Thus with my first three Lords I past my life;
A very woman, and a very wife.
What fums from thefe old fpoufes I could raife,
Procur'd young husbands in my riper days.
Though past my bloom, not yet decay'd was I,
Wauton and wild, and chatter'd like a pye.
In country dances fiill I bore the bell,
And fung as fweet as evening Philomel.
To clear my quailpipe, and refrefh my foul,
Full oft I drain'd the fpicy nut-brown bowl;
Rich lufcious wines, that youthful blood improve,
And warm the fwelling veins to feats of love:
For 'tis as fure, as cold engenders hail,
A liquerifh mouth muit have a lecherous tail:
Wine lets no lover unrewarded go,
As all true gamefters by experience know.
To her I told whatever could befall:
Had but my husband piss'd against a wall,
Cr done a thing that might have coft his life,
She and my niece-and one more worthy wife,
Had known it all: what moft he would conceal,
To thefe I made no fcruple to reveal.
Oft has he blu'd from ear to ear for fhame, 275 ́
That e'er he told a fecret to his dame.
It fo befel, in holy time of Lent,
That oft a day I to this goffip went
(My husband, thank my ftars, was out of town);
From houfe to houfe we rambled up and down, 280
This clerk, myfelf, and my good neighbour Alfe,
To fee, be feen, to tell, and gather tales.
Vifts to every Church we daily paid,
And march'd in every holy Masquerade,
But oh, good Gods! whene'er a thought I caft The Stations duly and the Vigils kept;
On all the joy of youth and beauty pait,
To find in pleatures I have had my part,
Still warms me to the bottom of my heart.
This wicked world was orce my dear delight; 225
Now all my conquefts, all my charins, goodnight!
The flour confum'd the best that now i can,
Is e'en to make my market of the bran.
My fourth dear fpoufe was not exceeding true;
He kept, 'twas thought, a private Mifs or two;
But all the fcore I paid-as how? you'll fay,
Not with my body, in a filthy way:
But I fo drefs'd, and danc'd, and drank, and
din'd;
And view' a friend with eyes so very kind,
As ftung his heart, and made his marrow fry
With burning rage, and frantic jealousy.
His foul I hope, enjoys eternal glory,
For here on earth. I was his Purgatory.
Oft, when his fhoe the moft feverely wrung,
He put on care left airs, and fate and fung.
How fore I gall'd him, only heaven could know,
And he that felt, and I that caus'd the wee.
He dy'd, when laft from pilgrimage I came,
With other goffips, from Jerufalem;
And now lies buried underneath a Rood,
Fair to be feen, and rear'd of honest wood:
A tomb indeed, with fewer fculptures grac'd
Than that Maufolus' pious widow plac'd,
Or where infrin'd the great Darius lay;
But coft on graves is merely thrown away.
The pit fill'd up, with turf we cover'd o'er;
So bleft the good man's foul! I fay no more.
Now for my nfth lov'd Lord, the last and best;
(Kind heaven afford him everlafting rett!)
Full hearty was his love, and I can fhew
The tokens op my ribs in black and blue;
Yet, with a knack, my heart he could have won,
While yet the fmart was fhooting in the bone.
How quaint an appetite in women reigns!
Free gifts we fcorn, and love what coits us pains:
Let men avoid us, and on them we leap;
A glutted market makes provifon cheap.
In pure good-will I took this jovial fpark,
Cf Oxford he, a most egregious clerk.
He boarded with a widow in the town
A trufty goflip, one dame Alifon.
Full well the fecrets of my foul she knew,
Estter than e'er our pari-priest could do.
Not much we fafted, but scarce ever flept.
At Sermons too I frone in fcarlet gay;
The wafting moths ne'er fpoil'd my best array;
The caufe was this, I wore it every day.
