 | The works of Washington Irving |  |
WIVES.
Than is the quiet joy of loving wife;
Which whoso wants, half of himselfe doth misse;
Friend without change, playfellow without strife,
Food without fulnesse, counsaile without pride,
Is this sweet doubling of our single life.
Sir P. Sidney.
There is so much talk about matrimony
going on around me, in consequence
of the approaching event for
which we are assembled at the Hall,
that I confess I find my thoughts singularly
exercised on the subject. Indeed,
all the bachelors of the establishment
seem to be passing through a kind of
fiery ordeal: for Lady Lillycraft is one
of those tender, romance-read dames of
the old school, whose mind is filled with
flames and darts, and who breathe nothing
but constancy and wedlock. She
is for ever immersed in the concerns of
the heart; and, to use a poetical phrase,
is perfectly surrounded by "the purple
light of love." The very general seems
to feel the influence of this sentimental
atmosphere; to melt as he approaches
her ladyship, and, for the time, to forget
all his heresies about matrimony and the
sex.
The good lady is generally surrounded