Nor breath of vernal air from snowy Alp.
Sleep hath forsook and given me o'er

To death's benumbing opium as my only cure: 650 Thence faintings, swoonings of despair,

And sense of heav'n's desertion.

I was his nursling once, and choice delight, His destin'd from the womb,

Promis'd by heavenly message twice descending:

Under his special eye

Abstemious I grew up, and thriv'd amain;

He led me on to mightiest deeds,

Above the nerve of mortal arm,

Against the uncircumcised, our enemies :
But now hath cast me off as never known,
And to those cruel enemies,

Whom I by his appointment had provok'd,
Left me all helpless with th' irreparable loss
Of sight, reserv'd alive to be repeated
The subject of their cruelty or scorn.
Nor am I in the list of them that hope;
Hopeless are all my evils, all remediless;
This one prayer yet remains, might I be heard,
No long petition, speedy death,

The close of all my miseries, and the balm.

CHOR. Many are the sayings of the wise,
In ancient and in modern books enroll'd,
Extolling patience as the truest fortitude;
And to the bearing well of all calamities,
All chances incident to man's frail life,
Consolatories writ

640

645

650

655

With studied argument, and much persuasion Lenient of grief and anxious thought: [sought, But with th' afflicted in his pangs their sound 660 Little prevails, or rather seems a tune

Harsh and of dissonant mood from his complaint; Unless we feel within

Some source of consolation from above,

Secret refreshings, that repair his strength,
And fainting spirits uphold.

God of our fathers, what is man!

That thou towards him with hand so various,
Or might I say contrarious,

665

669

Temper'st thy providence through this short course,
Not ev'nly, as thou rul'st

Th' angelic orders and inferior creatures mute,
Irrational and brute.

Nor do I name of men the common rout,
That wand'ring loose about

Grow up and perish, as the summer fly,
Heads without name no more remember'd,
But such as thou hast solemnly elected,
With gifts and graces eminently adorn'd
To some great work, thy glory,

And people's safety, which in part they effect:
Yet toward these thus dignified, thou oft

669 contrarious] Chaucer, Leg. of Dido, 435.
'Sens that the goddess ben contrarious to me.'

676

Todd.

summer fly] Hen. VI. P. iii., act ii. sc. vi. The common people swarm like summer flies. Todd.

675

680

Amidst their height of noon,

Changest thy countenance, and thy hand with no

regard

Of highest favours past

From thee on them, or them to thee of service.

Nor only dost degrade them, or remit

To life obscur'd, which were a fair dismission,

685

But throw'st them lower than thou didst exalt them

high,

Unseemly falls in human eye,

Too grievous for the trespass or omission;
Oft leav'st them to the hostile sword

Of heathen and profane, their carcasses

To dogs and fowls a prey, or else captív'd;

690

694

Or to the unjust tribunals, under change of times,
And condemnation of the ingrateful multitude.
If these they scape, perhaps in poverty

With sickness and disease thou bow'st them down,
Painful diseases and deform'd,

In crude old age:

Though not disordinate, yet causeless suff'ring The punishment of dissolute days: in fine, Just or unjust, alike seem miserable,

For oft alike both come to evil end.

700

So deal not with this once thy glorious champion, The image of thy strength, and mighty minister. What do I beg? how hast thou dealt already?

694 dogs] Hom. Il. i. 4. Newton.

700 crude] Premature, coming before its time, funera' in Statius. Jortin.

as

'Crud

Behold him in this state calamitous, and turn
His labours, for thou canst, to peaceful end.
But who is this? what thing of sea or land? 710
Female of sex it seems,

That so bedeck'd, ornate, and gay,

Comes this way sailing

Like a stately ship

Of Tarsus, bound for th' isles

Of Javan or Gadire,

With all her bravery on, and tackle trim,

Sails fill'd, and streamers waving,

710 who is this]

'Sed hic quis est, quem huc advenientem conspicor, Suam qui undantem chlamydem quassando facit ?' Plauti Epid. act. iii. sc. 3.

714

715

a stately ship] This passage may be well illustrated by a quotation from a Sermon called Wilkinson's 'Merchant Royall,' preached at the nuptials of the Lord Hay, in 1607, 4to. The text is from Proverbs, xxxi. 14. She is like a Merchants shippe, she bringeth her foode from afarre! "But

of all qualities, a woman must not have one quality of a ship, and that is, too much rigging. Oh! what a wonder it is to see a ship under saile, with her tacklings and her masts, and her tops, and her top-gallants, with her upper deckes, and her nether deckes, and so bedeckt with her streamers, flags, and ensignes, and I know not what; yea, but a world of wonders it is to see a woman created in God's image, so miscreate oft times and deformed with her French, her Spanish, and her foolish fashions, that he that made her, when hee lookes upon her, shall hardlie know her, with her plumes, her fannes, and a silken vizard, with a ruffe like a saile, yea, a ruffe like a rainebow, with a feather in her cap, like a flag in her top, to tell, I think, which way the winde will blowe." P. 15.

Courted by all the winds that hold them play, An amber scent of odorous perfume

Her harbinger, a damsel train behind;

Some rich Philistian matron she may seem,
And now, at nearer view, no other certain
Than Dalila thy wife.

720

SAMS. My wife, my traitress! let her not come [thee fix'd,

near me.

CHOR. Yet on she moves, now stands and eyes About t' have spoke, but now, with head declin'd, Like a fair flow'r surcharg'd with dew, she weeps, And words address'd seem into tears dissolv'd, Wetting the borders of her silken veil :

But now again she makes address to speak..

730

DAL. With doubtful feet and wavering resolution I came, still dreading thy displeasure, Samson, Which to have merited, without excuse,

I cannot but acknowledge; yet if tears
May expiate, though the fact more evil drew
In the perverse event than I foresaw,

735

My penance hath not slacken'd, though my pardon
No way assur'd but conjugal affection,
Prevailing over fear and timorous doubt,
Hath led me on, desirous to behold

Once more thy face, and know of thy estate,
If aught in my ability may serve

720 amber] Sylvester's Du Bartas (1621), p. 311.

Soft carpet knights all senting musk and amber.'

Todd.

728 Like] Virg. En. ix. 436. Hom. 11. viii. 306.

740