'Twas when fresh May her early blossom yields, This Clerk and I were walking in the fields, 291 We grew fo intimate, I can t tell how,
I pawn'd my honour, and engag'd my vow,
If e'er I laid my husband in his urn,
That he, and only he, fhould ferve my turn. 295
We straight struck hands, the bargain was agreed;
I ftill have fhifts against a time of need:
The moufe that always trufts to one poor hole,
Can never be a mouse of any foul.
I vow'd, I fearce could fleep fince first I knew him; 300 And durft be fworn he had bewitch'd me to him;
If e'er I flept, I dream'd of him alone,
And dreams foretel, as learned men have fhown.
All this I faid; but dreams, firs, I had none :
I follow'd but my crafty Crony's lore,
Who bid me tell this lie-and twenty more.
But as he march'd, good Gods! he show'd a
pair
315
Of legs and feet, fo clean, fo ftrong, fo fair!
Of twenty winters age he feem'd to be;
(to fay truth) was twenty more than he;
But vigorous ftill, a lively buxom daine;
And had a wonderous gift to quench a flame, 320
A Conjuror once, that deeply could divine,
Afford me, Mars in Taurus was my fign.
As the ftars order'd, fuch my life has been:
Ala, alas, that ever love was sm;
Fair Venus gave me fire and fprightly grace, 325
And Mars affurance and a dauntlefs face.
By virtue of this powerful conftellation,
I follow'd always my own inclination.
But to my tale A month scarce pafs'd away, With dance and fong we kept the nuptial day. 330 All I poffefs'd I gave to his command,
My goods and chattels, money, houfe, and land; But oft repented, and repent it fill;
He prov'd a rebel to my fovereign will:
Nay once, by heaven, he ftruck me on the face;
Hear but the fact, and judge yourselves the cafe.
Stubborn as any lionefs was I;
And knew full well to raife my voice on high;
As true a rambler as I was before,
And would be fo, in fpight of all he fwore. 340
He against this right fag ly would advife,
And old examples fet before my eyes,
Tell how the Roman matrons led their life,
Of Gracchus' mother, and Duilius' wife;
And clofe the fermon, as befeem'd his wit,
With fome grave fentence out of Holy Writ.
Oft would he fay, Who builds his houfe on
fands,
Pricks his blind horfe across the fallow lands;
Or lets his wife abroad with pilgrims roam,
He had by heart the whole detail of woe
Xantippe made her good man undergoe;
How oft fhe fcolded in a day, he knew,
How many pifs-pots on the Sage he threw; 390
Who took it patiently, and wip'd his head;
"Rain follows thunder," that was all he faid.
He read, how Arius to his friend complain'd,
A fatal Tree was growing in his land,
On which three wives fucceffively had twin'd 395
A fliding noofe, and waver'd in the wind.
Where grows this plant (reply'd the friend), oh
where?
For better fruit did never orchard bear.
Give me fome flip of this moft blissful tree,
And in my garden planted fhall it be.
Then how two wives their lords' deftru&tion
That for her husband mix'd a poisonous draught,
And this for luft an amorous philtre bought
The nimble juice foon feiz'd his giddy head, 405
Deferves a fool's-cap, and long ears at home. 350 Frantic at night, and in the morning dead.
All this avail'd not; for whoe'er he be
That tells my faults, I hate him mortally:
And fo do numbers more,
Men, women, clergy, regular, and lay.
My fpoufe (who was, you know, to learning bred)
A certain Treatife oft at evening read,
Where divers Authors (whom the devil con-
found
For all their lies) were in one volume bound.
Valerius, whole; and of St. Jerome, part;
Chryfippus and Tertullian, Cvid's Art,
Solomon's Proverbs, Eloïfa's Loves;
And many more than fure the Church approves.
More legends were there here of wicked wives,
Than good in all the Bible and Saints lives.
Who drew the Lion vanquifh'd? 'Twas a Man.
But could we women write as fcholars can,
How fome with fwords their fleeping lords
And fome have hammer'd nails into their brain, And fome have drench'd them with a deadly potion;
All this he read, and read with great devotion.
