Jael, who, with inhospitable guile,
Smote Sisera sleeping.


In the scene before us Dalila is wholly and simply a siren, a
seductress who plays upon the known love of Samson from motives
which are not disclosed. As yet one may imagine her moved by a
genuine passion. She turns her lustrous black eyes upon him as she
hails him a double victor over his foes and her heart, and invites
him to rest from his arms in her embraces in the fair valley of
Sorek. Temptation seizes upon the soul of Samson. He prays God to
make him steadfast; but she winds her toils the tighter: It is for
him that she has bound a coronet of purple grapes upon her forehead
and entwined the rose of Sharon in her ebon tresses. An Old Hebrew
warns against the temptress and Samson agonizingly invokes a veil
over the beauty that has enchained him.

"Extinguish the fires of those eyes which enslave me."--thus he.

"Sweet is the lily of the valley, pleasant the juices of
mandragora, but sweeter and more pleasant are my kisses!"--thus she.

The Old Hebrew warns again: "If thou give ear to her honeyed
phrases, my son, curses will alight on thee which no tears that
thou may'st weep will ever efface."

But still the siren song rings in his ears. The maidens who had
come upon the scene with Dalila (are they priestesses of Dagon?)
dance, swinging their floral garlands seductively before the eyes
of Samson and his followers. The hero tries to avoid the glances