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| ’TIS not enough for one that is a wife | |
| To keep her spotless from an act of ill; | |
| But from suspicion she should free her life, | |
| And bare herself of power as well as will, | |
| ’Tis not so glorious for her to be free, | 5 |
| As by her proper self restrain’d to be. | |
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| When she hath spacious ground to walk upon, | |
| Why on the ridge should she desire to go? | |
| It is no glory to forbear alone | |
| Those things that may her honour overthrow: | 10 |
| But ’tis thankworthy, if she will not take | |
| All lawful liberties for honour’s sake. | |
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| That wife her hand against her fame doth rear, | |
| That more than to her lord alone will give | |
| A private word to any second ear; | 15 |
| And though she may with reputation live, | |
| Yet tho’ most chaste, she doth her glory blot, | |
| And wounds her honour, tho’ she kills it not. | |
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| When to their husbands they themselves do bind, | |
| Do they not wholly give themselves away? | 20 |
| Or give they but their body, not their mind, | |
| Reserving that, tho’ best, for others’ prey? | |
| No, sure, their thought no more can be their own, | |
| And therefore should to none but one be known. | |
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| Then she usurps upon another’s right, | 25 |
| That seeks to be by public language grac’d; | |
| And tho’ her thoughts reflect with purest light | |
| Her mind, if not peculiar, is not chaste. | |
| For in a wife it is no worse to find | |
| A common body, than a common mind. | 30 |
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