fe is a name of honour, not of pleasure:
she is fit to bear the office, govern a family, to bring up children, sit
at a board's end and carve, as some carnal men think and say; they had
rather go to the stews, or have now and then a snatch as they can come by
it, borrow of their neighbours, than have wives of their own; except they
may, as some princes and great men do, keep as many courtesans as they will
themselves, fly out _impune_, [5776]_Permolere uxores alienas_, that
polygamy of Turks, Lex Julia, with Caesar once enforced in Rome, (though
Levinus Torrentius and others suspect it) _uti uxores quot et quas vellent
liceret_, that every great man might marry, and keep as many wives as he
would, or Irish divorcement were in use: but as it is, 'tis hard and gives
not that satisfaction to these carnal men, beastly men as too many are:
[5777]What still the same, to be tied [5778]to one, be she never so fair,
never so virtuous, is a thing they may not endure, to love one long. Say
thy pleasure, and counterfeit as thou wilt, as [5779]Parmeno told Thais,
_Neque tu uno eris contenta_, "one man will never please thee;" nor one
woman many men. But as [5780]Pan replied to his father Mercury, when he
asked whether he was married, _Nequaquam pater, amator enim sum_ &c. "No,
father, no, I am a lover still, and cannot be contented with one woman."
Pythias, Echo, Menades, and I know not how many besides, were his
mistresses, he might not abide marriage. _Varietas delectat_, 'tis
loathsome and tedious, what one still? which the satirist said of Iberina,
is verified in most,

[5781] "Unus Iberinae vir sufficit? ocyus illud
Extorquebis ut haec oculo contenta sit uno."

"'Tis not one man will serve her by her will,
As soon she'll have one eye as one man still."

As capable of any impression as _materia prima_ itself, that still desires
new forms, like the sea their affections ebb and flow. Husband is a cloak
for some to hide their villainy; once married she may fly out at her
pleasure, the name of husband is a sanctuary to make all good. _Eo ventum_
(saith Seneca) _ut nulla virum habeat, nisi ut irritet adulterum_. They are
right and straight, as true Trojans as mine host's daughter, that Spanish
wench in [5782]Ariosto, as good wives as Messalina. Many men are as
constant in their choice, and as good husbands as Nero himself, they must
have their pleasure of all they see, and are in a word far more fickle than
a