University of Virginia Library

N. Vincent. to G. Blackwood, agaynst wedding.



Sythe , Blackwood, you haue mynde to wed a wife:
I pray you, tell, wherefore you like that life.
What? that henceforth you may liue more in blisse?
I am beguylde, but you take mark amisse.
Either your fere shall be defourmd: (and can
You blisful be, with flower of frying pan?
Orels, of face indifferent: (they say,
Face but indifferent will soone decay.)
Or faire: who, then, for many men semes fine:
Ne can you say, she is all holly mine.
And be she chaste (if noman chaunce to sew)
A sort of brats she bringes, and troubles new:
Or frutelesse will so passe long yeres with thee,
That scant one day shall voyd of brawlyng bee.
Hereto heap vp vndaunted hed, stif hart,
And all the rest: eche spouse can tell a part.
Leaue then, this way, to hope for happy life:
Rather be your bed sole, and free from strife.
Of blessed state if any path be here:
It lurketh not, where women wonne so nere.