east
for such a man to marry,--_qui Venerem affectat sine viribus_, "that is now
past those venerous exercises," "as a gelded man lies with a virgin and
sighs," Ecclus. xxx. 20, and now complains with him in Petronius, _funerata
est haec pars jam, quad fuit olim Achillea_, he is quite done,

[6247] "Vixit puellae nuper idoneus,
Et militavit non sine gloria."

But the question is whether he may delight himself as those Priapeian
popes, which, in their decrepit age, lay commonly between two wenches every
night, _contactu formosarum, et contrectatione, num adhuc gaudeat_; and as
many doting sires do to their own shame, their children's undoing, and
their families' confusion: he abhors it, _tanquam ab agresti et furioso
domino fugiendum_, it must be avoided as a bedlam master, and not obeyed.

[6248] "Alecto------
Ipsa faces praefert nubentibus, et malus Hymen
Triste ululat,"------

the devil himself makes such matches. [6249]Levinus Lemnius reckons up
three things which generally disturb the peace of marriage: the first is
when they marry intempestive or unseasonably, "as many mortal men marry
precipitately and inconsiderately, when they are effete and old: the second
when they marry unequally for fortunes and birth: the third, when a sick
impotent person weds one that is sound, _novae nuptae spes frustratur_:
many dislikes instantly follow." Many doting dizzards, it may not be
denied, as Plutarch confesseth, [6250]"recreate themselves with such
obsolete, unseasonable and filthy remedies" (so he calls them), "with a
remembrance of their former pleasures, against nature they stir up their
dead flesh:" but an old lecher is abominable; _mulier tertio nubens_,
[6251]Nevisanus holds, _praesumitur lubrica, et inconstans_, a woman that
marries a third time may be presumed to be no honester than she should. Of
them both, thus Ambrose concludes in his comment upon Luke, [6252]"they
that are coupled together, not to get children, but to satisfy their lust,
are not husbands, but fornicators," with whom St. Austin consents:
matrimony without hope of children, _non matrimonium, sed concubium dici
debet_, is not a wedding but a jumbling or coupling together. In a word
(except they wed for mutual society, help and comfort one of another, in
which respects, though [6253]Tiberius deny it, without question old folks
may well marry) for sometimes a man hath most need of a wife, according to
Puccius, when he hath n