r all this we bachelors desire to be
married; with that vestal virgin, we long for it, [5764]_Felices nuptae!
moriar, nisi nubere dulce est_. 'Tis the sweetest thing in the world, I
would I had a wife saith he,

"For fain would I leave a single life,
If I could get me a good wife."

Heigh-ho for a husband, cries she, a bad husband, nay, the worst that ever
was is better than none: O blissful marriage, O most welcome marriage, and
happy are they that are so coupled: we do earnestly seek it, and are never
well till we have effected it. But with what fate? like those birds in the
[5765]Emblem, that fed about a cage, so long as they could fly away at
their pleasure liked well of it; but when they were taken and might not get
loose, though they had the same meat, pined away for sullenness, and would
not eat. So we commend marriage,

------"donec miselli liberi
Aspichmis dominam; sed postquam heu janua clausa est,
Fel intus est quod mel fuit:"

"So long as we are wooers, may kiss and coll at our pleasure, nothing is so
sweet, we are in heaven as we think; but when we are once tied, and have
lost our liberty, marriage is an hell," "give me my yellow hose again:" a
mouse in a trap lives as merrily, we are in a purgatory some of us, if not
hell itself. _Dulce bellum inexpertis_, as the proverb is, 'tis fine
talking of war, and marriage sweet in contemplation, till it be tried: and
then as wars are most dangerous, irksome, every minute at death's door, so
is, &c. When those wild Irish peers, saith [5766]Stanihurst, were feasted
by king Henry the Second, (at what time he kept his Christmas at Dublin)
and had tasted of his prince-like cheer, generous wines, dainty fare, had
seen his [5767]massy plate of silver, gold, enamelled, beset with jewels,
golden candlesticks, goodly rich hangings, brave furniture, heard his
trumpets sound, fifes, drums, and his exquisite music in all kinds: when
they had observed his majestical presence as he sat in purple robes,
crowned, with his sceptre, &c., in his royal seat, the poor men were so
amazed, enamoured, and taken with the object, that they were _pertaesi
domestici et pristini tyrotarchi_, as weary and ashamed of their own
sordidity and manner of life. They would all be English forthwith; who but
English! but when they had now submitted themselves, and lost their former
liberty, they began to rebel some of them, others repent of what they had
done, w