[print edition page number: 257]

Sarah Fyge

The Female Advocate: or, An Answer to a Late Satire against the Pride, Lust, and Inconstancy of Woman (1687)^[1]

To the Reader

That which makes many books come abroad into the world without Prefaces is the only reason that incites me to one: viz. the smallness of them. Being willing to let my reader know why this is so: for as one great commendation of our sex is to know much and speak little, so an intelligent modesty informs my soul, I ought to put a period to the intended length of the ensuing lines, lest censuring critics should measure my tongue by my pen and condemn me for a “talkative” by the length of my poem. Though I confess the illustrious subject requires (nay, commands) an enlargement from any other pen than mine (or those under the same circumstances), but I think it is good frugality for young beginners to send forth a small venture^[2] at first and see how that passes the merciless ocean of critics, and what return it makes, and so accordingly adventure the next time. I might, if I pleased, make an excuse for the publication of my book, as many others do. But then, perhaps, the world might think ’twas only a feigned unwillingness. But when I found I could not hinder the publication,^[3] I set a resolution to bear patiently the censures of the world, for I expected its severity, the first copy being so ill writ, and so much blotted, that it could scarce be read; and they that had the charge of it, in the room of blots, writ what they pleased, and much different from my intention. I find the main objection is that I should answer so rude a book when, if it had not been against our sex, I should not have read it, much less have answered it. But I think its being so required the sharper answer and severer contradictions. I suppose some will think the alterations occasioned [258] by their dislike of the former. If that had been intended for the press, some things there inserted had been left out, which I have now done; though they might pass well enough in private, they were not fit to be exposed to every eye. But I think, when a man is so extravagant as to damn all womankind for the crimes of a few, he ought to be corrected. But in his second edition, he hath been more favorable, yet there he goes beyond the bounds of modesty and civility, and exclaims not only against virtue, but moral honesty, too, and supposes he hath banished all goodness out of them. But it will be an impossible thing, because they are more essentially good than men. For ’tis observed in all religions, that women are the truest devotionists and the most pious, and more heavenly than those who pretend to be the most perfect and rational creatures. For many men, with conceit of their own perfections, neglect that which should make them so, as some mistaken persons who think if they are of the right church they shall be infallibly saved when they never follow the rules which lead to salvation. And when persons with this inscription pass current^[4] in Heaven, then should it be according to my antagonist’s fancy, that all men are good and fitting for Heaven, because they are men; and women are irreversibly damned, because they are women. But that Heaven should make a male and female, both of the same species, both endued^[5] with the like rational souls, for two such differing ends, is the most notorious principle, and the most unlikely of any that ever was maintained by any rational man. And I shall never take it for an article of my faith, being assured that Heaven is for all those whose purity and obedience to its law qualifies them for it, whether male or female; to which place the latter seem to have the justest claim, is the opinion of one of its votaries.^[6]

Blasphemous wretch!^[7] How canst thou think or say
Some cursed or banished fiend usurped the sway^[8]
When Eve was formed? For then’s denied by you
God’s omnipresence and omniscience, too,
Without which attributes he could not be                              5
The greatest and supremest deity.
Nor can Heav’n sleep, though it may mourn to see
Degen’rate man speak such vile blasphemy.

When from dark Chaos Heav’n the world did make,
And all was glorious it did undertake, [259]                     10
Then were in Eden’s garden freely placed
Each thing that’s pleasant to the sight or taste.
’Twas filled with beasts and birds, trees hung with fruit,
That might with man’s celestial nature suit.
The world being made thus spacious and complete,          15
Then man was formed, who seemed nobly great.
When Heav’n surveyed the works that it had done,
Saw male and female, but found man alone,
A barren sex, and insignificant,
Then Heav’n made woman to supply the want,                  20
And to make perfect what before was scant.
Surely then she a noble creature is,
Whom Heav’n thus made to consummate all bliss.
Though man had being first, yet methinks she
In nature should have the supremacy;                                    25
For man was formed out of the dull senseless earth,
But woman had a much more noble birth.
For when the dust was purified by Heaven,
Made into man, and life unto it given,
Then the almighty and all-wise God said                              30
That woman of that species should be made;
Which was no sooner said, but it was done,
’Cause ’twas not fit for man to be alone.^[9]

