Classic Poem

BETWIXT A WIFE, A WIDOW, AND A MAID . WIFE .

Widow, well met; whither go you today?
Will you not to this solemn offering go?
You know it is Astrea's holy day,
The saint to whom all hearts devotion owe. WIDOW .

Marry, what else? I purposed so to do:
Do you not mark how all the wives are fine,
And how they have sent presents ready too,
To make their offering at Astrea's shrine?

See, then, the shrine and tapers burning bright!
Come, friend, and let us first ourselves advance;
We know our place, and if we have our right,
To all the parish we must lead the dance.

But soft! what means this bold presumptuous Maid,
To go before, without respect of us?
Your forwardness, proud maid! must now be staid:
Where learned you to neglect your betters thus? MAID .

Elder you are, but not my betters here:
This place to maids a privilege must give;
The Goddess, being a maid, holds maidens dear,
And grants to them her own prerogative.

Besides, on all true virgins, at their birth,
Nature hath set a crown of excellence,
That all the wives and widows of the earth
Should give them place, and do them reverence. WIFE .

If to be born a maid be such a grace,
So was I born, and graced by Nature too;
But seeking more perfection to embrace,
I did become a wife as others do. WIDOW .

And if the maid and wife such honour have,
I have been both, and hold a third degree;
Most maids are wards, and every wife a slave;
I have my livery sued, and I am free. MAID .

That is the fault, that you have maidens been,
And were not constant to continue so;
The fall of Angels did increase their sin,
In that they did so pure a state forego.

But, Wife and Widow, if your wits can make
Your state and persons of more worth than mine,
Advantage to this place I will not take;
I will both place and privilege resign. WIFE .

Why marriage is an honourable state! WIDOW .
And widowhood is a reverend degree! MAID .
But maidenhead, that will admit no mate,
Like majesty itself must sacred be. WIFE .

The wife is mistress of her family: WIDOW .
Much more the widow, for she rules alone: MAID .
But mistress of mine own desires am I,
When you rule others' wills, and not your own. WIFE .

Only the wife enjoys the virtuous pleasure: WIDOW .
The widow can abstain from pleasures known; MAID .
But th' uncorrupted maid observes such measure,
As being by pleasures woo'd she cares for none. WIFE .

The wife is like a fair supported vine; WIDOW .
So was the widow, but now stands alone;
For being grown strong, she needs not to incline. MAID .
Maids, like the earth, supported are of none. WIFE .

The wife is as a diamond richly set; MAID .
The maid unset doth yet more rich appear; WIDOW .
The widow a jewel in the cabinet,
Which though not worn, is still esteemed as dear. WIFE .

The wife doth love, and is beloved again; WIDOW .
The widow is awaked out of that dream; MAID .
The maid's white mind had never such a stain;
No passion troubles her clear virtues' stream.

Yet if I would be loved, loved would I be,
Like her whose virtue in the bay is seen:
Love to wife fadeth with satiety,
Where love never enjoyed is ever green. WIDOW .

Then what's a virgin but a fruitless bay? MAID .
And what's a widow but a roseless brier?
And what are wives, but woodbinds which decay
The stately oaks by which themselves aspire?

And what is marriage but a tedious yoke? WIDOW .
And what virginity but sweet self-love? WIFE .
And what's a widow but an axle broke,
Whose one part failing, neither part can move? WIDOW .

Wives are as birds in golden cages kept; WIFE .
Yet in those cages cheerfully they sing: WIDOW .
Widows are birds out of those cages leapt,
Whose joyful notes makes all the forest ring. MAID .

But maids are birds amidst the woods secure,
Which never hand could touch, nor net could take;
Nor whistle could deceive, nor bait allure,
But free unto themselves do music make. WIFE .

The wife is as the turtle with her mate; WIDOW .
The widow as the widow dove alone,
Whose truth shines most in her forsaken state; MAID .
The maid a PhÅ?nix, and is still but one. WIFE .

The wife's a soul unto her body tied; WIDOW .
The widow a soul departed into bliss; MAID .
The maid an Angel which was stellified,
And now t' as fair a house descended is. WIFE .

Wives are fair houses kept and furnished well; WIDOW .
Widows old castles void, but full of state: MAID .
But maids are temples, where the Gods do dwell,
To whom alone themselves they dedicate.

But marriage is a prison during life,
Where one way out, but many entries be: WIFE .
The Nun is kept in cloister, not the wife,
Wedlock alone doth make the virgin free. MAID .

The maid is ever fresh, like morn in May; WIFE .
The wife with all her beams is beautified,
Like to high noon, the glory of the day; WIDOW .
The widow, like a mild sweet eventide. WIFE .

An office well supplied is like the wife; WIDOW .
The widow, like a gainful office void; MAID .
But maids are like contentment in this life,
Which all the world have sought, but none enjoy'd.

Go, wife, to Dunmow, and demand your flitch. WIDOW .
Go, gentle maid, go, lead the apes in hell. WIFE .
Go, widow, make some younger brother rich,
And then take thought and die, and all is well.

Alas, poor maid! that hast no help nor stay. WIDOW .
Alas, poor wife! that nothing dost possess. MAID .
Alas, poor widow! Charity doth say,
Pity the widow and the fatherless. WIDOW .

