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Ia ropy Smut: thus foul, and thus bedight,
She brings him back the Product of the Night.
Now fhould I ing what Poisons they provide;
With all their Trumpery of Charms beside;
And all their Arts of Death: it would be known
Luft is the smallest Sin the Sex can own.
Cafinia ftill, they fay, is guiltlefs found

Of ev'ry Vice, by her own Lord Renown'd:
And well the may, he brought ten thousand Pound.
She brought him wherewithal to be call'd chafte;
His Tongue is ty'd in golden Fetters faft:
He fighs, adores, and courts her ev'ry Hour;
Who wou'd not do as much for fuch a Dower?
She writes Love Letters to the Youth in Grace;
Nay, tips the wink before the Cuckold's Face;
And might do more: Her. Portion makes it good;
Wealth 9 has the Privilege of Widowhood.

Thefe Truths with his Example you difprove,
Who with his Wife is mondrously in Love:
But know him better; for I heard him swear,
'Tis not that she's his Wife, but that she's fair.
Let her but have three Wrinkles in her Face,
Let her Eyes lessen, and her Skin unbrace,
Soon you will hear the faucy Steward say,
Pack up with all your Trinkets, and away;
You grow offenfive both at Bed and Board:
Your Betters must be had to please my Lord.
Mean time she's abfolute upon the Throne:
And knowing time is precious, lofes none;
She must have Flocks of Sheep, with Wool more fine
Than Silk, and Vineyards of the nobleft Wine;

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Wealth has the Privilegerý thay do what the pleases,

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Whole Droves of Pages for her Train she craves:
And sweeps the Prifons for attending Slaves.
In fhort, whatever in her Eyes can come,
Or others have abroad, fhe wants at home.
When Winter fhuts the Seas, and fleecy Snows
Make Houses white, fhe to the Merchant goes;
Rich Chrystals of the Rock she takes up there,
Huge Agat Vafes, and old China Ware:
Then 10 berenice's Ring her Finger proves,
More precious made by her incestuous Loves:
And infamously dear: A Brother's Bribe,
Ev'n God's Anointed, and of Judah's Tribe:
Where barefoot they approach the sacred Shrine,
And think it only Sin to feed on Swine.

But is none worthy to be made a Wife
In all this Town? Suppofe her free from Strife,
Rich, Fair, and Fruitful, of unblem fh'd Life;
Chafte as the Sabines, whofe prevailing Charms
Difmifs'd their Husbands, and their Brothers Arms:
Grant her, befides, of Noble Blood that ran
In ancient Veins, ere Heraldry began:
Suppofe all these, and take a Poet's Word,
A black Swan is not half fo rare a Bird.

A Wife, fo hung with Virtues, fuch a Freight,
What mortal Shoulders cou'd fupport the Weight!
Some Country-Girl, fcarce to a Curt'fey bred,
Wou'd I much rather than 1 Cornelia wed:
If Supercilious, Haughty, Proud, and Vain,
She brought her Father's Triumphs, in her Train.

To A Ring of great Price, Gracchi, of the Family of the which Herod Agrippa gave to | Cornelii; from whence Scipio his Sifter Berenice. He was the African was defcended, the King of the Jews, but who triumph'd over HanniTributary to the Romans. bal.

II Cornelia, Mother to the

Away

Away with all your Carthaginian State,
Let vanquish'd Hannibal without-doors wait,
Too burly and too big to pass my narrow Gate.
O 12 Pean, cries Amphion, bend thy Bow
Against my Wife, and let my Children go :
But fullen Paan fhoots at Sons and Mothers too.
His Niobe and all his Boys he loft;

Ev'n her, who did her num'rous Offspring boast,
As fair and fruitful as the Sow that carry'd
The 13 thirty Pigs at one large Litter farrow'd.
What Beauty or what Chastity can bear
great a Price, if ftately and fevere

So

She ftill infults, and you must still adore ;

Grant that the Honey's much, the Gall is more.
Upbraided with the Virtues fhe difplays,

Seven Hours in twelve, you loath the Wife you praife:
Some Faults, tho' fmall, intolerable grow;

For what fo naufeous and affected too,

As those that think they due Perfection want,
Who have not learnt to Lifp the 14 Grecian Cant?
In Greece, their whole Accomplishments they seek:
Their Fashion, Breeding, Language, must be Greek:
But raw, in all that does to Rome belong,
They fcorn to cultivate their Mother-Tongue.
In Greek they flatter, all their Fears they speak,
Tell all their Secrets; nay, they fcold in Greek:
Ev'n in the Feat of Love, they ufe that Tongue.
Such Affectations may become the Young;
But thou, old Hag, of Threefcore Years and Three,
Is fhewing of thy Parts in Greek for thee?

