Page:The Works of Alexander Pope (1717).djvu/302
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The WIFE of BATH.
Solomon's proverbs, Eloisa's loves;
And many more than sure the Church approves.
More legends were there here, of wicked wives,
Than good, in all the Bible and Saint's-lives.
Who drew the Lion vanquish'd? 'Twas a Man.
But cou'd we women write as scholars can,
Men should stand mark'd with far more wickedness,
Than all the sons of Adam can redress.
Love seldom haunts the breast where learning lies,
And Venus sets e're Mercury can rise,
Those play the scholars who can't play the men;
And use that weapon which they have, their pen;
When old, and past the relish of delight,
Then down they sit, and in their dotage write
That not one woman keeps her marriage vow.
(This by the way, but to my purpose now.)
It chanc'd my husband, on a winter's night,
Read in this book, aloud, with strange delight,
How the first female (as the scriptures show)
Brought her own spouse and all his race to woe;
And many more than sure the Church approves.
More legends were there here, of wicked wives,
Than good, in all the Bible and Saint's-lives.
Who drew the Lion vanquish'd? 'Twas a Man.
But cou'd we women write as scholars can,
Men should stand mark'd with far more wickedness,
Than all the sons of Adam can redress.
Love seldom haunts the breast where learning lies,
And Venus sets e're Mercury can rise,
Those play the scholars who can't play the men;
And use that weapon which they have, their pen;
When old, and past the relish of delight,
Then down they sit, and in their dotage write
That not one woman keeps her marriage vow.
(This by the way, but to my purpose now.)
It chanc'd my husband, on a winter's night,
Read in this book, aloud, with strange delight,
How the first female (as the scriptures show)
Brought her own spouse and all his race to woe;
How