So just recov'ring from the shades of night,

Your swimming eyes are drunk with sudden light,

Strange phantoms dance around, and skim before your sight:
"Then, Sir, be cautious, nor too rashly deem;

805

Heav'n knows how seldom things are what they seem!
Consult your reason, and you soon shall find
'Twas you were jealous, not your wife unkind:
Jove ne'er spoke oracle more true than this,
None judge so wrong as those who think amiss."
With that she leap'd into her Lord's embrace,
With well-dissembled virtue in her face.

810

He hugg'd her close, and kiss'd her o'er and o'er,
Disturb'd with doubts and jealousies no more:

Both, pleas'd and bless'd, renew'd their mutual vows,
A fruitful wife, and a believing spouse.

815

Thus ends our tale, whose moral next to make,

Let all wise husbands hence example take;

And pray, to crown the pleasure of their lives,
To be so well deluded by their wives.

820

THE WIFE OF BATH.

FROM CHAUCER.

IN 1714, Pope's Wife of Bath, with two translations from the Odyssey (the arrival of Ulysses in Ithaca and the Garden of Alcinous) were published [by Tonson] in a volume of miscellanies, edited by Steele. To this miscellany, Hughes, the author of the Siege of Damascus, &c., sent several pieces, but finding, before publication, that Pope's Wife of Bath and some other pieces, which were inconsistent with his ideas of decency and decorum, had been admitted, he immediately withdrew most of his own, and allowed only two small poems, and those without his name, to appear. Carruthers. The greatest part of the Wife of Bath's Prologue must have been of Chaucer's own invention, though one may plainly see that he had been reading the popular invectives against marriage, and women in general; such as the Roman de la Rose, Valerius ad Rufinum de non ducendâ uxore, and particularly Hieronymus contra Jovinianum. Tyrwhitt. [The Wife of Bath's Tale, to which this is the Prologue, was modernised by Dryden. Happily the latter did not, like Pope, confine himself to the reproduction of Chaucer's humorous and, to modern taste, indecorous pieces.]

EHOLD the woes of matrimonial life,

BE

And hear with rev'rence an experienc'd wife!

To dear-bought wisdom give the credit due,
And think, for once, a woman tells you true.
In all these trials I have borne a part,

I was myself the scourge that caus'd the smart;

5

For, since fifteen, in triumph have I led
Five captive husbands from the church to bed.

Christ saw a wedding once, the scripture says,
And saw but one, 'tis thought, in all his days;
Whence some infer, whose conscience is too nice,
No pious Christian ought to marry twice.

But let them read, and solve me, if they can,
The words address'd to the Samaritan :
Five times in lawful wedlock was she join'd;
And sure the certain stint was ne'er defin'd.

Increase and multiply, was heav'n's command,
And that's a text I clearly understand.

This too, "Let men their sires and mothers leave,
"And to their dearer wives for ever cleave."

More wives than one by Solomon were try'd,
Or else the wisest of mankind's belied.
I've had myself full many a merry fit;
And trust in heav'n I may have many yet.
For when my transitory spouse, unkind,
Shall die, and leave his woeful wife behind,
I'll take the next good Christian I can find.

Paul, knowing one could never serve our turn,
Declar'd 'twas better far to wed than burn.
There's danger in assembling fire and tow;

I grant 'em that, and what it means you know.
The same Apostle too has elsewhere own'd,
No precept for Virginity he found:
'Tis but a counsel and we women still
Take which we like, the counsel, or our will.
I envy not their bliss, if he or she
Think fit to live in perfect chastity;

Pure let them be, and free from taint of vice;
I, for a few slight spots, am not so nice.
Heav'n calls us diff'rent ways, on these bestows
One proper gift, another grants to those:
Not ev'ry man's oblig'd to sell his store,
And give up all his substance to the poor;
Such as are perfect, may, I can't deny;
But, by your leave, Divines, so am not I.

Full many a Saint, since first the world began,

45

Liv'd an unspotted maid, in spite of man:

Let my good spouse pay tribute, do me right,
And keep an equal reck'ning ev'ry night:
His proper body is not his, but mine;
For so said Paul, and Paul's a sound divine.

Let such (a God's name) with fine wheat be fed,
And let us honest wives eat barley bread.
For me, I'll keep the post assign'd by heav'n,
And use the copious talent it has giv'n:

50

Know then, of those five husbands I have had,
Three were just tolerable, two were bad.
The three were old, but rich and fond beside,

55

ΤΟ

And toil'd most piteously to please their bride :
But since their wealth (the best they had) was mine,
The rest, without much loss, I could resign.
Sure to be lov'd, I took no pains to please,
Yet had more Pleasure far than they had Ease.
Presents flow'd in apace: with show'rs of gold,
They made their court, like Jupiter of old.
If I but smil'd, a sudden youth they found,
And a new palsy seiz'd them when I frown'd.
Ye sov'reign wives! give ear and understand,
Thus shall ye speak, and exercise command.
For never was it giv'n to mortal man,
To lie so boldly as we women can:
Forswear the fact, tho' seen with both his eyes,
And call your maids to witness how he lies.

"Hark, old Sir Paul!" ('twas thus I us'd to say)
"Whence is our neighbour's wife so rich and gay?"
Treated, caress'd, where'er she's pleas'd to roam-
I sit in tatters, and immur'd at home.
Why to her house dost thou so oft repair?
Art thou so am'rous? and is she so fair?
If I but see a cousin or a friend,

Lord! how you swell and rage like any fiend!
But you reel home, a drunken beastly bear,

Then preach till midnight in your easy chair;
Cry, wives are false, and ev'ry woman evil,
And give up all that's female to the devil.

