206

210

Thus with my first three Lords I paft my life; A very woman, and a very wife. What fums from thefe old spoufes I could raife, Frocur'd young husbands in my riper days. Though paft my bloom, not yet decay'd was I, Wanton and wild, and clatter'd like a pye. In country dances itill I bore the bell, And fung as fweet as evening Philomel., To clear my quailpipe, and refref. my foul, Full ott I drain'd th. fpicy nut-brown bowl; Rich lufcious wines, that youthful blood improve, And warm the fwelli. g veins to feats of love: For 'tis as fure, as cold e. genders hail,

220

A liquorih mouth muft have a lecherous tail:
Wine lets no lover unrewarded go,
As all true gamefters by experience know.
But oh, good God! whene'er a thought I caft
On all the joy of youth and beauty pait,
To find in pleatures I have had my part,
Still warms me to the bottom of my heart.
This wicked world was o, ce my dear delight; 225
Now all my conquefts, all my charms, goodnight!
The flour conium'd the beft that now I can,
Is e'en to ma e my market of the bran.

My fourth dear pot fe was not exceeding true;
He kept, 'twas thought, a private Mi's or two;
But all the fcore I paid-as how? you'll fay,
Not with my body, in a filthy way:

But I fo drefs'd, and danc'd, and drank, and din'd;

236

240

245

And view'd a friend with eyes fo very kind,
As itung his heart, and made his marrow fry
With burning rage, and frantic jealouty.
His foul I hope, enjoys eternal glory,
For here on earth I was his Purgatory.
Oit, when his fhoe the moft feverely wrung,
He put on carelet's airs, and fate and fung,
How fore I gall'd him, only heaven could know,
And he that felt, and I that caus'd the woe.
He dy'd, when laft from pilgrimage I came,
With other gomps, from Jerufalem;
And now lies buried underneath a Rood,
Fair to be feen, and rear'd of honest wood:
A tomb indeed, with fewer feulptures grac'd
Than that Maufolus pious widow plac'd,
Or where infrin'd the great Darius lay;
But coit on graves is merely thrown away.
The pit fld up, with turf we cover'do'er;
So blet the good man's foul! I fay no more..
Now for my ifth lov'd Lord, the laft and beft;
(Kird heaven afford him everlating reft!)
Tall hearty was his love, and I can fhew
The toke, s on my ribs in black and blue;
Yet, with a lack, my heart he could have won,
While yet the fmart was footing in the bone.
How quailt an appetite in women reigns!
Tite gilts we fcorn, and love what coits us pains:
I et n'en avoid us, and on them we leap;
A glotted market makes provifon cheap.

I pure good-will I took this jovial fpark,
of Oxford he, a moft egregious clerk.
He bearded with a widow in the town
A trufty goff p, one dame Alifon.
Full well the fecrets of my foul she knew,
Estter than e'er our paris-priest could do.

250

255

261

265

270

To her I told whatever could befall:
Had but my hufca..d pifs'd againt a wall,
Or done a thing that might have coft his life,
She and my niece-and one more worthy wife,
Fad known it all: what moit he would conceal,
To thefe I made no fcruple to reveal.

Oft has he blu'd from ear to ear for fhame, 275
That 'er he told a fecret to his dame.

It fo berel, in oly time of Lent,
That oft a day I to this golip went

(My husband, thank my ftars, was out of town);
From houfe to house we rambled up and down, 280
This clerk, myself, and my good neighbour Alfe,
To fee, be feen, to tell, and gather tales.
Vifts to every Church we daily paid,
And march'd in every holy Mafquerade,
The Stations duly and the Vigils kept;
Not much we fafted, but fearce ever flept.
At Sermons too I frone in fearlet gay;
The wafting moths ne'er fpoil'd my best array
The caufe was this, I wore it every day.

}

'Iwas when fresh May her early bloffom yields This Clerk and I were walking in the hields, 291 We grew fo intimate, I can t tell how,

I pawn'd my honour, and engag'd my vow,
I e'er I laid my husband in his urn,
That he, and only he, fhould ferve my turn. 295
We ftraight ftruck hands, the bargain was agreed;
I ftill have fhifts against a time of need:
The moufe that always truits to one poor hole,
Can never be a mouse of any foul.

I vow'd, I scarce could fleep fince first I knew him; 300 And durit be fworn he had bewitch'd me to him;

If e'er I flept, I dream'd of him alone,
A d dreams foretel, as learned men have shown.
All this 1 faid; but dreams, hrs, I had none:
Iollow'd but my cra ty Crony's lore,
Who bid me tell this lie and twenty more.

