My trade doth euery thing to euery land supply,
Discouer unknowne coasts, strange Countries to ally;
I neuer did forestall, I neuer did ingrosse,
No custome did withdraw, though I return'd with losse.
I thriue by faire exchange, by selling and by buying,
And not by Jewish vse,[140] reprisall, fraud, or lying.
VII. The Country Gentleman.
Though strange outlādish spirits praise towns, and country scorn,
The country is my home, I dwel where I was born:
There profit and command with pleasure I pertake,
Yet do not Haukes and dogs, my sole companions make.
I rule, but not oppresse, end quarrels, not maintaine;
See towns, but dwel not there, t'abridge my charg or train.
VIII. The Bacheler.
How many things as yet are deere alike to me,
The field, the horse, the dog, loue, armes or liberty.
I haue no wife as yet, whom I may call mine owne,
I haue no children yet, that by my name are knowne.
Yet if I married were, I would not wish to thriue,
If that I could not tame the veriest shrew aliue.
IX. The Married Man.
I only am the man, among all married men,
That do not wish the Priest, to be unlinckt agen.
And thogh my shoo did wring,[141] I wold not make my mone,
Nor think my neighbors chance, more happy then mine own,
Yet court I not my wife, but yeeld obseruance due,
Being neither fond[142] nor crosse, nor iealous, nor vntrue.
X. The Wife.
The first of all our Sex came from the side of man,
I thither am return'd, from whence our Sex began;
I doe not visite oft, nor many, when I doe,
I tell my mind to few, and that in counsell too:
I seeme not sick in health, nor sullen but in sorrow,
I care for somewhat else of, then what to weare to morrow.