To whom it is as neceffary,
As to be born and breathe, to marry ;
So univerfal, all mankind
In nothing else is of one mind:
For in what stupid age, or nation,
Was marriage ever out of fashion?
Unless among the Amazons,
Or cloister'd friars and veftal nuns,
Or ftoicks, who, to bar the freaks.
And loose excesses of the sex,
Prepost'rously would have all women
Turn'd up to all the world in common ;
Tho' men would find fuch mortal feuds
In sharing of their public goods,
'Twould put them to more charge of lives,
Than th' are fupply'd with now by wives;
Until they graze and wear their clothes,
As beasts do, of their native growths:
For fimple wearing of their horns
Will not fuffice to serve their turns.
For what can we pretend t' inherit,
Unless the marriage-deed will bear it?
Could claim no right to lands or rents,
But for our parents' settlements;
Had been but younger fons o' th' earth,
Debarr'd it all, but for our birth.
What honours, or eftates of peers,
Could be preferv'd but by their heirs?
And what fecurity maintains
Their right and title, but the bans ?
What crowns could be hereditary,
If greatest monarchs did not marry,
And with their conforts consummate
Their weightieft interests of state?
For all th' amours of princes are
But guarantees of peace or war.
Or what but marriage has a charm,
The rage of empires to difarm?
Make blood and defolation cease,
And fire and fword unite in peace,
When all their fierce contefts for forage
Conclude in articles of marriage?
Nor does the genial bed provide
Lefs for the int'refts of the bride,
Who else had not the least pretence
T'as much as due benevolence;
Could no more title take upon her
To virtue, quality, and honour,
Than ladies errant unconfin'd,
And feme-coverts t' all mankind.
All women would be of one piece,
The virtuous matron, and the miss
The nymphs of chafte Diana's train,
The fame with thofe in Lewkner's-lane,
But for the diff'rence marriage makes 'Twixt wives and ladies of the lakes :
Besides, the joys of place and birth,
The fex's paradife on earth,
A privilege fo facred held,
That none will to their mothers yield;
But rather than not go before,
Abandon heaven at the door :
And if th' indulgent law allows
A greater freedom to the spouse,
The reason is, because the wife
Runs greater hazards of her life ;
Is trufted with the form and matter
Of all mankind, by careful Nature,
Where man brings nothing but the stuff
She frames the wond'rous fabric of;
Who therefore, in a strait, may freely
Demand the clergy of her belly,
And make it fave her the same
It seldom miffes to betray;
Unless both parties wifely enter
Into the liturgy-indenture.
And tho' fome fits of small contest
Sometimes fall out among the best,
That is no more than ev'ry lover
Does from his hackney lady suffer;
That makes no breach of faith and love,
But rather, fometimes, ferves t' improve;
For as, in running, ev'ry pace
Is but between two legs a race,
In which both do their uttermost
To get before, and win the post;
Yet when they're at their race's ends,
They're still as kind and constant friends,
And, to relieve their weariness,
By turns give one another ease;
|