395

Thus day by day, and month by month we paft; It pleas'd the Lord to takey spouse at last, I tore my gown, I foil'd my locks with duft, And beat my breafts, as wretched widows-muf. Before my face my handkerchief I spread, 311 To hide the food of tears I did not shed. 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 frow'd a
pair
315
Of legs and feet, fo clean, so strong, so 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 wonderous gift to quench a flame. 320
A Conjuror once, that deeply could divine,
A Tur'd ine, 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, 325
And Mars allurance and a dauntless face.
By virtue of this powerful conftellation,

I follow'd always my own inclination.

But to my tale: A month fearce pafs'd away,
With dance and fong we kept the nuptial day. 330
All poffeis'd I gave to his command,
My goods and chattels, money, houfe, and land;
But oft repented, and repent it still;

He prov'd a rebel to my fovereign will:
Nay once, by heaven, he ftruck me on the face;
Hear but the fact, and judge yourselves the case.
Stubborn as any lionefs was I;

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

And would be fo, in fpight of all he fwore. 340
He against this right fag ly would advife,
And old examples fet before my eye,
Tell how the Roman matrons led their life,
Of Gracchus' mother, and Duilius' wife;
Ard clofe 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 across the fallow lands;
Or lets his wife abroad with pilgrims roam,

345

He had by heart the whole detail of woe Xantippe made her good man undergoe; How oft fhe fcolded in a day, he knew, How many pifs-pots on the Sage the threw; 390 Who took it patiently, a d 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 395
A fliding noole, 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 most blissful tree,
And in my garden planted shall it be.

400

Then how two wives their lords' deftruction

prove,

All this avail'd not; for whoe'er he be

That tells my faults, I hate him mortally:
And so do numbers more, I boldly fay,
Men, women, clergy, regular, and lay,

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

A certain Treatife oft at evening read, Where divers Authors (whom the devil confound

360

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, Eloïfa'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 vanquifh'd? 'Twas a Man.
But could we women write as fcholars can,
Men should stand mark'd with far more wicked-
nefs,

Than all the fons of Adam could redrefs.

Love feldom haunts the breast where Learning lies,

And Venus fets ere Mercury can rife."

370

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

-425

But after many a hearty struggle 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; 1 took to heart the merits of the caufe, And flood 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 condem'd to

flames.

431)

435

75

The clear reflecting mind prefents his fin
la frightful views, and makes it day within;
Returning thoughts in endless circles roll,
And thousand furies haunt his guilty foul;
The wretch then lifted to th' unpitying kies
Those empty orbs from whence he tore his eyes,
Whofe wounds, yet fresh, with bloody hands he
ftrook,

While from his breaft thefe dreadful accents broke : 80

Y- Gods! that o'er the gloomy regions reign,
Where guilty fpirits feel eternal pain;
Thou, fable Styx! whofe livid reams are roll'd
Through dreary coafts, which I, though blind,
behold:

Tifphone, that oft has heard my prayer,
Affift, if Oedipus deferve thy care!

It you receiv'd me from Jocala's womb,

85

And nurs❜d the hope of mifchiels yet to come:
If leaving Polybus, I took my way
To Cyrrha's temple, on that fatal day,
When by the fon the trembling father dy'd,
Where the three roads the Phocian fields divide:
If I the Sphynx's riddles durft explain,
Taught by thy felf to win the promis'd reign:
If wretched I, by baleful Furies led,
With monftrous mixture ftain'd my mother's
bed,

95

101

For hell and thee begot an impious brood,
And with full luft thofe horrid joys renew'd;
Then felf-condemn'd to shades of endless night,
Forc'd from thefe orbs the bleeding balls of fight:
O hear, and aid the vengeance I require,
If worthy thee, and what thou mightst inspire!
My fons their old unhappy fire defpife,
Spoil'd of his kingdom, and depriv'd of eyes;
Guide lefs I wander, unregarded mourn,
While thefe exalt their fceptres o'er my urn;
Thefe fons, ye Gods! who, with flagitious pride,
Infult my darknefs, and my groans deride.
Art thou a Father, unregarding Jove?
And fleeps thy thunder in the realins above? 110
Thou Fury, then, fome lafting curfe entail,
Which o'er their children's children fhall prevail :
Place on their heads that crown diftain d with

gore,

105

Which thefe dire hands from my flain father tore; Go, and a parent's heavy curfes bear;

