------She was young and he was old,
And therefore he feared to be a cuckold.

And how should it otherwise be? old age is a disease of itself, loathsome, full of suspicion and fear; when it is at best, unable, unfit for such matters. [6042]_Tam apta nuptiis quam bruma messibus_, as welcome to a young woman as snow in harvest, saith Nevisanus:  Et si capis juvenculam, faciet tibi cornua:  marry a lusty maid and she will surely graft horns on thy head. [6043]"All women are slippery, often unfaithful to their husbands” (as Aeneas Sylvius epist. 38. seconds him), “but to old men most treacherous:”  they had rather mortem amplexarier, lie with a corse than such a one:  [6044]_Oderunt illum pueri, contemnunt mulieres_.  On the other side many men, saith Hieronymus, are suspicious of their wives, [6045]if they be lightly given, but old folks above the rest.  Insomuch that she did not complain without a cause in [6046]Apuleius, of an old bald bedridden knave she had to her good man:  “Poor woman as I am, what shall I do?  I have an old grim sire to my husband, as bald as a coot, as little and as unable as a child,” a bedful of bones, “he keeps all the doors barred and locked upon me, woe is me, what shall I do?” He was jealous, and she made him a cuckold for keeping her up:  suspicion without a cause, hard usage is able of itself to make a woman fly out, that was otherwise honest,

[6047]  ------“plerasque bonas tractatio pravas
Esse facit,”------

“bad usage aggravates the matter.” Nam quando mulieres cognoscunt maritum hoc advertere, licentius peccant, [6048]as Nevisanus holds, when a woman thinks her husband watcheth her, she will sooner offend; [6049]_Liberius peccant, et pudor omnis abest_, rough handling makes them worse:  as the goodwife of Bath in Chaucer brags,

       In his own grease I made him frie
        For anger and for every jealousie.

Of two extremes, this of hard usage is the worst.  ’Tis a great fault (for some men are uxorii) to be too fond of their wives, to dote on them as [6050]Senior Deliro on his Fallace, to be too effeminate, or as some do, to be sick for their wives, breed children for them, and like the [6051] Tiberini lie in for them, as some birds hatch eggs by turns, they do all women’s offices:  Caelius Rhodiginus ant. lect.  Lib. 6. cap. 24. makes mention of a fellow out of Seneca, [6052]that was so besotted on his wife, he could not endure a moment out of her company, he wore her scarf when he went abroad next his heart, and would never drink but in that cup she began first.  We have many such fondlings that are their wives’ packhorses and slaves, (nam grave malum uxor superans virum suum, as the comical poet hath it, there’s no greater misery to a man than to let his wife domineer) to carry her muff, dog, and fan, let her wear the breeches, lay out, spend, and do what she will, go and come whither, when she will, they give consent.