A foul abuse of God's most holy order,
And yet allow'd almost in ev'ry border.
It is a fign that nothing fhall affwage
Your love but marriage: For fuch is
The tying of two in wedlock, as is
The tuning of two lutes in one key: For
Striking the ftrings of the one, ftraws will ftir
Upon the ftrings of the other; and in
Two minds linked in love, one cannot be
Delighted, but the other rejoiceth.
Lilly's Sapho and Phao.
'Tis ftrange to see th'impiety of parents,
Both priviledg'd by cuftom, and profefs'd
The holy inftitution of heaven;
Ordaining marriage for proportion'd minds,
For our chief humane comforts; and t'encrease
The loved images of God in men:
'Tis now perverted to th'increase of wealth;
We must bring riches forth, and like the cuckoe
Hatch others eggs; join house to house; in choices
Fit timber-logs and ftone, not men and women.
Chapman's May-Day. For fee how many discontented beds,
Our own afpiring, or our parents pride,
Have caus'd; whilft that ambition vainly weds
Wealth, and not love; honour, and nought befide:
Whilft marry'd but to titles, we abide
As wedded widows, wanting what we have;
When shadows cannot give us, what we crave.
O fortunate poor maids, that are not forc'd,
To wed for state, nor are for ftate divorc'd !
Whom policy of kingdoms, doth not marry ;
But pure affection makes to love, or vary:
You feel no love, which you dare not to fhew;
Nor fhew a love. which doth not truly grow:
O you are furely bleffed of the sky;
You live, that know not death before you die!
Marfion's Sophonisba.
Some man unworthy to be poffeffor
Of old or new love, himself being falfe or weak,
Thought his pain and fhame would be leffer,
If on womankind he might his anger wreak;
And thence a law did grow,
One might but one man know;
But are other creatures fo?
Are fun, moon, or ftars by law forbidden
To fmile where they lift, or lend away their light? Are birds divorc'd, or are they chidden
If they leave their mates, or lie abroad all night? Beafts do no jointures lofe,
Though they new lovers chufe,
But we are made worse than those.
Who e'er rigg'd fair fhips to lie in labours;
And not to feek lands, or not to deal with all?
Or build fair houfes, fet trees and arbours,
Only to lock up, or elfe to let them fall?
Good is not good, unless
A thousand it poffefs;
But doth waste with greediness.
Reverend and honourable matrimony!
Mother of lawful fweets, unfhamed mornings;
Dangerlefs pleafures; thou that mak'ft the bed,
Both pleasant and legitimately fruitful: Without thee
All the whole world were foiled baftardy.
Thou art the only, and the greatest form,
That put'ft a diff'rence 'tween our defires,
And the diforder'd appetites of beafts;
Making their mates thofe that ftand next their lufts.
Then with what bafe injury is thy goodness paid?
First, rare to have a bride commence a maid,
But does beguile of joy the purity!
And is made ftri&t by pow'r of drugs and art,
An artificial maid, a doctor'd virgin;
And fo deceives the glory of his bed :
A foul contempt, against the spotlefs pow'r
Of facred wedlock: but if chafte and honeft,
'There's another devil haunteth marriage,
None fondly loves but knows it; jealoufy,
That wedlock's yellow fickness, that whisp'ring
Separation every minute.
Is it enough to use adult'rous thefts,
And then take fanctuary in marriage}
I grant, fo long as an offender keeps
Clofe in a privileg'd temple, his life's fafe;
But if he ever venture to come out,
And fo be ta'n, then he furely dies for't:
So now you are fafe; but when you leave this body, Man's only privileg'd temple upon
In which the guilty foul takes fanctuary:
Then you'll perceive, what wrongs chafte vows endure; When luft ufurps the bed, that fhould be pure.
Middleton's Women beware Women.
-Holy ceremonies
Were made for facred ufes, not for finful.
Are these the fruits of your repentance, brother?
Better it had been you had never forrow'd;
Than t'abufe the benefit, and return
To worse than where fin left you.
Vow'd you then never to keep ftrumpet more,
And are you now fo fwift in your defires,
To knit your honours, and your life faft to her?
Is not fin fure enough to wretched man,
But he muft bind himself in chains to it? worse!
Muft marriage, that immaculate robe of honour,
That renders virtue glorious, fair, and fruitful
To her great mafter, be now made the garment
Of leprofy and foulnefs? Is this penitence
To fanctify hot luft? What is it otherways
Than worship done to devils? Is this the bft
Amends that fin can make after her riots ?
As if a drunkard, to appease heav'n's wrath,
Should offer up his furfeit for a facrifice:
If that be comely, then luft's off'rings are
On wedlock's facred altar.
Middleton's Women beware Women.
How near am I now to a happiness
That earth exceeds not? Not another like it.
The treasures of the deep are not fo precious,
As are the conceal'd comforts of a man
Lock'd up in woman's love. I fcent the air
Of bleffings, when I come but near the house ;
What a delicious breath marriage sends forth!
The violet-bed's not sweeter. Honeft wedlock
Is like a banquetting-house built in a garden,
On which the fpring's chafte flow'rs take delight
To caft their modeft odors; when bafe luft
With all her powders, paintings, and best pride,
Is but a fair house built by a ditch fide.
Who for his wife his harlot doth prefer ;
Good reafon 'tis, that he should marry her.
Middleton's Michaelmas-Term.
It is the marry'd woman, if you mark it,
And not the maid that longs; the appetite
Follows the first taste, which when we have relish'd
We wish to cloying: the taste once pleas'd before,
Then our defire is whetted on to more.
Beaumont and Fletcher's Wit at feveral Weapons.
For womens refolutions in fuch deeds,
Like bees, light oft on flow'rs, and oft on weeds. Webster's Devil's Law Cafe.
Unfanctify'd matches! they make us loath
The most natʼral defire our grandam Eve e'er left us :
Force one to marry against her will? Why 'tis
A more ungodly work, than enclofing the commons.
1. What do you think of marriage?
2. I take't, as those that deny purgatory:
It locally contains or heaven or hell;
There's no third place in it.
Webster's Dutchess of Malfy.
Take thus much of my council. Marry not
In hafte; for fhe that takes the best of husbands,
Puts but on a golden fetter: For husbands
Are like to painted fruit, which promife much,
But ftill deceives us, when we come to touch.
If you match with a courtier, he'll have a
Dozen miftreffes at least, and repent
His marriage within four and twenty hours
At moft; fwearing a wife, is fit for none
But an old justice, or a country gentleman:
If you marry a citizen, though you
Live never fo honeft, yet you shall be sure
To have a cuckold to your husband: If
A lawyer, the neatness of his clerk will
Draw in question the good carriage of his
Wife: If a merchant, he'll be venturing
Abroad, when he might deal a great deal more
Safe at home. And this take of me, that 'mongst
The best, there is none good, all ill :
She's marry'd beft, that's wedded to her will.
Cupid's Whirligig
How many shepherds daughters, who in duty
To griping fathers have enthrall'd their beauty,
To wait upon the gout, to walk when pleases
Old January halt! O that difeafes
Should link with youth! She that hath such a mate,
Is like two twins, born both incorporate :
Th'one living, th'other dead: The living twin
Muft needs be flain through noisomness of him
He carries with him: Such are their estates,
Who merely marry wealth, and not their mates.
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