| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. | | | | A Woman Will Have Her Will | | By John Fletcher (1579–1625) |
| | Question TELL me, what is that only thing | |
| For which all women long; | |
| Yet, having what they most desire, | |
| To have it does them wrong? | |
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Answer ’Tis not to be chaste, nor fair,— | 5 |
| Such gifts malice may impair— | |
| Richly trimmed, to walk and ride, | |
| Or to wanton unespied; | |
| To preserve an honest name, | |
| And so to give it up to fame; | 10 |
| These are toys. In good or ill | |
| They desire to have their will; | |
| Yet, when they have it, they abuse it, | |
| For they know not how to use it. | | | | |
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