University of Virginia Library

AN EPISTLE TO A LADY WHO HAD RESOLVED AGAINST MARRIAGE.

Madam, I cannot but congratulate
Your resolution for a single state;
Ladies, who would live undisturb'd and free,
Must never put on Hymen's livery:
Perhaps its outside seems to promise fair,
But underneath is nothing else but care.
If once you let the Gordian knot be ty'd,
Which turns the name of virgin into bride;
That one fond act your life's best scene foregoes,
And leads you in a labyrinth of woes,
Whose strange meanders you may search about,
But never find the clue to let you out.
The married life affords you little ease,
The best of husbands is so hard to please:
This in wives' careful faces you may spell,
Though they dissemble their misfortunes well.
No plague's so great as an ill-ruling head,
Yet 'tis a fate which few young ladies dread:
For Love's insinuating fire they fan,
With sweet ideas of a god-like man.
Chloris and Phyllis glory'd in their swains,
And sung their praises on the neighbouring plains;
Oh! they were brave, accomplish'd, charming men,
Angels till marry'd, but proud devils then.
Sure some resistless power with Cupid sides,
Or we should have more virgins, fewer brides;
For single lives afford the most content,
Secure and happy, as they're innocent:
Bright as Olympus, crown'd with endless ease,
And calm as Neptune on the Halcyon seas:
Your sleep is broke with no domestic cares,
No bawling children to disturb your prayers;
No parting sorrows to extort your tears,
No blustering husband to renew your fears
Therefore, dear madam, let a friend advise,
Love and its idle deity despise:
Suppress wild Nature, if it dares rebel;
There's no such thing as “leading apes in hell.”