owdy, deformed slut to his
wife, and finding her in bed with another man, cried out as one amazed; _O
miser! quae te necessitas huc adegit_? O thou wretch, what necessity
brought thee hither? as well he might; for who can affect such a one? But
this is warily to be understood, most offend in another extreme, they
prefer wealth before beauty, and so she be rich, they care not how she
look; but these are all out as faulty as the rest. _Attendenda uxoris
forma_, as [6268]Salisburiensis adviseth, _ne si alteram aspexeris, mox eam
sordere putes_, as the Knight in Chaucer, that was married to an old woman,

_And all day after hid him as an owl,
So woe was his wife looked so foul_.

Have a care of thy wife's complexion, lest whilst thou seest another, thou
loathest her, she prove jealous, thou naught,

[6269] "Si tibi deformis conjux, si serva venusta,
Ne utaris serva,"------

I can perhaps give instance. _Molestum est possidere, quod nemo habere
dignetur_, a misery to possess that which no man likes: on the other side,
_Difficile custoditur quod plures amant._ And as the bragging soldier
vaunted in the comedy, _nimia est miseria pulchrum esse hominem nimis._
Scipio did never so hardly besiege Carthage, as these young gallants will
beset thine house, one with wit or person, another with wealth, &c. If she
he fair, saith Guazzo, she will be suspected howsoever. Both extremes are
naught, _Pulchra cito adamatur, foeda facile concupiscit_, the one is soon
beloved, the other loves: one is hardly kept, because proud and arrogant,
the other not worth keeping; what is to be done in this case? Ennius in
Menelippe adviseth thee as a friend to take _statam formam, si vis habere
incolumem pudicitiam_, one of a middle size, neither too fair nor too foul,
[6270]_Nec formosa magis quam mihi casta placet_, with old Cato, though fit
let her beauty be, _neque lectissima, neque illiberalis_, between both.
This I approve; but of the other two I resolve with Salisburiensis,
_caeteris paribus_, both rich alike, endowed alike, _majori miseria
deformis habetur quam formosa servatur_, I had rather marry a fair one, and
put it to the hazard, than be troubled with a blowze; but do as thou wilt,
I speak only of myself.

Howsoever, _quod iterum maneo_, I would advise thee thus much, be she fair
or foul, to choose a wife out of a good kindred, parentage, well brought
up, in an honest place.

[6271] "Primum animo tibi proponas q