Mary Lady Chudleigh
The Ladies Defence: or, A Dialogue between Sir John Brute,
Sir William Loveall, Melissa, and a Parson.
Sir JOHN
Welcome, thou brave defender of our right;
Till now I thought you knew not how to write:
Dull heavy morals did your pen employ,
And all your business was to pall our joy.
With frightful tales our ears you still did grate,
And we with awful reverence heard you prate;
Heard you declaim on vice and blame the times,
Because we imprudently shared your crimes,
Those darling sins you wholly would engross;
And when disturbed and fretting at your loss, 10
With whining tones and a pretended zeal,
Saw you the rancor of your minds reveal.
Till now, none of your tribe were ever kind:
Good humor is alone to you confined;
You, who against those terrors of our lives,
Those worst of plagues, those furies called our wives,
Have shewed your anger in a strain divine;
Resentment sparkles in each poignant line.
Sure, you've the fate of wretched husbands met,
And ‘tis your own misfortune you regret; 20
You could not else with such a pleasing sense
Expatiate on each fault and blazon each offence.
How happy, O Sir William, is your life!
You have not known the trouble of a wife:
Your rural cares you undisturbed can mind
And ’midst your brutal subjects pleasure find:
Your snowy flocks you with delight can view–
They are both innocent and pretty too–
And when from business you your thoughts unbend, \
You can with joy the noble chace attend | 30
Or when you please drink freely with a friend. /
No frowning female stands observing by;
No children fright you with their hideous cry;
None dare contend; none your commands dispute;
You, like the great Mogul, are absolute:
Supreme in all things, from our slavery free,
And taste the sweets of envied liberty.
Sir WILLIAM
The beauteous sex I ever did revere
And can't with patience these reflections hear:
To them I've long a constant homage paid 40
And with delight each charming face surveyed.
I've had of mistresses a numerous store–
The famed Anacreon could not boast of more–
Yet each was good, each with perfections blest,
And each by turns has triumphed in my breast.
That I'm unmarried is my fate, not choice:
I in a happy bondage should rejoice,
And thank my stars, if they would yet incline
Some lovely she to be for ever mine.
Then wonder not to hear me take their part 50
And plead for the dear idols of my heart.
Spiteful invectives should no patrons find:
They are the shame, and venom of the mind.
PARSON
Not led by passion, but by zeal inspired,
I've told the women what's of them required;
Shewed them their duty in the clearest light,
Adorned with all the charms that could invite;
Taught them with their husbands to obey and please,
And to their humors sacrifice their ease;
Give up their reason, and their wills resign, 60
And every look, and every thought confine:
Sure, this detraction you can't justly call?
'Tis kindly meant, and ‘tis addressed to all.
MELISSA
Must men command, and we alone obey,
As if designed for arbitrary sway:
Born petty monarchs and, like Homer’s Gods,
See all subjected to their haughty nods?
Narcissus-like, you your own graces view;
Think none deserve to be admired but you:
Your own perfections always you adore 70
And think all others despicably poor.
We have our faults, but you are all divine;
Wisdom does in your meanest actions shine:
Just, pious, chaste, from every passion free,
By learning raised above humanity.
For every failure you a covering find:
Rage is a noble bravery of mind;
Revenge a tribute due to injured fame;
And pride but what transcendent worth does claim:
Cowards are wary, and the dull are grave, 80
Fops are genteel, and hectoring bullies brave:
Such as live high, regardless of expense,
Are generous men and ever blessed with sense:
Base avarice, frugality you call,
And he's a prudent man who grasps at all:
Who to be rich does labor, cheat and lye, \
Does to himself the sweets of life deny, |
And wretched lives that he may wealthy die. /
Thus to each vice you give some specious name
And with bright colors varnish o'er your shame. 90
But unto us is there no deference due?
Must we pay all, and look for none from you?
Why are not husbands taught as well as we?
Must they from all restraints, all laws, be free?
Passive-obedience you've to us transferred,
And we must drudge in paths where you have erred:
That antiquated doctrine you disown;
'Tis now your scorn and fit for us alone.
PARSON
Love and respect are, I must own, your due,
But not till there's obedience paid by you. 100
Submission and a studious care to please
May give a right to favors great as these.