Thus have I proved woman’s creation good,
And not inferior, when right understood,                             35
To that of man’s. For both one maker had
Which made all good; then how could Eve be bad?
But then you’ll say, though she at first was pure,
Yet in that state she did not long endure.
’Tis true. But yet her fall examine right.                                40
We find most men have banished truth for spite.
Nor is she quite so guilty as some make,
For Adam most did of the guilt partake:
While he from God’s own mouth had the command,
But woman had it at the second hand.^[10]                            45
The Devil’s strength weak woman might deceive,
But Adam only tempted was by Eve.
She had the strongest tempter and least charge;^[11]
Man’s knowing most doth make his sin more large. [261] 
But though that woman man to sin did lead,                      50
Yet since her seed hath bruised the serpent’s head.^[12]
Why should she thus be made a public scorn
Of whom the great Almighty God was born?
Surely to speak one slighting word must be
A kind of murmuring impiety?                                                55
But yet their greatest haters still prove such
Who formerly have lovèd them too much.
And from the proverb they are not exempt,
“Too much familiarity has bred contempt.”^[13]
And as in Adam all mankind did die,^[14]                              60
They make all base for one’s immodesty;
Nay, make the name a kind of magic spell,
As if ’twould conjure married men to hell.

Woman! By Heaven, the very name’s a charm
And will my verse against all critics arm.                              70
The Muses or Apollo^[15] doth inspire
Heroic poets; but yours is a fire
Pluto from hell did send by incubus^[16]
Because we make their hell less populous,
Or else you ne’er had damned the females thus.                 75
But if so universally they are
Disposed to mischief, what need you declare
Peculiar faults, when all the world might see
With each approaching morn a prodigy?^[17]
Man curse bad woman! I could hear as well                         80
The black infernal devils curse their hell,
When there had been no such damned place we know,
If they themselves had not first made it so.
In lust perhaps you others have excelled, [262]
And made all whores that possibly would yield,                 85
And courted all the females in your way,
Then did design at last to make a prey
Of some pure virgins; or what’s almost worse,
Make some chaste wives to merit a divorce.
But ’cause they hated your insatiate mind,                            90
Therefore you call what’s virtuous “unkind.”
And disappointments did your soul perplex,
So in mere spite you curse the female sex.
I would not judge you thus, only I find
You would adult’rate^[18] all womankind,                               95
Not only with your pen. You higher soar:
You’d exclude marriage, make the world a whore.

But if all men should of your humor^[19] be,
And should rob Hymen^[20] of his deity,
They soon would find the inconveniency.                           100
Then hostile spirits would be forced to peace
Because the world so slowly would increase.^[21]
They would be glad to keep their men at home,
And every king want more t’attend his throne.
Nay, should an English prince resolve that he                   105
Would keep the number of’s nobility,
And this dull custom some few years maintained,
There would be none less than a peer i’th’land.
And I do fancy, ’twould be pretty sport
To see a kingdom crammed into a court.                            110
Sure a strange world, when one shall nothing see,
Unless a bawdy-house or nunnery.^[22]
For should this act e’er pass, woman would fly
Unto dark caves to save her chastity.
She only in a marriage bed delights;                                     115
The very name of “whore” her soul affrights;
And when that sacred ceremony’s gone,
Woman (I’m sure) will choose to live alone.
There’s none can number all those virtuous dames
Which chose cold death before their lovers’ flames.        120
The chaste Lucretia, whom proud Tarquin loved: [263]
Herself she slew, her chastity she proved.^[23]
But I’ve gone further than I need have done,
Since we have got examples nearer home:
Witness those Saxon ladies who did fear                            125
The loss of honor when the Danes were here
And cut their lips and noses, that they might
Not pleasing seem, or give the Danes delight;^[24]
Thus having done what they could justly do,
At last they fell their sacrifices too.                                       130
I could say more, but history will tell
Many examples that do these excel.

