The vast majority of people in Renaissance and Reformation Europe married, and there are few comments from those who did not marry about the single life. This poem is one of the few, by Anna Bijns, a writer and poet in Antwerp.

Unyoked Is Best! Happy the Woman Without a Man

How good to be a woman, how much better to be a man!
Maidens and wenches, remember the lesson you're about to hear,
Don't hurtle yourself into marriage far too soon.
The saying goes: "Where's your spouse? Where's your honor?"
But one who earns her board and clothes
Shouldn't scurry to suffer a man's rod.
So much for my advice, because I suspect—
Nay, see it sadly proven day by day—
T happens all the time!
However rich in goods a girl might be,
Her marriage...