[6-text p 258]
By verray force / at Gazan / on a nyght
Maugree Philistiens of that Citee
The gates of the toun / he hath vp plyght
And on his bak. ycaryed hem hath hee
Line 3240
Hye on an hill / þat men myghte hem see
O noble almyghty Sampson / lief and deere
Had thou nat toold / to wommen thy secree
In all this world / ne hadde been thy peere
Line 3244
This Sampson / neuere Ciser drank ne wyn
Ne on his heed / cam rasour noon ne sheere
By precept of the Messager diuyn
ffor alle hise strengthes / in hise heeres weere
Line 3248
And fully twenty wynter yeer by yeere
He / hadde of Israel the gouernance
But soone / shal he wepe many a teere
ffor wommen / shal hym bryngen to meschance
Line 3252
Vn-to his lemman Dalida he tolde
That in hise heeris / al his strengthe lay
And falsly to hise foomen / she hym solde
¶ And slepynge in hir barm / vp-on a day [folio 174a]
Line 3256
She made to clippe / or shere / hise heres away
And made hise foomen / al this craft espyen
And whan þat they / hym foond in this array
They bounde hym faste / and putten out hise eyen
Line 3260
But er his heer/ were clipped or yshaue
Ther was no boond / with which men myghte him bynde
But now is he / in prison in a Caue
Where as they made hym / at the Queerne grynde
Line 3264
O noble Sampson / strongest of mankynde
O whilom / Iuge in glorie and in richesse
Now maystow wepen / with thyne eyen blynde
Sith thou fro wele / art falle in wrecchednesse
Line 3268
