women who play a part in the tragedy of Samson's life. The woman
who lived among the vineyards of Timnath, whose murder Samson
avenged, was his wife. She was a Philistine, but Samson married her
according to the conventional manner of the time and, also
according to the manner of the time, she kept her home with her
parents after her marriage. Wherefore she has gotten her name in
the good books of the sociological philosophers who uphold the
matronymic theory touching early society. The woman of Gaza whom
Samson visited what time he confounded his would-be captors by
carrying off the doors of the gates of the city was curtly "an
harlot." Of the third woman it is said only that it came to pass
that Samson "loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was
Delilah." Thereupon follows the story of her bribery by the lords
of the Philistines and her betrayal of her lover. Evidently a
licentious woman who could not aspire even to the merit of the
heroine of Dekker's play.

Milton not only accepted the theory of her wifehood, but also
attributed patriotic motives to her. She knew that her name would
be defamed "in Dan, in Judah and the bordering tribes."

But in my country, where I most desire,
In Eeron, Gaza, Asdod and in Gath,
I shall be nam'd among the famousest
Of women, sung at solemn festivals,
Living and dead recorded, who to save
Her country from a fierce destroyer, chose
Above the faith of wedlock bands; my tomb
With odours visited and annual flowers;
Not less renown'd than in Mount Ephraim