| |
| And with malicious counsel stir them up | 1250 |
| Some way or other yet further to afflict thee. | |
| Sams. He must allege some cause, and offered fight | |
| Will not dare mention, lest a question rise | |
| Whether he durst accept the offer or not; | |
| And that he durst not plain enough appeared. | 1255 |
| Much more affliction than 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. | 1260 |
| 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 their end | |
| Is hate, not help to me, it may with mine | 1265 |
| Draw their own ruin who attempt the deed. | |
| Chor. O, how comely it is, and how reviving | |
| To the spirits of just men long oppressed, | |
| When God into the hands of their deliverer | |
| Puts invincible might, | 1270 |
| To quell the mighty of the earth, the oppressor, | |
| The brute and boisterous force of violent men, | |
| Hardy and industrious to support | |
| Tyrannic power, but raging to pursue | |
| The righteous, and all such as honour truth! | 1275 |
| He all their ammunition | |
| And feats of war defeats, | |
| With plain heroic magnitude of mind | |
| And celestial vigour armed; | |
| Their armouries and magazins contemns, | 1280 |
| Renders them useless, while | |
| With wingèd expedition | |
| Swift as the lightning glance he executes | |
| His errand on the wicked, who, surprised, | |
| Lose their defence, distracted and amazed. | 1285 |
| But patience is more oft the exercise | |
| Of saints, the trial of their fortitude, | |
| Making them each his own deliverer, | |
| And victor over all | |
| That tyranny or fortune can inflict. | 1290 |
| Either of these is in thy lot, | |
| Samson, with might endued | |
| Above the sons of men; but sight bereaved | |
| May chance to number thee with those | |
| Whom Patience finally must crown. | 1295 |
| This Idol’s day hath been to thee no day of rest, | |
| Labouring thy mind | |
| More than the working day thy hands. | |
| And yet, perhaps, more trouble is behind; | |
| For I descry this way | 1300 |
| Some other tending; in his hand | |
| A sceptre 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. | 1305 |
| His message will be short and voluble. | |
| Off. Ebrews, the prisoner Samson here I seek. | |
| Chor. His manacles remark him; there he sits. | |
| Off. Samson, to thee our Lords thus bid me say: | |
| This day to Dagon is a solemn feast, | 1310 |
| 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, | 1315 |
| Where I will see thee heartened and fresh clad, | |
| To appear as fits before the illustrious Lords. them] | |
| Sams. Thou know’st I am an Ebrew; therefore tell | |
| Our law forbids at their religious rites | |
| My presence; for that cause I cannot come. | 1320 |
| Off. This answer, be assured, will not content them. | |
| Sams. Have they not sword-players, and every sort | |
| Of gymnic artists, wrestlers, riders, runners, | |
| Jugglers and dancers, antics, mummers, mimics, | |
| But they must pick me out, with shackles tired, | 1325 |
| And over-laboured at their public 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? | 1330 |
| Return the way thou cam’st; I will not come. | |
| Off. Regard thyself; this will offend them highly. | |
| Sams. Myself! my conscience, and internal peace. | |
| Can they think me so broken, so debased | |
| With corporal servitude, that my mind ever | 1335 |
| Will condescend to such absurd commands? | |
| Although their drudge, to be their fool or jester, | |
| And, in my midst of sorrow and heart-grief, | |
| To shew them feats, and play before their god— | |
| The worst of all indignities, yet on me | 1340 |
| Joined with extreme contempt! I will not come. | |
| Off. My message was imposed on me with speed, | |
| Brooks no delay: is this thy resolution? | |
| Sams. So take it with what speed thy message needs. | |
| Off. I am sorry what this stoutness will produce. | 1345 |
| Sams. Perhaps thou shalt have cause to sorrow indeed. | |
| Chor. Consider, Samson; matters now are strained | |
| Up to the highth, whether to hold or break. | |
| He’s gone and who knows how he may report | |
| Thy words by adding fuel to the flame? | 1350 |
| Expect another message, more imperious, | |
| More lordly thundering than thou well wilt bear. | |
| Sams. Shall I abuse this consecrated gift | |
| Of strength, again returning with my hair | |
| After my great transgression—so requite | 1355 |
| Favour renewed, and add a greater sin | |
| By prostituting holy things to idols, | |
| A Nazarite, in place abominable, | |
| Vaunting my strength in honour to their Dagon? | |
| Besides how vile, contemptible, ridiculous, | 1360 |
| What act more execrably unclean, profane? | |
| Chor. Yet with this strength thou serv’st the Philistines, | |
| Idolatrous, uncircumcised, unclean. | |
| Sams. Not in their idol-worship, but by labour | |
| Honest and lawful to deserve my food | 1365 |
| Of those who have me in their civil power. | |
| Chor. Where the heart joins not, outward acts defile not. | |
| Sams. Where outward force constrains, the sentence holds: | |
| But who constrains me to the temple of Dagon, | |
| Not dragging? The Philistian Lords command: | 1370 |
| 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 jealousy, | |
| Shall never, unrepented, find forgiveness. | 1375 |
| Yet that he may dispense with me, or thee, | |
| Present in temples at idolatrous rites | |