115

Break all the bonds of nature, and prepare
Their kindred fouls to mutual hate and war.
Give them to dare, what I might wish to fee
Blind as I am, fome glorious villainy!
Soon falt thou find, if thou but arm their hands,
Their ready guilt preventing thy commands :
Couldst thou fome great, proportion'd mifchief
frame,

They'd prove the father from whofe loins they

Through crouds of airy fhades fhe wing'd her flight,
And dark dominions of the filent night;
Swift as the pafs'd, the fitting ghofts withdrew,
And the pale fpectres trembled at her view:
To th' iron gates of Tænarus fhe flies,
There fpreads her dufky pinions to the kies. 135
The day beheld, and, fickening at the fight,
Veil'd her fair glories in the fhades or night.
Afrighted Atlas, on the distant shore,
Trembled, and hook the heavens and gods he bore.
Now from beneath Malea's airy height
Aloft fhe fprung, and fleer'd to Thebes her flight;
With eager fpeed the well-known journey took,
Nor here regrets the hell fe late forfook.
A hundred Inakes her gloomy vifage fhade,
A hundred ferpents guard her horrid head, 145.
In her funk eye-balls dreadful meteors glow:
Such rays from Phabe's bloody circles flow,
When, labouring with firong charms, the shoots
from high

140

A fery gleam, and reddens all the fky. Blood ftain'd her cheeks, and from her mouth there came

150

Blue fteaming poifons, and a length of flame.
From every blaft of her contagious breath,
Famine and drought proceed, and plagues, and
'death.

155

A robe obfcene was o'er her foulders thrown,
A drefs by Fates and Furies worn alone,
She tofs'd her meagre arms; her better hand
In waving circles whirl'd a funeral brand:
A ferpent from her left was feen to rear
His flaming creft, and lafh the yielding air.
But when the Fury took her ftand on high, 160
Where vaft Citharon's top falutes the sky,
A hifs from all the fnaky tire went round;
The dreadful figual all the rocks rebound,
And through th' Achaian cities fend the found.
Oete, with high Parnaffus, heard the voice; 165
Eurotas' banks remurmur'd to the noise;
Again Leucothoë fhook at these alarms,
And prefs'd Palemon closer in her arms.
Headlong from thence the glowing Fury fprings,
And o'er the Theban palace fpreads her wings,
Once more invades the guilty dome, and fhrouds
Its bright pavilions in a veil of clouds.
Straight with the rage of all their race poffefs'd,
Stung to the foul, the brothers fiart from reft,
And all their Furies wake within their breaft.
Their tortur'd minds repining Envy tears,
And Hate, engender'd by fufpicious fears;
And facred Thirit of fway; and all the ties
Of Nature broke; and royal Perjuries ;
And impotent Defre to reign alone,
That fcorns the dull reversion of a throne;
Each would the fweets of fovereign rule devour,
While Difcord waits upon divid.d power.

180

As ftubborn freers by brawny plow men broke, And join'd reluctant to the galling yoke, 185 Alike difdain with fervile necks to bear The unwonted weight, or drag the crooked fhare, But rend the reins, and bound a different way, And all the furrows in confufion lay; Such was the difcord of the royal pair, Whom fury drove precipitate to war,

YY

190

195

In vain the chiefs contriv'd a specious way,
To govern Thebes by their alternate fway:
Dutt, decree! while this enjoys the flate,
That mours i exile his unequal fate,
And the fort mo arch of a batty year
Forefees with a guifh his retur i g heir.
Thu did the league their impious ar ns reftrain,
But fcarce fubi fed to the feco: dreign.

205

Yet then, no proud afpiring piles were rais'd, No freted roofs with polid metals b'az'd; No labour'd columns in long order plac'd, No Gr can ftone the popous arches grac'd;' No nightly bads in gltteri g armour wait Before the feeplefs Tyrant's guarded gate; No chargers then were wrought in burit'd gold, Nor Iver vaf s took the formi g nield; Nor gems on bowls embofs'd were feen to fhine, Blaze on the brims, and fparle in the wineSay, wretched rivals! what provokes your råge? Say, to what end your impious arms engage? Not all bright Ph bus views in early moro, Or when his evening beams the west adorn, When the fouth glows with hi meridia ray, And the cold orih receives à fai .ter dav; For crimes like thefe, not all those r als fufce, Were all thofe realms the guilty victor's prize!

