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John Dryden - Epilogue to Henry II.
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Thus you the sad catastrophe have seen, 
Occasioned by a mistress and a queen. 
Queen Eleanor the proud was French, they say; 
But English manufacture got the day. 
Jane Clifford was her name, as books aver; 
Fair Rosamond was but her nom de guerre. 
Now tell me, gallants, would you lead your life 
With such a mistress, or with such a wife? 
If one must be your choice, which d` ye approve, 
The curtain lecture, or the curtain love? 
Would ye be godly with perpetual strife, 
Still drudging on with homely Joan, your wife, 
Or take your pleasure in a wicked way, 
Like honest whoring Harry in the play? 
I guess your minds; the mistress would be taking, 
And nauseous matrimony sent a packing. 
The devil`s in you all; mankind`s a rogue; 
You love the bride, but you detest the clog. 
After a year, poor spouse is left i` the lurch, 
And you, like Haynes, return to mother-church. 
Or, if the name of church comes cross your mind, 
Chapels-of-ease behind our scenes you find. 
The playhouse is a kind of market-place; 
One chaffers for a voice, another for a face; 
Nay, some of you,—I dare not say how many,— 
Would buy of me a pen`worth for your penny. 
E`en this poor face, which with my fan I hide, 
Would make a shift my portion to provide, 
With some small perquisites I have beside. 
Though for your love, perhaps, I should not care, 
I could not hate a man that bids me fair. 
What might ensue, `tis hard for me to tell; 
But I was drenched to-day for loving well, 
And fear the poison that would make me swell.
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