THE ILLUSTRIOUS WIFE: Viz. That Excellent Poem, Sir THOMAS OVERBVRIE'S WIFE ILLUSTRATED By GILES OLDISWORTH, Nephew to the same Sir T. O.  Prov. 31. 12. 
She will do him good and not evil, all the days of her life.  
London Printed: Anno Dom. 1673.   
Prov. 12. 4. A virtuous Woman is a Crown unto her Husband. 

AS in one Day and Night, all life we find;  
As more of either is the same again;  
So each Wife is a Brief of Womankind,  
And doth, in little, full as much contain:  
God formed her so▪ that to her Husband she,  
Like Eve, should all the world of Woman be.   

So formed he both, that neither power he gave  
Use of them-selves, but by Exchange, to make:  
Whence in their cheeks the Fair no pleasure have,  
But by reflex of what thence others take:  
Our lips in their own Kiss no Sweetness find;  
And both our Eyes are, t'ward our own Face, blind.   

Thus God in Eve a perfect man begun;  
Till now, in vain much of himself Man had:  
In Adam God created only one;  
Eve and the World to come, in Eve he made.  
We are two halves: While male from female strays,  
Both barren are; Joined, both their like can raise.   

At first both Sexes were in Man combined;  
Within his Body, Man did She-man breed:  
Adam was Eves, Eve Mother of Mankind;  
Eve from live-flesh, Man did from Dust, proceed:  
One thus made two, Marriage unites again;  
Two Sexes make one flesh, One flesh makes Twain.   

Since Man ●●d but the well-being of this life  
From Woman took; Since Being, She from Him;  
Since God at first created Eve a Wife,  
Since her Sex did, for Adam's sake begin;  
Marriage is women's Crown: their Being then,  
Their now-Perfection, they receive from Men.   

Marriage; to all whose joys two parties be;  
Whose joys are doubled, being parted so;  
Wherein the bed of love is Chastity;  
Whereby two Souls into one Body go;  
Which makes two, one, while They two living be,  
And, after death, one in their progeny.   

God to each man a private Woman gave,  
That in that Centre his Desires might stint;  
That he a Consort like Himself might have,  
And that on Her his like he might imprint:  
Double is woman's use: part of her end  
Doth to this Age, part to the next, extend.   

We fill but part of Time, and can not die  
Till we the world a fresh supply have lent:  
Children are Bodies sole Eternity:  
Nature is Gods, Art is Man's, instrument;  
Now all man's Art no living Thing can make,  
But herein Men in Things of life partake.   

For wand'ring Lust; I know 'tis infinite;  
It still begins, and adds not more to more:  
The Gild is everlasting, the Delight  
This instant doth not feel, of that before:  
The Taste of it is only in the Sense;  
The Gild is poison in the Conscience.   

Woman is not lusts bounds, but Womankind;  
One is Love's number; Who from that doth fall  
Hath lost his Hold, and no now rest shall find;  
Vice hath no Mean, but not to be at all:  
A Wife is that Enough which lust can't find;  
For lust is still with want, or too much, pined.   

Bate lust the Sin, my share is even with His;  
For not to lust, and to enjoy, is one:  
And (more or less past) equal Nothing is;  
I still have one; He one at once, alone:  
And, though the Woman be oft varied, He  
Is still the same without variety.   

If in a single life we take no joy,  
Marriage our Lust (as 'twere with fuel fire)  
Will▪ with a Medicine of the same, allay;  
And not forbid, but rectify, Desire:  
When high flames threaten chimneys, lay on wood;  
This makes the Fire, and keeps the Fabric, good.   

Nor doth my Marriage order lust alone;  
A Second-selfe may help me every way;  
And, against my failings, make me two for one:  
Myself I cannot choose, my Wife I may;  
And, in the choice of Her, it much doth lie,  
To mend Myself in my posterity.   

O rather let me love, then be in love;  
So let me choose, as Wife and Friend to find;  
Let me forget her Sex, when I approve;  
Beasts liking dwells in Sense, but Ours in Mind:  
Our Souls no Sexes have; their Love is clean,  
And (like Souls) pure; Wives, in their Souls, are Men.   

But Physic for our lust their Bodies be;  
But matter fit to show our love upon;  
But merely shells for out Posterity:  
Their Souls were given, lest men should be alone:  
Without Words Bodies are no company;  
And, but the Souls interpreters, Words be▪   

What goodly Frame we see of Flesh and Blood,  
Their Fashion is, not Weight; It is (I say)  
But their Lay-part, but Well-digested food;  
'Tis but, 'twixt Dust and Dust, Life's middle-way:  
Of no worth were the Lump of Flesh that's seen,  
Did it not entertain a Soul within.   

All the external Beauty of my Wife  
Is but skindeep, but to two Senses known;  
Short even of Pictures, shorter lived than life;  
Yet doth that Love survive which's built thereon:  
For our Imagination is so high,  
That Bodies met can't true love satisfy.   

