et quas vellent liceret, that every great man might marry, and keep as many wives as he would, or Irish divorcement were in use:  but as it is, ’tis hard and gives not that satisfaction to these carnal men, beastly men as too many are:  [5777]What still the same, to be tied [5778]to one, be she never so fair, never so virtuous, is a thing they may not endure, to love one long.  Say thy pleasure, and counterfeit as thou wilt, as [5779]Parmeno told Thais, Neque tu uno eris contenta, “one man will never please thee;” nor one woman many men.  But as [5780]Pan replied to his father Mercury, when he asked whether he was married, Nequaquam pater, amator enim sum &c.  “No, father, no, I am a lover still, and cannot be contented with one woman.”  Pythias, Echo, Menades, and I know not how many besides, were his mistresses, he might not abide marriage. Varietas delectat, ’tis loathsome and tedious, what one still? which the satirist said of Iberina, is verified in most,

[5781] “Unus Iberinae vir sufficit? ocyus illud
        Extorquebis ut haec oculo contenta sit uno.”

       “’Tis not one man will serve her by her will,
        As soon she’ll have one eye as one man still.”

As capable of any impression as materia prima itself, that still desires new forms, like the sea their affections ebb and flow.  Husband is a cloak for some to hide their villainy; once married she may fly out at her pleasure, the name of husband is a sanctuary to make all good. Eo ventum (saith Seneca) ut nulla virum habeat, nisi ut irritet adulterum.  They are right and straight, as true Trojans as mine host’s daughter, that Spanish wench in [5782]Ariosto, as good wives as Messalina.  Many men are as constant in their choice, and as good husbands as Nero himself, they must have their pleasure of all they see, and are in a word far more fickle than any woman.

       For either they be full of jealousy,
        Or masterfull, or loven novelty.

Good men have often ill wives, as bad as Xanthippe was to Socrates, Elevora to St. Lewis, Isabella to our Edward the Second; and good wives are as often matched to ill husbands, as Mariamne to Herod, Serena to Diocletian, Theodora to Theophilus, and Thyra to Gurmunde.  But I will say nothing of dissolute and bad husbands, of bachelors and their vices; their good qualities are a fitter subject for a just volume, too well known already in every village, town and city, they need no blazon; and lest I should mar any matches, or dishearten loving maids, for this present I will let them pass.

Being that men and women are so irreligious, depraved by nature, so wandering in their affections, so brutish, so subject to disagreement, so unobservant of marriage rites, what shall I say?  If thou beest such a one, or thou light on such a wife, what concord can there be, what hope of agreement? ’tis not conjugium but conjurgium, as the Reed and Fern in the [5783]Emblem, averse and opposite in nature:  ’tis twenty to one thou wilt not marry to thy contentment:  but as in a lottery forty blanks were drawn commonly for one prize, out of a multitude you shall hardly choose a good one:  a small ease hence then, little comfort,