Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable CLXXIII
Fab. CLXXIII.
An Unhappy Match.
THere was a Man, a Long time ago,that had got a Shrew to his Wife, and there could be No Quiet in the House for her, The Husband was Willing however to make the Best of a Bad Game, and so for Experiment Sake, he sent her away for a While to her Fathers. When he came a little after to take her Home again, Prethee Sweet-heart (says he) How go Matters in the House where thou haft been? Introth, says she, they go I know not How: But there's None of the Family, you must know, can Endure Me: No not so much as the very Hinds and Plough-men; I could Read it in the Faces of Them. Ah Wife! says the Husband, If People that Rise Early and come Home Late, and are all Day out of your Sight, cannot be Quiet for ye, what a Case is your Poor Husband in, that must Spend his Whole Life in your Company.
The MORAL.
REFLEXION.
THERE are more Ways to come to a Right Understanding of Things, then by Question and Answer. There are Certain Contentious Humors that are never to be Pleas'd, and he that Troubles his Head because he cannot Please them, is Worse then a Mad-man. Nay it falls out many times that the very Desire and Endeavour to do it, makes it more Impossible, Especially where People are Imperious and Insulting, as well as Peevish. Now in the Case of this Fable, it may be a Question whether the Wife, or the Woman, was the more Freakish of the Two: For she was still the same Uneasie Fop wherever she was; but the Poor Man however had Enough on’t, in Both Capacitics; That is to say, as a Common Incumbrance, and as a Particular Clog.
The Moral is a Piece of Good Councel to All Men that Labour under that Unhappy Circumstance. First, in Prudence, to Try what Help for't and then in Case of the Last Necessity, to come to some Peremptory Resolution to Deliver Themselves.