Where life and death is; there's not any law

Exceeds his knowledge, neither is it needful

That he should stoop to any other law;

He goes before them, and commands them all,

That to himself is a law rational. GEORGE CHAPMAN.

CHIVALRY.

THE house of Chivalry decayed, Or rather ruined seems, her buildings laid

Flat with the Earth, that were the pride of Time;

Those obelisks and columns broke and down,

That strook the stars, and raised the British Crown

To be a constellation.

When to the structure went more noble names

Than to the Ephesian Temple lost in flames,

When every stone was laid by virtuous hands.

BEN JONSON.

SAMSON AGONISTES.

Samson. -O DARK, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon,

Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse
Without all hope of day!

O first created beam, and thou great
Word,

"Let there be light, and light was over all;"

Why am I thus bereaved thy prime decree?

The sun to me is dark

And silent as the moon,
When she deserts the night,

Hid in her vacant interlunar cave.

Chorus.-This, this is he; softly a while,

Let us not break in upon him; O change beyond report, thought, or belief!

See how he lies at random, carelessly diffused,

With languished head unpropped,
As one past hope, abandoned,
And by himself given over;
In slavish habit, ill-fitted weeds
O'er-worn and soiled;

Or do my eyes misrepresent? can this be he,

That heroic, that renowned, Irresistible Samson? whom unarmed No strength of man or fiercest wild beast could withstand;

Who tore the lion, as the lion tears the kid,

Ran on embattled armies clad in iron,

And, weaponless himself, Made arms ridiculous, useless the forgery

Of brazen shield and spear, the hammered cuirass, Chalybean tempered steel, and frock of mail Adamantëan proof;

But safest he who stood aloof, When insupportably his foot advanced,

In scorn of their proud arms and warlike tools,

Spurned them to death by troops.
The bold Ascalonite
Fled from his lion ramp; old war-
riors turned

Their plated backs under his heel, Or, grovelling, soiled their crested helmets in the dust.

Then with what trivial weapon came to hand,

The jaw of a dead ass, his sword of bone,

A thousand foreskins fell, the flower of Palestine

In Ramath-lechi, famous to this day: Then by main force pulled up, and on his shoulders bore

The gates of Azza, post, and massy bar,

Up to the hill by Hebron, seat of giants old,

No journey of a Sabbath day, and loaded so;

Like whom the Gentiles feign to bear up heaven.

Which shall I first bewail,
Thy bondage or lost sight,
Prison within prison
Inseparably dark?

Horribly loud, unlike the former shout.

Chor. To our wish I see one hither speeding,

An Hebrew, as I guess, and of our tribe.

Messenger.-Gaza yet stands, but all her sons are fallen, All in a moment overwhelmed and fallen.

Occasions drew me early to this city, And as the gates I entered with sunrise,

The morning trumpets festival proclaimed

Through each high-street. Little I had despatched

When all abroad was rumored, 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, cataphracts, and spears.

At sight of him the people with a shout

Rifted the air, clamoring 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 over-tired to let him lean awhile 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 awhile inclined,

And eyes fast fixt he stood, as one who prayed,

Or some great matter in his mind revolved:

At last with head erect thus cried aloud,

66

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,

blind of sight, Despised and thought extinguished quite,

With inward eyes illuminated,
His fiery virtue roused

From under ashes into sudden flame,
Not 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,
Depressed, and overthrown, as
seemed,

Like that self-begotten bird
In the Arabian woods imbost,
That no second knows nor third,
And lay ere while a holocaust,
From out her ashy womb now
teemed,

Revives, reflourishes, then vigorous