away all causes of suspicion and jealousy, marry a coarse piece, fetch her from Cassandra’s [6267]temple, which was wont in Italy to be a sanctuary of all deformed maids, and so shalt thou be sure that no man will make thee cuckold, but for spite.  A citizen of Bizance in France had a filthy, dowdy, deformed slut to his wife, and finding her in bed with another man, cried out as one amazed; O miser! quae te necessitas huc adegit?  O thou wretch, what necessity brought thee hither? as well he might; for who can affect such a one?  But this is warily to be understood, most offend in another extreme, they prefer wealth before beauty, and so she be rich, they care not how she look; but these are all out as faulty as the rest. Attendenda uxoris forma, as [6268]Salisburiensis adviseth, ne si alteram aspexeris, mox eam sordere putes, as the Knight in Chaucer, that was married to an old woman,

       And all day after hid him as an owl,
        So woe was his wife looked so foul.

Have a care of thy wife’s complexion, lest whilst thou seest another, thou loathest her, she prove jealous, thou naught,

[6269] “Si tibi deformis conjux, si serva venusta,
Ne utaris serva,”------

I can perhaps give instance. Molestum est possidere, quod nemo habere dignetur, a misery to possess that which no man likes:  on the other side, Difficile custoditur quod plures amant. And as the bragging soldier vaunted in the comedy, nimia est miseria pulchrum esse hominem nimis. Scipio did never so hardly besiege Carthage, as these young gallants will beset thine house, one with wit or person, another with wealth, &c.  If she he fair, saith Guazzo, she will be suspected howsoever.  Both extremes are naught, Pulchra cito adamatur, foeda facile concupiscit, the one is soon beloved, the other loves:  one is hardly kept, because proud and arrogant, the other not worth keeping; what is to be done in this case?  Ennius in Menelippe adviseth thee as a friend to take statam formam, si vis habere incolumem pudicitiam, one of a middle size, neither too fair nor too foul, [6270]_Nec formosa magis quam mihi casta placet_, with old Cato, though fit let her beauty be, neque lectissima, neque illiberalis, between both.  This I approve; but of the other two I resolve with Salisburiensis, caeteris paribus, both rich alike, endowed alike, majori miseria deformis habetur quam formosa servatur, I had rather marry a fair one, and put it to the hazard, than be troubled with a blowze; but do as thou wilt, I speak only of myself.

Howsoever, quod iterum maneo, I would advise thee thus much, be she fair or foul, to choose a wife out of a good kindred, parentage, well brought up, in an honest place.

[6271] “Primum animo tibi proponas quo sanguine creta. 
        Qua forma, qua aetate, quibusque ante omnia virgo
        Moribus, in junctos veniat nova nupta penates.”