HIS LADY.]
HUDIBRAS.
433
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 every 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,
'Tis not injustice nor foul play;
And that you ought to take that course
As we take you, for better or worse,
And gratefully submit to those 285
Who you, before another, chose.
For why shou'd ev'ry savage beast
Exceed his great lord's interest?[1]
Have freer pow'r than he, in grace,
And nature, o'er the creature has? 290
Because the laws he since has made
Have cut off all the pow'r he had;
Retrench'd the absolute dominion
That nature gave him over women;
When all his pow'r will not extend 295
One law of nature to suspend;
And but to offer to repeal
The smallest clause, is to rebel.
This, if men rightly understood
Their privilege, they would make good, 300
And not, like sots, permit their wives
T' encroach on their prerogatives;
For which sin they deserve to be
Kept, as they are, in slavery:
And this some precious gifted teachers, 305
Unrev'rently reputed lechers,[2]
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 every 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,
'Tis not injustice nor foul play;
And that you ought to take that course
As we take you, for better or worse,
And gratefully submit to those 285
Who you, before another, chose.
For why shou'd ev'ry savage beast
Exceed his great lord's interest?[1]
Have freer pow'r than he, in grace,
And nature, o'er the creature has? 290
Because the laws he since has made
Have cut off all the pow'r he had;
Retrench'd the absolute dominion
That nature gave him over women;
When all his pow'r will not extend 295
One law of nature to suspend;
And but to offer to repeal
The smallest clause, is to rebel.
This, if men rightly understood
Their privilege, they would make good, 300
And not, like sots, permit their wives
T' encroach on their prerogatives;
For which sin they deserve to be
Kept, as they are, in slavery:
And this some precious gifted teachers, 305
Unrev'rently reputed lechers,[2]
