a coin they are who friends
Bear in their fuperfcription (of the most
I would be understood); in profp'rous days
They fwarm, but in adverfe withdraw their head,
Not to be found, though fought. Ye fee, O Friends,
How many evils have inclos'd me round;

Yet that which was the worft now leaft afflicts me, 195
Blindness, for had I fight, confus'd with shame,
How could I once look up, or heave the head,
Who like a foolish pilot have shipwrack'd
My veffel trufted to me from above,
Gloriously rigg'd; and for a word, a tear,
Fool, have divulg'd the fecret gift of God
To a deceitful woman? tell me, Friends,

200

Am

Am I not fung and proverb'd for a fool
In every street? do they not fay, how well
Are come upon him his deserts? yet why?
Immeasurable strength they might behold
In me, of wisdom nothing more than mean;
This with the other should, at least, have pair'd,
These two proportion'd ill drove me transverse.

CHO. Tax not divine disposal; wisest men
Have err'd, and by bad women been deceiv'd;
And fhall again, pretend they ne'er fo wife.
Deject not then fo overmuch thyself,
Who haft of forrow thy full load befides;
Yet truth to say, I oft have heard men wonder
Why thou shouldst wed Philistian women rather
Than of thine own tribe fairer, or as fair,

205

210

215

220

At least of thy own nation, and as noble.
SAMS. The first I saw at Timna, and she pleas'd
Me, not my parents, that I fought to wed
The daughter of an infidel: they knew not
That what I motion'd was of God; I knew
From intimate impulse, and therefore urg'd
The marriage on; that by occafion hence
I might begin Ifrael's deliverance,
The work to which I was divinely call'd.
She proving falfe, the next I took to wife
(O that I never had! fond wish too late,)
Was in the vale of Sorec, Dalila,

225

That fpecious monster, my accomplish'd fnare.
I thought it lawful from my former act,
And the fame end; ftill watching to opprefs

230

Ifrael's