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 re

turns.

Off. Samson, this second message from our lords To thee I am bid say. Art thou our slave, Our captive, at the public mill our drudge, And darest thou at our sending and command Dispute thy coming? come without delay; Or we shall find such engines to assail And hamper thee, as thou shalt come of force, Though thou wert firmlier fasten'd than a rock.

Sums. I could be well content to try their art, Which to no few of them would prove pernicious. Yet, knowing their advantages too many,

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?
(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
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 how the sight
Of me, as of a common enemy,

So dreaded once, may now exasperate them,
I know not: lords are lordliest in their wine;
And the well feasted priest then soonest fired

K

With zeal, if aught religion seem concern'd;
No less the people, on their holy days,
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.

Chor. Go, and the Holy One

Of Israel be thy guide

[Exit.

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
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,

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 Manoah in such haste
With youthful steps? much livelier than erewhile
He seems; supposing here to find his son,
Or of him bringing to us some glad news?

Enter MANOAH.

Man. Peace with you, brethren; my inducement hither

Was not at present here to find my son,

By order of the lords now 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.
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.
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,
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,
More generous far and civil, who confess'd
They had enough revenged; having reduced
Their foe to misery beneath their fears,
The rest was magnanimity to remit,
If some convenient ransom were proposed:-
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 ranson, if my whole inheritance May compass it, shall willingly be paid

And number'd 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 fix'd not to part hence without him.
For his redemption all my patrimony,
If need be, I am ready to forego

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;
Sous wont to nurse their parents in old age,
Thou in old age carest 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 the house, ennobled
With all those high exploits by him achieved,
And on his shoulders waving down those locks
That of a nation arm'd the strength contain❜d:
And I persuade me, God had not permitted
His strength again to grow up with his hair,
Garrison'd 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

Useless, and thence ridiculous about him.

And since his strength with eye-sight was not lost, God will restore him eye-sight to his strength. Chor. Thy hopes are not ill founded, nor seem vain

Of his delivery, and thy joy thereon

Conceived, agreeable to a father's love;

In both which we, as next, participate.

Man. I know your friendly minds and-O what noise !

Mercy of Heaven! what hideous noise was that, Horribly loud, unlike the former shout?

Chor. Noise call you it, or universal groan, As if the whole inhabitation perish'd?

Blood, death, and deathful deeds, are in that noise, Ruin, destruction, at the utmost point.

Man. Of ruin indeed; methought I heard the noise :

O! it continues; they have slain my son.

Chor. Thy son is rather slaying them ; that outcry

From slaughter of one foe could not ascend.

Man. Some dismal accident it needs must be :
What shall we do, stay here, or run and see?
Chor. Best keep together here, lest running
thither,

We unawares run into danger's mouth.
This evil on the Philistines is fallen,

From whom could else a general cry be heard?
The sufferers then will scarce molest us here;
From other hands we need not much to fear.
What if, his eye-sight (for to Israel's God
Nothing is hard) by miracle restored,

He now be dealing dole among his foes,
And over heaps of slaughter'd walk his way?
Man. That were a joy presumptuous to be
thought.

Chor. Yet God hath wrought things as incredible For his people of old; what hinders now?

Man. He can, I know, but doubt to think he will; Yet hope would fain subscribe, and tempts belief. A little stay will bring some notice hither.

Chor. Of good or bad so great, of bad the sooner; For evil news rides post, while good news baits. And to our wish I see one hither speeding, An Hebrew, as I guess, and of our tribe.