215
By all men, when they’re under force;
When some upon the rack confess
What th’ hangman and their prompters please;
But are no sooner out of pain,
Than they deny it all again. 220
But when the Devil turns confessor,
Truth is a crime he takes no pleasure
To hear, or pardon, like the founder
Of liars, whom they all claim under
And therefore, when I told him none, 225
I think it was the wiser done. 
Nor am I without precedent,
The first that on th’ adventure went
All mankind ever did of course,
And daily dues the same, or worse. 230
For what romance can show a lover,
That had a lady to recover,
And did not steer a nearer course,
To fall a-board on his amours? 
And what at first was held a crime, 235
Has turn’d to honourable in time.

To what a height did infant ROME,
By ravishing of women, come
When men upon their spouses seiz’d,
And freely marry’d where they pleas’d, 240
They ne’er forswore themselves, nor ly’d. 
Nor, in the mind they were in, dy’d;
Nor took the pains t’ address and sue,
Nor play’d the masquerade to woo;
Disdain’d to stay for friends’ consents; 245
Nor juggled about settlements: 
Did need no license, nor no priest,
Nor friends, nor kindred, to assist;
Nor lawyers, to join land and money
In th’ holy state of matrimony, 250
Before they settled hands and hearts,
Till alimony or death them parts: 
Nor wou’d endure to stay until
Th’ had got the very bride’s good will;
But took a wise and shorter course 255
To win the ladies, downright force. 
And justly made ’em prisoners then,
As they have often since, us men,
With acting plays, and dancing jigs,
The luckiest of all love’s intrigues; 260
And when they had them at their pleasure,
Then talk’d of love and flames at leisure;
For after matrimony’s over,
He that holds out but half a lover,
Deserves for ev’ry minute more 265
Than half a year of love before;
For which the dames in contemplation
Of that best way of application,
Prov’d nobler wives than e’er was known,
By suit or treaty to be won; 270
And such as all posterity
Cou’d never equal nor come nigh.

For women first were made for men,
Not men for them. —­ It follows, then,
That men have right to ev’ry one, 275
And they no freedom of their own
And therefore men have pow’r to chuse,
But they no charter to refuse. 
Hence ’tis apparent, that what course
Soe’er we take to your amours, 280
Though by the indirectest way,