_Samson._ Fair days have oft contracted wind and rain.
_Chorus._ But this another kind of tempest brings.
_Samson._ Be less abstruse; my riddling days are past.
_Chorus._ Look now for no enchanting voice, nor fear 1065 The bait of honied words; a rougher tongue Draws hitherward; I know him by his stride, The giant Harapha of Gath, his look Haughty, as is his pile high-built and proud. Comes he in peace? what wind hath blown him hither 1070 I less conjecture than when first I saw The sumptuous Dalila floating this way: His habit carries peace, his brow defiance.
_Samson._ Or peace or not, alike to me he comes.
_Chorus._ His fraught we soon shall know: he now arrives. 1075
_Harapha._ I come not, Samson, to condole thy chance, As these perhaps, yet wish it had not been, Though for no friendly intent. I am of Gath; Men call me Harapha, of stock renowned As Og, or Anak, and the Emims old 1080 That Kiriathaim held. Thou know'st me now, If thou at all art known. Much I have heard Of thy prodigious might and feats performed, Incredible to me,—in this displeased, That I was never present on the place 1085 Of those encounters, where we might have tried Each other's force in camp or listed field; And now am come to see of whom such noise Hath walked about, and each limb to survey, If thy appearance answer loud report. 1090
_Samson._ The way to know were not to see, but taste.
_Harapha._ Dost thou already single me? I thought Gyves and the mill had tamed thee. Oh, that fortune Had brought me to the field, where thou art famed To have wrought such wonders with an ass's jaw! 1095 I should have forced thee soon with other arms, Or left thy carcass where the ass lay thrown; So had the glory of prowess been recovered To Palestine, won by a Philistine From the unforeskinned race, of whom thou bear'st 1100 The highest name for valiant acts; that honour, Certain to have won by mortal duel from thee, I lose, prevented by thy eyes put out.
_Samson._ Boast not of what thou would'st have done, but do What then thou would'st; thou seest it in thy hand. 1105
_Harapha._ To combat with a blind man I disdain, And thou hast need much washing to be touched.
_Samson._ Such usage as your honourable lords Afford me, assassinated and betrayed; Who durst not with their whole united powers 1110 In fight withstand me single and unarmed, Nor in the house with chamber-ambushes Close-banded durst attack me, no, not sleeping, Till they had hired a woman with their gold, Breaking her marriage-faith, to circumvent me. 1115 Therefore, without feigned shifts, let be assigned Some narrow place enclosed, where sight may give thee, Or rather flight, no great advantage on me; Then put on all thy gorgeous arms, thy helmet And brigandine of brass, thy broad habergeon, 1120 Vant-brace and greaves and gauntlet; add thy spear, A weaver's beam, and seven-times-folded shield: I only with an oaken staff will meet thee, And raise such outcries on thy clattered iron, Which long shall not withhold me from thy head, 1125 That in a little time while breath remains thee, Thou oft shalt wish thyself at Gath, to boast Again in safety what thou would'st have done To Samson, but shalt never see Gath more.