Or lets his wife abroad with pilgrims roam, 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 ness, Than all the sons of Adam could redress. lies, 370 And Venus sets ere Mercury can rise. When old, and past the relish of delight, 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, 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. 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. cried,) 420 Yet I forgive thee-take my last embrace "- 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 When opening buds salute the welcome day, 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, 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; 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, Now riveres, now citees, Now townes, and now great trees, Now shippes sayling in the see."-P. 2 Chaucer's third book of Fame : |