I. Jealousy

FOND woman, which wouldst have thy husband die,

And yet complain’st of his great jealousy;

If, swollen with poison, he lay in his last bed,

His body with a sere bark covered,

Drawing his breath as thick and short as can

The nimblest crocheting musician,

Ready with loathsome vomiting to spew

His soul out of one hell into a new,

Made deaf with his poor kindred’s howling cries,

Begging with few feign’d tears great legacies,—

Thou wouldst not weep, but jolly, and frolic be,

As a slave, which to-morrow should be free.

Yet weep’st thou, when thou seest him hungerly

Swallow his own death, heart’s-bane jealousy?

O give him many thanks, he’s courteous,

That in suspecting kindly warneth us.

We must not, as we used, flout openly,

In scoffing riddles, his deformity;

Nor at his board together being sat,

With words, nor touch, scarce looks, adulterate.

Nor when he, swollen and pamper’d with great fare,

Sits down and snorts, caged in his basket chair,

Must we usurp his own bed any more,

Nor kiss and play in his house, as before.

Now I see many dangers; for it is

His realm, his castle, and his diocese.

But if—as envious men, which would revile

Their prince, or coin his gold, themselves exile

Into another country, and do it there—

We play in another house, what should we fear?

There we will scorn his household policies,

His silly plots, and pensionary spies,

As the inhabitants of Thames’ right side

Do London’s mayor, or Germans the Pope’s pride.