But if subjection is by you denied,
You'll fall th' unpitied victims of your pride:
We then all husband justly may appear,
And talk and frown till we have taught you fear.
Sir JOHN
Yes, as we please, we may our wives chastise,
'Tis the prerogative of being wise.
They are but fools and must as such be used;
Heav'n! how I blush to see our power abused: 110
To see men doat upon a female face
And all the manly roughness of their sex disgrace!
MELISSA
Not thus you talked when you Lenara loved;
By softer passion, sure, your soul was moved:
Then, at her feet, false man, you flattering lay
And prayed and vowed and sighed your hours away;
Admired her face, her shape, her mien, her air,
And swore that none was so divinely fair;
None had such charms, none else the wondrous art
To gain th' entire possession of your heart. 120
Having expended your whole stock of sense
And quite exhausted all your eloquence,
When not one phrase was left of all your store,
Ashamed to have it known you were so poor,
You made your silence want of words supply
And looked as if your love would make you die;
Shewed all your art, your native guile displayed,
And gazed till you had won the thoughtless maid.
Sir JOHN
I loved her till to her I was confined:
But who can long to what's his own be kind? 130
Plagues seize the wretch who tied the cursed knot:
Let him be damned–eternally forgot.
MELISSA
There spoke the husband, all the fiend revealed;
Your passion utters what's by most concealed.
O that my sex safe infidels would live
And no more credit to your flatteries give!
Mistrust your vows, despise your little arts,
And keep a constant guard upon their hearts!
Unhappy they, who by their duty led
Are made the partners of a hated bed; 140
And by their father's avarice or pride
To empty fops or nauseous clowns are tied,
Or else constrained to give up all their charms
Into an old, ill-humored husband's arms,
Who hugs his bags and never was inclined
To be to ought besides his money kind:
On that he dotes, and to increase his wealth
Would sacrifice his conscience, ease and health,
Give up his children and divorce his wife
And live a stranger to the joys of life; 150
Who's always positive in what is ill
And still a slave to his imperious will:
Averse to any thing he thinks will please,
Still sick, and still in love with his disease;
With fears, with discontent, with envy curst,
To all uneasy, and himself the worst;
A spiteful censor of the present age,
Or dully jesting, or deformed with rage.
These call for pity, since it is their fate;
Their friends, not they, their miseries create. 160
They are like victims to the altar led,
Born for destruction, and for ruin bred;
Forced to sigh out each long revolving year
And see their lives all spent in toil and care.
But such as may be from this bondage free,
Who've no abridgers of their liberty,
No cruel parents, no imposing friends,
To make ‘em wretched for their private ends,
From me shall no commiseration have,
If they themselves to barbarous men enslave. 170
They’d better wed among the savage kind
And be to generous lions still confined,
Or matched to tigers, who would gentler prove
Than you, who talk of piety and love–
Words, whose true sense you never understood,
And for that reason are not kind nor good.
PARSON
Why all this rage? we merit not your hate;
'Tis you alone disturb the marriage state:
If to your lords you strict allegiance paid
And their commands submissively obeyed; 180
If like wise eastern slaves with trembling awe
You watched their looks and made their will your law,
You would both kindness and protection gain
And find your duteous care was not in vain.
This I advised, this I your sex have taught;
And ought instruction to be called a fault?
Your duty was, I knew, the harder part;
Obedience being a harsh uneasy art:
The skill to govern men with ease can learn;
We're soon instructed in our own concern. 190
But you need all the aid that I can give
To make you unrepining vassals live.
Heav'n, you must own, to you has been less kind; \
You cannot boast our steadiness of mind, |
Nor is your knowledge half so unconfined. /
We can beyond the bounds of nature see,
And dare to fathom vast infinity;
Then soar aloft and view the worlds on high,
And all the inmost mansions of the sky;
Gaze on the wonders, on the beauties, there 200
And talk with the bright phantoms of the air:
Observe their customs, policy and state,
And pry into the dark intrigues of fate.
Nay, more than this, we atoms can divide
And all the questions of the school decide:
Turn falsehood into truth, and impudence to shame, \
Change malice into zeal, and infamy to fame, |
Make vices virtues, honor but a name: /
Nothing's too hard for our almighty sense.
