A fate no lover can divert With all his caution, wit, and art: For 'tis in vain to think to guess At women by appearances, That paint and patch their imperfections 725 And daub their tempers o'er with washes As artificial as their faces; 730 Wear under vizard-masks their talents, Until the wretch is glad to wave Reduc'd t' eternal noise and scolding; The conjugal petard, that tears 745 Down all portcullices of ears, And makes the volly of one tongue For all their leathern fhields too strong; By th' husband mandrake, and the wife, Quoth he, these reasons are but strains 750 755 Which ralliers in their wit or drink And had his better half, his bride, And perfect his recruited fex ; 760 765 Enlarge his breed, at once, and leffen By changing them for other cares, As by his dry'd-up paps appears. His body, that stupendous frame, Is of two equal parts compact, 770 In shape and symmetry exact, Of which the left and female fide 775 Is to the manly right a bride, Both join'd together with fuch art, That nothing else but death can part. That dazzle all that look upon ye, 780 And fcorch all other ladies tawny ; 785 790 But those that serve the body alone, The world is but two parts, that meet ; 795 And fo are all the works of nature, 800 Or smallest blade of grafs, receive. The only method that she uses, In all the wonders the produces; And those that take their rules from her For what secures the civil life, But pawns of children, and a wife? 805 810 |