'Come, come,' said Tom's father, 'at your time of life,
There's no longer excuse for thus playing the rake--
It is time, you should think, boy, of taking a wife.'
'Why so it is, father, pray whose shall I take?'

THOMAS MOORE
1779-1852

  Responsibility

'Tis easy enough to be twenty-one:
'Tis easy enough to marry;
But when you try both games at once
'Tis a bloody big load to carry.

ANON

  A Slice of Wedding Cake

Why have such scores of lovely, gifted girls
  Married impossible men?
Simple self-sacrifice may be ruled out,
  And missionary endeavour, nine times out of ten.

Repeat 'impossible men': not merely rustic,
  Foul-tempered or depraved
(Dramatic foils chosen to show the world
  How well women behave, and always have behaved).

Impossible men: idle, illiterate,
  Self-pitying, dirty, sly,
For whose appearance even in City parks
  Excuses must be made to casual passers-by.

Has God's supply of tolerable husbands
  Fallen, in fact, so low?
Or do I always over-value woman
  At the expense of man?
                        Do I?
                             It might be so.

ROBERT GRAVES

  On Giles and Joan

Who says that Giles and Joan at discord be?
The observing neighbours no such mood can see.
Indeed, poor Giles repents he married ever.
But that his Joan doth too. And Giles would never,
By his free will, be in Joan's company.
No more would Joan he should. Giles riseth early,
And having got him out of doors is glad.
The like is Joan. But turning home, is sad.
And so is Joan. Oft-times, when Giles doth find
Harsh sights at home, Giles wisheth he were blind.
All this doth Joan. Or that his long-yarned life
Were quite out-spun. The like wish hath his wife.
The children, that he keeps, Giles swears are none
Of his begetting. And so swears his Joan.
In all affections she concurreth still.
If, now, with man and wife, to will, and nill
The selfsame things, a note of concord be:
I know no couple better can agree!

BEN JONSON
1572-1637

  Love and Marriage

Love and marriage, love and marriage,
They go together like a horse and carriage.
This I'll tell you brother,
You can't have one without the other.
      Love and marriage, love and marriage,
      It's an institute you can't disparage.
      Ask the local gentry,
      And they will say it's elementary.
Try, try, try to separate them,
It's an illusion.
Try, try, try and you will only come,
To this conclusion.
      Love and marriage, love and marriage,
      They go together like the horse and carriage.
      Dad was told by Mother,
      You can't have one, you can't have none,
      You can't have one without the other.
No Sir!

FRANK SINATRA

page © The Mock Turtle 1997-2007 (don't forget the lawyer cousins...)

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