AGAINST MARRIAGE: Directed to that Inconsiderable Animal, called HUSBAND.  
Husband! thou Dull unpitied Miscreant,  
Wedded to Noise, to Misery, and Want;  
Sold an Eternal Vassal for thy Life,  
Obliged to Cherish, and to Heat a Wife:  
Drudge on till Fifty; at thy Own Expense  
●reath out thy Life in one Impertinence;  
Repeat thy loathed Embraces every Night  
Prompted to Act, by Duty (not Delight:)  
christian thy froward Bantling every Year,  
And carefully thy Spurious Issue Rear:  
Go once a Week to see the Brat at Nurse,  
And let the Young Impostor drain thy Purse:  
Hedg-Sparrow-like, what Cuckoos have begot  
Do thou maintain, Incorrigible Sot.  
Oh! I could curse the Pimp that could do less,  
He's beneath Pity, and beyond Redress:  
Pox on him! let him go: what can I say?  
Anathema's on him are Thrown away;  
The wretch is married, & has known the worst,  
And now his Blessing is, he can't be Cursed.  
Married! O Hell and Furies! Name it not,  
Hence, hence you Holy Cheats; a Plot, a Plot.  
Marriage is but a Licenced way to Sin,  
A Noose to catch Religious Woodcocks in:  
Or the Nickname of some Malicious Friend,  
Begot in Hell to Prosecute Mankind.  
'Tis the Destroyer of Our Peace and Health,  
Mispender of our precious Time and Wealth;  
The Enemy to Wit, Valour, Mirth, all  
That we can Virtuous, Good, or Pleasant call.  
By Day 'tis nothing but an endless Noise;  
By Night the Echo of Forgotten Joys:  
●●road the Sport and Wonder of the Crowd,  
〈◊〉 Home the hourly breach of what we vowed:  
In its Opium to our Lustful Rage,  
Which sleeps a while, and wakes again in Age.  
It heaps on all Men much (but useless) Care,  
Forthwith more Trouble, they less Happy are;  
It checks Youth, shortens life, & taints the mind,  
●●ur Senses pauls, and strikes our Reason blind.  
Ye Gods! that Man by his own Slavish Law,  
●●ould on himself such Inconvenience draw:  
If we would Wiser Natures Laws Obey.  
Those chalk him out a far more pleasant way,  
She bids freely Look, Like, and Enjoy.  
Therefore when lusty Youth & Wine conspire  
To Flame the Blood unto a Generous Fire;  
We must not think the Gallant will Endure  
The Durient Raging of his Calenture:  
Nor always in his single Pleasures Burn,  
Tho' Nature's Handmaid sometime serves the turn:  
No, he must have a sprightly youthful Wench,  
In equal floods of Love, his flame to quench;  
One that will hold him in her Clasping Arm,  
And in that Circle all his Spirits Charm;  
That with New Motion, and unpractised Art,  
Can raise his Soul, & then ensnare his Heart▪  
Hence springs the Noble, Fortunate, and Great,  
Always Begot in Passion, and in Heat:  
But the Dull Offspring of the Marriagebed,  
What is it? but a Humane shape in Lead:  
A Slothful Lump Engendered of all Ills,  
Begot like D— against the Parents Wills.  
If it be Cukoldized, it's Doubly Spoiled,  
The Mother's Fear's Entailed upon the Child.  
Thus whether Illegitimate▪ or Not,  
Cowards and Fools in Wedlock are Begot:  
Let no Ennobled Soul himself Debase,  
By Lawful Ways to Dasterdize his Race;  
But if he must Pay Nature's Debt in Kind,  
To check the growing Danger, let him find  
Some willing Female out; What tho' she be  
The very Scum and Dregs of Infamy:  
Tho' she be Linsey-Woolsey, Bawd & Whore,  
Close-stool to Venus, Nature's Common-shore,  
Impudence, Folly, Brandy, and Disease,  
The Sundays Crack for Suburb-Prentices;  
What then? she's better than a Wife by half,  
And if thou'rt still Unmarried, thou art safe.  
with whores thou canst but venture, what is lost  
May be Redeemed again with Care and Cost;  
But a Damned Wife, Inevitable Fate,  
Destroys, Soul, Body, Credit, and Estate.  
FINIS.