215

But fortune now (the lots of empire throw.) Decrees to proud Eteocles the crown: What joys, ohyraot! fwell'd thy foul that day, Wher all w re faves thou couldst around Survey, Pleas'd to behold u bounded power thy own, And fingly a war'da denvy'd throne!

But the vile Velgar, ever discontent,
Their growing fears in fecret murmurs vent; 225
Stil prone to change, though fill the flaves of
frate,

And fure the monarch whom they have, to hate;
New lord they madly make, then tamely bear,
And softly cur the Tyrants whom they fear.
And one of those who groan beneath the way 230
Or Kig impos'd, and grudgi gly obey,
(Whom envy to the great and vulgar pight
With fcandal armd, tig oble mir d's delight)
Exchim'd Of Thobes! for thee what fates remain!
What woes attend this inaufpicious reign!
alas our doubtiel ecks prepare,
Malt we,
Each haughty mater' yok by turns to hear,
Ad fill to change whom cha g'd we still mut
fear?

235

Thefe new co trol a wretched people's fate,
Thefe car divid, and thefe reverfe the Date: 240
Fv Fortune rules no m re: O fervile la d,
Where exil'd tyrants still by turas comma d!
Thou fre of gods and me imperial love!
Is this theternal doom decreed above?
On thy ow of sprig haft thou Ex'd this fate, 24
From the fra birth of our u happy ftate;
When bani dadinus, was deriv o'er the main,
For loft Furopa fearch'd the world in vain,
And, fated in Brotian fields to found
A rifing empire on a foreign ground,"
First rais'd our walls on that ill-omen'd plain,
Where earth-born Frothers were by brothers fain?
What loty looks th' užrival'd monarch bears!
How all the tyrant in his face appears!

250

What fullen fury clouds his feornful brow?
Gods! how his eyes with threatening ardour glow!
Can this imperious lord forget to reign,
Quit all his itate, defcend, and ferve again?
Yet who, before, more popularly bow'd,
Who more propitious to the ft ppliant croud? 268
Patient of right, familiar in the throne?
What wo der then? he was not then alone,
wretched we, à vile fubmiffive train,
Fortune's tame fools, and flaves in every reign!

As when two wids with rival force contend,
This way and that, the wavering fails they bend,
While freezing Boreas and blac.. Eurus blow,
Thus, on each i de, alas! cur tottering state
Now here, Low there, the reeling veffel throw,
Feel: all the fury of refiftlefs fate;
And doubtful fill, and ftill diftracted fands,
While that Prince threatens, and while, this com
mands.

And now th' Almighty Father of the Gods Convenes a council in the bk it abodes; Far in the bright receffes of the fkies, High o'er the rolling heavens, a ma 1 on lies, The realms of ring and declining day, Whece, far below the Gods at once furvey And all th' extended space of earth, and air, ad fea.".

270

275

and air,

285

The Majetty of heaver fuper or fione;
Full i the midft, ad on a flarry throne,
Serene he lood, and gave an awful and,
And all the trembling fpheres confefs'd the God.
At ove's a e. t, the deities around
In folemu Pate the confitory crown'd.
Next a lo gerd r of inferior powers
Afce. d from hills, and plains, and flady bowers;
Thofe from whofe urns the rolling r vers flow;
And thofe that give the wand rig winds to blow:
Here all their rage, and even their murmurs
And facred flence reigns, and universal peace.
cafe,
Afig fy..od of majestic Gods
Gilds with new luffre the divine abodes;
Heaven feems improv'd with a superior ray,
And the bright arch re ects a double day.
The Monarch then his folemnlerce broke,
The fill creation Lifter'd while he spoke ;
Each facred accent bears eternal weight.
And each irrevocable word is Fate.

290

295

How long fhall man the wrath, of Heaven de y 300

And force unwilling vengeance from the sky!
Ch race confederate in to crimes, that prove
Triun plant o'er th' eluded rage of jove!
This weary arm can fearce the bolt fuftain,
Ard u regarded thunder rolls i, vain:
Th' c'erlabour'd Cyclop from his task retires;
Th'el as forge exhaufted of its fres.
For this I fufer'd Phu bus' feeds to fray,
And the mad Ruler to milguide the day,
When the wide earth to heaps of aftes tur'd,
And heaven itfelf the wandering chariot bur'd,
For this, my brother of the watery reign
Releas'd the impetuous ftices.of the main.
But flames confum'd, and billows rag'd in vain.

305