Page:Works of Sir John Suckling.djvu/329

hath fetters on, thinkest thou?

Dost thou know what marriage is? 'Tis curing of love the dearest way, or waking a losing gamester out of a winning dream, and after a long expectation of a strange banquet, a presentation of a homely meal. Alas! (Tom) love seeds when it runs up to matrimony, and is good for nothing. Like some fruit-trees, it must be transplanted, if thou wouldst have it active, and bring forth anything.

Thou now perchance hast vowed all that can be vowed to any one face, and thinkest thou hast left nothing unsaid to it; do but make love to another, and if thou art not suddenly furnished with new language and fresh oaths, I will conclude Cupid hath used thee worse than ever he did any of his train.

After all this, to marry a widow, a kind of chew'd meat! What a fantastical stomach hast thou, that canst not eat of a dish till another man hath cut of it! Who would wash after another, when he might have fresh water, enough for asking?

Life is sometimes a long journey. To be tied to ride upon one beast still, and that half tired to thy hand too! Think upon that (Tom).

Well, if thou must needs marry (as who can tell to what height thou hast

as twenty more. Oh, if you could serve your steed so!

Marriage turns pleasing dreams to ravishing realities, which out-do what fancy or expectation can frame unto themselves.

That love doth seed when it runs into matrimony, is undoubted truth; how else should it increase and multiply, which is its greatest blessing?

'Tis not the want of love, nor Cupid's fault, if every day afford not new language and new ways of expressing affection: it rather may be caused through an excess of joy, which oftentimes strikes dumb.

These things considered, I will marry; nay, and to prove the second paradox false, I'll marry a widow, who is rather the chewer than thing chewed. How strangely fantastical is he who will be an hour in plucking on a strait-boot, when he may be forthwith furnished with enough that will come on easily, and do him as much credit and better service? Wine, when first broached, drinks not half so well as after a while drawing. Would you not think him a madman who, whilst he might fair and easily ride on the beaten roadway, should trouble himself with breaking up of gaps? A well-wayed horse will safely convey thee to thy journey's