But happy widows have the world at will. WIFE .
But happier wives, whose joys are ever double. MAID .
But happiest maids, whose hearts are calm and still;
Whom fear, nor hope, nor love, nor hate doth trouble. WIFE .

Every true wife hath an indented heart,
Wherein the covenants of love are writ;
Whereof her husband keeps the counterpart,
And reads his comforts and his joys in it. WIDOW .

But every widow's heart is like a book,
Where her joys past imprinted do remain;
But when her judgment's eye therein doth look,
She doth not wish they were to come again. MAID .

But the maid's heart a fair white table is,
Spotless and pure, where no impressions be,
But the immortal characters of bliss,
Which only God doth write, and Angels see. WIFE .

But wives have children: what a joy is this! WIDOW .
Widows have children too; but maids have none. MAID .
No more have Angels; yet they have more bliss
Than ever yet to mortal man was known. WIFE .

The wife is like a fair manured field; WIDOW .
The widow once was such, but now doth rest; MAID .
The maid, like Paradise, undrest, untilled,
Bears crops of native virtue in her breast. WIFE .

Who would not die a wife, as Lucrece died? WIDOW .
Or live a widow, as Penelope? MAID .
Or be a maid, and so be stellified,
As all the virtues and the graces be? WIFE .

Wives are warm climates well inhabited;
But maids are frozen zones, where none may dwell. MAID .
But fairest people in the North are bred;
Where Africa breeds monsters black as hell. WIFE .

I have my husband's honour and his place: WIDOW .
My husband's fortunes all survive to me. MAID .
The moon doth borrow light; you borrow grace:
When maids by their own virtues graced be.

White is my colour; and no hue but this
It will receive, no tincture can it stain. WIFE .
My white hath took one colour; but it is
An honourable purple dyed in grain. WIDOW .

But it hath been my fortune to renew
My colour twice from that it was before;
But now my black will take no other hue,
And therefore now I mean to change no more. WIFE .

Wives are fair apples served in golden dishes; WIDOW .
Widows good wine, which time makes better much; MAID .
But maids are grapes desired by many wishes,
But that they grow so high as none can touch. WIFE .

I have a daughter equals you, my girl. MAID .
The daughter doth excel the mother, then,
As pearls are better than the mother of pearl;
Maids lose their value when they match with men. WIDOW .

The man with whom I matched, his worth was such,
As now I scorn a maid should be my peer: MAID .
But I will scorn the man you praise so much,
For maids are matchless, and no mate can bear.

Hence is it that the virgin never loves,
Because her like she finds not any where;
For likeness evermore affection moves;
Therefore the maid hath neither love nor peer. WIFE .

Yet many virgins married wives would be, WIDOW .
And many a wife would be a widow fain. MAID .
There is no widow but desires to see,
If so she might, her maiden days again. WIDOW .

There never was a wife that liked her lot: WIFE .
Nor widow, but was clad in mourning weeds. MAID .
Do what you will, marry or marry not,
Both this estate and that repentance breeds. WIFE .

But she that this estate and that hath seen,
Doth find great odds between the wife and girl. MAID .
Indeed she doth, as much as is between
The melting hailstone, and the solid pearl. WIFE .

If I were widow, my merry days were past. WIDOW .
Nay, then you first become sweet pleasure's guest;
For maidenhead is a continual fast,
And marriage is a continual feast. MAID .

Wedlock indeed hath oft compared been
To public feasts, where meet a public rout,
Where they that are without would fain go in,
And they that are within would fain go out.

Or to the jewel which this virtue had,
That men were mad till they might it obtain;
But when they had it, they were twice as mad
Till they were dispossessed of it again. WIFE .

Maids cannot judge, because they cannot tell,
What comforts and what joys in marriage be. MAID .
Yes, yes; though blessed Saints in Heaven dwell,
They do the souls in Purgatory see. WIDOW .

If every wife do live in Purgatory,
Then sure it is that widows live in bliss,
And are translated to a state of glory;
But maids as yet have not attained to this. MAID .

Not maids? To spotless maids this gift is given,
To live in incorruption from their birth:
And what is that, but to inherit heaven
Even while they dwell upon the spotted earth?

The perfectest of all created things;
The purest gold, that suffers no allay;
The sweetest flower that on th' earth's bosom springs;
The pearl unbored, whose price no price can pay.

The crystal glass, that will no venom hold;
The mirror, wherein Angels love to took:
Diana's bathing fountain, clear and cold;
Beauty's fresh rose, and virtue's living book.

Of love and fortune both the mistress born;
The sovereign spirit that will be thrall to none:
The spotless garment that was never worn;
The princely eagle that still flies alone.

She sees the world, yet her clear thought doth take
No such deep print as to be changed thereby;
As when we see the burning fire doth make
No such impression as doth burn the eye. WIFE .

No more, sweet maid; our strife is at an end,
Cease now; I fear we shall transformed be
To chattering pies, as they that did contend
To match the Muses in their harmony. WIDOW .

Then let us yield the honour and the place,
And let us both be suitors to the maid;
That, since the goddess gives her special grace,
By her clear hands the offering be conveyed. MAID .

Your speech I doubt hath some displeasure moved;
Yet let me have the offering, I will see:
I know she hath both wives and widows loved,
Though she would neither wife nor widow be.