The Pain and Sorrow of Evil Marriage

Printed by Wynkyn de Worde.

LONDON: REPRINTED FOR THE PERCY SOCIETY, BY C. RICHARDS, ST. MARTIN'S LANE. MDCCCXL.

COUNCIL OF The Percy Society.

J. A. CAHUSAC, ESQ. F.S.A. WILLIAM CHAPPELL, ESQ. F.S.A. JOHN PAYNE COLLIER, ESQ. F.S.A. T. CROFTON CROKER, ESQ. F.S.A. REV. ALEXANDER DYCE. RICHARD HALLIWELL, ESQ. F.S.A. JAMES ORCHARD HALLIWELL, ESQ. F.R.S. Treasurer WILLIAM JERDAN, ESQ. F.S.A. SAMUEL LOVER, ESQ. CHARLES MACKAY, ESQ. E. F. RIMBAULT, ESQ. Secretary. THOMAS WRIGHT, ESQ. M.A. F.S.A.

INTRODUCTION.

There are three early humorous tracts in verse upon the subject of marriage, all printed by Wynkyn de Worde: only one of them has a date, 1535, but we can have little difficulty in assigning the two others to about the same period. They have the following titles.

1. "A complaynt of them that be to soone maryed."

2. "Here begynneth the complaynte of them that ben to late maryed."

3. "The payne and sorowe of evyll maryage."

The last we have printed entire in the following pages, and of the two others, Dr. Dibdin has inserted a brief account in his edition of Ames (Typ. Ant. II. 384). We propose to go more at large into a description of the contents of these ancient and facetious relics.

We have reason to believe that the two first are translations; and in default of English expressions, especially in the second piece, the writer has employed, and sometimes anglicised, several of the French words, which he thought better adapted to his purpose. To this production, "the Auctour," as he calls himself, has subjoined a sort of epilogue, which ingeniously includes the printer's colophon, as follows:

"Here endeth the complaynt of to late maryed, For spendynge of tyme or they a borde The sayd holy sacramente have to longe taryed, Humane nature tassemble and it to accorde. Enprynted in Fletestrete by Wynkyn de Worde, Dwellynge in the famous cyte of London, His hous in the same at the sygne of the Sonne."

At the conclusion of the "complaynt of them that be to soone maryed," the date of 1535 has also been interwoven. Wynkyn de Worde's will was proved the 19th January, 1534, which, according to our present mode of computing the year, would be the 19th January, 1535; so that either this piece came out after his death, or it was printed just before that event, and in anticipation of the new year, which would not then commence until the 26th March.

Each of the tracts has a wood-cut on the titlepage, but only that called "The payne and sorowe of evyll maryage," can be said to have anything to do with the subject, and that no doubt had been used for other works: it represents a marriage ceremony,--a priest joining the hands of a couple before the altar.

The "complaynt of them that be to soone maryed" opens with the following stanza:

"For as moche as many folke there be That desyre the sacrament of weddynge, Other wyll kepe them in vyrgyny[t]e, And toyll in chastyte be lyvynge; Therfore I wyll put now in wrytynge In what sorowe these men lede theyr lyves, That to soone be coupled to cursed Wyves."

Thence the author proceeds to give some very sage and serious advice upon the evil of too hasty matrimonial alliances, but he does not attempt much humour until he comes to describe the conduct of his wife (for he writes in the first person throughout) when they had been married eight days: until then he had not been "chydden ne banged," but he suffered for it bitterly afterwards;

"But soone ynoughe I had assayes Of sorowe and care that made me bare."

It may here be observed that the stanza is peculiar, and consists of eight lines, the four first lines rhyming alternately, the fifth rhyming with the fourth, then a line with a new rhyme, while the seventh line rhymes with the third and fourth, and the eighth with the sixth. He continues the narrative of his sufferings in the following manner:

"About eyght dayes, or soone after Our maryage, the tyme for to passe My wyfe I toke, and dyd set her Upon my knee for to solace; And began her for to enbrace, Sayenge, syster, go get the tyme loste; We must thynke to labour a pace To recompence that it hathe us coste.

"Than for to despyte she up arose, And drewe her faste behynde me, To me sayenge, is this the glose? Alas, pore caytyfe, well I se That I never shall have, quod she, With you more than payne and tormente: I am in an evyll degre; I have now loste my sacramente.

"For me be to longe with you here, Alas, I ought well for to thynke What we sholde do within ten yere, Whan we shall have at our herte brynke Many chyldren on for to thynke, And crye after us without fayle For theyr meate and theyr drynke; Then shall it be no mervayle.