"If poor (you say) she drains her husband's purse; If rich, she keeps her priest, or something worse;

If highly born, intolerably vain,

Vapours and pride by turns possess her brain,
Now gayly mad, now sourly splenetic,

If fair, then chaste she cannot long abide,

Freakish when well, and fretful when she's sick.

By pressing youth attack'd on ev'ry side:

If foul, her wealth the lusty lover lures,

Or else her wit some fool-gallant procures,
Or else she dances with becoming grace,
Or shape excuses the defects of face.

There swims no goose so grey, but soon or late,
She finds some honest gander for her mate.

"Horses (thou say'st) and asses, men may try,
And ring suspected vessels ere they buy:
But wives, a random choice, untry'd they take,
They dream in courtship, but in wedlock wake:
Then, nor till then, the veil's remov'd away,
And all the woman glares in open day.

"You tell me, to preserve your wife's good grace,
Your eyes must always languish on my face,
Your tongue with constant flatt'rics feed my ear,
And tag each sentence with, My life! my dear!
If by strange chance a modest blush be rais'd,

Be sure my fine complexion must be prais'd.
My garments always must be new and gay,
And feasts still kept upon my wedding-day.
Then must my nurse be pleas'd, and fav'rite maid;
And endless treats, and endless visits paid,
To a long train of kindred, friends, allies;
All this thou say'st, and all thou say'st are lies.
"On Jenkin too you cast a squinting eye:
What! can your prentice raise your jealousy?
Fresh are his ruddy cheeks, his forehead fair,
And like the burnish'd gold his curling hair.
But clear thy wrinkled brow, and quit thy sorrow,
I'd scorn your prentice, should you die to-morrow.

"Why are thy chests all lock'd? on what design?
Are not thy worldly goods and treasure mine?
Sir, I'm no fool: nor shall you, by St. John,
Have goods and body to yourself alone.
One you shall quit, in spite of both your eyes-
I heed not, I, the bolts, the locks, the spies.

115

120

125

If you had wit, you'd say, 'Go where you will,
'Dear spouse, I credit not the tales they tell:
"Take all the freedoms of a married life;

130

'I know thee for a virtuous, faithful wife.'

"Lord! when you have enough, what need you care How merrily soever others fare?

135

Tho' all the day I give and take delight,

Doubt not, sufficient will be left at night.

'Tis but a just and rational desire,

To light a taper at a neighbour's fire.

"There's danger too, you think, in rich array,
And none can long be modest that are gay:
The Cat, if you but singe her tabby skin,
The chimney keeps, and sits content within;
But once grown sleek, will from her corner run,
Sport with her tail, and wanton in the sun;
She licks her fair round face, and frisks abroad,
To show her fur, and to be catterwaw'd."

140

145

Lo thus, my friends, I wrought to my desires
These three right ancient venerable sires.
I told 'em, Thus you say, and thus you do,
And told 'em false, but Jenkin swore 'twas true.

150

I, like a dog, could bite as well as whine,

And first complain'd, whene'er the guilt was mine.
I tax'd them oft with wenching and amours,

When their weak legs scarce dragg'd 'em out of doors;
And swore the rambles that I took by night,
Were all to spy what damsels they bedight.
That colour brought me many hours of mirth;
For all this wit is giv'n us from our birth.
Heav'n gave to woman the peculiar grace
To spin, to weep, and cully human race.
By this nice conduct, and this prudent course,

155

160

For gold we love the impotent and old,

And heave, and pant, and kiss, and cling, for gold.

175

Yet with embraces, curses oft I mixt,

Then kiss'd again, and chid and rail'd betwixt.

Well, I may make my will in peace, and die.
For not one word in man's arrears am I.

To drop a dear dispute I was unable,

Ev'n tho' the Pope himself had sat at table.

But when my point was gain'd, then thus I spoke, 'Billy, my dear, how sheepishly you look?

66

Approach, my spouse, and let me kiss thy cheek; "Thou should'st be always thus, resign'd and meek! "Of Job's great patience since so oft you preach, Well should you practise, who so well can teach. "'Tis difficult to do, I must allow,

66

"But I, my dearest, will instruct you how. "Great is the blessing of a prudent wife,

"Who puts a period to domestic strife.

"One of us two must rule, and one obey;

"And since in man right reason bears the sway,

180

185

190

"Let that frail thing, weak woman, have her way.
"The wives of all my family have rul'd
"Their tender husbands, and their passions cool'd.
"Fie, 'tis unmanly thus to sigh and groan;
"What! would you have me to yourself alone?
"Why take me, Love! take all and every part!
"Here's your revenge! you love it at your heart.
"Would I vouchsafe to sell what nature gave,
"You little think what custom I could have.
"But see! I'm all your own-nay hold-for shame!
"What means my dear-indeed-you are to blame."
Thus with my first three Lords I past my life;
A very woman, and a very wife.

What sums from these old spouses I could raise,
Procur'd young husbands in my riper days.
Tho' past my bloom, nor yet decay'd was I,
Wanton and wild, and chatter'd like a pye.
In country dances still I bore the bell,
And sung as sweet as ev'ning Philomel.
To clear my quail-pipe, and refresh my soul,

1[Tassel, another form of tiercel; the male hawk.]