'Why, take me, love! take all and ev'ry part! 'Here's your revenge! you love it at your heart. "Would I vouchsafe to sell what Nature gave, 201 '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 pass'd my life, A very woman, and a very wife. 206 What sums from these old spouses I could raise, Procur'd young husbands in my riper days. Though past my bloom, not yet decay'd was I ; Wanton and wild, and chatter'd like a pie. In country dances still I bore the bell, And sung as sweet as ev'ning Philomel.

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To clear my quail pipe, and refresh my soul,
Full oft I drain'd the spicy nut-brown bowl;
Rich luscious wines, that youthful blood improve,
And warm the swelling veins to feats of love: 216
For 'tis as sure as cold engenders hail,

A liqu'rish mouth must have a lech'rous tail;
Wine lets no lover unrewarded go,

As all true gamesters by experience know.

220

But oh, good Gods! whene'er a thought I cast On all the joys of youth and beauty past,' To find in pleasures I have had my part, Still warms me to the bottom of my heart. This wicked world was once my dear delight; 225 Now all my conquests, all my charms good night;

The flour consum'd, the best that now I can,
Is e'en to make my market of the bran.

My fourth dear spouse was not exceeding true s He kept, 'twas thought, a private miss or two: 230 But all that score I pay'd.-As how? you'll say; Not with my body in a filthy way;

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But I so dress'd, and danc'd, and drank, and din'd,
And view'd a friend with eyes so very kind
As stung his heart, and made his marrow fry 235
With burning rage, and frantic jealousy.
His soul, I hope, enjoys eternal glory,
For here on earth I was his purgatory.
Oft when his shoe. the most severely wrung,
He put on careless airs, and sat and sung.
How sore I gall'd him, only Heav'n could know,
And he that felt, and I that caus'd the woe.
He dy'd when last from pilgrimage I came,
With other gossips, from Jerusalem;
And now lies bury'd underneath a rood,
Fair to be seen, and rear'd of honest wood :
A tomb, indeed, with fewer sculptures grac'd
Than that Mausolus' pious widow plac'd,
Or where enshrin'd the great Darius lay;
But cost on graves is merely thrown away.
The pit fill'd up, with turf we cover'd o'er ;
So bless the good man's soul! I say no more.

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Now for my fifth lov'd lord, the last and best; (Kind Heav'n afford him everlasting rest!) Full hearty was his love, and I can shew The tokens on my ribs, in black and blue; ̈

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Yet with a knack my heart he could have won,
While yet the smart was shooting in the bone.
How quaint an appetite in women reigns!
Free gifts we scorn, and love what costs us pains:
Let men avoid us, and on them we leap;
A glutted market makes provision cheap.

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In pure good-will I took this jovial spark, Of Oxford he, a most egregious clerk. He boarded with a widow of the town, A trusty gossip, one Dame Allison; Full well the secrets of my soul she knew, Better than e'er our parish priest could do. To her I told whatever could befal : Had but my husband piss'd against a wall; Or done a thing that might have cost his life, She-and my niece-and one more worthy wife, Had known it all: what most he would conceal To these I made no scruple to reveal.

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Oft has he blush'd from ear to ear for shame, 275
That e'er he told a secret to his dame.
It so befel, in holy time of Lent,
That oft a-day I to this gossip went :

(My husband, thank my stars, was out of town)
From house to house we rambled up and down,
This clerk, myself, and my good neighbor Alse,
To see, be seen, to tell, and gather tales.
Visits to ev'ry church we daily paid,
And march'd in ev'ry holy masquerade ;
The stations duly, and the vigils kept,
Not much we fasted, but scarce ever slept.

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At sermons, too, I shone in scarlet gay;
The wasting moth ne'er spoil'd my best array
The cause was this, I wore it ev'ry day.

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: 'Twas when fresh May her early blossoms yields,
The clerk and I were walking in the fields.
We grew so intimate, I can't tell how,
I pawn'd my honor, and engag'd my vow,
If e'er I laid my husband in his urn,

That he, and only he, should serve my turn. 295
We strait struck hands, the bargain was agreed;
I still have shifts against a time of need:
The mouse that always trusts to one poor hole,
Can never be a mouse of any soul.

I vow'd I scarce could sleep since first I knew

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him, 300 And durst be sworn he had bewitch'd me to him; If e'er I slept, I dream'd of him alone; And dreams foretel, as learned men have shown. All this I said; but dreams, sirs, I had none: I follow'd but my crafty crony's lore, Who bid me tell this lie and twenty more. Thus day by day, and month by month we past; I pleas'd the Lord to take my spouse at last. I tore my gown, I soil'd my locks with dust, And beat my breasts, as wretched widows-must. Before my face my handkerchief I spread,

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To hide the flood of tears I did not shed.
The good man's coffin to the church was borne ;
Around the neighbors, and my clerk too, mourn:

But as he march'd, good Gods! he show'd a pair
Of legs and feet so clean, so strong, so fair! 316
Of twenty winters' age he seem'd to be;

I (to say truth) was twenty more than he ;
But vig'rous still, a lively buxom dame,
And had a wondrous gift to quench a flame. 320
A conj'ror once, that deeply could divine,
Assur'd me Mars in Taurus was my sign.
As the stars order'd, such my life has been;
Alas, alas! that ever love was sin !

Fair Venus gave me fire and sprightly grace, 325
And Mars assurance, and a dauntless face.
By virtue of this pow'rful constellation,
I follow'd always my own inclination.

But to my tale. A month scarce pass'd away, With dance and song we kept the nuptial day. 330 All I possess'd I gave to his command,

My goods and chattels, money, house, and land; But oft repented, and repent it still :

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He prov'd a rebel to my sov'reign will;
Nay, once, by Heav'n! he struck me on the face;
Hear but the fact, and judge yourselves the case.
Stubborn as any lioness was I,

And knew full well to raise my voice on high;
As true a rambler as I was before,

And would be so in spite of all he swore.
He against this right sagely would advise,
And old examples set before my eyes;
Tell how the Roman matrons led their life,
Of Gracchus' mother, and Duilius' wife;

340