All Shapes, all Colours, are alike in Night;  
Nor doth our Touch distinguish Foul, or Fair,  
But our observing Mind, and busy Sight;  
These, but one week: By mutual converse are  
Both made alike, which differed at first view;  
Nor can long Absence first dislikes renew.   

Nor can those Features seated in her Face,  
(More than through self-deluding Fancies) be  
Of us enjoyed in an inferior place:  
Nor, in enjoying, can those Features she  
Herself make Ours: Love, while it rangeth, errs;  
We dote on looks which are, not Ours, but Hers.   

Birth less than Beauty shall my reason blind;  
Her Birth comes to my Children, not to Me:  
Let me (that active Gentry) virtue find,  
Rather than (passive Gentry) Ancestry:  
Alive in Her more worth one virtue is,  
Then all the rest dead in her Pedigrees.   

For high Degrees; High rather be she placed  
In gifts of Nature, then of Policy;  
Gentry is a good Relic of Times past;  
Yet love doth only what is present see.  
Things were first made, than Words: She is the same  
With, or without, this Title, or that Name.   

As for (the odds of Sexes) Portion;  
Nor will I shun it, nor mine Aim, it make:  
Birth, Beauty, Wealth, are nothing worth alone;  
All these I would for good Additions take,  
Not for good Parts: They two are ill combined,  
Whom what they have, not what they are, hath joined.   

Instead of these, the Object of my love  
Shall Virtue be: When these with Virtue go,  
They (in themselves inifferent) virtuous prove;  
What's good (like fire) turns all things to be 〈◊〉:  
Thine image in her Soul, LORD; let Me place  
My love upon, not adam's in her Face.   

Good is a fairer Attribute, then White:  
This (the Minds beauty) keeps the other sweet:  
This is nor born, nor mortal, with the light;  
Nor gloss, nor painting, can it counterfeit:  
Nor doth it raise Desires which ever tend  
At once, to their perfection, and their End.   

ay, by a Good, a Holy Wife design;  
So God she cannot love, and not love Me;  
Man's law can only Words and Deeds refine,  
God's law our inward Thoughts doth Sanctify:  
Whence a Maid ravished more a Virgin is,  
Then that Maid which hath only wished amiss.   

Lust only by religion is withstood:  
Lust▪ Object is without, its Strength within;  
Moralty resists but in cold blood;  
Respect of Credit feareth Shame, not Sin:  
But no place dark enough for such Offence,  
She finds, that's watched by her own Conscience.   

Now may I trust her Body with her Mind;  
Yea, here-upon secure, I ne'er shall rue  
The pangs of Jealousy; yet Love doth find  
More pain to doubt, then know, she is Untrue:  
For Patience is the Cure of Evils-known;  
But Doubt is still impatient, Doubt hath none.   

Be then that Thought once stirred, 'twill never die;  
Nor will my grief more mild by custom prove:  
Until her new life my Fears satisfy,  
Th' Anguish is more or less, as is my Love:  
This punishment to Jealousy is due,  
That it may prove one False, can't prove one True.   

Suspicion may the Will of Lust restrain,  
Goodness prevents from having such a will;  
A Wife that's Good doth chaste, and more, contain;  
Chastity is but Abstinence from ill,  
And is, though in a Wife that's bad, the best  
Of qualities, in a Good Wife the least.   

Prudence must keep us chaste, not Jealousy:  
Such lawful things to be avoided are  
As may the cause of things unlawful be;  
Lust, ere it hurts, is best descried a far:  
Lust is a sin of two: He that is sure  
Of either person, is of both secure.   

Give me, next Good, an Vunderstanding Wife;  
By Nature wise, not learned by much Art:  
Some Knowledge in her, will to all my life  
More Scope of Conversation impart;  
Besides, 'twill inbred virtue fortify;  
They are most firmly good, who best know why.   

A passive Understanding to conceive,  
And judgement to discern, I wish to find:  
Beyond these, all as hazardous I leave:  
Learning and pregnant wit, in Womankind  
What they find malleable, that they make frail;  
And do not add more Ballast, but more Sail.   

Domestic Charge doth best that Sex befit;  
Contiguous Business; so to fix the Mind,  
That leisure space for Fancies not admit;  
Their leisure 'tis, corrupteth Womankind:  
Else, being placed from many Vices free,  
They had to Heaven a speedier way than we.   

Books are a part of Man's prerogative;  
In formal Ink they Thoughts and Voices hold;  
That we to them our best spare hours may give;  
And make Time present travel that of old:  
Our life Fame peiceth longer at the end;  
And Books our life do farther backward send.   

