For evil news rides post, while good news bates.
And to our wish I see one hither speeding,
An Hebrew, as I guess, and of our tribe.

Enter Messenger.

Mess. O whither shall I run, or which way fly
The sight of this so horrid spectacle,

Which erst my eyes beheld, and yet behold?
For dire imagination still pursues me.

But Providence or instinct of nature seems,
Or reason though disturb'd, and scarce consulted,
To have guided me aright, I know not how,
To thee first, reverend Manoah, and to these
My countrymen, whom here I knew remaining,
As at some distance from the place of horror,
Though in the sad event too much concern'd.
Man. The accident was loud, and here before thee
With rueful cry, yet what it was we hear not;
No preface needs, thou seest we long to know.
Mess. It would burst forth, but I recover breath
And sense distract, to know well what I utter.
Man. Tell us the sum, the circumstance defer.
Mess. Gaza yet stands, but all her sons are fallen,
All in a moment overwhelm'd and fallen.

Man. Sad, but thou know'st to Israelites not saddest,

The desolation of a hostile city.

Mess. Feed on that first; there may in grief be

The sorrow, and converts it nigh to joy.
Mess. Ah! Manoah, I refrain too suddenly
To utter what will come at last too soon;
Lest evil tidings with too rude irruption
Hitting thy aged ear should pierce too deep.

Man. Suspense in news is torture, speak them out.
Mess. Take then the worst in brief: Samson is

dead.

Man. The worst indeed: O all my hopes defeated To free him hence! but death, who sets all free, Hath paid his ransom now and full discharge, What windy joy this day had I conceived Hopeful of his delivery, which now proves Abortive as the first-born bloom of spring Nipt with the lagging rear of winter's frost ! Yet ere I give the reins to grief, say first, How died he; death to life is crown or shame. All by him fell, thou say'st; by whom fell he? What glorious hand gave Samson his death's wound? Mess. Unwounded of his enemies he fell.

Man. Wearied with slaughter then, or how? ex

plain.

Mess. By his own hands.

Man.

Self-violence! what cause Brought him so soon at variance with himself Among his foes?

At once both to destroy, and be destroy'd;
The edifice where all were met to see him,
Upon their heads and on his own he pull'd.

Man. O lastly over-strong against thyself!
A dreadful way thou took'st to thy revenge.
More than enough we know; but while things yet
Are in confusion, give us, if thou canst,
Eye-witness of what first or last was done,
Relation more particular and distinct.

Mess. Occasions drew me early to this city; And, as the gates I enter'd with sun-rise, The morning trumpets festival proclaim'd Through each high street: little I had despatch'd, When all abroad was rumour'd that this day Samson should be brought forth, to show the people Proof of his mighty strength in feats and games; I sorrow'd at his captive state, but minded Not to be absent at that spectacle.

The building was a spacious theatre

Half round, on two main pillars vaulted high,
With seats where all the lords, and each degree
Of sort, might sit in order to behold;

The other side was open, where the throng
On banks and scaffolds under sky might stand;
I among these aloof obscurely stood.

The feast and noon grew high, and sacrifice

Had fill'd their hearts with mirth, high cheer, and wine,

When to their sports they turn'd. Immediately
Was Samson as a public servant brought,

In their state livery clad; before him pipes,
And timbrels, on each side went armed guards,
Both horse and foot, before him and behind
Archers and slingers, cataphracts and spears.
At sight of him the people with a shout
Rifted the air, clamouring their god with praise,
Who had made their dreadful enemy their thrall.
He, patient, but undaunted, where they led him,
Came to the place; and what was set before him,
Which without help of eye might be assay'd,
To heave, pull, draw, or break, he still perform'd
All with incredible, stupendous force;

None daring to appear antagonist.

At length for intermission's sake they led him
Between the pillars; he his guide requested
(For so from such as nearer stood we heard)
As over-tired to let him lean a while

With both his arms on those two massy pillars,
That to the arched roof gave main support.
He, unsuspicious, led him; which when Samson
Felt in his arms, with head a while inclined,
And eyes fast fix'd he stood as one, who pray'd,
Or some great matter in his mind revolved:
At last with head erect thus cried aloud,
'Hitherto, lords, what your commands imposed
I have perform'd, as reason was, obeying,
Not without wonder or delight beheld:
Now of my own accord such other trial

I mean to show you of my strength, yet greater,
As with amaze shall strike all who behold.'
This utter'd, straining all his nerves, he bow'd,
As, with the force of winds and waters pent,
When mountains tremble: those two massy pillars

With horrible convulsion to and fro

He tugg'd, he shook, till down they came, and drew
The whole roof after them, with burst of thunder
Upon the heads of all who sat beneath,

Lords, ladies, captains, counsellors, or priests,
Their choice nobility and flower, not only
Of this, but each Philistian city round,
Met from all parts to solemnize this feast.
Samson, with these immix'd, inevitably
Pull'd down the same destruction on himself;
The vulgar only 'scaped, who stood without.
Chor. O dearly bought revenge, yet glorious!
Living or dying thou hast fulfill'd

The work for which thou wast foretold
To Israel, and now liest victorious

Among thy slain self-kill'd,

Not willingly, but tangled in the fold

Of dire necessity, whose law in death conjoin'd Thee with thy slaughter'd foes, in number more Than all thy life hath slain before.

1 Semichor. While their hearts were jocund and
sublime,

Drunk with idolatry, drunk with wine,
And fat regorged of bulls and goats,
Chanting their idol, and preferring
Before our living Dread who dwells
In Silo, his bright sanctuary;

Among them he a spirit of phrensy sent,
Who hurt their minds,

And urged them on with mad desire
To call in haste for their destroyer;

They, only set on sport and play,

Unweetingly impórtuned

Their own destruction to come speedy upon them. So fond are mortal men,

Fallen into wrath divine,

As their own ruin on themselves to invite,

Insensate left, or to sense reprobate,

And with blindness internal struck.

2 Semichor. But he, though blind of sight,

Despised, and thought extinguish'd quite,
With inward eyes illuminated,
His fiery virtue roused

From under ashes into sudden flame;
And as an evening dragon came,

Assailant on the perched roosts
And nests in order ranged

Of tame villatic fowl; but as an eagle

His cloudless thunder bolted on their heads.
So virtue, given for lost,

Depress'd, and overthrown, as seem'd,

Like that self-begotten bird

In the Arabian woods embost,

That no second knows, nor third,

And lay erewhile a holocaust,

From out her ashy womb now teem'd,

Revives, reflourishes, then vigorous most

When most unactive deem'd;

And though her body die, her fame survives,

A secular bird, ages of lives.

Man. Come, come; no time for lamentation now, Nor much more cause; Samson hath quit himself Like Samson, and heroically hath finish'd

A life heroic, on his enemies

Fully revenged; hath left them years of mourning,
And lamentation to the sons of Caphtor
Through all Philistian bounds, to Israël
Honour hath left, and freedom, let but them
Find courage to lay hold on this occasion;
To himself and father's house eternal fame;
And, which is best and happiest yet, all this
With God not parted from him, as was fear'd,
But favouring and assisting to the end.
Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail

Or knock the breast; no weakness, no contempt,
Dispraise, or blame; nothing but well and fair,
And what may quiet us in a death so noble.
Let us go find the body where it lies

Soaked in his enemies' blood; and from the stream,
With lavers pure, and cleansing herbs, wash off