and Heloise, and pursues his invective against women and marriage. As well, he says, might one praise a dunghill for its beauty, beholding it overlaid with a rich silken coverlet, as admire a woman tricked out with jewels and finery. Beauty is the mortal enemy of Chastity; and Ugliness, who by nature is her servant, hates and detests her.
C. LI.
F. 9308-9696.
The jealous husband continues his accusations againtst his wife, and heaps insults and reproaches on all women, quoting Virgil, Juvenal, Ovid, and King Solomon to support his argument.
C. LII.
F. 9697-9842.
The enraged husband ends his complaints by seizing his wife by the hair of her head and laying violent hands on her person, until the neighbours, alarmed by her cries, rush in to separate them. Think you, says the friend, that there can be any love betwixt such a pair as I have described to you? Then he contrasts the relative positions of a man and woman before and after marriage. She was then the mistress, now
is she the slave. The ancients, says the author, who enjoyed simple lives, knew no such vexations, but all lived peaceably and happily together. None desired to leave the places of their birth.
C. LIII.
F. 9843-9948.