12 He alludes to the known | pollo's Mother. Fable of Niobe in Ovid.

Am- 13 He alludes to the white Sow in Virgil, who farrow'd thirty Pigs.

phion was her Husband: Paan is Apollo, who with his Ar

rows kill'd her Children, be- 14 Women then learnt Greek, caufe the boafted that she was as ours fpeak French.

more fruitful than Latona, A

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Zaux! All those tender Words
The momentary trembling Bliss affords,

The kind foft Murmurs of the private Sheets
Are Bawdy, while thou speak'ft in publick Streets.
Those Words have Fingers; and their Force is such,
They raise the Dead, and mount him with a touch.
But all Provocatives from thee are vain :

No Blandishment the flacken'd Nerve can strain.

If then thy Lawful Spouse thou canst not Love,
What reafon fhou'd thy Mind to Marriage move?
Why all the Charges of the Nuptial Feast,

Wine and Deferts, and Sweet-meats to digeft?
Th' endowing Gold that buys the dear Delight,
Giv'n for their firft and only happy Night?
If thou art thus uxoriously inclin'd,

To bear thy Bondage with a willing Mind,
Prepare thy Neck, and put it in the Yoke:
But for no Mercy from thy Woman look.
For tho', perhaps, fhe loves with equal Fires,
To abfolute Dominion she aspires;

Joys in the Spoils, and triumphs o'er thy Purfe;
The better Husband makes the Wife the worse.
Nothing is thine to give, or fell, or buy,
All Offices of ancient Friendship die;
Nor hast thou leave to make a Legacy.
By 15 thy imperious Wife thou art bereft
A Privilege, to Pimps and Pandars left;
Thy Teftament's her Will; where the prefers
Her Ruffians, Drudges, and Adulterers,
Adopting all thy Rivals for thy Heirs.

Go to drag that Slave to Death: 17 Your Reason, why Shou'd the poor Innocent be doom'd to die?

15 All the Romans, even the moft inferior, and moft infamous fort of them, had the Fower of making Wills.

36 Go drag that Slave, &c.

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Thefe are the Words of the
Wife.

17 Tour Reason why, &c. The Answer of the Husband. When

What Proofs? For, when Man's Life is in debate,
The Judge can ne'er too long deliberate.

Call'At 18 thou that Slave a Man? the Wife replies:
Prov'd, or unprov'd, the Crime, the Villain dies.
I have the Soveraign Pow'r to fave or kill;

And give no other Reason but

my Will.

Thus the She Tyrant Reigns, till pleas'd with Change,
Her wild Affections to new Empires range:
Another Subject-Husband she defires;

Divorc'd from him, she to the first retires,
While the last Wedding Feast is scarcely o'er,
And Garlands hang yet green upon the Door.
So ftill the Reck'ning rifes; and appears
In total Sum, Eight Husbands in Five Years.
The Title for a Tomb-ftone might be fit ;
But that it wou'd too commonly be writ.
Her Mother living, hope no quiet Day;
She fharpens her, inftructs her how to Flea
Her Husband bare, and then divides the Prey.
She takes Love-Letters, with a crafty Smile,
And, in her Daughter's Anfwer, mends the Style.
In vain the Husband fets his watchful Spies;
She cheats their Cunning, or the bribes their Eyes.
The Doctor's call'd; the Daughter, taught the trick,
Pretends to faint; and in full Health is fick.
The panting Stallion, at the Closet-door,
Hears the Confult, and wishes it were o'er.
Can't thou, in Reason, hope, a Bawd fo knows,
Shou'd teach her other Manners than her own?
Her Int'reft is in all th' Advice fhe gives :
Tis on the Daughter's Rents the Mother lives.
No Cause is try'd at the litigious Bar,
But Women Plaintiffs or Defendants are.

38 Call'f then that Slave a Man? The Wife again.

M

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