neral ftanding rule; and the good, but fome few exceptions to it.

N Saturn's reign, at Nature's early birth,

IN

There was that thing call'd chastity on earth;

When in a narrow cave, their common shade,

The sheep, the shepherds, and their Gods were

laid:

When reeds and leaves, and hides of beafts were? fpread

By mountain-housewives for their homely bed, And moffy pillows rais'd, for the rude husband's head.

Unlike the nicenefs of our modern dames,
(Affected nymphs with new-affected names :)
The Cynthia's and the Lesbia's of our years,
Who for a sparrow's death diffolve in tears.
Those first unpolish'd matrons, big and bold,
Gave fuck to infants of gigantic mold;
Rough as their favage lords who rang'd the wood,
And fat with acorns belch'd their windy food.
For when the world was buckfom, fresh and young,
Her fons were undebauch'd, and therefore ftrong;
And whether born in kindly beds of Earth,
Or ftruggling from the teeming oaks to birth,

;

Or from what other atoms they begun,
No fires they had, or if a fire the sun.
Some thin remains of chastity appear'd,
Ev'n under Jove, but Jove without a beard
Before the fervile Greeks had learnt to fwear
By heads of kings; while yet the bounteous year
Her common fruits in open plains expos'd,
Ere thieves were fear'd, or gardens were inclos'd.
At length uneafy Juftice upwards flew,

And both the fifters to the ftars withdrew;
From that old æra whoring did begin,
So venerably ancient is the fin.

Adult'rers next invade the nuptial state,

And marriage-beds creak'd with a foreign weight;
All other ills did iron times adorn;

But whores and filver in one age were born.
Yet thou, they fay, for marriage doft provide:
Is this an age to buckle with a bride?
They fay thy hair the curling art is taught,
The wedding-ring perhaps already bought:
A fober man like thee to change his life!
What fury would poffefs thee with a wife?
Art thou of every other death bereft,
No knife, no ratfbane, no kind halter left?

(For

(For every noose compar'd to her's is cheap)
Is there no city-bridge from whence to leap?
Would'st thou become her drudge, who doft enjoy
A better fort of bedfellow, thy boy?

He keeps thee not awake with nightly brawls,
Nor with a begg'd reward thy pleasure palls;
Nor with infatiate heavings calls for more,
When all thy fpirits were drain'd out before.
But ftill Urfidius courts the marriage-bait,
Longs for a fon to fettle his eftate,

And takes no gifts, tho every gaping heir
Would gladly grease the rich old batchelor.
What revolution can appear fo ftrange,
As fuch a leacher, fuch a life to change?
A rank, notorious whoremafter, to choose
To thruft his neck into the marriage-noofe?
He who fo often in a dreadful fright

Had in a coffer 'fcap'd the jealous cuckold's fight,
That he to wedlock dotingly betray'd,

Should hope in this lewd town to find a maid!
The man's grown mad: to eafe his frantic pain,
Run for the furgeon; breathe the middle vein:
But let a heifer with gilt horns be led
To Juno, regent of the marriage-bed,

And let him every deity adore,

If his new bride prove not an arrant whore
In head and tail, and every other pore.
On Ceres' feast, reftrain'd from their delight,
Few matrons there, but curfe the tedious night:
Few whom their fathers dare falute, fuch luft
Their kiffes have, and come with such a gust.
With ivy now adorn thy doors, and wed;
Such is thy bride, and fuch thy genial bed.

}

Think'st thou one man is for one woman meant?
She, fooner with one eye would be content.
And yet
'tis nois'd, a maid did once appear
In fome small village, tho fame fays not where:
"Tis poffible; but fure no man fhe found;
'Twas defart, all, about her father's ground:
And yet fome luftful God might there make bold,
Are Jove and Mars grown impotent and old?
Many a fair nymph has in a cave been spread,
And much good love without a feather bed.
Whither would'ft thou to chufe a wife resort,
The park, the mall, the play-house, or the court?
Which way foever thy adventures fall,

Secure alike of chastity in all.

One fees a dancing-master cap'ring high, And raves, and piffes, with pure ecstasy :

Another does, with all his motions move, And gapes, and grins as in the feat of love: A third is charm'd with the new opera notes, Admires the fong, but on the finger dotes: The country lady in the box appears, Softly the warbles over all the hears; And fucks in paffion, both at eyes and ears. The reft (when now the long vacation's come, The noify hall and theatres grown dumb) Their mem'ries to refresh, and chear their hearts, In borrow'd breeches act the players parts. The poor, that scarce have wherewithal to eat, Will pinch, to make the finging-boy a treat. The rich, to buy him, will refuse no price; And ftretch his quail-pipe, till they crack his voice. Tragedians, acting love, for luft are fought: (Tho but the parrots of a poet's thought.) The pleading lawyer, tho for counfel us'd, In chamber-practice often is refus'd.

Still thou wilt have a wife, and father heirs;
(The product of concurring theatres.)
Perhaps a fencer did thy brows adorn,

And a young fword-man to thy lands is born.
Thus Hippia loath'd her old patrician lord,
And left him for a brother of the fword: