Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/348

 SAMSON AGONISTES

��And last neglected ! How would'st them

insult,

When I must live uxorious to thy will In perfet thraldom ! how again betray me, Bearing my words and doings to the lords To gloss upon, and, censuring, frown or

smile !

This gaol I count the house of Liberty To thine, whose doors my feet shall never enter. 950

Dal. Let me approach at least, and touch

thy hand.

Sams. Not for thy life, lest fierce remem- brance wake

My sudden rage to tear thee joint by joint. At distance I forgive thee; go with that; Bewail thy falsehood, and the pious works It hath brought forth to make thee mem- orable

Among illustrious women, faithful wives; Cherish thy hastened widowhood with the

gold

Of matrimonial treason: so farewell. Dal. I see thou art implacable, more deaf 960

To prayers than winds and seas. Yet

winds to seas

Are reconciled at length, and sea to shore : Thy anger, unappeasable, still rages, Eternal tempest never to be calmed. Why do I humble thus myself, and, suing For peace, reap nothing but repulse and

hate,

Bid go with evil omen, and the brand Of infamy upon my name denounced ? To mix with thy concernments I desist Henceforth, nor too much disapprove my own. 970

Fame, if not double - faced, is double- mouthed, And with contrary blast proclaims most

deeds; On both his wings, one black, the other

white,

Bears greatest names in his wild aerie flight. My name, perhaps, among the Circumcised In Dan, in Judah, and the bordering Tribes, To all posterity may stand defamed, With malediction mentioned, and the blot Of falsehood most unconjugal traduced. But in my country, where I most desire, 980 In Ecron, Gaza, Asdod, and in Gath, I shall be named among the famousest Of women, sung at solemn festivals, Living and dead recorded, who, to save

��Her country from a fierce destroyer, chose Above the faith of wedlock bands; my tomb With odours visited and annual flowers; Not less renowned than in Mount Ephraim Jael, who, with inhospitable guile, Smote Sisera sleeping, through the temples nailed. 990

Nor shall I count it heinous to enjoy The public marks of honour and reward Conferred upon me for the piety Which to my country I was judged to have

shewn.

At this whoever envies or repines, I leave him to his lot, and like my own. Chor. She 's gone a manifest Serpent

by her sting

Discovered in the end, till now concealed. Sams. So .let her go. God sent her to

debase me,

And aggravate my folly, who committed 1000 To such a viper his most sacred trust Of secrecy, my safety, and my life.

Chor. Yet beauty, though injurious, hath

strange power,

After offence returning, to regain Love once possessed, nor can be easily Repulsed, without much inward passion felt, And secret sting of amorous remorse. Sams. Love-quarrels oft in pleasing con- cord end;

Not wedlock-treachery endangering life. Chor. It is not virtue, wisdom, valour,

wit, ioio

Strength, comeliness of shape, or amplest merit,

That woman's love can win, or long in- herit;

But what it is, hard is to say,

Harder to hit,

Which way soever men refer it,

(Much like thy riddle, Samson) in one day

Or seven though one should musing sit. If any of these, or all, the Timnian bride

Had not so soon preferred

Thy Paranymph, worthless to thee com- pared, 1020

Successor in thy bed,

Nor both so loosely disallied

Their nuptials, nor this last so treacher- ously

Had shorn the fatal harvest of thy head.

Is it for that such outward ornament

Was lavished on their sex, that inward gifts

Were left for haste unfinished, judgment scant,

�� �