But you, not blessed with Phoebus' influence, 210
Wither in shades, with nauseous dullness curst;
Born fools, and by resembling idiots nursed,
Then taught to work, to dance, to sing and play,
And vainly trifle all your hours away;
Proud that you've learned the little arts to please,
As being incapable of more than these.
Your shallow minds can nothing else contain:
You were not made for labors of the brain. 220
Those are the manly toils which we sustain:
We, like the ancient giants, stand on high
And seem to bid defiance to the sky,
While you poor worthless insects crawl below
And less than mites to our high reason show.
Yet, by compassion for your frailties moved,
I strove to make you fit to be beloved.
Sir JOHN
That is a task exceeds your utmost skill:
Spite of your rules they will be women still.
Wives are the common nuisance of the state; \
They all our troubles, all our cares, create | 230
And, more than taxes, ruin an estate. /
Would they, like Lucifer, were doomed to hell
That we might here without disturbance dwell!
Then we should, uncontrolled, our wealth employ,
Drink high, and take a full repast of joy;
Damn care, and bravely roar away our time,
And still be busied in some noble crime;
Like to the happier brutes, live unconfined
And freely choose among the female kind.
So lived the mighty thunderer of old, 240
Loved as he pleased, and scorned to be controlled:
No kindred names his passion could restrain.
Like him I'll think all nice distinctions vain,
And, tired with one, to a new mistress fly,
Blest with the sweets of dear variety.
MELISSA
To live at large a punishment would prove
To one acquainted with the joys of love:
Sincere affection centers but in one
And cannot be to various objects shown.
Would men prove kind, respectful, just and true, 250
And unto us their former vows renew,
They would have no reason to complain;
But till that time reproofs will be in vain.
Some few perhaps, whom virtue has refined,
Who in themselves no vicious habits find,
Who, swayed by reason and by honor led,
May in the thorny paths of duty tread
And, still unwearied with your utmost spite,
In spotless innocence of mind delight:
But still the most will their resentment show 260
And by deplored effects let you their anger know.
Sir WILLIAM
She's in the right. They still would virtuous prove,
Were they but treated with respect and love.
Your barbarous usage does revenge produce;
It makes them bad and is their just excuse.
You've set them copies, and dare you repine
If they transcribe each black, detested line?
PARSON
I dare affirm, those husbands that are ill,
Were they unmarried, would be faultless still.
If we are cruel, they have made us so; 270
Whate'er they suffer to themselves they owe:
Our love on their obedience does depend;
We will be kind when they no more offend.
MELISSA
Of our offenses who shall judges be?
PARSON
For that great work heav'n has commissioned me:
I'm made one of his substitutes below;
And from my mouth unerring precepts flow;
I'll prove your duty from the law divine.
Celestial truth in my discourse shall shine;
Truth dressed in all the gaieties of art, 280
In all that wit can give, or eloquence impart.
Attend, attend, the august message hear,
Let it imprint a reverential fear!
'Twill on your mind a vital influence have
If, while I speak, you're silent as the grave.
The sacred oracles for deference call
When from my oily tongue they smoothly fall.
First, I'll by reason prove you should obey;
Next, point out the most compendious way;
And then th' important doctrine I'll improve: 290
These are the steps by which I mean to move.
And first, because you were by heav'n designed
To be the comforts of our nobler kind,
For us alone with tempting graces blest,
And for our sakes by bounteous nature dressed
With all the choicest beauties of her store,
And made so fine that she could add no more;
And dare you now, as if it were in spite,
Become our plagues, when formed for our delight?
Consider next, we are for you accurst: 300
We sinned, but you, alas! were guilty first.
Unhappy Eve unto her ruin led,
Tempted by pride, on the bright poison fed;
Then to her thoughtless husband gave a part;
He eat, seduced by her bewitching art.
And ‘twas but just that for so great a fault
She should be to a strict subjection brought,
So strict, her thoughts should be no more her own,
But all subservient made to him alone.
Had she not erred, her task had easy been; 310
He owed his change of humor to her sin.
From that unhappy hour he peevish grew,
And she no more of solid pleasure knew.
