Her words so tender and her dress so neat;
That would kind Jove, whence man all good derives,
In wondrous bounty send me three such wives,
Dear happy husband, take it on my word,
To Pluto I’d give two, to take the third.
Theodorus Beza
In age, youth, and manhood, three wives have I tried,
Whose qualities rare all my wants have supplied.
The first, goaded on by the ardour of youth,
I woo’d for the sake of her person, forsooth: