s heightened by contrast. Dalila and a company
of singing and dancing Philistine women come in bearing garlands of
flowers. Not only Samson's senses, our own as well, are ravished by the
delightful music:--

Voici le printemps, nous portant des fleurs
Pour orner le front des guerriers vainquers!
Melons nos accents aux parfums des roses
A peine ecloses!
Avec l'oiseau chantons, mes soeurs!

[figure: a musical score excerpt sung to the words "Now Spring's
generous band, Brings flowers to the land"]

Dalila is here and it is become necessary to say something of her,
having said so much about the man whose destruction she accomplished.
Let the ingenious and erudite Philip Hale introduce her: "Was Delilah a
patriotic woman, to be ranked with Jael and Judith, or was she merely a
courtesan, as certain opera singers who impersonate her in the opera
seem to think? E. Meier says that the word 'Delilah' means 'the
faithless one.' Ewald translates it 'traitress,' and so does Ranke.
Knobel characterizes her as 'die Zarte,' which means tender, delicate,
but also subtle. Lange is sure that she was a weaver woman, if not an
out-and-out 'zonah.' There are other Germans who think the word is akin
to the verb 'einlullen,' to lull asleep. Some liken it to the Arabic
dalilah, a woman who misguides, a bawd. See in 'The Thousand Nights and
a Night' the speech of the damsel to Aziz: 'If thou marry me thou wilt
at least be safe from the daughter of Dalilah, the Wily One.' Also 'The
Rogueries of Dalilah, the Crafty, and her daughter, Zayrah, the Coney
Catcher.'"

We are directly concerned here with the Dalila of the opera, but Mr.
Hale invites us to an excursion which offers a pleasant occupation for
a brief while, and we cheerfully go with him. The Biblical Delilah is a
vague figure, except in two respects: She is a woman of such charms
that she wins the love of Samson, and such guile and cupidity that she
plays upon his passion and betrays him to the lords of the Philistines
for pay. The Bible knows nothing of her patriotism, nor does the sacred
historian give her the title of Samson's wife, though it has long been
the custom of Biblical commentators to speak of her in this relation.
St. Chrysostom set the fashion and Milton followed it:--

But who is this? What thing of sea or land--
Female of sex it seems--
That, so bedeck'd, ornate and gay
Comes this way sailing
Like a statel