The Complete Poetry of John Milton (151 page)

   865     
With hard contest: at length that grounded maxim

               
So rife and celebrated in the mouths

Of wisest men; that to the public good

               
Private respects must yield; with grave authority

               
Took full possession of me and prevail’d;

   870     
Vertue, as I thought, truth, duty so enjoyning.

           
      
       
Samson.
I thought where all thy circling wiles would end;

               
In feign’d Religion, smooth hypocrisie.

               
But had thy love, still odiously pretended,

               
Bin, as it ought, sincere, it would have taught thee

   875     
Far other reasonings, brought forth other deeds.

               
I before all the daughters of my Tribe

               
And of my Nation chose thee from among

               
My enemies, lov’d thee, as too well thou knew’st,

               
Too well, unbosom’d all my secrets to thee,

   880     
Not only of levity, but over-power’d

               
By thy request, who could deny thee nothing;

               
Yet now am judg’d an enemy. Why then

               
Didst thou at first receive me for thy husband?

               
Then, as since then, thy countries foe profest:

   885     
Being once a wife, for me thou wast to leave

               
Parents and countrey; nor was I their subject,

               
Nor under their protection but my own,

               
Thou mine, not theirs: if aught against my life

               
Thy countrey sought of thee, it sought unjustly,

   890     
Against the law of nature, law of nations,

               
No more thy countrey, but an impious crew

               
Of men conspiring to uphold thir state

               
By worse then hostile deeds, violating th’ ends

               
For which our countrey is a name so dear;

   895     
Not therefore to be obey’d. But zeal mov’d thee;

               
To please thy gods thou didst it; gods unable

               
To acquit themselves and prosecute their foes

               
But by ungodly deeds, the contradiction

               
Of their own deity, Gods cannot be:

   900     
Less therefore to be pleas’d, obey’d, or fear’d;

               
These false pretexts and varnish’d colours failing,

               
Bare in thy guilt how foul must thou appear!

           
      
       
Dalila.
In argument with men a woman ever

               
Goes by the worse, whatever be her cause.

   905  
      
       
Samson
, For want of words no doubt, or lack of breath,

               
Witness when I was worried with thy peals.
⁷⁸

           
      
       
Dalila.
I was a fool, too rash, and quite mistaken

               
In what I thought would have succeeded best.

               
Let me obtain forgiveness of thee,
Samson
,

   910     
Afford me place to shew what recompence

               
Towards thee I intend for what I have misdone,

               
Misguided; only what remains past cure

               
Bear not too sensibly,
⁷⁹
nor still insist

               
T’ afflict thy self in vain: though sight be lost,

   915     
Life yet hath many solaces, enjoy’d

               
Where other senses want
⁸⁰
not their delights

               
At home in leisure and domestic ease,

               
Exempt from many a care and chance to which

               
Eye-sight exposes daily men abroad.

   920     
I to the Lords will intercede, not doubting

               
Thir favourable ear, that I may fetch thee

               
From forth this loathsom prison-house, t’ abide

               
With me, where my redoubl’d love and care

               
With nursing diligence, to me glad office,

   925     
May ever tend about thee to old age

               
With all things grateful chear’d, and so suppli’d,

               
That what by me thou hast lost thou least shalt miss.

           
      
       
Samson.
No, no, of my condition take no care;

               
It fits not; thou and I long since are twain;

   930     
Nor think me so unwary or accurst

               
To bring my feet again into the snare

               
Where once I have been caught; I know thy trains

               
Though dearly to my cost, thy ginns, and toyls;
⁸¹

               
Thy fair enchanted cup, and warbling charms

   935     
No more on me have power, their force is null’d,

               
So much of Adders wisdom I have learn’t
⁸²

               
To fence my ear against thy sorceries.

               
If in my flower of youth and strength, when all men

               
Lov’d, honour’d, fear’d me, thou alone could hate me

   940     
Thy Husband, slight me, sell me, and forgo me;

               
How wouldst thou use me now, blind, and thereby

               
Deceiveable, in most things as a child

               
Helpless, thence easily contemn’d, and scorn’d,

               
And last neglected? How wouldst thou insult

   945     
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

   950     
To thine whose doors my feet shall never enter.

           
      
       
Dalila.
Let me approach at least, and touch thy hand.

           
      
       
Samson.
Not for thy life, lest fierce remembrance wake

               
My sudden rage to tear thee joint by joint.

               
At distance I forgive thee, go with that;

   955     
Bewail thy falshood, and the pious works

               
It hath brought forth to make thee memorable

               
Among illustrious women, faithful wives:

               
Cherish thy hast’n’d widowhood with the gold

               
Of Matrimonial treason: so farewel.

   960  
      
       
Dalila.
I see thou art implacable, more deaf

               
To prayers, then winds and seas, yet winds to seas

               
Are reconcil’d at length, and Sea to Shore:

               
Thy anger, unappeasable, still rages,

               
Eternal tempest never to be calm’d.

   965     
Why do I humble thus my self, and suing

               
For peace, reap nothing but repulse and hate?

               
Bid go with evil omen and the brand

               
Of infamy upon my name denounc’t?

               
To mix with thy concernments I desist

   970     
Henceforth, nor too much disapprove my own.

               
Fame if not double-fac’t is double-mouth’d,

               
And with contrary blast proclaims most deeds,

               
On both his wings, one black, the other white,

               
Bears greatest names in his wild aerie flight.

   975     
My name perhaps among the Cireumcis’d

               
In
Dan
, in
Judah
, and the bordering Tribes,

               
To all posterity may stand defam’d,

               
With malediction mention’d, and the blot

               
Of falshood most unconjugal traduc’t.

   980     
But in my countrey where I most desire,

               
In
Ecron, Gaza, Asdod
, and in
Gath
⁸³

               
I shall be nam’d among the famousest

               
Of Women, sung at solemn festivals,

               
Living and dead recorded, who to save

   985     
Her countrey from a fierce destroyer, chose

               
Above the faith of wedlock-bands, my tomb

               
With odours
⁸⁴
visited and annual flowers,

               
Not less renown’d then in Mount
Ephraim
,

               
Jael
, who with inhospitable guile

   990     
Smote
Sisera
sleeping through the Temples nail’d.
⁸⁵

               
Nor shall I count it hainous to enjoy

               
The public marks of honour and reward

               
Conferr’d upon me, for the piety

               
Which to my countrey I was judg’d t’ have shewn.

   995     
At this who ever envies or repines

               
I leave him to his lot, and like my own.

           
      
       
Chorus.
She’s gone, a manifest Serpent by her sting

               
Discover’d in the end, till now conceal’d.

           
      
       
Samson.
So let her go, God sent her to debase me,

   1000   
And aggravate my folly who committed

               
To such a viper his most sacred trust

               
Of secresie, my safety, and my life.

            
      
       
Chorus.
Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange power,

               
After offence returning, to regain

   1005   
Love once possest, nor can be easily

               
Repuls’t, without much inward passion felt

               
And secret sting of amorous remorse.

            
      
       
Samson.
Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end,

               
Not wedlock-trechery endangering life.

   1010
      
       
Chorus.
It is not vertue, wisdom, valour, wit,

               
Strength, comliness of shape, or amplest merit

               
That womans love can win or long inherit;
⁸⁶

               
But what it is, hard is to say,

               
Harder to hit,

   1015   
(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 preferr’d