When to their sports they turn'd. Immediately Was Samson as a public servant brought, 1615 1620 In their state livery clad; before him pipes At length for intermission sake they led him With both his arms on those two massy pillars, 1645 I mean to show you of my strength, yet greater; He tugg'd, he shook, till down they came and drew 1655 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 1665 Of dire necessity, whose law in death conjoin'd Thee with thy slaughter'd foes in number more Than all thy life had slain before. 1670 [sublime, 1. SEMICHOR. While their hearts were jocund and Drunk with idolatry, drunk with wine, And fat regorg'd 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 frenzy sent, And urged them on with mad desire 1675 1680 Their own destruction to come speedy upon them. So fond are mortal men Fall'n into wrath divine, As their own ruin on themselves to invite, And with blindness internal struck. 2. SEMICHOR. But he, though blind of sight, Despis'd and thought extinguish'd quite, With inward eyes illuminated, His fiery virtue rous'd From under ashes into sudden flame, 1685 1690 Like that self-begotten bird 1689 inward] H. More, Song of the Soul 1642. c. iii. st. 9. 'Our inward eyes that they be nothing bright.' 1095 villatic] Plin. lib. xxiii. sect. 17. 'Villaticas alites.' Richardson. In the Arabian woods imbost, That no second knows nor third, And lay ere while a holocaust, From out her ashy womb now teem'd, And though her body die, her fame survives 1700 1705 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 1710 Fully reveng'd, hath left them years of mourning, 1720 1725 1700 imbost] Sandy's Psalms, p. 65. Lord! as the hart imbost with heat.' Quarles's Emblems, p. 290, 'imbost doth fly. Marino's Slaugh. of the Innocents, p. 61. Whiting's Albino and Bellama, p. 107. Soak'd in his enemies' blood, and from the stream With lavers pure and cleansing herbs wash off The clotted gore. I with what speed the while, Gaza is not in plight to say us nay, Will send for all my kindred, all my friends, 1730 To fetch him hence, and solemnly attend With silent obsequy and funeral train 1735 Home to his father's house: there will I build him What th' unsearchable dispose Of highest wisdom brings about, And ever best found in the close. Oft he seems to hide his face, 1733 Home] See Par. Reg. iv. 638. Home to his mother's house private return'd.' 1740 high] Hawes's Past. of Pleasure, 1554. ch. xxxii. Right high aduentures unto you shall fall.' 1740 1745 1750 Todd. |