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Or lets his wife abroad with pilgrims roam,
Deserves a fool's-cap and long ears at home. 350
All this availed not: for whoe'er he be
That tells my faults, I hate him mortally:
And so do numbers more, I'll boldly say,
Men, women, clergy, regular, and lay.

My spouse, who was, you know, to learning bred,

A certain treatise oft at evening read,

355

360

Where divers authors, whom the devil confound
For all their lies, were in one volume bound.
Valerius, whole; and of St. Jerome, part;
Chrysippus and Tertullian, Ovid's Art,
Solomon's Proverbs, Eloïsa's loves;
And many more than sure the church approves.
More legends were there here, of wicked wives,
Than good, in all the Bible and saints' lives.
Who drew the lion vanquished? 'Twas a man.
But could we women write as scholars can, 366
Men should stand marked with far more wicked-

ness,

Than all the sons of Adam could redress.
Love seldom haunts the breast where learning

lies,

370

And Venus sets ere Mercury can rise.
Those play the scholars who can't play the men,
And use that weapon which they have, their
pen;

When old, and past the relish of delight,
Then down they sit, and in their dotage write,
That not one woman keeps her marriage-vow.
This by the way, but to my purpose now.

376

It chanced 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:

380

How Sampson fell; and he whom Dejanire Wrapped in the envenomed shirt, and set on fire.

How cursed Eryphile her lord betrayed,
And the dire ambush Clytemnestra laid.
But what most pleased him was the Cretan

dame,

385

And husband-bull-oh, monstrous! fie, for shame!

He had by heart, the whole detail of woe, Xantippe made her good man undergo; How oft she scolded in a day, he knew, How many piss-pots on the sage she threw; 390 Who took it patiently, and wiped his head; "Rain follows thunder," that was all he said.

He read, how Arius to his friend complained, A fatal tree was growing in his land,

On which three wives successively had twined A sliding noose, and wavered in the wind. 396 "Where grows this plant, (replied the friend), oh where ?

For better fruit did never orchard bear.
Give me some slip of this most blissful tree,
And in my garden planted shall it be!"

400

Then, how two wives their lords' destruction

prove,

Through hatred one, and one through too much

love;

That for her husband mixed a poisonous draught, And this for lust an amorous philtre bought: The nimble juice soon seized his giddy head, Frantic at night, and in the morning dead. 406 How some with swords their sleeping lords have slain,

And some have hammered nails into their brain,

And some have drenched them with a deadly

potion;

409

All this he read, and read with great devotion. Long time I heard, and swelled, and blushed, and frowned:

But when no end of these vile tales I found, When still he read, and laughed, and read again,

And half the night was thus consumed in vain; Provoked to vengeance, three large leaves I

tore,

415

And with one buffet felled him on the floor.
With that my husband in a fury rose,
And down he settled me with hearty blows.
I groaned, and lay extended on my side;
"Oh! thou hast slain me for my wealth, (I

cried,)

420

Yet I forgive thee-take my last embrace "-
He wept, kind soul! and stooped to kiss my

face;

I took him such a box as turned him blue, Then sighed, and cried, "Adieu, my dear, adieu !"

425

But after many a hearty struggle past, I condescended to be pleased at last. Soon as he said, "My mistress and my wife, Do what you list, the term of all your life," I took to heart the merits of the cause, And stood content to rule by wholesome laws; Received the reins of absolute 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 reviled the dames, 'Twas torn to fragments, and condemned to

flames.

431

435

Now Heaven, on all my husbands gone, be

stow

H

Pleasures above, for tortures felt below:

That rest they wished for, grant them in the grave,

And bless those souls my conduct helped to save!

THE TEMPLE OF FAME.

WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1711.

ADVERTISEMENT.

"The hint of the following piece was taken from Chaucer's House of Fame. The design is in a manner entirely altered, the descriptions and most of the particular thoughts my own: yet I could not suffer it to be printed without this acknowledgment. The reader who would compare this with Chaucer, may begin with his third Book of Fame, there being nothing in the two first books that answers to their title. Whenever any hint is taken from him, the passage itself is set down in the marginal notes."-P.

N that soft season,' when descending

showers

Call forth the greens, and wake the
rising flowers;

When opening buds salute the welcome day,
And earth relenting feels the genial ray;
As balmy sleep had charmed my cares to rest, 5
And love itself was banished from my breast,

This poem is introduced in the manner of the Provençal poets, whose works were for the most part visions, or pieces of imagination, and constantly descriptive. From these, Petrarch and Chaucer frequently borrow the idea of their poems. See the Trionfi of the former, and the Dream, Flower, and the Leaf, &c., of the latter. The author of this therefore chose the same sort of exordium.-P.

(What time the morn mysterious visions brings, While purer slumbers spread their golden wings)

A train of phantoms in wild order rose,
And joined, this intellectual scene compose.

10

I stood, methought, betwixt earth, seas, and skies:

1

The whole creation open to my eyes:

In air self-balanced hung the globe below, Where mountains rise, and circling oceans flow; Here naked rocks, and empty wastes were

seen,

15

There towery cities, and the forests green;
Here sailing ships delight the wandering eyes;
There trees, and intermingled temples rise:
Now a clear sun the shining scene displays;
The transient landscape now in clouds decays. 20
O'er the wide prospect as I gazed around,
Sudden I heard a wild promiscuous sound,
Like broken thunders that at distance roar,
Or billows murmuring on the hollow shore :
Then, gazing up, a glorious pile beheld,
Whose towering summit ambient clouds con-
cealed,

High on a rock of ice the structure lay,2

25

These verses are hinted from the following of Chaucer, book ii. :

"Tho beheld I fields and plains,
And now hills, and now mountains,
Now valeys, and now forestes,
And now unnethes great bestes,

Now riveres, now citees,

Now townes, and now great trees,

Now shippes sayling in the see."-P.

2 Chaucer's third book of Fame :

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