His looks a sullen haughtiness did wear, \
And all his words were scornful or severe: |
His mind so rough, love could not harbour there. /
The gentle God in haste forsook his seat
And frighted fled to some more soft retreat:
His place was by a thousand ills possessed;
The crowding dñmons thronged into his breast 320
And left no room for tender passions there.
His sons with him in the sad change did share:
His sourness soon hereditary grew,
And its effects are still perceived by you:
With all your patience, all your toil and art,
You scarce can keep the surly husband’s heart.
Your kindness hardly can esteem create;
Yet do not blame him, since it is his fate:
But on your mother Eve alone reflect;
Thank her for his moroseness and neglect: 330
Who with a fond indulgent spouse being blest,
And, like a mistress courted and caressed,
Was not contented with her present state,
But must her own unhappiness create
And by ill practices his temper spoil
And make what once was easy prove a toil.
If you would live as becomes a wife
And raise the honor of a married life,
You must the useful art of wheedling try
And with his various humors still comply: 340
Admire his wit, praise whatsoe'er he do,
And when he's vexed, do you be pettish too;
When he is sad, a clouded aspect wear
And talk to him with a dejected air;
When rage transports him, be as mad as he;
And when he's pleased, be easy, gay and free.
You'll find this method will effectual prove,
Enhance your merit, and secure his love.
Sir JOHN
It would: but women will be cross and proud
When we are merry, passionate and loud; 350
When we are angry, then they frolic grow,
And laugh, and sing, and no compliance show:
In contradictions they alone delight,
Are still accurst, and never in the right.
By heav'n, I'd rather be an ape or bear,
Or live with beggars in the open air,
Exposed to thunder, lightning, want, or cold,
Than be a prince and haunted with a scold.
Those noisy monsters much more dreadful are
Than threatening comets, plagues, or bloody war. 360
Grant Providence (if such a thing there be)
They never may from hoarsenesses be free,
May on their tongues as many blisters grow
As they have teeth, and, to increase their woe,
Let their desires by signs be still conveyed
And talking be for ever penal made.
PARSON
Hold, hold, I can't these interruptions bear!
If you don't me, these sacred truths revere.
Now, madam, I'll instruct you to obey
And, as I promised, point you out the way. 370
First, to your husband you your heart must give:
He must, alone, in your affection live.
Whate'er he is, you still must think him best \
And boast to all that you are truly blest; |
If fools should laugh and cry ‘tis but a jest, /
Yet still look grave, and vow you are sincere,
And undisturbed their ill-bred censures bear.
Do what you can his kindness to engage;
Wink at his vices, and indulge his rage.
How vain are women in their youthful days, 380
How fond of courtship, and how proud of praise;
What arts they use, what methods they devise,
To be thought fair, obliging, neat and wise!
But when they’re married, they soon careless grow,
Neglect their dress, and no more neatness show:
Their charms are lost, their kindness laid aside, \
Smiles turned to frowns, their wisdom into pride, |
And they or sullen are, or always chide. /
Are these the ways a husband's love to gain?
Or won't they rather heighten his disdain? 390
Make him turn sot, be troublesome and sad,
Or, if he's fiery, choleric and mad?
Thus they their peace industriously destroy
And rob themselves of all their promised joy.
Next, unto him, you must due honor pay \
And at his feet your top-knot glories lay; |
The Persian ladies chalk you out the way: /
They humbly on their heads a foot do wear,
As I have read (but yet the Lord knows where).
That badge of homage graceful does appear; 400
Would the good custom were in fashion here.
Also, to him you inward reverence owe;
If he's a fool, you must not think him so;
Nor yet indulge one mean contemptuous thought
Or fancy he can e'er commit a fault.
Nor must your deference be alone confined
Unto the hid recesses of your mind,
But must in all your actions be displayed
And visible to each spectator made.
With him well-pleased and always cheerful live, 410
And to him still respectful titles give:
Call him your lord, and your good breeding show,
And do not rudely too familiar grow;
Nor like some country matrons call him names,
As John, or Jeffrey, William, George, or James;
Or what's much worse, and ne'er to be forgot,
Those coarser terms of sloven, clown, or sot;
For though perhaps they may be justly due,
They must not, madam, once be spoke by you.