Men fhould stand mark'd with far more wicked-I nefs,
Than all the fons of Adam could redrefs.
Love feldom haunts the breaft where Learning
And Venus fets ere Mercury can rife.
Those play the scholars, who can't pl. the men,
And ufe that weapon which they have, their pen;
When old, and past the relin of delight,
Then down they fit, and in their dotage write,
That not one woman keeps her marriage vow.
(This by the way, but to my purpose now).
It chanc'd my huftand, on a winter's night,
Read in this book, aloud, with ftrange delight,
How the brit female (as the Scriptures fhow)
Brought her own spouse and all his race to woe.
How Samfon fell; and he whom Dejanire
Wrapp'd in th' envenoni'd shirt, and fet on fire.
How curs'd Eryphile her lord betray'd,
And the dire ambush Clytemneftra laid.
But what most pleas'd him was the Cretan Dame,
fie for
And Hufband-bull oh monftrous!
Long time I heard, and fwell'd, and blush'd and frown'd:
But when no end of thefe vile tales I found, When ftill he read, and laugh'd, and read again,
And half the night was thus confum'd in vain ; Provok'd to vengeance, three large leaves I
And with one buffet fell'd him on the floor.
With that my husband in a fury rofe,
And down he fettled me with hearty blows.
Oh! thou haft flain me for my wealth (I cry'd),
groan'd, and lay extended on my fide;
Yet I forgive thee-take my laft embrace-
He wept, kind foul! and stoop'd to kifs my face,
I took him fuch a box as turn'd him blue,
Then figh'd and cry'd, Adieu, my dear, adieu!
425
But after many a hearty struggle past,
I condefcended to be pleas'd at laft.
Soon as he faid, My miftrefs and my wife,
Do what you lift, the term of all your life;
I took to heart the merits of the caufe,
And flood content to rule by wholefome laws;
Receiv'd the reins of abfolute command, 431)
With all the government of house and land,
And empire o'er his tongue, and o'er his hand,
As for the volume that revil'd the dames,
'Twas torn to fragments, and condemn'd to
flames.
husbands gone
all
Now heaven on my
Pleafures above, for tortures felt below:
That reft they with'd for, grant them in the
Tranflated in the Year M.DCC.!!!.
OEDIPUS King of Thebes, having by miake Main
his father Lius, and married his mother Fra 1,
put out his own eyes, and refigned the re I'm to hi
Jon, Freoclos and Polynices. Peing realefed by
them, he makes his prayer to the fury Tone
to for debate betwixt the brothers. They agree
at lal to reign fingly, each a yer by turns,
the firf lot is obtained by Eteocles. Friter in
a council of the Gods, declares his refolution of
punishing the Thebans, and Argives alfo, by means
of a marriage betwixt Polynices and one of the
daughters of Adrafus King of Arpos. Funo op-
pofes, but to no effect; and Mercury is fent an a
effage to the Shades, to the ghot of Lius, who
is to appear to Eteocles, and 'rovoke him to break
the agreement. Polyrices in the mean time departs
from Thebes by night, is overtaken by a form, rd
arrives at Argos; where he meets with Ty 'eus,
who had fled from Calydon, having killed bi tro-
ther. Arus entertain them, having received
an oracle from Apollo, that his daughters fhould
be married to a Boar and a Lion, which hurder-
flands to be meint of these rangers, by cohom
the hides of those beasts were worn, and who
arrived at the time when he kept an annual fe-
in honour of that God. The rife of this folemnity
he relates to his gue's, the loves of Phabus and
Pfamathe, and the Pory of Chorobus, He enquires,
and is made acquainted with their defcent and
quality. The facrifice is renewed, and the book
concludes agith a Hymn to Apello.
The Tranflator hoes he need not apologise for his
choice of this Piece, which was made almoft in his
Childhood, but, finding the Verfion better than he
ex elled, he gave it fome Correction a few years
afterey rds.