| For some important cause, thou need’st not doubt. | |
| Chor. How thou wilt here come off surmounts my reach. | |
| Sams. Be of good courage; I begin to feel | 1380 |
| Some rousing motions in me, which dispose | |
| To something extraordinary in 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. | 1385 |
| 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. | |
| Chor. In time thou hast resolved: the man returns. | |
| Off. Samson, this second message from our Lords | 1390 |
| 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 | 1395 |
| And hamper thee, as thou shalt come of force, | |
| Though thou wert firmlier fastened than a rock. | |
| Sams. I could be well content to try their art, | |
| Which to no few of them would prove pernicious; | |
| Yet, knowing their advantages too many, | 1400 |
| Because they shall not trail me through their 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? | 1405 |
| (So mutable are all the ways of men!) | |
| Yet this be sure, in nothing to comply | |
| Scandalous or forbidden in our Law. | |
| Off. I praise thy resolution. Doff these links: | |
| By this compliance thou wilt win the Lords | 1410 |
| To favour, and perhaps to set thee free. | |
| Sams. Brethren, farewell. Your company along | |
| I will not wish, lest it perhaps offend them | |
| To see me girt with friends; and h w the sight | |
| Of me, as of a common enemy, | 1415 |
| So dreaded once, may now exasperate them | |
| I know not. Lords are lordliest in their wine; | |
| And the well-feasted priest then soonest fired | |
| With zeal, if aught religion seem concerned; | |
| No less the people, on their holy days, | 1420 |
| Impetuous, insolent, unquenchable. | |
| Happen what may, of me expect to hear | |
| Nothing dishonourable, impure, unworthy | |
| Our God, our Law, my nation, or myself; | |
| The last of me or no I cannot warrant. | 1425 |
| Chor. 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 | 1430 |
| Fast by thy side, who from thy father’s field | |
| Rode up in flames after his message told | |
| Of thy conception, and be now a shield | |
| Of fire; that Spirit that first rushed on thee | |
| In the camp of Dan, | 1435 |
| Be efficacious in thee now at need! | |
| For never was from Heaven imparted | |
| Measure of strength so great to mortal seed, | |
| As in thy wondrous actions hath been seen. | |
| But wherefore comes old Manoa in such haste | 1440 |
| With youthful steps? Much livelier than erewhile | |
| He seems: supposing here to find his son, | |
| Or of him bringing to us some glad news? | |
| Man. Peace with you, brethren! My inducement hither | |
| Was not at present here to find my son, | 1445 |
| By order of the Lords new parted hence | |
| To come and play before them at their feast. | |
| I heard all as I came; the city rings, | |
| And numbers thither flock: I had no will, | |
| Lest I should see him forced to things unseemly. | 1450 |
| 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. | |
| Chor. That hope would much rejoice us to partake | |
| With thee. Say, reverend sire; we thirst to hear. | 1455 |
| Man. I have attempted, one by one, the Lords, | |
| Either at home, or through the high street passing, | |
| With supplication prone and father’s tears, | |
| To accept of ransom for my son, their prisoner. | |
| Some much averse I found, and wondrous harsh, | 1460 |
| Contemptuous, proud, set on revenge and spite; | |
| That part most reverenced Dagon and his priests: | |
| Others more moderate seeming, but their aim | |
| Private reward, for which both God and State | |
| They easily would set to sale: a third | 1465 |
| More generous far and civil, who confessed | |
| They had enough revenged, having reduced | |
| Their foe to misery beneath their fears; | |
| The rest was magnanimity to remit, | |
| If some convenient ranson were proposed. | 1470 |
| What noise or shout was that? It tore the sky. | |
| Chor. Doubtless the people shouting to behold | |
| Their once great dread, captive and blind before them, | |
| Or at some proof of strength before them shown. | |
| Man. His ransom, if my whole inheritance | 1475 |
| May compass it, shall willingly be paid | |
| And numbered down. Much rather I shall choose | |
| To live the poorest in my tribe, than richest | |
| And he in that calamitous prison left. | |
| No, I am fixed not to part hence without him. | 1480 |
| For his redemption all my patrimony, | |
| If need be, I am ready to forgo | |
| And quit. Not wanting him, I shall want nothing. | |
| Chor. Fathers are wont to lay up for their sons; | |
| Thou for thy son art bent to lay out all: | 1485 |
| Sons wont to nurse their parents in old age; | |
| Thou in old age car’st how to nurse thy son, | |
| Made older than thy age through eye-sight lost. | |
| Man. It shall be my delight to tend his eyes, | |
| And view him sitting in his house, ennobled | 1490 |
| With all those high exploits by him achieved, | |
| And on his shoulders waving down those locks | |
| That of a nation armed the strength contained. | |
| And I persuade me God hath not permitted | |
| His strength again to grow up with his hair | 1495 |
| Garrisoned round about him like a camp | |
| Of faithful soldiery, were not his purpose | |
| To use him further yet in some great service— | |
| Not to sit idle with so great a gift | |
| |