Soft winning language will become you best; 420
Ladies ought not to rail, though but in jest.
Lastly, to him you fealty must pay
And his commands without dispute obey.
A blind obedience you from guilt secures
And if you err, the fault is his, not yours.
What I have taught you will not tiresome prove
If, as you ought, you can but truly love:
Honor and homage then no task will be,
And we shall, sure, as few ill husbands see
As now good wives: they'll prodigies appear– 430
Like whales and comets, shew some danger near.
Now to improvement I with haste will run:
Be short in that, and then my work is done.
To you, sir, first I will myself apply,
To you, who are more fortunate than I \
And yet are free from the dire gordian tie; |
You that religion ought to love and praise, /
Which does you thus above the females raise;
Next, we admire, who can such comments make
And kindly wrest the scripture for your sake: 440
And now, if you dare try a married state,
You'll have no reason to accurse your fate,
Since I have told ‘em, if they be good wives,
They must submit, and flatter all their lives.
You, who already drag the nuptial chain,
Will now have no occasion to complain,
Since they beyond their sphere no more will tower
But for the future own your sovereign power;
And, being induced by this advice of mine,
To you their sense and liberty resign: 450
Turn fools and slaves that they the more may please.
Now, it is fit for gifts so vast as these
We should some little gratitude express
And be more complaisant in our address:
Bear with their faults, their weaknesses of mind;
When they are penitent, we should be kind;
And that their faith we may the more secure
For them some inconveniencies endure;
When they’re in danger, their defenders prove;
'Twill shew at once our valor and our love; 460
But let it be our more immediate care
To make them these unerring rules revere.
Bid them attentively each precept read,
And tell them they're as holy as our creed;
Be sure each morning, e'er they eat or pray,
That they with care the sacred lesson say:
This will our quiet, and their souls secure,
And both our happiness, and theirs ensure.
I on their duty could with ease enlarge,
But I would not too much their mem'ries charge: 470
They're weak, and, should they over-loaden be,
They'll soon forget what has been said by me–
Which, heav'n avert! since it much thought has cost:
And who would have such wondrous rhet'ric lost?
MELISSA
A mouse the laboring mountain does disclose;
What raised my wonder, my derision grows.
With mighty pomp you your harangue begun
And with big words my fixed attention won;
Each studied period was with labor wrought,
But destitute of reason and of thought. 480
What you meant praise upon yourself reflects;
Each sentence is a satire on your sex.
If we on you such obloquies had thrown,
We had not, sure, one peaceful minute known.
But you are wise and still know what is best,
And with yourselves may be allowed to jest.
PARSON
How dare you treat me with so much neglect?
My sacred function calls for more respect. 490
MELISSA
I've still revered your order as divine;
And when I see unblemished virtue shine;
When solid learning and substantial sense
Are joined with unaffected eloquence;
When lives and doctrines of a piece are made
And holy truths with humble zeal conveyed;
When, free from passion, bigotry and pride,
Nor swayed by interest, nor to parties tied,
Contemning riches, and abhorring strife,
And shunning all the noisy pomps of life, 500
You live the awful wonders of your time
Without the least suspicion of a crime,
I shall with joy the highest deference pay
And heedfully attend to all you say.
From such, reproofs shall always welcome prove,
As the effects of piety and love.
But those from me can challenge no respect
Who on us all without just cause reflect,
Who without mercy all the sex decry
And into open defamations fly, 510
Who think us creatures for derision made
And the Creator with his works upbraid:
What he called good, they proudly think not so
And with their malice their profaneness show.
'Tis hard we should be by the men despised
Yet kept from knowing what would make us prized:
Debarred from knowledge, banished from the schools,
And with the utmost industry bred fools;
Laughed out of reason, jested out of sense,
And nothing left but native innocence; 520
Then told we are incapable of wit
And only for the meanest drudgeries fit:
Made slaves to serve their luxury and pride
And with innumerable hardships tried,
Till pitying heav'n release us from our pain,
Kind heav'n to whom alone we dare complain.
Th' ill-natured world will no compassion show;
Such as are wretched it would still have so:
It gratifies its envy and its spite.
