網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

This clerk, myself, and my good neighbour Alse,
To fee, be feen, to tell, and gather tales.
Vifits to ev'ry church we daily paid,
And march'd in ev'ry holy masquerade;
The ftations duly and the vigils kept;
Not much we fafted, but fcarce ever flept.
At fermons, too, I thone in fcarlet gay;
The wafting moth ne'er spoil'd my best array;
The cause was this, I wore it ev'ry day.

'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,

285

}

291

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, should serve my turn.

295

We ftraight ftruck hands, the bargain was agreed; I still have shifts against a time of need.

The mouse that always trufts to one poor hole

Can never be a moufe of any foul.

299

I vow'd I scarce could fleep fince first I knew him,
And durft be worn 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 shown.
All this I faid; but dreams, Sirs, I had none :
I follow'd but my crafty crony's lore,
Who bid me tell this lie-and twenty more.
Thus day by day and month by month was paft;
It pleas'd the Lord to take my spouse at last.
I tore my gown, I foil'd my locks with dust,
And beat my breafts, as wretched widows-muft.
Before my face my handkerchief I spread
To hide the floods of tears I did not fhed.
The good man's coffin to the church was borne ;
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 vig'rous ftill, a lively buxom dame,
And had a wondrous gift to quench a flame.

305

311

316

320

A conj'rer

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

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

325

But to my tale. A month fcarce pafs'd away,

With dance and fong we kept the nuptial day.

330

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 lov❜reign will:

Nay once, by Heav'n! he ftruck me on the face.

335

Here but the fact, and judge yourselves the cafe.
Stubborn as any lionefs was I,

And knew full well to raise my voice on high;
As true a rambler as I was before,
And would be fo in spite of all he swore.
He against this right fagely would advise,
And old examples fet before my eyes;

Tell how the Roman matrons led their life,
Of Gracchus' mother, and Duilius' wife;
And clofe the fermon, as befeem'd his wit,
With fome grave fentence out of Holy Writ.
Oft' would he say, Who builds his house on fands,
Pricks his blind horfe across 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.

340

345

350

My spoufe (who was, you know, to learning bred)

A certain treatife oft' at ev'ning 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,
P

VOL. I.

2

356

360

Solomon's

Solomon's Proverbs, Elifa's Loves,

And many more than fure the Church approves.
More legends were there here of wicked wives
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 ere Mercury can rife.
Thofe play the fcholars who can't play the men,
And ufe that weapon which they have, their pen:
When old, and paft the relifh of delight,

Then down they fit, and in their dotage write
That not one woman keeps her marriage-vow.
(This by the wav, 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 fhow)
Brought her own fpoufe and all his race to woe;
How Samfon fell; and he whom Dejanire
Wrapp'd in th' envenom'd shirt, and let on fire;
How curs'd Eriphyle her lord betray'd,
And the dire ambuíh Clytemneftra laid;"

365

370

375

381

But what most pleas'd him was the Cretan dame 385
And hufband-bull---Oh, monftrous! fy 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 pifspots on the fage the 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,

390

On which three wives fucceffively had twin'd

A fliding noofe, and waver'd in the wind.

395

Where grows this plant, reply'd the friend, oh! where?

For better fruit did never orchard bear:
Give me fome flip of this mot blissful tree,

And in my garden planted fhall it be.

400

Then

Then how two wives their lords' deftruction prove, Thro' hatred one, and one thro' too inuch love; That for her husband mix`d a pois'nous draught, And this for luft an am'rous philtre bought: This nimble juice icon feiz'd his giddy head, Frantic at night, and in the morning dead.

405 [fain,

How fome with fwords their fleeping lords have 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.

410

Long time I heard, and fwell'd, and bluth'd, and
But when no end of thefe vile tales I found, [frown'd;
When ftill 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 rofe,
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 ftoop'd to kifs 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 ftruggle past,

I condefcended to be pleas'd at last.
Soon as he faid, My miftrefs and my wife!
Do what you lift the term of all your life,
I took to heart the merits of the caufe,
And food 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,

416

420

425

430

434

'Iwas torn to fragments, and condemn'd to flames. Now Heav'n on all my husbands gone beftow Pleafures above for tortures felt below:

That reft they wish'd for grant them in the grave,
And bless thofe fouls my conduct help'd to fave. 439

FROM THE NINTH BOOK OF

OVID'S METAMORPHOSES.

SHE faid, and for her loft Ga anthis fighs,
When the fair confort of her fon replies;
Since you a fervant's ravifh'd form bemoan,
And kindly figh for forrows not your own,
Let me (if tears and grief permit) relate
A nearer woe, a fifter's ftranger fate.
No nymph of all Oechalia could compare
For beauteous form with Dryope the fair,
Her tender mother's only hope and pride,
(Myfelf the offspring of a fecond bride.)

This nymph, comprefs'd by him who rules the day,
Whom Delphi and the Delian ifle obey,
Andræmon lov'd; and, bless'd in all those charms
That pleas'd a god, fucceeded to her arms.

A lake there was with fhelving banks around,
Whofe verdant fummit fragrant myrtles crown'd:
Thefe fhades, unknowing of the Fates, fhe fought,
And to the Naiads flow'ry garlands brought:
Her fmiling babe (a pleafing charge) the preft
Within her arms, and nourish'd at her breaft.

5

10

[ocr errors]

20

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

DIXIT: et, admonitu veteris commota ministræ,
Ingemuit; quam fic nurus eft affata dolentem
Te tamen, ô genitrix, alienæ fanguine veftro
Rapta movet facies. Quid fi tibi mira fororis
Fata meæ referam? quanquam lacrymæque dolorque
Impediunt, prohibentque loqui. Fuit unica matri
(Me pater ex aliâ genuit) notiffima formâ
Oechalidum Dryope: quam virginitate carentem,
Vimque Dei paffam, Delphos Delonque tenentis,
Excipit Andræmon; et habetur conjuge felix.
Eft lacus acclivi devexo margine formam
Litoris efficiens: fummum myrteta coronant.
Venerat huc Dryope, fatorum nescia; quoque
Indignere magis, nymphis latura coronas.

Inque finu puerum, qui nondum impleverat annum,
Dulce ferebat onus; tepidique ope lactis alebat.
D 3

15

20

« 上一頁繼續 »