o need of a wife; otherwise it is most odious, when
an old Acherontic dizzard, that hath one foot in his grave, _a
silicernium_, shall flicker after a young wench that is blithe and bonny,

[6254] ------"salaciorque
Verno passere, et albulis columbis."

What can be more detestable?

[6255] "Tu cano capite amas senex nequissime
Jam plenus aetatis, animaque foetida,
Senex hircosus tu osculare mulierem?
Utine adiens vomitum potius excuties."

"Thou old goat, hoary lecher, naughty man,
With stinking breath, art thou in love?
Must thou be slavering? she spews to see
Thy filthy face, it doth so move."

Yet, as some will, it is much more tolerable for an old man to marry a
young woman (our ladies' match they call it) for _cras erit mulier_, as he
said in Tully. Cato the Roman, Critobulus in [6256]Xenophon,
[6257]Tiraquellus of late, Julius Scaliger, &c., and many famous precedents
we have in that kind; but not _e contra_: 'tis not held fit for an ancient
woman to match with a young man. For as Varro will, _Anus dum ludit morti
delitias facit_, 'tis Charon's match between [6258]Cascus and Casca, and
the devil himself is surely well pleased with it. And, therefore, as the
[6259]poet inveighs, thou old Vetustina bedridden quean, that art now skin
and bones,

"Cui tres capilli, quatuorque sunt dentes,
Pectus cicadae, crusculumque formicae,
Rugosiorem quae geris stola frontem,
Et arenaram cassibus pares mammas."

"That hast three hairs, four teeth, a breast
Like grasshopper, an emmet's crest,
A skin more rugged than thy coat,
And drugs like spider's web to boot."

Must thou marry a youth again? And yet _ducentas ire nuptum post mortes
amant_: howsoever it is, as [6260]Apuleius gives out of his Meroe,
_congressus annosus, pestilens, abhorrendus_, a pestilent match,
abominable, and not to be endured. In such case how can they otherwise
choose but be jealous, how should they agree one with another? This
inequality is not in years only, but in birth, fortunes, conditions, and
all good [6261]qualities, _si qua voles apte nubere, nube pari_, 'tis my
counsel, saith Anthony Guiverra, to choose such a one. _Civis Civem ducat,
Nobilis Nobilem_, let a citizen match with a citizen, a gentleman with a
gentlewoman; he that observes not this precept (saith he) _non generum sed
malum Genium, non nurum sed Furia