Prov. xxi. 19. “no wickedness like to her,” Ecclus. xxv. 22.  “She makes a sorry heart, an heavy countenance, a wounded mind, weak hands, and feeble knees,” vers. 25.  “A woman and death are two the bitterest things in the world:”  uxor mihi ducenda est hodie, id mihi visus est dicere, abi domum et suspende te. Ter.  And. 1. 5. And yet for all this we bachelors desire to be married; with that vestal virgin, we long for it, [5764]_Felices nuptae! moriar, nisi nubere dulce est_.  ’Tis the sweetest thing in the world, I would I had a wife saith he,

       “For fain would I leave a single life,
        If I could get me a good wife.”

Heigh-ho for a husband, cries she, a bad husband, nay, the worst that ever was is better than none:  O blissful marriage, O most welcome marriage, and happy are they that are so coupled:  we do earnestly seek it, and are never well till we have effected it.  But with what fate? like those birds in the [5765]Emblem, that fed about a cage, so long as they could fly away at their pleasure liked well of it; but when they were taken and might not get loose, though they had the same meat, pined away for sullenness, and would not eat.  So we commend marriage,

------“donec miselli liberi
Aspichmis dominam; sed postquam heu janua clausa est,
Fel intus est quod mel fuit:” 

“So long as we are wooers, may kiss and coll at our pleasure, nothing is so sweet, we are in heaven as we think; but when we are once tied, and have lost our liberty, marriage is an hell,” “give me my yellow hose again:”  a mouse in a trap lives as merrily, we are in a purgatory some of us, if not hell itself. Dulce bellum inexpertis, as the proverb is, ’tis fine talking of war, and marriage sweet in contemplation, till it be tried:  and then as wars are most dangerous, irksome, every minute at death’s door, so is, &c.  When those wild Irish peers, saith [5766]Stanihurst, were feasted by king Henry the Second, (at what time he kept his Christmas at Dublin) and had tasted of his prince-like cheer, generous wines, dainty fare, had seen his [5767]massy plate of silver, gold, enamelled, beset with jewels, golden candlesticks, goodly rich hangings, brave furniture, heard his trumpets sound, fifes, drums, and his exquisite music in all kinds:  when they had observed his majestical presence as he sat in purple robes, crowned, with his sceptre, &c., in his royal seat, the poor men were so amazed, enamoured, and taken with the object, that they were pertaesi domestici et pristini tyrotarchi, as weary and ashamed of their own sordidity and manner of life.  They would all be English forthwith; who but English! but when they had now submitted themselves, and lost their former liberty, they began to rebel some of them, others repent of what they had done, when it was too late.  ’Tis so with us bachelors, when we see and behold those sweet faces, those gaudy shows that women make, observe their pleasant gestures