The morning trumpets festival proclaimed Through each high street: little I had despatched, When all abroad was rumoured that this day Samson should be brought forth, to show the people Proof of his mighty strength in feats and games; I sorrowed 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 filled their hearts with mirth, high cheer, and wine, When to their sports they turned. 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, cataphracts1 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 assayed, To heave, pull, draw, or break, he still performed All with incredible, stupendous force, None daring to appear antagonist.
At length for intermission sake they led him Between the pillars; he his guide requested (For so from such as nearer stood we heard), As overtired, to let him lean awhile
With both his arms on those two massy pillars, That to the archéd roof gave main support. He, unsuspicious, led him; which when Samson Felt in his arms, with head awhile inclined, And eyes fast fixed, he stood, as one who prayed, Or some great matter in his mind revolved: At last, with head erect, thus cried aloud :
1 Men or horses fully equipped.
"Hitherto, lords, what your commands imposed I have performed, 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 uttered, straining all his nerves he bowed, As with the force of winds and waters pent, When mountains tremble, those two massy pillars With horrible convulsion to and fro
He tugged, 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 immixed, inevitably Pulled down the same destruction on himself; The vulgar only 'scaped who stood without.
Oh, dearly bought revenge, yet glorious!
Living or dying thou hast fulfilled
The work for which thou wast foretold To Israel, and now liest victorious
Among thy slain, self-killed,
Not willingly, but tangled in the fold
Of dire necessity, whose law in death conjoined Thee with thy slaughtered foes in number more Than all thy life had slain before.1
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 frenzy 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 importuned
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.
But he, though blind of sight, Despised and thought extinguished quite, With inward eyes illuminated,
His fiery virtue roused
From under ashes into sudden flame; And as an evening dragon came,
Assailant on the perchéd 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,
Depressed, and overthrown, as seemed,
Like that self-begotten bird,
In the Arabian woods imbost,2
That no second knows nor third,
And lay erewhile a holocaust,
From out her ashy womb now teemed,
Revives, reflourishes, then vigorous most
When most unactive deemed,
And though her body die, her fame survives, A secular bird, ages of lives.
Come, come! no time for lamentation now; Nor much more cause; Samson hath quit himself Like Samson, and heroically hath finished
A life heroic, on his enemies
Fully revenged, hath left them years of mourning And lamentation to the sons of Caphtor3
Through all Philistian bounds; to Israel Honour hath left, and freedom, let but them
1 Barn-door, farm house fowls.
2 Concealed, covered. Johnson is very sharp upon our author for the incongruity of this allusion to the Phoenix. No. 140.
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 feared, 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 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, To fetch him hence, and solemnly attend With silent obsequy and funeral train
Home to his father's house: there will I build him A monument, and plant it round with shade Of laurel ever green, and branching palm, With all his trophies hung, and acts enrolled In copious legend, or sweet lyric song. Thither shall all the valiant youth resort, And from his memory inflame their breasts To matchless valour, and adventures high; The virgins also shall, on feastful days, Visit his tomb with flowers, only bewailing His lot unfortunate in nuptial choice, From whence captivity and loss of eyes.
All is best, though we oft doubt, What the unsearchable dispose Of highest wisdom brings about, And ever best found in the close. Oft he seems to hide his face, But unexpectedly returns,
And to his faithful champion hath in place Bore witness gloriously; whence Gaza mourns, And all that band them to resist
His uncontrollable intent;
His servants he, with new acquist
1 See Judges xvi. 31.
2 Acquisition.
Of true experience from this great event, With peace and consolation hath dismissed, And calm of mind all passion spent.1
1 On the conclusion of this tragedy, Dr. Johnson has the following remarks:-"While Samson is conducted off by the messenger, his father returns with hopes of success in his solicitation; upon which he confers with the chorus till their dialogue is interrupted, first by a shout, and afterwards by screams of horror and agony. As they stand deliberating where they shall be secure, a man who had been present at the show enters, and relates how Samson, having prevailed on his guide to suffer him to lean against the main pillars of the theatrical edifice, tore down the roof upon the spectators and himself. This is undoubtedly a just and regular catastrophe, and the poem therefore has a beginning and an end which Aristotle himself could not have disapproved; but it must be allowed to want a middle, since nothing passes between the first act and the last, that either hastens or delays the death of Samson. The whole drama, if its superfluities were cut off, would scarcely fill a single act; yet this is the tragedy, which ignorance has admired, and bigotry applauded."-Rambler, No. 139.
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