As Good and Knowing, let her be Discreet;  
This, to the others Substance, lustre brings;  
Discretion doth consider what is meet,  
Goodness but what is lawful; only Things,  
Not Circumstances: Without this, even holy  
men's learning and wit are curious folly.   

To keep their Name, since 'tis in others hands,  
Needs Discretion: Their Credit is by far  
More frail than Them: On likelihoods it stands;  
And hard to be disproveed Lusts slanders are.  
Their Carriage, not their Chastity alone,  
Must keep their Name chaste from Suspicion.   

women's Behaviour is a surer Bar  
Than is their No; This fairly doth deny,  
Without denying; Hereby fond men are  
Kept even from Hope: In part too blame is she,  
Which hath (without consent) been only tried;  
He comes too near, that comes to be denied.   

Now, since a Woman we to marry are,  
A Soul and Body, not a Soul alone;  
When one is Good, then be the other Fair:  
Beauty is Health and Beauty, both in one.  
Be she so Fair, that she most Wives contain;  
So Fair that change can yield to Me no gain.   

So Fair at least let me imagine Her;  
That Thought to me is Truth: Opinion  
Cannot in matter of Opinion err:  
With no eyes, shall I see her, but mine own:  
And, as my heart conceiveth Her to be,  
Such is she to my Sight, my Touch, and Me.   

The Face we may the Seat of Beauty call;  
In it a Taste of the whole Body lies;  
Nay, even a Relish of the Mind withal:  
And, of the Face, the life moves in the Eyes:  
So like each other these two Eyes we see,  
That these two Eyes, two but in number, be.   

Beauty, in decent Shape and Colour, lies;  
Colours the matter are, and Shape the Soul;  
The Soul doth from no single part arise,  
But keeps a just proportion in the whole:  
Such is the pure spiritual harmony  
Of every part united in the Eye.   

Love is a kind of Superstition  
Fearing that Idol which itself hath framed;  
Lust is a Fire, which rather from its own  
Temper, then from its Object, is inflamed:  
Beauty is love's object; Wom●n, lusts, to gain;  
Love, love requires; Lust, only to obtain.   

No circumstance doth Beauty beautify  
Like graceful Fashion, native Comeliness:  
This even gets pardon for Deformity:  
Beget, Art cannot; but Art may redress:  
When Nature had fixed Beantie perfect made,  
Something she left for Motion to add.   

But let that Motion more to Modesty  
Tend, then t' Assurance; Modesty doth set  
The Face in her just Form, from Passions free:  
'Tis both the Minds, and Body's Beauty, met:  
But Modesty, no Virtue can Eye see;  
This is the Faces only Chastity.   

Where Goodness fails, there Modesty withstands:  
Hence 'tis, that Women (though they weaker be,  
And their Desires more strong, yet) in their hands  
The Chastity of Men doth often lie:  
Of all sins, lusts would sins most common grow,  
  

All these good parts a perfect Woman make;  
Add Love to me, they make a perfect Wife;  
Without her love, her Beauty I did take  
For (that of Pictures) dead; Love gives it life:  
Till now 〈◊〉 Beauty (like the Sun) did shine  
〈…〉 it only Alive.   

And of this love let Reason Father be,  
And Passion Mother: Let it from the one,  
It's Being take; from th' other, its Degree;  
Self-love, which second loves are built upon,  
Will make me, if not Her, her love regard;  
No man but favours his own worths reward.   

As Good and Wise, so be she Fit for me;  
With me to will, and Not to will, the same:  
My Wife is mine Adopted Self: and She,  
As Me, so what I love, to love must frame:  
〈◊〉 God to Men in Marriage Wom●● gi●es,  
〈◊〉 must submit to 〈◊〉 not 〈…〉.   
FINIS.   

Sir Thomas Overburie his Epitaph written by himself.  

THe Span of my days measured, here I rest;  
That is, my Body; but my Soul, its Guest,  
Is hence ascended: Whither, neither Time,  
Nor Faith, nor Hope, but only Love, can climb:  
Where, being now enlightened, she doth know  
The Truth of all, men argue of below:  
Only this Dust doth here in pawn remain,  
That, when the World dissolves, She'll come again.    

G. O. to the Reader:  

THe Husband, having well set down his Wife,  
join his own Epitaph next underneath:  
To wit, Though Marriage be a double life,  
That double life is placed next door to Death:  
That is, To such as neither Flesh control▪  
Nor do, to their LORDS CHRIST, espouse their Soul:  
But Graves them-selves are made a Marriagebed,  
To such as die to sin, and JESUS wed.   Pro: 19 14. 18. 22. 
A prudent Wife is from the LORD: and whosoever findeth her, obtaineth a favour from the LORD.  

To him (in all his Dispensations) be glory  
forever and ever ascribed, Amen, Amen.   
FINIS.   

Imprimatur  
Ex. Aed. Lambethani● Martii 16 1672. THO. TOMKYNS.