Yet the fourth time, when mustring all her wiles,
  With blandisht parlies, feminine assaults,
  Tongue-batteries, she surceas'd not day nor night
  To storm me over-watch't, and wearied out.
  At times when men seek most repose and rest,
  I yielded, and unlock'd her all my heart,
  Who with a grain of manhood well resolv'd
  Might easily have shook off all her snares:
  But foul effeminacy held me yok't
  Her Bond-slave; O indignity, O blot
  To Honour and Religion! servil mind
  Rewarded well with servil punishment!
  The base degree to which I now am fall'n,
  These rags, this grinding, is not yet so base
  As was my former servitude. ignoble,
  Unmanly, ignominious, infamous,
  True slavery, and that blindness worse then this,
  That saw not how degeneratly I serv'd.
    Man. I cannot praise thy Marriage choises, Son,
  Rather approv'd them not; but thou didst plead
  Divine impulsion prompting how thou might'st
  Find some occasion to infest our Foes.
  I state not that; this I am sure; our Foes
  Found soon occasion thereby to make thee
  Thir Captive, and thir triumph; thou the sooner
  Temptation found'st, or over-potent charms
  To violate the sacred trust of silence
  Deposited within thee; which to have kept
  Tacit, was in thy power; true; and thou hear'st
  Enough, and more the burden of that fault;
  Bitterly hast thou paid, and still art paving
  That rigid score. A worse thing yet remains,
  This day the Philistines a popular Feast
  Here celebrate in Gaza; and proclaim
  Great Pomp, and Sacrifice, and Praises loud
  To Dagon, as their God who hath deliver'd
  Thee Samson bound and blind into thir hands,
  Them out of thine, who slew'st them many a slain.
  So Dagon shall be magnifi'd, and God,
  Besides whom is no God, compar'd with Idols,
  Disglorifi'd, blasphem'd, and had in scorn
  By th' Idolatrous rout amidst thir wine;
  Which to have come to pass by means of thee,
  Samson, of all thy sufferings think the heaviest,
  Of all reproach the most with shame that ever
  Could have befall'n thee and thy Fathers house.
    Sam. Father, I do acknowledge and confess
  That I this honour, I this pomp have brought
  To Dagon, and advanc'd his praises high
  Among the Heathen round; to God have brought
  Dishonour, obloquie, and op't the mouths
  Of Idolists, and Atheists; have brought scandal
  To Israel, diffidence of God, and doubt
  In feeble hearts, propense anough before
  To waver, or fall off and joyn with Idols:
  Which is my chief affliction, shame and sorrow,
  The anguish of my Soul, that suffers not
  Mine eie to harbour sleep, or thoughts to rest.
  This only hope relieves me, that the strife
  With me hath end; all the contest is now
  'Twixt God and Dagon; Dagon hath presum'd,
  Me overthrown, to enter lists with God,
  His Deity comparing and preferring
  Before the God of Abraham. He, be sure,
  Will not connive, or linger, thus provok'd,
  But will arise and his great name assert:
  Dagon must stoop, and shall e're long receive
  Such a discomfit, as shall quite despoil him
  Of all these boasted Trophies won on me,
  And with confusion blank his Worshippers.
    Man. With cause this hope relieves thee, and these words
  I as a Prophecy receive: for God,
  Nothing more certain, will not long defer
  To vindicate the glory of his name
  Against all competition, nor will long
  Endure it, doubtful whether God be Lord,
  Or Dagon. But for thee what shall be done?
  Thou must not in the mean while here forgot
  Lie in this miserable loathsom plight
  Neglected. I already have made way
  To some Philistian Lords, with whom to treat
  About thy ransom: well they may by this
  Have satisfi'd thir utmost of revenge
  By pains and slaveries, worse then death inflicted
  On thee, who now no more canst do them harm.
    Sam. Spare that proposal, Father, spare the trouble
  Of that sollicitation; let me here,
  As I deserve, on my punishment;
  And expiate, possible, my crime,
  Shameful garrulity. To have reveal'd
  Secrets of men, the secrets of a friend,
  How hainous had the fact been, how deserving
  Contempt, and scorn of all, to be excluded
  All friendship, and avoided as a blab,
  The mark of fool set on his front?
  But I Gods counsel have not kept, his holy secret
  Presumptuously have publish'd, impiously,
  Weakly at least, and shamefully: A sin
  That Gentiles in thir Parables condemn
  To thir abyss and horrid pains confin'd.