What Crowns could be Hereditary, If greatest Monarchs did not Marry, And with their Conforts confummate Their weightieft Interefts of State? For all th' Amours of Princes are But Guarrantees of Peace or War. Or what but Marriage has a Charm, The Rage of Empires to disarm, Make Blood and Defolation cease, And Fire and Sword unite in Peace, When all their fierce Contests for Forage Conclude in Articles of Marriage! Nor does the Genial Bed provide Lefs for the Interests of the Bride Who else had not the leaft pretence T'as much as due Benevolence; Could no more Title take upon her To Virtue, Quality, and Honour, Than Ladies Errant, unconfin'd, And Feme-Coverts t'all Mankind, All Women would be of one piece, The Virtuous Matron, and the Miss;
The Nymphs of Chafte Diana's Train, The fame with those in Lewkner's Lane; But for the difference Marriage makes 'Twixt Wives, and Ladies of the Lakes. Befides, the Joys of Place and Birth; The Sex's Paradife on Earth;
A Privilege fo Sacred held,
That none will to their Mothers yield; But rather than not go before, Abandon Heaven at the Door. And if th' indulgent Law allows A greater Freedom to the Spouse; The Reafon is, Because the Wife Runs greater Hazards of her Life; Is trufted with the Form and Matter Of all Mankind by careful Nature, Where Man brings nothing but the Stuff, She frames the wondrous Fabric of: Who therefore, in a ftreight, may freely Demand the Clergy of her Belly, Ard make it fave her, the fame way, It feldom miffes to betray.
Unless both Parties wifely enter Into the Liturgy-Indenture.
And though fome Fits of fmall Contest Sometimes fall out among the beft, That is no more than every Lover Does from his Hackney-Lady fuffer. That makes no Breach of Faith and Love, But rather (fometimes) ferve t' improve. For, as in Running, ev'ry Pace, Is but between two Legs a Race, In which both do their uttermoft To get before, and win the Poft; Yet when they're at their Race's Ends, They're ftill as kind and constant Friends, And to relieve their Weariness,
By turns give one another Ease: So all thofe falfe Alarms of Strife, Between the Husband and the Wife, And little Quarrels often prove To be but new Recruits of Love. When those who're always kind or coy, In time muft either tire or cloy,
Nor are their loudeft Clamours more, Than as they're relifh'd, Sweet or Soure: Like Mufick, that proves bad or good, According as 'tis understood.
In all Amours a Lover burns,
With Frowns, as well as Smiles, by turns: And Hearts have been as oft with Sullen, As charming Looks, furpriz'd and stollen. Then why should more bewitching Clamour Some Lovers not as much enamour? For Discords make the sweetest Airs, And Curfes are a kind of Prayers: Too flight Alloys for all those grand Felicities by Marriage gain'd.
For nothing else has pow'r to fettle Th' Interefts of Love perpetual.
An A&t and Deed, that makes one Heart Become another's Counter-part,
And passes Fines on Faith and Love, Inroll'd and Register'd above,
To feal the flippery Knot of Vows, Which nothing else but Death can loose.
And what Security's too ftrong,
To guard that gentle Heart from Wrong, That to its Friend is glad to pafs
It felf away, and all it has;
And like an Anchorite, gives over This World, for th' Heaven of a Lover? I grant (quoth fbe) there are fome few, Who take that courfe and find it true: But Millions, whom the fame does. Sentence To Heaven b' another way, Repentance. Love's Arrows are but fhot at Rovers, Though all they hit they turn to Lovers. And all the weighty Confequents
Depend upon more blind Events, Than Gamesters, when they play a Set With greateft cunning at Piquet, Put out with Caution, but take in They know not what, Unfight, Unfeen. For what do Lovers, when they're faft In one another's Arms embrac'd, But ftrive to Plunder and Convey Each other, like a Prize, away?
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