The most in others miseries take delight. 530
While we are present, they some pity spare
And feast us on a thin repast of air,
Look grave and sigh when we our wrongs relate
And in a compliment accuse our fate,
Blame those to whom we our misfortunes owe
And all the signs of real friendship show.
But when we're absent, we their sport are made,
They fan the flame and our oppressors aid,
Join with the stronger, the victorious, side
And all our sufferings, all our griefs, deride. 540
Those generous few, whom kinder thoughts inspire
And who the happiness of all desire,
Who wish we were from barbarous usage free,
Exempt from toils and shameful slavery,
Yet let us, unreproved, misspend our hours
And to mean purposes employ our nobler powers,
They think, if we our thoughts can but express
And know but how to work, to dance and dress,
It is enough, as much as we should mind; \
As if we were for nothing else designed, | 550
But made like puppets to divert mankind. /
O that my sex would all such toys despise
And only study to be good and wise,
Inspect themselves and every blemish find,
Search all the close recesses of the mind
And leave no vice, no ruling passion, there,
Nothing to raise a blush or cause a fear:
Their memories with solid notions fill
And let their reason dictate to their will;
Instead of novels, histories peruse 560
And for their guides the wiser ancients choose;
Through all the labyrinths of learning go,
And grow more humble as they more do know.
By doing this they will respect procure,
Silence the men, and lasting fame secure;
And to themselves the best companions prove–
And neither fear their malice nor desire their love.
Sir WILLIAM
Had you the leaning you so much desire,
You, sure, would nothing but yourselves admire:
All our addresses would be then in vain 570
And we no longer in your hearts should reign:
Sighs would be lost, and ogles cast away;
You'd laugh at all we do, and all we say.
No courtship then durst by the beaux be made
To any thing above a chamber-maid;
Gay clothes and periwigs would useless prove.
None but the men of sense would dare to love:
With such, heav'n knows, this isle does not abound:
For one wise man ten thousand fools are found;
Who all must at an awful distance wait 580
And vainly curse the rigor of their fate.
Then blame us not if we our interest mind
And would have knowledge to ourselves confined,
Since that alone preeminence does give
And, robbed of it, we should unvalued live.
While you are ignorant we are secure.
A little pain will your esteem procure:
Nonsense well clothed will pass for solid sense,
And well pronounced for matchless eloquence;
Boldness for learning, and a foreign air 590
For nicest breeding with th' admiring fair.
Sir JOHN
By heav'n, I wish ‘twere by the laws decreed
They never more should be allowed to read!
Books are the bane of states, the plagues of life,
But both conjoined when studied by a wife:
They nourish faction, and increase debate,
Teach needless things, and causeless fears create.
From plays and novels they learn how to plot,
And from your sermons all their cant is got:
From those they learn the damned intriguing way, 600
How to attract, and how their snares to lay,
How to delude the jealous husband’s care,
Silence his doubts, and lull asleep his fear;
And when discovered, by the last they're taught
With shews of zeal to palliate their fault,
To look demure and talk in such a strain,
You'd swear they never would do ill again.
PARSON
You're in the right: good things they misapply;
Yet not in books, but them, the fault does lie.
Plays are of use to cultivate our parts; 610
They teach us how to win our hearers' hearts:
Soft moving language for the pulpit's fit,
'Tis there we consecrate the poet's wit.
But women were not for this province made \
And should not our prerogative invade: |
Whate'er they know should be from us conveyed; /
We their preceptors and their guides should prove
And teach them what to hate and what to love.
But from our sermons they no ill can learn:
They're there instructed in their true concern, 620
Told what they must, and what they must not, be,
And shewed the utmost bounds of liberty.
Sir WILLIAM
Madam, since we none of your beauty share,
You should content yourselves with being fair:
That is a blessing much more great than all
That we can wisdom or can science call:
Such beauteous faces, such bewitching eyes,
Who would not more than musty authors prize?
Such wondrous charms will much more glory yield
Than all the honors of the dusty field, 630
Or all those ivy wreaths that wit can give
And make you more admired, more reverenced live.
To you the knowing world their vows do pay,
And at your feet their learned trophies lay,
And your commands with eager haste obey.