RATERNAL rage, the guilty Thebes alarms,
The alternate reign deftroy'd by impious
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Twice taught the Rhine beneath his laws to roll,
And ftretch'd his empire to the frozen Pole:
Or long before, with early valour strove
In youth ul arms t'alert the caufe of jove.
And Thou, great Heir of all thy father's fame,
Increase of glory to the Latian name!
O blefs thy Rome with an eternal reign,
Nor let defiring worlds entreat in vain.
What though the ftars contract their heavenly
fpace,
And croud their fhining ranks to yield thee place;
Though all the fkies, ambitious of thy fway,
Confpire to court thee from our world away;
Though Phebus longs to mix his rays with thine,
And in thy glories more ferenciy fhine;
Though jove him!elf no lefs content would be
To part his throne, and fhare his heaven with thee;
Yet ftay, great Cæfar! and vouchfafe to reign
O'er the wide earth, and oer the watery main;
Refgn to Jove his empire of the kies,
And people heaven with Roman deities.
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The time will come, when a diviner fame
Shall warm my breaft to fing of Cæfar's fame:
Meanwhile permit, that my preluding Mufe
In Theban wars an humbler theme may chufe:
of furious hate furviving death, the figs,
A fatal throne to two contending Kings,
And funeral flames, that parting wide in air
Exprefs the difcord of the fouls they bear:
Of towns difpeopled, and the wandering ghofts
Of Kings unbury'd in the wafted coats; 56
When Dirce's fountain blufh'd with Grecian t
blood,
And Thetis near Ifmeno's fwelling flood,
With dread beheld the rolling furges fweep,
In heaps, his fiaughtered fons into the deep. 60
What Hero, Clio! wilt thou first relate?
The rage of Tydeus, or the Phrophet's fate ?
Or how, with hills of flain on every fide,
Hippomedon repell'd the hoftile tide?
Or how the youth, with every grace adora'd, 65
Untimely fell, to be for ever mourn'd?
Then to fierce Capaneus thy verse extend,
And fing with horror his prodigious end.
Now wretched Oedipus, deprived of fight,
Led a long death in everlafting night;
But, while he dwells where not a chearful ray
Can pierce the darkness, and abhors the day,
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Ye Gods! that o'er the gloomy regions reign,
Where guilty fpirits feel eternal pain;
Thou, fable Styx! whofe livid fireams are roll'd
Through dreary coafts, which I, though blind,
behold:
Tifphone, that oft has heard my prayer,
At, if Oedipus deferve thy care!
If you receiv'd me from Jocafta's womb,
And nurs'd the hope of mifchiers yet to come:
If having Polybus, I took my way
To Cyrrha's temple, on that fatal day,
When by the fon the trembling father dyd,
Where the three roads the Phocian fields divide:
If I the Sphynx's riddles durft explain,
Taught by thy felf to win the promis'd reign:
If wretched I, by baleiul Furies led,
With monftrous mixture ftain'd my mother's
bed,
For hell and thee begot an impious brood,
And with full luft thofe horrid joys renew'd;
Then felf-condemn'd to fhades of endless night,
Fore'd from thefe orbs the bleeding balls of fight:
O hear, and aid the vengeance I require,
If worthy thee, and what thou mightst inspire!
My fons their old unhappy fre despise,
Spoil'd of his kingdom, and depriv'd of eyes;
Guide lefs I wander, unregarded moura,
While thefe exalt their fceptres o'er my urn;
Gods! who, with flagitious pride,
Infelt my dark nefs, and my groans deride,
Art thou a Father, unregarding Jove?
And fleeps thy thunder in the realms above? 110
Thou Fury, then, fome lafting carfe entail,
Which o'er their children's children fhall prevail:
Place on their heads that crown diftain d with
gore,
Which thefe dire hands from my flain father tore;
Go, and a parent's heavy curfes bear ;
115
Break all the bonds of nature, and prepare
Give them to dare, what I might wish to fee
Blind as I am, fome glorious villainy!
