With goodness principled not to reject 760 765 DAL. Yet hear me, Samson; not that I endeavour To lessen or extenuate my offence; But that, on the other side, if it be weigh'd By itself, with aggravations not surcharged, The easier towards me, or thy hatred less. To publish them, both common female faults; For importunity, that is, for naught, Wherein consisted all thy strength and safety? To what I did thou show'dst me first the way. 770 775 780 Let weakness then with weakness come to parle, Nor shouldst thou have trusted that to woman's frailty: So near related, or the same of kind, 785 Thine forgive mine; that men may censure thine More strength from me than in thyself was found. 790 In human hearts, nor less in mine towards thee, Of fancy, fear'd lest one day thou wouldst leave me As her at Timna, sought by all means therefore 795 How to endear, and hold thee to me firmest: 800 805 alienated wife; since their re-union not | pathetic lines strike me as a forcible allu only disquieted his days, but gave birth |sion to his own connubial infelicity.to daughters who seem to have inherited HAYLEY. Mine and love's prisoner, not the Philistines'; Fearless at home of partners in my love. These reasons in love's law have pass'd for good, Though fond and reasonless to some perhaps; And love hath oft, well meaning, wrought much woe, Yet always pity or pardon hath obtain❜d. Be not unlike all others, not austere As thou art strong, inflexible as steel. If thou in strength all mortals dost exceed, In uncompassionate anger do not so. SAMS. How cunningly the sorceress displays Take to thy wicked deed; which when thou seest Thou wilt renounce thy seeking, and much rather 810 815 820 825 830 Philistian gold: if weakness may excuse, All wickedness is weakness: that plea therefore 635 To satisfy thy lust: love seeks to have love; My love how couldst thou hope, who took'st the way Knowing, as needs I must, by thee betray'd? 840 In vain thou striv'st to cover shame with shame, Or by evasions thy crime uncover'st more. DAL. Since thou determinest weakness for no plea In man or woman, though to thy own condemning, Which might have awed the best-resolved of men, It was not gold, as to my charge thou lay'st, 845 That wrought with me: thou know'st, the magistrates 850 825. Such pardon, &c. These sentiments of self-condemnation are expressed with wonderful dignity, reflecting all the noble and resolute virtue of the 855 poet's own highly-principled mind.— DUNSTER. 850. Thou know'st, &c. See Judges xvi. 5. A common enemy, who had destroy'd To oppose against such powerful arguments? 860 Of wisest men, that-To the publick good And combated in silence all these reasons With hard contést: at length, that grounded maxim, 865 So rife and celebrated in the mouths Private respects must yield-with grave authority Took full possession of me, and prevail'd; 870 SAMS. I thought where all thy circling wiles would end; But had thy love, still odiously pretended, Far other reasonings, brought forth other deeds. 875 Virtue, as I thought, truth, duty, so enjoining, In feign'd religion, smooth hypocrisy! Been, as it ought, sincere, it would have taught thee I, before all the daughters of my tribe My enemies, loved thee, as too well thou knew'st; By thy request, who could deny thee nothing; Thou mine, not theirs: if aught against my life By worse than hostile deeds; violating the ends 857. And the priest, &c. The charac ter of the priest, which makes a conspi cuous figure here, is the poet's own addition to the scriptural account. It is obviously a satire on the ministers of the church.-DUNSTER. But have not "ministers of the church" in no small numbers, been found, in all ages, apologists for wrong? Did not the abolition of the slave-trade by England find some of its strongest opponents among the bishops in the House of Lords? And who have exerted a greater influence in our own country, in apologizing for and sustaining our own iniquitous system of slavery, than many "ministers," of all denominations, both North and South. 867. That to the publick good 880 885 890 Private respects must yield. How ingenious has the great Adversary of souls been, in all ages, in suggesting to men arguments that would quiet their consciences in the perpetration of crime! So in our own day it has been blasphemously asserted by thousands high in position and influence, that a man is bound to obey an infamous law of the land, however his conscience may tell him it conflicts with the "higher law" of God. 885. Being once a wife, &c. Here seems again an allusion to the poet's own case, with reference to the cause of the Parlia mentarians against that of the king, to which his wife was attached.-BRYDGES. For which our country is a name so dear; Less therefore to be pleased, obey'd, or fear'd. These false pretexts and varnish'd colours failing, Goes by the worse, whatever be her cause. 895 900 SAMS. For want of words no doubt, or lack of breath: 905 Witness when I was worried with thy peals. DAL. I was a fool, too rash, and quite mistaken In what I thought would have succeeded best. To afflict thyself in vain: though sight be lost, Where other senses want not their delights I to the lords will intercede, not doubting 910 915 920 May ever tend about thee to old age 925 With all things grateful cheer'd, and so supplied, That, what by me thou hast lost, thou least shalt miss. It fits not; thou and I long since are twain: Where once I have been caught: I know thy trains, No more on me have power; their force is null'd; If in my flower of youth and strength, when all men Helpless, thence easily contemn'd, and scorn'd, 936. Adder's wisdom, alluding to Ps. lviii. 4, 5. 930 935 940 And last neglected! How wouldst thou insult, In perfect thraldom; how again betray me, To thine, whose doors my feet shall never enter. DAL. I see thou art implacable, more deaf 945 950 955 980 985 Above the faith of wedlock-bands; my tomb Not less renown'd than in Mount Ephraim Smote Sisera sleeping, through the temples nail'd. Glory.-DUNSTER. 990 973. On both his wings. I do not recol- | Infamy, and another from Victory or lect any instance of Fame having two wings of different colours assigned by any of the Roman poets. Milton seems to have equipped his deity very characteristically, by borrowing one wing from 989. Jael is celebrated in the noble song of Deborah and Barak, Judges v See also, Judges iv. 5. |