In constancy they often men excel,
That steady virtue in their souls do dwell.
She’s not so fickle and frail as men pretend                        135
But can keep consistent to a faithful friend;
And though man’s always alt’ring of his mind,
He says inconstancy’s in womankind
And would persuade us that we engross all
That’s either fickle, vain, or whimsical.                                140
Man’s fancied truth small virtue doth express:
Ours is constancy; theirs is stubbornness.
In faithful love our sex do them outshine
And is more constant than the masculine.
For where is there that husband that e’er died,                 145
Or ever suffered, with his loving bride?
But num’rous trains of chaste wives oft expire
With their dear husbands wrapped in flaming fire —
We’d do the same if custom did require.
But this is done by Indian women, who                              150
Do make their constancy immortal, too,
As is their fame; while happy India yields
More glorious phoenix than th’Arabian fields.^[25]
The German women constancy did show
When Wensberg was besieged, begged they might go [264] 155
Out of the city with no bigger packs
Than each of them could carry on their backs.^[26]
The wond’ring world expected they’d have gone
Laden with treasures from their native home;
But crossing expectation, each did take                               160
Her husband, as her burden, on her back;
So saved him from intended death, and she
At once gave him both life and liberty.
How many loving wives have often died
Through extreme grief by their cold husbands’ side?       165
If this ben’t^[27] constancy, why then the sun
Or earth do not a constant progress run.

There’s thousands of examples that will prove
Woman is true and constant in chaste love.
But when to us pretended love is made,                              170
We yielding find it lust in masquerade.
Then we disown it — virtue says we must;
We well may change; I think the reason just.
“Change” did I say? That word I must forbear.
No, the bright star won’t wander from her sphere           175
Of virtue (in which female souls do move),
Nor will she join with an insatiate love.
For she that’s first espoused to virtue must
Be most inconstant when she yields to lust.

But now the scene is altered, and those who                      180
Were esteemed modest by a blush or two
Are represented quite another way,
Worse than mock-verse doth the most solid play.
She that takes pious precepts for her rule
Is thought, by some, a kind of ill-bred fool;                       185
They would have all bred up in Venus-school.^[28]
And if that by her speech or carriage she
Doth seem to have sense of a deity,^[29] [265]
She straight is taxed with ungentility,
Unless it be that little blinded boy,                                       190
Cupid, that childish God, that trifling toy,
That certain nothing, whom they feign to be
The son of Venus, daughter to the sea.^[30]
But were he true, none serve him as they should,
For commonly those who adore this god                            195
Do’t only in a melancholy mood;
Or else a sort of hypocrites they are
Who invocate him only as a snare,
And by him they do sacred love pretend,
When, as Heav’n knows, they have a baser end.               200

Nor is he god of love; but if I must
Give him a title, he’s the god of lust.
And surely woman impious must be,
Whene’er she doth become his votary,
Unless she will believe without control                                205
Those that did hold a woman had no soul;^[31]
And then doth think no obligation lies
On her to act what may be just or wise,
And only strive to please her appetite
And to embrace that which doth most delight.                210
And when she doth this paradox believe,
Whatever faith doth please she may receive.
She may be Turk, Jew, atheist, infidel,
Or anything, ’cause she need fear no hell;
For if she hath no soul, what need she fear?                       215
Something, she knows not what, or when, or where.

But hold, I think I should be silent now
Because a woman’s soul you do allow.
But had we none, you’d say we had, else you [266] 
Could never damn us at the rate you do.                             220
What, dost thou think thou hast a privilege given,
That those whom thou dost bless shall mount to Heaven?
And those thou cursest, unto hell must go?
And so dost think to fill th’abyss below
Quite full of females, hoping there may be                        225
No room for souls as big with vice as thee.
But if that thou with such vain hopes shouldst die,
I’th’fluid air thou must not think to fly,
Or enter into Heav’n; thy weight of sin
Would crush the damned, and so thou’dst enter in.        230
But hold, I am uncharitable here:
Thou mayst repent, though that’s a thing I fear.
But if thou shouldst repent, why then again
It would at best but mitigate thy pain
Because thou hast been vile to that degree                         235
That thy repentance must eternal be.
For wert thou guilty of no other crime
Than what thou lately puttest into rhyme —
Why that, were there no more offenses, given
Were crime enough to shut the gate of Heaven.              240
But put together all that thou dost do,
It will not only shut, but bar it, too.