Scon fhalt thou find, if thou but arm their hands,
Their ready guilt preventing thy commands:
Couldst thou fome great, proportion'd mifchief
Through crouds of airy fhades fhe wing'd her flight, And dark dominions of the filent night; Swift as the pafs'd, the fitting ghosts withdrew, And the rale fpectres trembled at her view: To th' iron gates of Tænarus The flies, There spreads her dufky pinions to the kies. 135 The day beheld, and, fickening at the fight, Veil'd her fair glories in the fhades of night. Affrighted Atlas, on the diftant fhore, Trembled, and hook the heavens and gods he bore. Now from beneath Malea's airy height Aloft fhe fprung, and fleer'd to Thebes her flight; With eager fpeed the well-known journey took, Nor here regrets the hell the late forfook. A hundred fnakes her gloomy vifage fade, A hundred ferpents guard her horrid head, 145 In her funk eye-balls dreadful meteors glow: Such rays from Phabe's bloody circles flow, When, labouring with ftrong charms, fhe fhoots from high
A fiery gleam, and reddens all the sky. Blood ftain'd her cheeks, and from her mouth there came
Blue fteaming poifons, and a length of flame.
From every blaft of her contagious breath,
Famine and drought proceed, and plagues, and
death,
A robe obfcene was o'er her fhoulders thrown,
A drefs by Fates and Furies worn alone.
She tofs'd her meagre arms; her better hand
In waving circles whirl'd a funeral brand;,
A ferpent from her left was feen to rear
His flaming creft, and lash the yielding air.
But when the Fury took her fland on high, 160
Where vaft Citharon's top falutes the sky,
A hiis from all the fnaky tire went round;
The dreadful fgnal all the rocks rebound,
And through th' Achaian cities fend the found.
Cete, with bigh Parnaffus, heard the voice; 165
Eurotas' banks reinurmur'd to the noise;
Again Leucothoë fhook at these alarms,
Ard prefs'd Palemon clofer in her arms.
Headlong from thence the glowing Fury springs,
And o'er the Theban palace fpreads her wings,
Once more invades the guilty dome, and fhrouds
Its bright pavilions in a veil of clouds.
Straight with the rage of all their race poffefs'd,
Stung to the foul, the brothers ftart from reft,
And all their Furies wake within their breast.
Their tortur'd mi ds repining Envy tears,
And Hate, engender'd by fufpicious fears;
And facred Thirit of fway; and all the ties
Of Nature broke; and royal Perjuries;
And impotent Dere to reign alone,
That fcorns the dull revert on of a throne;
Each would the fweets of fovereign rule devour,
While Difcord waits upon divided power.
In vain the chiefs contriv'd a fpecious way,
To govern Thebes by their alternate sway :
Unjut decree! while this enjoys the ftate,
That mourns'in exile his unequal fate,
And the fhort monarch of a hafty year
Forefees with anguifh his returoiug neir.
Thus did the league their impious arms reftrain,
But fearce fubfifted to the fecond reign.
Yet then, no proud afpiring piles were rais'd,'
No frested roofs with polif'd metals b'az'd;
No hbour'd columns in long order plac'd,
No Grecian ftone the pompous arches grac'd ;'
No nightly bands in glittering armour wait
Before the feeplefs Tyrant's guarded gate; 295
No chargers then were wrought in burnin'd gold,
Nor flver vafis took the forming mold;
Nor gems on bowls embofs'd were feen to fhine,
Blaze on the brims, and sparkle in the wine--
Say, wretched rivals! what provoles your rage?
Say, to what end your impious arms engage?
Not all bright Ph bus views in early mor,
Or when his evening beams the we adorn,
When the fouth glows with his meridian ray,
And the cold north receives a fainter day;
For crimes like thefe, net all thofe realms fuffice,
Were all thofe realms the guilty victor's prize!
