When Sir Albert Morton died, his wife's grief was such that she shortly followed him, and was laid by his side. Wotton's two lines on the event have been celebrated as containing a volume in seventeen words:
"He first deceased; she for a little tried
To live without him, liked it not, and died."
Certainly there are few higher tributes in the world to a good husband than this.
2027
The wife is the key of the house.
2028
A man's best fortune—or his worst—is a wife.
2029
WIFE.
A modest, chaste, and an obedient wife,
Lifts her poor husband to a knightly throne:
What though the livelong day with toils be rife,
The solace of his cares at night's his own.
If she be modest and her words be kind,
Mark not her beauty, or her want of grace;
The fairest woman, if deformed in mind
Will in thy heart's affections find no place:
Dazzling as Eden's beauties to the eye,
In outward form: foul is her face within.
Better in dungeon, bound with chains, to lie,
Than, with at home, a wife of frowning mien.
Better bare feet than pinching shoes. The woes
Of travel are less hard than broils at home.
Contentment's door upon that mansion close,
Whence wrangling women's high-pitched voices come.