'Twas when fresh May her early bloffoms yields, This clerk and I were walking in the fields. We grew fo intimate, I can't tell how,

I pawn'd my honour, and engag'd my vow,
If e'er I laid my husband in his urn,

That he, and only he, fhould ferve my turn.
We ftrait ftruck hands, the bargain was agreed;
I ftill have shifts against a time of need:
The mouse that always trufts to one poor hole,
Can never be a moufe of any foul.

I vow'd, I fcarce could fleep fince first I knew him,
And durst be sworn he had bewitch'd me to him;
If e'er I flept, I dream'd of him alone,

And dreams foretell, as learned men have fhown.
All this I faid; but dreams, firs I had none:
I follow'd but my crafty crony's lore,
Who bid me tell this lye-and twenty more.

Thus day by day, and month by month we past;
It pleas'd the Lord to take my spouse at last.
I tore my gown, I foil'd my locks with duft,
And beat my breafts, as wretched widows-must.
Before my face my handkerchief I fpread,

To hide the flood of tears I did not fhed.
The good man's coffin to the Church was born;
Around, the neighbours, and my clerk too, mourn.
But as he march'd, good Gods! he fhow'd a pair
Of legs and feet, fo clean, fo ftrong, fo fair!
Of twenty winters age he feem'd to be;
I (to fay truth) was twenty more than he;
But vigorous ftill, a lively buxom dame;
And had a wond'rous gift to quench a flame.

A Conjurer once, that deeply could divine,
Affur'd me, Mars in Taurus was my fign.
As the stars order'd, fuch my life has been:
Alas, alas, that ever love was fin!

Fair Venus gave me fire and fprightly grace,
And Mars affurance, and a dauntless face.
By virtue of this powerful conftellation,
I follow'd always my own inclination.

But to my tale: A month fcarce pafs'd away, With dance and fong we kept the nuptial day. All I poffefs'd I gave to his command,

My goods and chattels, money, house and land: But oft repented, and repent it ftill;

He prov'd a rebel to my fovereign will:

Nay once, by Heaven he ftruét me on the face;
Hear but the fact, and judge yourfelves the cafe.
Stubborn as any Lionefs was 1;

And knew full well to raife my voice on high;
As true a rambler as I was before,

And would be fo, in fpite of all he fwore.
Hle, against this right fagely would advise,
And old examples iet before my eyes,
Tell how the Roman matrons led their life,
Of Gracchus' mother and Duilius' wife;
And close the fermon, as befeem'd his wit,
With fome grave fentence out of Holy Writ.
Oft would he fay, who builds his houfe on fands,
Pricks his blind horfe a-crofs the fallow lands,
Or lets his wife abroad with pilgrims roam,
Deferves a fool's cap and long ears at home.

All this avail'd not, for whoe'er he be
That tells my faults, I hate him mortally:
And fo do numbers more, I'll boldly fay,
Men, women, clergy, regular, and lay.

My spouse, (who was, you know, to learning bred)
A certain Treatife oft at evening read,

Where divers Authors (whom the devil confound
For all their lies) were in one volume bound.
Valerius, whole; and of St. Jerome, part;
Chryfippus and Tertullian, Ovid's art,
Solomon's Proverbs, Eloifa's Loves;

And many more than fure the Church approves.
More legends were there here, of wicked wives, i
Than good, in all the Bible and Saints-lives.
Who drew the Lion vanquish'd? 'Twas a Man.
But could we women write as fcholars can,
Men fhould ftand mark'd with far more wickedness,
Than all the fons of Adam could redrefs.

Love feldom haunts the breaft where Learning lies,
And Venus fets e'er Mercury can rife.

Thofe play the scholars, who can't play the men,
And ufe that weapon which they have, their pen;
When old, and past the relifh of delight,
Then down they fit, and in their dotage write,
That not one woman keeps her marriage vow.
(This by the way, but to my purpose now.)

It chanc'd my husband, on a winter's night,
Read in this book, aloud, with strange delight
How the first female (as the Scriptures show)
Brought her own spouse, and all his race to woe.

How Samfon fell; and he whom Dejanire
Wrap'd in th' envenom'd fhirt, and fet on fire.
How curft Eryphile her lord betray'd,

And the dire ambush Clytemnestra laid.

But what most pleas'd him, was the Cretan Dame,
And Husband-bull-oh monftrous, fie for fhame!
He had by heart the whole detail of woe
Xantippe made her good man undergo;
How oft fhe fcolded in a day, he knew,
How many pifs-pots on the fage fhe threw;
Who took it patiently, and wip'd his head;
"Rain follows thunder," that was all he faid.

He read, how Arius to his friend complain'd,
A fatal Tree was growing in his land,
On which three wives fucceffively had twin'd
A fliding noofe, and waver'd in the wind.
Where grows this plant (reply'd the friend) oh where?
For better fruit did never orchard bear.

Give me fome flip of this moft blissful tree,
And in my garden planted fhall it be.

Then how two wives their lord's deftruction prove,
Thro' hatred one, and one thro' too much love;
That for her husband mix'd a poisonous draught,
And this for luft an amorous philtre bought:
The nimble juice foon feiz'd his giddy head,
Frantic at night, and in the morning dead.

How fome with fwords their sleeping lords have slain, And fome have hammer'd nails into their brain, And fome have drench'd them with a deadly potion; All this he read, and read with great devotion.

Long time I heard,and fwell'd, and blush'd, and frown'd;
But when no end of these vile tales I found,
When still he read, and laugh'd, and read again,
And half the night was thus confum'd in vain;
Provok'd to vengeance, three large leaves I tore,
And with one buffet fell'd him on the floor.
With that my husband in a fury rose,
And down he fettled me with hearty blows.
I groan'd, and lay extended on my fide;

Oh! thou haft flain me for my wealth, (I cry'd)
Yet I forgive thee-take my last embrace -
He wept, kind foul! and stoop'd to kiss my face;
I took him fuch a box as turn'd him blue,
Then figh'd and cry'd, Adieu, my dear, adieu!
But after many a hearty struggle past,

I condefcended to be pleas'd at last.
Soon as he said, My mistress and my wife,
Do what you lift, the term of all your life:
I took to heart the merits of the cause,
And stood content to rule by wholesome laws;
Receiv'd the reins of abfolute command,
With all the government of house and land,
And empire o er his tongue, and o'er his hand.
As for the volume that revil'd the dames,
'Twas torn to fragments, and condemn'd to flames.

Now heaven on all my husbands gone, bestow
Pleafures above, for tortures felt below:
That reft they wish'd for, grant them in the grave,
And bless thole fouls my conduct help'd to save!