For talk six times with the same single lady,
  And you may get the wedding dresses ready.
Don Juan, Canto XII.  LORD BYRON.

  Why don’t the men propose, mamma,
  Why don’t the men propose?
Why don’t the man propose?  T.H.  BAYLY.

  There swims no goose so gray, but soon or late
  She finds some honest gander for her mate.
Chaucer’s Wife of Bath:  Prologue.  A. POPE.

  Under this window in stormy weather
  I marry this mail and woman together;
  Let none but Him who rules the thunder
  Put this man and woman asunder.
Marriage Service from his Chamber Window.  J. SWIFT.

  This house is to be let for life or years;
  Her rent is sorrow, and her income tears;
  Cupid, ’t has long stood void; her bills make known. 
  She must be dearly let, or let alone.
Emblems, Bk.  II. 10 F. QUARLES.

Look ere thou leap, see ere thou go. Of Wiving and Thriving.  T. TUSSER.

  Thus grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure;
  Married in haste, we may repent at leisure.
The Old Bachelor, Act v.  Sc. 1.  W. CONGREVE.

Men are April when they woo, December when they wed. As You Like It, Act iv.  Sc. 1.  SHAKESPEARE.

  And oft the careless find it to their cost,
  The lover in the husband may be lost.
Advice to a Lady.  LORD LYTTELTON.

  Wedlock, indeed, hath oft compared been
  To public feasts, where meet a public rout,
  Where they that are without would fain go in,
  And they that are within would fain go out.
Contention betwixt a Wife, etc.  SIR J. DAVIES.

O fie upon this single life! forego it. Duchess of Malfy.  J. WEBSTER.

1.  That man must lead a happy life 2.  Who is directed by a wife; 3.  Who’s free from matrimonial chains 4.  Is sure to suffer for his pains.

  5.  Adam could find no solid peace
  6.  Till he beheld a woman’s face;
  7.  When Eve was given for a mate,
  8.  Adam was in a happy state.
Epigram on Matrimony: 
    Read alternate lines,—­1, 3; 2, 4; 5, 7; 6, 8.

  The kindest and the happiest pair
  Will find occasion to forbear;
  And something every day they live
  To pity and perhaps forgive.
Mutual Forbearance.  W. COWPER.

  But happy they, the happiest of their kind! 
  Whom gentler stars unite, and in one fate
  Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings blend.
Seasons:  Spring.  J. THOMSON.

  And when with envy Time, transported,
    Shall think to rob us of our joys,
  You’ll in your girls again be courted,
    And I’ll go wooing in my boys.
Winifreda.  T. PERCY.

  Cling closer, closer, life to life,
    Cling closer, heart to heart;
  The time will come, my own wed Wife,
    When you and I must part! 
  Let nothing break our band but Death,
    For in the world above
  ’Tis the breaker Death that soldereth
    Our ring of Wedded Love.
On a Wedding Day.  G. MASSEY.