ned in this song is feigned. And we almost deplore hat the
composer put it to such disgraceful use. Samson hears the voice of his
God in the growing and again hesitates. The storm bursts as Dalila
shrieks out the hate that fills her and runs toward her dwelling.

Beethoven sought to suggest external as well as internal peace in the
"Dona nobis" of his Mass in D by mingling the sounds of war with the
prayer for peace; Saint-Saens pictures the storm in nature and in
Samson's soul by the music which accompanies the hero as he raises his
hands mutely in prayer; then follows the temptress with faltering steps
and enters her dwelling. The tempest reaches its climax; Dalila appears
at the window with a shout to the waiting Philistine soldiery below.
The voice of Samson cuts through the stormy night: "Trahison!"

Act III.--First scene: A prison in Gaza. Samson, shorn of his flowing
locks, which as a Nazarite he had vowed should never be touched by
shears, labors at the mill. He has been robbed of his eyes and darkness
has settled down upon him; darkness, too, upon the people whom his
momentary weakness had given back into slavery.

"Total eclipse!" Saint-Saens has won our admiration for the solemn
dignity with which he has invested the penitent confession of the blind
hero. But who shall hymn the blindness of Manoah's son after Milton and
Handel? From a crowd of captive Hebrews outside the prison walls come
taunting accusations, mingled with supplications to God. We recognize
again the national mood of the psalmody of the first act. The entire
scene is finely conceived. It is dramatic in a lofty sense, for its
action plays on the stage of the heart. Samson, contrite, humble,
broken in spirit, with a prayer for his people's deliverance, is led
away to be made sport of in the temple of Dagon. There, before the
statue of the god, grouped among the columns and before the altar the
High Priest and the lords of the Philistines. Dalila, too, with maidens
clad for the lascivious dance, and the multitude of Philistia. The
women's choral song to spring which charmed us in the first act is
echoed by mixed voices. The ballet which follows is a prettily exotic
one, with an introductory cadence marked by the Oriental scale, out of
which the second dance melody is constructed--a scale which has the
peculiarity of an interval composed of three semitones, and which we
know from the song of the priestesses in Verdi's "Aida":--

[figure: a mus