One virtuous rarely found,

That in domestic good combines:

Happy that house! his way to peace is smooth.
But virtue which breaks through all opposition,
And all temptation can remove,

Most shines and most is acceptable above.
Therefore God's universal law

jave to the man despotic power
Over his female in due awe,

Not from that right to part an hour,

Smile she or lour:

So shall he least confusion draw
On his whole life, not sway'd

By female usurpation, or dismay'd.

But had we best retire. I see a storm?

Sums. Fair days have oft contracted wind and rain Chor. But this another kind of tempest brings. Sams. Be less abstruse, my riddling days are past. Chor. Look now for no enchanting voice, nor fear The bait of honied words; a rougher tongue Draws hitherwards, 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 than when first I saw

The sumptuous Dalila floating this way:

His habit carries peace, his brow defiance.

Sams. Or peace or not, alike to me he comes. Chor His fraught we soon shall know, he now arrives.

Har. 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 know'st me now
If thou at all art known. Much I have heard
Of thy prodigious might and feats perform'd

L*

Incredible to me, in this displeas'd

That I was never present on the place

Of those encounters, where we might have tried
Each other's 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.

Sams. The way to know were not to see but taste.
Har. Dost thou already single me? I thought
Gyves 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 ass' jaw;
I should have forc'd thee soon wish other arms,
Or left thy carcass where the ass lay thrown:
So had the glory of prowess been recover'd
To Palestine, won by a Philistine

From the unforeskin'd race, of whom thou bear'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.

Sams. Boast not of what thou would'st have done, but do

What then thou wouldst, thou seest it in thy hand
Hur. To combat with a blind man I disdain,
And thou hast need much washing to be touch'd.
Sams. Such usage as your honourable lords
Afford me, assassinated and betray'd,
Who durst not with their whole united powers
In fight withstand me single and unarm❜d,
Nor in the house with chamber ambushes
Close-banded durst attack 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 greaves, and guantlet, add thy spear.
A weaver's beam, and seven-times-folded shield,
I only with an oaken staff will meet thee
And raise such outcries on thy clatter'd iron,
Which long shall not withhold me from thy head.
That in a little time while breath remains thee,
Thou oft shalt wish thyself at Gath to boast
Again in safety what thou wouldst have done
To Samson, but shalt never see Gath more.
Har. Thou durst not thus disparage glorious arms
Which greatest heroes have in battle worn,
Their ornament and safety, had not spells
And black enchantments, some magician's art
Armed thee, or charmed thee strong which thou from
heaven

Feign'dst at thy birth was given 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'd wild boars, or ruffled porcupines.

Sams. 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,
Than 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.
Har. Presume not on thy God, whate'er he be,
Thee he regards not, owns not, }.ath cut off
Quite from his people, and deliver'd up

to 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 boist'rous locks, no worthy match
For valour to assail, nor by the sword
Of noble warrior, so to stain his honour,
But by the barber's razor best subdued.

Sams. 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

- Defy thee to the trial of mortal fight,

By combat to decide whose god is God.
Thine, or whom I with Israel's sons adore.

Har. Fair honour that thou dost thy God, in trusting
He will accept thee to defend his cause,
A murderer, a revolter, and a robber.

Sams. Tongue-doughty Giant how dost thou prove me these?

Har. Is not thy nation subject to our lords? Their magistrates confess'd 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 Ascalon, who never did thee harm,

Then like a robber stripp'dst them of their robes?
The Philistines, when thou had'st broke the league.
Went up with armed powers thee only seeking,
To others did no violence nor spoil.

Sams. Among the daughters of the Philistines
I chose a wife, which argued 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 threat'ning cruel death constrain'd the brida
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, wherever chanc'd
I us'd hostility, and took their spoil
To pay my underminers in their 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 country,
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 country; if their servile minds
Me their deliverer sent would not receive,
But to their masters gave me up for naught,
Th' unworthier they; whence to this day they serve.
I was to do my part from heaven assign'd,
And had perform'd it if my known offence
Had not disabled 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 enterprize of small enforce.

Har. With thee a man condemn'd, a slave enroll'd Due by the law to capital punishment?

To fight with thee no man of arms will deign.
Sams. Cam'st thou for this, vain boaster to sur
vey me,

To descant on my strength, and give thy verdict?
Come nearer, part not hence so slight inform'd;
But take good heed my hand survey not thee.
Har. O Baal-zebub! can my ears unus'd
Hear these dishonours, and not render death?
Sams. No man withholds thee, nothing from thy
band