r married first would be a grief to the elder,
he 'inclined his affection' towards her and made her his wife in place
of his first choice. The interpretation that when he saw the elder
sister, he preferred her before the other, might be probable to-day:
to apply it to the story of More would be a case of that commonest of
'vulgar errors' in history,--judging the past by the ideas of the
present. For five or six years More lived with his girl-bride, whose
country training and unformed mind caused much trouble and difficulty
to them both. The unequal relation between them appears in a story
told by Erasmus; that More delighted her once by bringing home a
present of sham jewels, and apparently did not think it necessary to
undeceive her about them. Happiness came in time; but after bearing
him four children, she died. Within a month the widower came to his
father-confessor by night and obtained leave to be married next
morning. His new wife was a middle-aged lady of no charms--indeed she
seems to have been a regular shrew--who served him as a capable
housekeeper and looked after his children while they were young. But
she never engaged his affections; and it was his eldest daughter,
Margaret, who became the chosen partner of his joys and sorrows in
later years.

The habitual remarriage of widows proceeded in part from the desire,
or even need, for a husband's protection; and in consequence it was
not only the young who were open to men's addresses. Beatus Rhenanus,
writing to a servant-pupil who had recently left him to launch forth
into the world, counsels him to marry, if possible, a rich and elderly
widow; in order that in a few years by her death he may find himself
equipped with an ample capital for his real start in life. Such advice
from a man like Beatus can only have been in jest: but if there had
not been some reality of actual practice, the jest would have fallen
flat. Indeed Beatus goes on to indicate that this course had been
taken by Reuchlin; whose elderly consort was, however, disobliging
enough to live for many years. The ill-success attending Oporinus'
essay in this direction we have already seen.

But it was not so with all. Not infrequently Erasmus deplores the
imprudence of the young men who had left his service, in allowing
themselves to fall in love and marry without securing proper dowries
with their young brides. He was indeed, considering his natural
shrewdness, singularly ignorant of women; as