Forgetting house and hufband, left behind
Ev'n children too; fhe fails before the wind;
Falfe to 'em all, but conftant to her kind.
But, ftranger yet, and harder to conceive,
She could the play-house and the players leave.
Born of rich parentage, and nicely bred,
She lodg'd on down, and in a damask bed;
Yet daring now the dangers of the deep,
On a hard mattress is content to fleep.
Ere this, 'tis true, fhe did her fame expose:
But that, great ladies with great ease can lofe.
The tender nymph could the rude ocean bear:
So much her luft was ftronger than her fear.
But had fome honest cause her passage prest,
The smallest hardship had disturb'd her breast:
Each inconvenience makes their virtue cold;
But womankind, in ills, is ever bold.
Were fhe to follow her own lord to fea,
What doubts or fcruples would fhe raife to ftay?
Her ftomach fick, and her head giddy grows;
The tar and pitch are naufeous to her nofe.
But in love's voyage nothing can offend;
Women are never fea-fick with a friend.
Amidst the crew, fhe walks upon the board;
She eats, fhe drinks, fhe handles every cord:
And if the fpews, 'tis thinking of her lord.
Now afk, for whom her friends and fame fhe loft?
What youth, what beauty could th' adult'rer boaft?
What was the face, for which fhe could fuftain
To be call'd miftrefs to fo base a man?
The gallant, of his days had known the best:
Deep fears were seen indented on his breast;
And all his batter'd limbs requir'd their needful reft.
A promontory wen, with griefly grace,
Stood high, upon the handle of his face:
His blear eyes ran in gutters to his chin:
His beard was ftubble, and his cheeks were thin.
But 'twas his fencing did her fancy move: "Tis arms and blood and cruelty they love.
But fhould he quit his trade, and fheath his fword,
Her lover would begin to be her lord,
This was a private crime; but you shall hear
What fruits the facred bows of monarchs bear:
The 8 good old fluggard but began to snore,
When from his fide up rofe th' imperial whore:
She who preferr'd the pleasures of the night
To pomps, that are but impotent delight:
Strode from the palace, with an eager pace,
To cope with a more masculine embrace:
Muffled the march'd, luke Juno in a cloud,
Of all her train but one poor wench allow'd,
One whom in fecret service she could truft;
The rival and companion of her luft.
'To the known brothel-house she takes her way;
And for a nafty room gives double pay;
That room in which the rankest harlot lay.
Prepar❜d for fight, expectingly she lies,
With heaving breafts and with defiring eyes.
Still as one drops, another takes his place,
And baffled still fucceeds to like disgrace.
At length when friendly darkness is expir'd,
And ev'ry ftrumpet from her cell retir'd,
She lags behind, and ling'ring at the gate,
With a repining figh fubmits to fate:
All filth without, and all a fire within,
Tir'd with the toil, unfated with the fin.
Old Cæfar's bed the modeft matron feeks;
The fteam of lamps ftill hanging on her cheeks,
In ropy fmut: thus foul, and thus bedight,
She brings him back the product of the night.
Now should I fing what poisons they provide;
With all their trumpery of charms befide;
8.He tells the famous story of Meffalina, wife to the emperor Claudius.
And all their arts of death: it would be known
Luft is the smallest fin the sex can own.
Cefennia ftill, they fay, is guiltless found
Of ev'ry vice, by her own lord renown'd:
And well the may, fhe 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 would 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 monftrously in love:
But know him better; for I heard him swear,
"Tis not that fhe's his wife, but that fhe's fair.
Let her but have three wrinkles in her face,
Let her eyes leffen, and her fkin unbrace,
Soon you will hear the faucy fteward 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 fhe's abfolute upon the throne:
And knowing time is precious, lofes none:
She must have flocks of theep, with wool more fine
Than filk and vineyards of the nobleft wine:
Whole droves of pages for her train fhe craves :
And sweeps the prifons for attending favęs.
In fhort, whatever in her eyes can come,
Or others have abroad, fhe wants at home.
When winter shuts the feas, and fleecy fnows
Make houfes white, fhe to the merchant goes;
Wealth has the privilege, &c. His meaning is, that a wife who brings a large dowry may do what the pleafes, and has all the privileges of a widow.
Rich cryftals of the rock fhe takes up there,
Huge agat vafes, and old China ware:
Then 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 Juda's tribe:
Where barefoot they approach the facred shrine,
And think it only fin to feed on swine.
But is none worthy to be made a wife
In all this town? Suppofe her free from ftrife,
Rich, fair, and fruitful, of unblemish'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 fwan is not half fo rare a bird.
A wife, fo hung with virtues, fuch a freight,
What mortal fhoulders could fupport the weight!
Some country-girl, fcarce to a curt'sey bred,
Would I much rather than 2. Cornelia wed:
If fupercilious, haughty, proud, and vain,
She brought her father's triumphs in her train.
Away with all your Carthaginian state,
Let vanquish'd Hannibal without-doors wait,
Too burly and too big to pass my narrow gate.
O 3 Pæan, cries Amphion, bend thy bow
Against my wife, and let my children
But fullen Pæan fhoots at fons and mothers too.
1 A ring of great price, which Herod Agrippa gave to his fifter Berenice. He was the king of the Jews, but tributary to the Romans. /2 Cornelia, mother to the Gracchi, of the family of the Cornelii; from whence Scipio the African was defcended, who triumphed over Hannibal.
3 He alludes to the known fable of Niobe in Ovid. Amphion was her husband: Pæan is Apollo, who with his arrows killed her children, because fhe boafted that fhe was more fruitful than Latona, Apollo's mother.
His Niobe and all his boys he loft;
Ev'n her, who did her num'rous offspring boaft,
As fair and fruitful as the fow that carry'd
The 4 thirty pigs at one large litter farrow'd.
What beauty or what chastity can bear
So great a price, if ftately and fevere
She ftill infults, and you must still adore;
Grant that the honey's much, the gall is more.
Upbraided with the virtues fhe displays,
Seven hours in twelve, you loath the wife you praise:
Some faults, tho' fmall, intolerable grow;
For what fo naufeous and affected too,
As thofe that think they due perfection want,
Who have not learnt to lifp the 5 Grecian cant?
In Greece, their whole accomplishments they feek:
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 fecrets; nay, they scold in Greek :
Ev'n in the feat of love, they use that tongue.
Such affectations may become the young;
But thou, old hag, of threescore years and three,
Is fhewing of thy parts in Greek for thee?
Zwn nai Juxn! All thofe tender words
The momentary trembling blifs affords,
The kind foft murmurs of the private sheets
Are bawdy, while thou speak'ft in public ftreets.
Those words have fingers; and their force is fuch,
They raise the dead, and mount him with a touch.
But all provocatives from thee are vain :
No blandifhment the flacken'd nerve can strain.
If then thy lawful spouse thou canst not love,
What reason should thy mind to marriage move?
4 He alludes to the white fow in Virgil, who farrow'd thirty pigs, Women then learnt Greek, as ours fpeak French.
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