When wise Heav’n made woman, it designed
Her for the charming object of mankind.
And surely man degenerate must be                                     245
That doth deny our native purity.
Nor is there scarce a thing that can be worse
Than turning of a blessing to a curse.
’Tis to make Heav’n mistaken when you say
It meant, at first, what proves another way.                       250
For woman was created good, and she
Was thought the best of frail mortality,
An help for man,^[32] his greatest good on earth,
Made for to sympathize his grief and mirth.
Then why should man pretend she’s worse than hell,      255
The only plague o’th’world, and in her dwell
All that is base or ill. No, she’s not so.
Rather, she is the greatest good below,
Most real virtue and true happiness,
His only steady and most constant bliss.  [267]                   260

I must confess there are some bad, and they
Led by an ignis fatuus^[33] go astray.
All are not forced to wander in false way;
Only some few, whose dark benighted sense,
For want of light, han’t^[34] power to make defense          265
Against those many tempting pleasures, which
Not only theirs, but masculine souls bewitch.
But you’d persuade us that ’tis we alone
Are guilty of all crimes, and you have none,
Unless some few, which you call fools (who be                 270
Espoused to wives and live in chastity),
But the most rational, without which we
Doubtless should question your humanity.
And I would praise them more, only I fear
If I should do it, ’twould make me appear                          275
Unto the world much fonder than I be
Of that same state, for I love liberty.
Nor do I think there’s a necessity
For all to enter beds, like Noah’s beast
Into his ark; I would have some released                             280
From the dear cares of that same lawful state,
But I’ll not dictate; I’ll leave all to fate.
Yet do I think a single life is best
For those that love to contemplate at rest,
For then they’re free from trifling toys, and may              285
Uninterrupted nature’s works survey.

Had my antagonist but spent his time
Making true verse instead of spiteful rhyme,
As a small poet, he had gained some praise,
But now his malice blasts his twig of bays.^[35]                   290
I do not wish you had, for I believe
It is impossible for to deceive
Any with what you write because that you
Do only insert things supposèd true.
And if by supposition I may go,                                             295
Then I’ll suppose all men are wicked, too,
Since I am sure there are so many so.
And ’cause you have made whores of all you could,
So, if you durst, you’d say all women would; [268]
Which words do only argue guilt and spite:                       300
All makes you cheap in ev’ry mortal’s sight.
And it doth show that you have always been
Only with women guilty of that sin.
You ne’er desired, nor were you fit for those
Whose modest carriage doth their minds disclose,          305
And, Sir, methinks you do describe so well
The way and manner Bewley^[36] entered hell,
As if your love for her had made you go
Down to the black infernal shades below.

But I suppose you never was so near —                               310
Nay, if you had, you scarce would have been here.
For had they seen you, they had kept you there
Unless they thought, whene’er it was you came,
Your red hot entrance might increase the flame
(If burning hell add to their extreme pain),                        315
And so were glad to turn you off again.

