ault, and he hath no reason to complain,
'tis _quid pro quo_, she is bad, he is worse: [6183]"Bethink thyself, hast
thou not done as much for some of thy neighbours? why dost thou require
that of thy wife, which thou wilt not perform thyself?" Thou rangest like a
town bull, [6184]"why art thou so incensed if she tread, awry?"

[6185] "Be it that some woman break chaste wedlock's laws,
And leaves her husband and becomes unchaste:
Yet commonly it is not without cause,
She sees her man in sin her goods to waste,
She feels that he his love from her withdraws,
And hath on some perhaps less worthy placed.
Who strike with sword, the scabbard them may strike,
And sure love craveth love, like asketh like."

_Ea semper studebit_, saith [6186]Nevisanus, _pares reddere vices_, she
will quit it if she can. And therefore, as well adviseth Siracides, _cap.
ix. 1._ "teach her not an evil lesson against thyself," which as Jansenius,
Lyranus, on his text, and Carthusianus interpret, is no otherwise to be
understood than that she do thee not a mischief. I do not excuse her in
accusing thee; but if both be naught, mend thyself first; for as the old
saying is, a good husband makes a good wife.

Yea but thou repliest, 'tis not the like reason betwixt man and woman,
through her fault my children are bastards, I may not endure it; [6187]_Sit
amarulenta, sit imperiosa prodiga_, &c. Let her scold, brawl, and spend, I
care not, _modo sit casta_, so she be honest, I could easily bear it; but
this I cannot, I may not, I will not; "my faith, my fame, mine eye must not
be touched," as the diverb is, _Non patitur tactum fama, fides, oculus._ I
say the same of my wife, touch all, use all, take all but this. I
acknowledge that of Seneca to be true, _Nullius boni jucunda possessio sine
socio_, there is no sweet content in the possession of any good thing
without a companion, this only excepted, I say, "This." And why this? Even
this which thou so much abhorrest, it may be for thy progeny's good, [6188]
better be any man's son than thine, to be begot of base Irus, poor Seius,
or mean Mevius, the town swineherd's, a shepherd's son: and well is he,
that like Hercules he hath any two fathers; for thou thyself hast
peradventure more diseases than a horse, more infirmities of body and mind,
a cankered soul, crabbed conditions, make the worst of it, as it is _vulnus
insanabile, sic vulnus insensibile_, a