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And fure the monarch whom they have, to hate;
New lords they madly make, then tamely bear,
And foftly curfe the Tyrants whom they fear.
And one of those who groan beneath the fway 230
Of Kings impos'd, and grudgingly obey,
(Whom envy to the great and vulgar pight
With fcandal arm'd, the ignoble mind's delight)
Exclaim'd O Thebes! for thee what fates remain!
What wees attend this inaufpicious reign!
Muft we, alas! our doubtful necks prepare,
Each haughty mu ter's yoks by turns to hear,
And fill to change whom charged we ftil muft
These new control a wretched people's fate,
Thefe can divide, and these reverse the tate: 240
F'n Fortune rules no more: O fervile land,
Where exil'd tyra qt fill by turns command!
Thou fre of gods and men, imperial Jove!
Is this th' eternal doom decreed above?
On shy own off spring hat thou fix'd this fate, 245.
From the frat birth of our unhappy ftates
When basil'd Cadmus, wandering o'er the main,
For lot Europa fearch'd the world in vain,
And, fated in Baotian felds to found
Arifing empire on a forciza ground,
Fird vis'd our walls on that ill-omen'd plain,
Where carth-bore brothers were by brothers fain?
What lofty looks th' unrival'd imonarch bears!
How all the tyrant in his face appears?
What fullen fury clouds his fcornful brow? 255
Gods how his eyes with threatening ardour glow 1
Can this imperious lordierget to reign,
Quit all his state, defcend, and ferve again?
Yet who, before, more popularly bow'd,
Who more propitious to the fuppliant croud? 200
Parient of right, familiar in the throne?
What wonder then? he was not then alone.
O wretched we, a v le fubmiffive train,
Fortune's tame icols, and flaves in every reign!
As when two winds with rival force contend, This way and that, the wavering fails they bend, While freezing Boreas and black Errus blow, Now here, now there, the reeling veffel throw, Thus, on each ride, alas! our tottering fate Feels all the fury of refiftlefs fate;
And doubtful full, a. d ftill difirafted flands, While that Prince threatens, and while this commands.
And now th' Almighty Father of the Gods Convenes a council in the ble abodes: Far in the bright receffes of the flies, 275 Eigh o'er the rolling heavens, a mafon lies, Whence, far below the Gods at once furvey The realms of ring and declining day, And all th' extended fpace of earth, and air, and air, and fea. Full in the midft, and on a flarry throne, 280 The Majefty of heaven fuperior ftone; Serene he leo 'd, and gave an awful nod, And all the trembling fpheres confefs'd the God. At jove's affcit, the deities around In folemn ftate the cofitory crown'd, Next a long order of inferior powers Afce: d from hills, and plains, and fady bowers; Thofe from whofe urns the rolling r vers How; And thofe that give the wandering winds to blow : Here all their rage, and even their mur nurs ccafe,
And facred flence reigns, and univeral peace.
Afining fyrod of n ajeltic Gods
Gilds with new lure the divire abodes;
Heaven feems improv❜d with a fuperior ray,
And the br gat arch re^es a double day.
The Monarch then bis folemn flerde broke,
The fill creation liften'd while he spoke ;
Each facred accent bears eternal weight.
And each irrevocable word is Fate.
How long hail man the wrath of Heaven dety, 300 And force unwilling vengeance from the sky! Ol race concderate into crimes, that prove Triumphant c'er th' cluded rage of jove! This weary arm can fearce the bolt fuftain, Th' o'erlabour'd Cyclop from his task retires; And unregarded thunder rolls in vain ; Th' clar forge exhaufted of its fires. For this I funer'd Phu bus' fleeds to firay, And the mad Ruler to mifguide the day, When the wide earth to heaps of afhes turn'd, And heaven itself the wandering chariot burn'd, For this, my brother of the watery reign Releas'd the impetuous fluices of the main. But fames confum', and Lillows rag'd in vain.
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