There’s one thing more I do believe beside
Might be occasioned by their haughty pride.
They knew you rivaled them in all their crimes,
Wherewith they could debauch the wiling times.            320
And as fond mortals hate a rival, they
Loving their pride were loath to let you stay
For fear that you might their black deeds excel,
Usurp their seat, and be the prince of hell.
But I believe that you will let your hate                               325
O’errule your pride, and you’ll not wish the state
Of governing because your deceived mind
Persuades, your subjects will be womenkind.
But I believe, whenever comes the trial,
Ask but for ten, and you’ll have a denial.                            330
You’d think yourself far happier than you be
Were you but half so sure of Heav’n as we.
But when you are in hell, if you should find
More than I speak of, then think heaven designed
Them for a part of your eternal fate                                      335
Because they’re things which you so much do hate.
But why you should do so I cannot tell,
Unless ’tis what makes you in love with hell,
And, having fallen out with goodness, you
Must have antipathy ’gainst woman, too. [269]                 340
For virtue and they so nearly are allied
That none their mutual ties can e’er divide.
Like light and heat, incorporate they are
And interwove with providential care.
But I’m too dull to give my sex due praise;                         345
The task befits a laureate crowned with bays.
And yet all he can say will be but small —
A copy differs from the original.
For should he sleep under Parnassus Hill,^[37]
Implore the Muses for to guide his quill,                            350
And should they help him, yet his praise would seem
At best undervaluing disesteem.
For he would come so short of what they are,
His lines won’t with one single act compare.
But to say truest is to say that she                                          355
Is good and virtuous unto that degree
As you pretend she’s bad, and that’s beyond
Imagination, ’cause you set no bound.
And then one certain definition is
To say that she doth comprehend all bliss,                         360
And that she’s all that’s pious, chaste, and true,
Heroic, constant — nay, and modest, too.
The later virtue is a thing you doubt,
But ’tis ’cause you never sought to find it out.
You question where there’s such a thing or no —            365
’Tis only ’cause you hope you’ve lost a foe,
A hated object, yet a stranger, too.
I’ll speak like you: if such a thing there be,
I’m certain that she doth not dwell with thee.
Thou art Antipodes^[38] to that, and all                                 370
That’s good, or that we simply civil call.
From virtue’s yoke^[39] thou hast thy self released,
Turned bully, hector, and a human beast.
That beasts do speak, it rarely comes to pass,
Yet you may parallel with Balaam’s ass.^[40]                         375
You do describe a woman so that one [270]
Would almost think she had the fiends outdone,
As if at her strange birth did shine no star
Or planet, only Furies in conjunction were,
And did conspire what mischief they should do,              380
Each act his part, and her with plagues pursue.
’Tis false in her, yet ’tis summed up in you.
You almost would persuade one that you thought
That providence to a low ebb was brought,
And that to Eve and Jezebel^[41] was given                          385
Souls of so great extent, that Heav’n was driven
Into a strait, and liberality
Had made her void of wanting; to supply
These later bodies, she was forced to take
Their souls asunder and so numbers make,                         390
And transmigrate^[42] them into other, and
Still shift them as she finds the matter stand.
’Tis ’cause they are the worst, makes me believe
You must imagine Jezebel and Eve.
But I’m not Pythagorean to conclude                                   395
One soul should serve for Abraham^[43] and Jude;^[44]
Or think that Heaven’s so bankrupt or so poor,
But that each body has one soul or more.
I do not find our sex so near allied
Either in disobedience or in pride                                         400
Unto the ’bove-named females (for I’m sure
They are refined, or else always pure)
That I must needs conceit^[45] their souls the same,
Though I confess there’s some that merit blame.
But yet their faults only thus much infer,                            405
That we’re not made so perfect, but may err;
Which adds much luster to a virtuous mind, [271]
And ’tis her prudence makes her soul confined
Within the bounds of goodness, for if she
Was all perfection unto that degree                                      410
That ’twas impossible to do amiss,
Then Heaven, not she, must have the praise of this.
But she’s in such a state as she may fall,
And, without care, her freedom may enthrall.
But to keep pure and free in such a case                              415
Argues each virtue with its proper grace.
And as a woman’s composition is
Most soft and gentle, she has happiness
In that her soul is of that nature, too,
And yields to anything that Heav’n will do,                       420
Takes an impression when ’tis sealed in Heaven,
Turns to a cold refusal when ’tis given
By any other hand. She’s all divine,
And by a splendid luster doth outshine
All masculine souls, who only seem to be                           425
Made up of pride and their loved luxury.
So great is man’s ambition that he would
Have all the wealth and power if he could
That is bestowed upon the several thrones
Of the world’s monarchs, covets all their crowns.            430
And by experience, it hath been found
The word ambition’s not an empty sound.
There’s not an history which doth not show
Man’s pride, ambition, and his falsehood, too.
For if at any time th’ambitious have                                     435
Least show of honor, then their souls grow brave,
Grow big and restless; they are not at ease
Till they have a more fatal way to please,