"Cursed be the houre that I ne was Made a none in some cloyster, Never there for to passe; Or had be made some syster, In servage with a clousterer. It is not eyght dayes sythe oure weddynge That we two togyther weere: By god, ye speke to soone of werkynge."

The second piece of ancient facetiæ, "the complaynte of them that ben to late maryed," is written with much more humour, and is far better worth preservation, but it is disfigured by indelicacy, though not of the grossest kind, and never introduced but for the sake of heightening the drollery. It is the lamentation of an elderly gentleman, who after a youth of riot had married a young frolicksome wife, and he relates very feelingly the inconveniences, annoyances, and jealousies to which he is thereby exposed. After two introductory stanzas, (all of them are in the ordinary seven-line ballad form) he thus states his resolution late in life to commit the folly of matrimony.

"To longe have I lyved without ony make; All to longe have I used my yonge age: I wyll all for go and a wyfe to me take For to increase both our twoos lynage; For saynt John sayth that he is sage That ayenst his wyll doth him governe, And our lordes precepte hym selfe for to learne

"There is no greter pleasure than for to have A wyfe that is full of prudence and wysdome. Alas, for love nygh I am in poynte to rave. These cursed olde men have an yll custome Women for to blame, both all and some; For that they can not theyr myndes full fyll, Therfore they speke of them but all yll.

"Now, syth that I have my tyme used For to follow my folyshe pleasaunces, And have my selfe oftentimes sore abused At plaies and sportes, pompes and daunces, Spendynge golde and sylver and grete fynaunces, For faut of a wyfe the cause is all: To late maryed men may me call."

Hence he proceeds to narrate his early courses, especially his amours with "mercenary beauties." He says:--

"Yf I withhelde ony praty one, Swetely ynough she made me chere, Sayenge that she loved no persone But me, and therto she dyde swere. But whan I wente fro that place there, Unto another she dyde as moche; For they love none but for theyr poche."

His male companions were about upon a par with his female, and upon both he wasted his substance; but having at last married, he imagined that he had only to enjoy tranquillity and happiness, and exclaimed:--

"Now am I out of this daunger so alenge, Wherfore I am gladde it for to persever. Longe about have I ben me for to renge; But it is better to late than to be never. Certes I was not in my lyfe tyll hyther So full of joye, that doth in my herte inspyre: Wedded folke have tyme at theyr desyre."

On trying the experiment, he by no means finds it answer his expectation. Besides other evils, he says, "constrayned I am to be full of jalousy;" and he admits in plain terms that his young wife has no great reason to be satisfied with her old husband. He observes:--

"It is sayd that a man in servytude Hym putteth, whan he doth to woman bende: He ne hath but only habytude Unto her the whiche well doth hym tende. Who wyll to householde comprehende, And there a bout studyeth in youth alwayes, He shall have honoure in his olde dayes.

"Some chyldren unto the courtes hauntes, And ben purvayed of benefyces; Some haunteth markettes and be marchauntes, Byenge and sellynge theyr marchaundyses; Or elles constytuted in offyces. Theyr faders and moders have grete solace, That to late maryed by no waye hase.

"I be wayll the tyme that is so spent, That I ne me hasted for to wedde; For I shall have herytage and rente, Both golde and sylver and kynred; But syth that our lorde hath ordeyned That I this sacrament take me upon, I wyll kepe it trewely at all season."

In the subsequent stanza, which occurs soon afterwards, the author seems to allude to the first of the three tracts now under consideration.

"Yf that there be ony tryfelers, That have wylled for to blame maryage, I dare well saye that they ben but lyers, Or elles god fayled in the fyrste age: Adam bereth wytnesse and tesmonage: Maryed he was, and comen we ben. God dyde choyse maryage unto all men."

This stanza affords an instance of the employment of an anglicised French word because it happened to answer the translator's purpose as a rhyme to "age." His objection is not to marriage generally, but to marriage when a man has ceased to be the subject of amorous affection; for he says expressly,

"All they that by theyr subtyll artes Hath wylled for to blame maryage, I wyll susteyne that they be bastardes, Or at least wage an evyll courage, For to saye that therein is servage In maryage; but I it reny, For therin is but humayne company.

"Yf ther be yll women and rebell, Shrewed, dispytous, and eke felonyous, There be other fayre, and do full well, Propre, gentyll, lusty and joyous, That ben full of grace and vertuous; They ben not all born under a sygnet: Happy is he that a good one can get."