Th’ end of this caitiff was as I shall say; His foemen made a feast upon a day, And made him as their fool before them play; And this was in a temple of great array. But at the last he made a foul affray, For he two pillars shook, and made them fall, And down fell temple and all, and there it lay, And slew himself and eke his foemen all;
This is to say, the princes every one; And eke three thousand bodies were there slain With falling of the great temple of stone. Of Sampson now will I no morë sayn; Beware by this example old and plain, That no man tell his counsel to his wife Of such thing as he would have secret fain, If that it touch his limbës or his life.
Of Hercules the sov’reign conqueroúr Singë his workës’ land and high renown; For in his time of strength he bare the flow’r. He slew and reft the skin of the lioún He of the Centaurs laid the boast adown; He Harpies slew, the cruel birdës fell; He golden apples reft from the dragón He drew out Cerberus the hound of hell.
He slew the cruel tyrant Busirus. And made his horse to fret him flesh and bone; He slew the fiery serpent venomous; Of Achelous’ two hornës brake he one. And he slew Cacus in a cave of stone; He slew the giant Antaeus the strong; He slew the grisly boar, and that anon; And bare the heav’n upon his neckë long.
Was never wight, since that the world began, That slew so many monsters as did he; Throughout the widë world his namë ran, What for his strength, and for his high bounté; And every realmë went he for to see; He was so strong that no man might him let; At both the worldë’s ends, as saith Trophee, Instead of boundës he a pillar set.
A leman had this noble champión, That hightë Dejanira, fresh as May; And, as these clerkës makë mentión, She hath him sent a shirtë fresh and gay; Alas! this shirt, alas and well-away! Envenomed was subtilly withal, That ere that he had worn it half a day, It made his flesh all from his bonës fall.