Look fair and true, when falsely they intend —
So from low subject, grow a monarch’s friend.                  440
And by grave counsels they their good pretend
When ’tis gilt-poison^[46] and oft works their end.
The son who must succeed is too much loved,
Must be pulled down (his counsel is approved)
For fear he willingly should mount his father’s seat.       445
So he’s dispatched, and then all those that be
Next in the way are his adherency.
And then, the better to secure the state, [272]
It is but just they should receive his fate.
So by degrees he for himself makes room.                          450
His prince is straightway shut up in his tomb,
And then the false usurper mounts the throne —
Or would do so at least but commonly
He ne’er sits firm, but with revenge doth die,
But thank Heav’n there’s but few that reach so high,      455
For the known crimes make a wise prince take care.^[47]
And thus by what I’ve said, we plainly find
That men more impious are than womankind.
So those who by their abject fortune are
Remote from courts no less their pride declare                 460
In being uneasy and envying all who be
In state above them, or priority.
But ’tis impossible for to relate
Their boundless pride, or their prodigious hate
To all that fortune hath but smiled upon                            465
In a degree that is above their own.
And thou, proud fool, that virtue wouldst subdue,
Envying all that’s good, dost tower o’er women, too,
Which doth betray a base ignoble mind
And speaks thee nothing but a blustering wind.               470
But in so great a lab’rinth as man’s pride,
I should not enter, nor won’t be employed.
For to search out their strange and unknown crimes,
So many are apparent in these times,
My dull arithmetic can never tell                                           475
Half of the sins that commonly do dwell
In one poor sordid swain;^[48] then how can I
Define the court’s or town’s debauchery?
Their pride in some small measure I have shown,            480
But ’tis too great a task for me alone;
Nor yet more possible I should repeat
The crimes of men extravagantly great.
I would not name them but to let them see
I know they’re bad and odious unto me.                             485
’Tis true, pride makes men great in their own eyes,
But them proportionable I despise.
And though ambition still aims to be high,
Yet lust at best is but bestiality,
A sin with which there’s none that can compare, [273]   490
Not pride, nor envy, etc., ^[49] for this doth ensnare
Not only those whom it at first enflamed:
This sin must have a partner to be shamed
And punished like himself. Hold, one won’t do,
He must have more, for he doth still pursue                      495
The agents of his passion; ’tis not wife,
That mutual name, can regulate his life.
And though he for his lust might have a shroud,
And there might be polygamy allowed,
Yet all his wives would surely be abhorred                          500
And still some common Lais^[50] be adored.
Most mortally the name of wife they hate,
Yet they will take one as their proper fate
That they may have a child legitimate
To be their heir, if they have an estate,                                505
Or else to bear their names. So for by ends
They take a wife and satisfy their friends
Who are desirous that it should be so,
And for that end, perhaps, estates bestow,
Which, when possessed, is spent another way,                 510
The spurious issue do the right betray,
And with their mother-strumpets are maintained;
The wife and children by neglect disdained,
Wretched and poor, unto their friends return
Having got nothing, unless cause to mourn.                      515
The dire effects of lust I cannot tell,
But I suppose they’re catalogued in hell,
And he, perhaps, at last may read it there
Written in flames, fierce as his own, whilst here.
I could say more, but yet not half that’s done                    520
By these strange creatures, nor is there scarce one
Of these inhumane beasts that do not die
As bad as Bewley’s pox^[51] turns leprosy,
And men do catch it by mere fantasy.
Though they seem chaste and honest, yet it doth             525
Pursue them, while they swear it with an oath
’Twas only in company, infected breath
Gave them the plague, which hastens on their death,
Or else the scurvy, or some new disease,
As the base wretch or vain physician please. [274]             530
Then a round sum the surgeon he must have
To keep corruption from the threatening grave,
And then ’tis doubled, for to hide the cheat.
(O the sad horror of debauched deceit!)
The body and estate together go,                                           535
And then the only objects here below
On which he doth his charity bestow
Are whores and quacks, and perhaps pages, too,
Must have a share, or else they will reveal
What money doth oblige ’em to conceal.                            540
Sure trusty stewards of extensive Heaven,
When what’s for common good is only given
Unto peculiar friends of theirs, who be
Slaves to their lust, friending debauchery;
These are partakers of as great a fate                                     545
As those whose boldness turns them reprobate.
And though a hypocrite doth seem to be
A greater sharer of mortality,
And yet methinks they almost seem all one,
One hides, and t’other tells what he hath done.                550
But if one devil’s better than another,
Then one of these is better than the other.
Hypocrisy preeminence should have
(Though it has not the privilege to save)
Because the reprobate’s example may,                                  555
By open custom, make the rugged way
Seem much more smooth, and a vile common sin
More pardonable look, and so by him
More take example. ’Tis he strives to win
Mad souls to fill up hell! But should there be                    560
Nothing e’er acted but hypocrisy,
Yet man would be as wicked as he is
And be no nearer to eternal bliss.
For he who’s so unsteady as to take
Example by such men, should never make                         565