By all my hopes, by all that's good, I swear,
I'd rather be some celebrated fair,
Than wise as Solon, or than Croesus' heir,
Or have my memory well stuffed with all
Those whimsies which they high-raised notions call. 640
MELISSA
Beauty's a trifle merits not my care: \
I'd rather AEsop's ugly visage wear, |
Joined with his mind, than be a fool and fair. /
Brightness of thought; and an extensive view
Of all the wonders nature has to shew;
So clear, so strong, and so enlarged a sight
As can pierce through the gloomy shades of night,
Trace the first heroes to their dark abodes
And find the origin of men and Gods,
See empires rise and monarchies decay 650
And all the changes of the world survey
(The ancient and the modern fate of kings,
From whence their glory or misfortune springs)
Would please me more, than if, in one combined,
I'd all the graces of the female kind.
But do not think ‘tis an ambitious heat;
To you I’ll leave the being rich and great:
Yours be the fame, the profit, and the praise;
We'll neither rob you of your vines, nor bays:
Nor will we to dominion once aspire; 660
You shall be chief and still yourselves admire:
The tyrant man may still possess the throne.
'Tis in our minds that we would rule alone:
Those unseen empires give us leave to sway
And to our reason private homage pay:
Our struggling passions within bounds confine
And to our thoughts their proper tasks assign.
This is the use we would of knowledge make:
You quickly would the good effects partake.
Our conversations it would soon refine, 670
And in our words and in our actions shine,
And by a powerful influence on our lives
Make us good friends, good neighbors, and good wives.
Of this some great examples have been shown,
Women remarkable for virtue known:
Jealous of honor, and upright of life,
Serene in dangers, and averse to strife;
Patient when wronged, from pride and envy free,
Strangers to falsehood and to calumny;
Of every noble quality possessed, 680
Well skilled in science, and with wisdom blest.
In ancient Greece, where merit still was crowned,
Some such as these in her records were found.
Rome her Lucretia, and her Porcia show,
And we to her the famed Cornelia owe;
A place with them does great Zenobia claim. \
With these I could some modern ladies name, |
Who help to fill the bulky lists of fame: /
Women renowned for knowledge, and for sense,
For sparkling wit, and charming eloquence. 690
But they're enough, at least, to make you own,
If we less wise and rational are grown,
'Tis owing to your management alone. \
If, like the ancients, you would generous prove |
And in our education shew your love; /
Into our souls would noble thoughts instill,
Our infant minds with bright ideas fill;
Teach us our time in learning to employ
And place in solid knowledge all our joy;
Persuade us trifling authors to refuse, 700
And when we think the useful'st subjects choose;
Inform us how a prosperous state to bear,
And how to act when fortune is severe:
We should be wiser, and more blameless live,
And less occasion for your censures give.
At least in us less failings you would see
And our discourses would less tiresome be;
Though wit, like yours, we never hope to gain, \
Yet from impertinence we should refrain |
And learn to be less talkative and vain. / 710
Unto the strictest rules we should submit,
And what we ought to do, think always fit.
Never dispute when duty leads the way,
But its commands without a sigh obey.
To reason, not to humor, give the reins
And be the same in palaces and chains.
But you our humble suit will still decline:
To have us wise was never your design;
You'll keep us fools, that we may be your jest;
They who know least are ever treated best. 720
If we do well, with care it is concealed;
But every error, every fault's revealed:
While to each other you still partial prove,
Can see no failures, and even vices love.
The bloody masters of the martial trade,
Are praised for mischiefs and for murders paid.
The noisy lawyers, if they can but bawl,
Soon grace the wool-sacks and adorn the hall.
The envied great, those darling sons of fame
Who carry a majestic terror in their name, 730
Who, like the demigods, are placed on high
And seem th' exalted natives of the sky,
Who, swayed by pride, and by self-love betrayed,
Are slaves to their imperious passions made,
Are with a servile awe by you revered,
Praised for their follies, for their vices feared.
The courtier, who with every wind can veer
And ‘midst the mounting waves can safely steer,
Who all can flatter, and with wondrous grace,
Low cringing bows, and a designing face, 740
A smiling look, and a dissembled hate,
Can hug a friend and hasten on his fate,
Has your: his policy you praise,
And to the skies his prudent conduct raise.
