And if 'tis counted treason here

To raze records, 'tis much more there.
Quoth fhe, there are no bargains driv'n, 545
Nor marriages clapp'd up in heav'n;
And that's the reason, as some guess,

There is no heav'n in marriages ;

Two things that naturally prefs

Too narrowly, to be at ease:

Their bus'nefs there is only love,

Which marriage is not like t' improve ;

Love, that's too generous t' abide

To be against its nature ty’d;

550

And therefore never can comply,

T'endure the matrimonial tie,

That binds the female and the male,
Where th' one is but the other's bail
Like Roman gaolers, when they flept,
Chain'd to the prisoners they kept :
Of which the true and faithfull'st lover
Gives best security to fuffer.
Marriage is but a beast, some fay,
That carries double in foul way,
And therefore 'tis not to be admir'd,

It should so fuddenly be tir'd;

A bargain, at a venture made,

Between two partners in a trade ;

565

570

For what's inferr'd by t' have and t' hold, 575
But something past away and fold?
That, as it makes but one of two,
Reduces all things elfe as low;

And at the beft is but a mart

Between the one and th' other part,
That on the marriage day is paid,
Or hour of death, the bet is laid;
And all the rest of better or worse,
Both are but lofers out of purse:

580

Their children's tenants ere they're born?

Beg one another idiot

To guardians, ere they are begot;

Or ever fhall, perhaps, by th' one

Who's bound to vouch them for his own,

Tho' got b' implicit generation,

And general club of all the nation;

590

595

For which she's fortify'd no less
Than all the island with four feas;
Exacts the tribute of her dower,
In ready insolence and power,
And makes him pafs away, to have
And hold to her, himself, her slave,
More wretched than an ancient villain,
Condemn'd to drudgery and tilling ;
While all he does upon the by,
She is not bound to justify,

Nor at her proper coft and charge
Maintain the feats he does at large.

Such hideous fots were those obedient
Old vaffals to their ladies regent,
To give the cheats the eldest hand

In foul play, by the laws o' th' land,
For which so many a legal cuckold

Has been run down in courts, and truckl'd:

600

605

610

A law that most unjustly yokes

All Johns of Stiles to Joans of Nokes,
Without distinction of degree,

Condition, age, or quality ;

Admits no pow'r of revocation,
Nor valuable confideration,

Nor writ of error, nor reverse

Of judgment past, for better or worse ;
Will not allow the privileges

That beggars challenge under hedges,

615

620

Who, when they're griev'd, can make dead horses
Their fpiritual judges of divorces;

While nothing else but rem in re,
Can fet the proudeft wretches free;
A slavery beyond enduring,

But that 'tis of their own procuring.
As fpiders never feek the fly,
But leave him, of himself, t' apply;

630