Me to believe that he was really chaste,
And, without pattern,^[52] never had embraced.
Such kind of force at best, such virtue’s weak,
That straight with such a slender stress will break,
And that’s no virtue which cannot withstand                    570
A slight temptation at the second hand.
But I believe one might as deeply pry [275] 
For’t as the Grecian^[53] did for honesty,
And yet find none. And then if women be
Averse to’t too, sure all’s iniquity                                           575
On this side Heav’n, and it with justice went
Up hither,^[54] ’cause here is found no content,
But did regardless and neglected lie,
And with an awful distance was passed by.
Instead of hiding their prodigious acts,                               580
They do reveal, brag of their horrid facts;
Unless it be some few who hide them, ’cause
They would not seem to violate those laws
Which with their tongues they’re forced for to maintain,
Being grave counselors or aldermen,                                    585
Or else the wives’ relations are alive,
And then, if known, some other way they’ll drive
Their golden wheels, that way doth seem uneven,
Then the estate most certainly is given
Some other way, or else ’tis settled so                                  590
As he may never have it to bestow
Upon his lusts, and therefore he doth seem
To have a very high and great esteem
For his pretended joy. But when her friends
Are dead, then he his cursed life defends                            595
With what they leave; then the unhappy wife
With her dear children lead an horrid life,
And the estate’s put to another use,
And their great kindness turned to an abuse.
And should I strive their falsehood to relate,                     600
Then I should have but Sisyphus his fate,^[55]
For man is so inconstant and untrue
He’s like a shadow which one doth pursue,
Still flies from’s word, nay and perfidious, too.
An instance too of infidelity                                                    605
We have in Egypt’s false King Ptolemy,^[56][276] 
Who, though he under obligations were
To secure luckless Pompey from the snare,
Who fled to him for succor, yet base he
Approved his death, and murderer let go free.                  610
He was inconstant, too, or else designed
The same at first, so altered words not mind,
Which is the worse, for when that one doth speak
With a full resolution, for to break
One’s word and oath, most surely it must be                     615
A greater crime than an inconstancy,
Which is as great a failing in the soul
As any sin that reason doth control.
But I designed to be short, so must
Be sure to keep confined to what I first                               620
Resolved on, or else I should reprove
These faults which first I ought for to remove.
Therefore, with Brutus^[57] I this point will end,
Who, though he ought to have been Caesar’s friend,
By being declared his heir, yet it was he                              625
Was the first actor in his tragedy.
Perfidious, and ungrateful, and untrue
He was at once — nay, and disloyal, too.
A thousand instances there might be brought
(Not far fetched neither, though more dearly bought)    630
To prove that man more false that woman is,
Far more unconstant, nay perfidious.
But these are crimes which hell (I’m sure not heaven
As they pretend) hath in particular given
Unto our sex — but that’s as false as they,                          635
And that’s more false than anyone can say.
All pride and lust, too, to our charge they lay,
As if in sin we all were so sublime
As to monopolize each heinous crime.
Nay, woman now is made the scapegoat, and                    640
’Tis she must bear the sins of all the land.
But I believe there’s not a priest that can
Make an atonement for one single man.
Nay, it is well if he himself can bring
An humble, pious heart for th’offering,                               645
A thing which ought to be inseparable [277] 
To men o’th’gown and of the sacred table.^[58]
Yet it is sometimes wanting, and they be
Too often sharers of impiety.
But howsoever the strange world now thrives,                  650
I must not look into my teachers’ lives,
But now methinks the world doth seem to be
Naught but confusion and degeneracy.
Each man’s so eager of each fatal sin,
As if he feared be should not do’t again;                             655
Yet still his soul is black, he is the same
At all times, though he doth not act all flame
Because his opportunity doth want,
And to him always there is not a grant
Of objects for to exercise his will                                           660
And for to show his great and mighty skill
In sciences all diabolical.
But when he meets with those which we do call
Base and unjust, why then his part he acts
Most willingly, and then with hell contracts                      665
To do the next thing that they should require,
And being thus inflamed with hellish fire,
He yields to anything it doth desire,
Unless ’twere possible for hell to say
They should be good, for then they’d disobey.                   670
I am not sorry you do females hate,
But rather deem ourselves more fortunate
Because I find, when you’re right understood,
You are at enmity with all that’s good.
And should you love them, I should think they were      675
A-growing bad, but still keep as you are.
I need not bid you, for you must I’m sure
And in your present wretched state endure:
’Tis as impossible you should be true
As for a woman to act like to you,                                         680
Which I am sure will not accomplished be,
Till Heav’n’s turned hell, and that’s repugnancy;^[59]
When vice turns virtue, then ’tis you shall have
A share of that which makes most females brave,
Which transmutations^[60] I am sure can’t be.                    685
So thou must lie in vast eternity
With prospect of thy endless misery
When woman, your imagined fiend, shall live [278] 
Blessed with the joys that Heav’n can always give.