The scholar, if he can a verb decline, \
And has the skill to reckon nine times nine, |
Or but the nature of a fly define, /
Can mouth some Greek, and knows where Athens stood,
Though he perhaps is neither wise nor good,
Is fit for Oxford; where when he has been, 750
Each college viewed, and each grave doctor seen,
He mounts a pulpit, and th’ exalted height \
Makes vapors dance before his troubled sight |
And he no more can see nor think aright. /
Yet such as these your consciences do guide
And o'er your actions and your words preside,
Blame you for faults which they themselves commit,
Arraign your judgment, and condemn your wit,
Instill their notions with the greatest ease,
And, hood-winked, lead you wheresoe'er they please. 760
The formal justice and the jolly knight
Who in their money place their chief delight,
Who watch the kitchen and survey the field
To see what each will to their luxury yield,
Who eat and pun, then quarrel, rail and drink,
But never are at leisure once to think,
Who, weary of domestic cares being grown,
And yet like children frighted when alone,
(Detesting books) still hunt,or hawk, or play,
And in laborious trifles waste the day, 770
Are liked by you, their actions still approved,
And if they're rich are sure to be beloved.
These are the props, the glory, of the state
And on their nod depends the nation's fate:
These weave the nets, where little flies betrayed, \
Are victims to relentless justice made, |
While they themselves contemn the snares they laid /
As bonds too weak such mighty men to hold,
That scorn to be by any laws controlled.
Physicians, with hard words and haughty looks, 780
And promised health, bait their close-covered hooks:
Like birds of prey, while they your gold can scent, \
You are their care; their utmost help is lent; |
But when your guineas cease, you to the Spa are sent. /
Yet still you court them, think you cannot die
If you've a son of ásculapius by.
The tradesmen you caress, although you know
They wealthy by their cheats and flatteries grow;
You seem to credit every word they say,
And as they sell, with the same conscience pay. 790
Nay to the mob, those dregs of human kind,
Those animals you slight, you're wondrous kind;
To them you cringe, and, although they are your sport,
Yet still you fawn and still their favor court.
Thus on each other daily you impose,
And all for wit and dexterous cunning goes:
'Tis we alone hard measure still must find.
But spite of you we'll to ourselves be kind;
Your censures slight, your little tricks despise,
And make it our whole business to be wise; 800
The mean low trivial cares of life disdain, \
And read and think, and think and read again, |
And on our minds bestow the utmost pain. /
Our souls with strictest morals we'll adorn,
And all your little arts of wheedling scorn;
Be humble, mild, forgiving, just and true,
Sincere to all, respectful unto you,
While, as becomes you, sacred truths you teach
And live those sermons you to others preach.
With want of duty none shall us upbraid; 810
Where-e'er ‘tis due, it shall be nicely paid.
Honor and love we’ll to our husbands give,
And ever constant and obedient live.
If they are ill, we'll try by gentle ways
To lay those tempests which their passions raise:
But if our soft submissions are in vain,
We'll bear our fate and never once complain;
Unto our friends the tenderest kindness show,
Be wholly theirs, no separate interest know;
With them their dangers and their sufferings share, 820
And make their persons and their fame our care.
The poor we'll feed, to the distressed be kind,
And strive to comfort each afflicted mind;
Visit the sick, and try their pains to ease;
Not without grief the meanest wretch displease;
And by a goodness as diffused as light,
To the pursuit of virtue all invite.
Thus will we live, regardless of your hate,
Till re-admitted to our former state;
Where, free from the confinement of our clay, \ 830
In glorious bodies we shall bask in day |
And with enlightened minds new scenes survey, /
Scenes much more bright than any here below.
And we shall then the whole of nature know,
See all her springs, her secret turnings view,
And be as noble, and as wise as you.
With generous spirits, of a make divine,
In whose blest minds celestial virtues shine,
Whose reason like their station is sublime,
And who see clearly through the mists of time, 840
Those puzzling glooms, where busy mortals stray
And still grope on but never find their way,
We shall, well pleased, eternally converse
And all the sweets of sacred love possess:
Love, freed from all the gross allay of sense,
So pure, so strong, so constant, so intense,
That it shall all our faculties employ
And leave no room for any thing but joy. (published 1700)
.
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