CANTO I.]
HUDIBRAS.
299
What crowns could be hereditary,
If greatest monarchs did not marry,
And with their consorts consummate 845
Their weightiest interests of state?
For all th' amours of princes are
But guarantees of peace or war.
Or what but marriage has a charm,
The rage of empires to disarm? 850
Make blood and desolation cease,
And fire and sword unite in peace,
When all their fierce contests for forage
Conclude in articles of marriage?
Nor does the genial bed provide 855
Less for the int'rests of the bride,
Who else had not the least pretence
T' as much as due benevolence;
Could no more title take upon her
To virtue, quality, and honour, 860
Than ladies errant, unconfin'd,
And femme-coverts to all mankind.
All women would be of one piece,
The virtuous matron, and the miss;
The nymphs of chaste Diana's train 865
The same with those in Lewkner's-lane,[1]
But for the diff'rence marriage makes
'Twixt wives and Ladies of the Lakes:[2]
Besides, the joys of place and birth,
The sex's paradise on earth,[3] 870
A privilege so sacred held,
That none will to their mothers yield;
If greatest monarchs did not marry,
And with their consorts consummate 845
Their weightiest interests of state?
For all th' amours of princes are
But guarantees of peace or war.
Or what but marriage has a charm,
The rage of empires to disarm? 850
Make blood and desolation cease,
And fire and sword unite in peace,
When all their fierce contests for forage
Conclude in articles of marriage?
Nor does the genial bed provide 855
Less for the int'rests of the bride,
Who else had not the least pretence
T' as much as due benevolence;
Could no more title take upon her
To virtue, quality, and honour, 860
Than ladies errant, unconfin'd,
And femme-coverts to all mankind.
All women would be of one piece,
The virtuous matron, and the miss;
The nymphs of chaste Diana's train 865
The same with those in Lewkner's-lane,[1]
But for the diff'rence marriage makes
'Twixt wives and Ladies of the Lakes:[2]
Besides, the joys of place and birth,
The sex's paradise on earth,[3] 870
A privilege so sacred held,
That none will to their mothers yield;
- ↑ Charles-street, Drury-lane, inhabited chiefly by strumpets.
- ↑ Meaning ladies of pleasure. The Lady of the Lake was represented in some of the old romances as a mistress of king Arthur.
- ↑ Thus Mr Pope:Our poet, though vindicating the ladies and the happy state of matrimony, cannot help introducing this stroke of satire: Bastards have no place, or rank.
