Page:The Arraignment of Lewd, Idle, Froward, and Unconstant Women (1622).djvu/59

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

(51)

lities, then good fortune and bad is welcome to then, both their cares are equall, and their ioyes alike, come what will, all is welcome, and all is common betwixt them, the husband doth honour and reuerence her, and if he be rich, hee committeth all his goods to her keeping, and if he be poore, and in aduerſitie, then he beareth but the one halfe of the griefe; and furthermore, ſhe will comfort him with all the comfortable meanes ſhee can deuiſe, and if he will ſtay ſolitary in his houſe, ſhe will keepe him company, if he will walke into the fields, why ſhee will goe with him, and if he be abſent from home, ſhee ſigheth often, and wiſheth his preſence: being come home, hee findeth content, ſitting ſmiling in euery corner of his houſe, to giue him a kinde and a heartie welcome home, and ſhe receiueth him with the beſt and heartieſt ioy that ſhe can. Many are the ioyes and ſweet pleaſures in marriage, as in our children, being young, they play, prattle, laugh, and ſhew vs many pretty toyes to mooue vs to mirth and laughter, and when they are bigger growne, and that age and pouerty hath afflicted the Parents, then they ſhew the duty of children in relieuing their olde Parents with what they can ſhift for, and when their Parents are dead, they bring them to the earth, from whence they came.

Yet now conſider on the other ſide, when a wrinckled and toothleſſe woman ſhall take a beardleſſe boy (a ſhort tale to make of it) there can bee no liking nor louing betweene ſuch contraries, but continuall ſtrife and debate: ſo likewiſe, when matches are made by the Parents, and the dowry told and payd before the young couple haue any knowledge of it, and ſo many times are forced againſt

their