To endure the matrimonial tie,
That binds the female and the male,
Where th’ one is but the other’s bail;
Like Roman gaolers, when they slept, 565
Chain’d to the prisoners they kept
Of which the true and faithfull’st lover
Gives best security to suffer. 
Marriage is but a beast, some say,
That carries double in foul way; 570
And therefore ‘tis not to b’ admir’d,
It should so suddenly be tir’d;
A bargain at a venture made,
Between two partners in a trade;
(For what’s inferr’d by t’ have and t’ hold, 575
But something past away, and sold?)
That as it makes but one of two,
Reduces all things else as low;
And, at the best, is but a mart
Between the one and th’ other part, 580
That on the marriage-day is paid,
Or hour of death, the bet is laid;
And all the rest of better or worse,
Both are but losers out of purse. 
For when upon their ungot heirs 585
Th’ entail themselves, and all that’s theirs,
What blinder bargain e’er was driv’n,
Or wager laid at six and seven? 
To pass themselves away, and turn
Their childrens’ tenants e’re they’re born? 590
Beg one another idiot
To guardians, e’er they are begot;
Or ever shall, perhaps, by th’ one,
Who’s bound to vouch ’em for his own,
Though got b’ implicit generation, 595
And gen’ral club of all the nation;
For which she’s fortify’d no less
Than all the island, with four seas;
Exacts the tribute of her dower,
in ready insolence and power; 600
And makes him pass away to have
And hold, to her, himself, her slave,
More wretched than an ancient villain,
Condemn’d to drudgery and tilling;
While all he does upon the by, 605
She is not bound to justify,
Nor at her proper cost and charge
Maintain the feats he does at large. 
Such hideous sots were those obedient
Old vassals to their ladies regent; 610
To give the cheats the eldest hand
In foul play by the laws o’ th’ land;
For which so many a legal cuckold
Has been run down in courts and truckeld: 
A law that most unjustly yokes 615
All Johns of Stiles to Joans of Nokes,
Without distinction of degree,
Condition, age, or quality: 
Admits no power of revocation,
Nor valuable consideration, 620
Nor writ of error, nor reverse
Of Judgment past, for better or worse: 
Will not allow the priviledges
That beggars challenge under hedges,
Who, when they’re griev’d, can make dead horses 625
Their spiritual judges of divorces;
While nothing else but Rem in Re
Can set the proudest wretches free;