A Looking[-]glass for all Good-fellows; or, The Provident Wives
Directions to her Husband: To turn him to be a good Careful thrifty Man
to make much of his Wife and Children;
She strives with him the truth is so,
At last she brought him to her Bow;
Some Womens Counsel if Men take heed
God gives blessing with it indeed;
Therefore let Men be wise I say,
And loves their Wives and ne'r go astray.
The Tune of Digby, or Packingtons Pound, This may be Printed. R. P.
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Wife.
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ALass my dear Husband, what is your intent
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I am afraid that hereafter too late you'l repent
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That you spend your time now so idle in vain
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That I have great cause now dear Husband to complain
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You know it so well that I need not you tell,
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That my Heart with great sorrow is ready to swell:
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Which moves now my Patience my mind for to speak
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And to ease my mind least my Heart it should break.
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Husband.
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What ail's you good wife to make this noyse and a din
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It is not your brawling I care for a pin;
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Have you a pain in your tongue that it cannot lye still
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In keeping good Company I must have my will:
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For pinching and sparing, then let me alone,
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I must drink with good Fellows, 'tis very well known
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If you have maintainance and that which is fitting
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Sweet wife hold your babble & pray mind your knitting
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Wife.
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But Husband you hear not your Babes cry for bread
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If I had not took pains they might all have been dead
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While you wasted your mony & got drunk like a Sot,
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Your care it was all for the Pipe and the Pot.
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Dear Husband you hear not your poor Children sad moan
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Though I work my fingers away to the bone;
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Regard, then say, if you be an honest man
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For I can do no more then another woman can.
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Husband.
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Wife what if sometimes to the Ale-house I go
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The worst they can say I am but my own foe,
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No that is not so; you are a foe to us all
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When your Children wants victuals to look o'th bare walls
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Wife tho' I have done amiss, I am not the first,
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Although you do check me and take me at worst,
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Then prethee with patience speak no more of this,
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I am no the first, nor I shall be the last.
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Wife.
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Dear husband with grief I must tell you again,
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I speak it as plain as a good woman can.
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I'd have you to mind both your Children and Wife,
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And carry your self like a man all your life:
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Observe but your neighbours, how they do take pains
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And at every weeks end they do bring home the gains
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Like honest good husbands, love doth them bind,
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And to their Wives and Children do bear a good mind.
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Husband.
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My neighbours are not my example at all
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I can get a penny with the best of them all
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It is nothing to me what my neighbours they do
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I can spend and be merry and carefull also:
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It is not there Wealth nor the Riches they have
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Can make them live longer to keep them from grave
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We brought nothing with us when we came into th' World
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And nothing we shall carry when in the grave we are hurl'd.
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Wife.
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But husband these doings will move a flint stone,
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Yet say what you will, but it's best to me known:
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But I ever do find where my shoe doth me wring
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When this idle Courses no profit brings in,
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And so I am forced to take all the care,
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Or else I and our Children we hardly might fare
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For what you get your self is too little for one,
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You piss'd all o'th Wall, and came penniless home.
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Husband.
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I thought in this morning some storms would arise,
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When first you began for to open your eyes
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And how for to raise them I can find out the way
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But to lay them again it is hard I do say;
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Goodwife then be patient and quickly have done
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Or else i'le not stay but abroad i'le be gone,
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This noise does so mad me, I cannot abide
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Or else loving wife, you shall see my back side.
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Wife.
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I that's all the care that you take to provide
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You are a kind husband, or else your bely'd
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For few that are under your charge to maintain,
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But howevrr you conscience is large died in grain.
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Away to the Ale-house you here cannot stay
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I doubt you'l repent it, what I do say
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To drink and be mad, you do make speedy hast,
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Pray God turn your heart I do say at the last.
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Husband.
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I am glad now Good wife that you are at your prayers
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I hope we shall see now and end of our jars
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Pray God keep you long in that mind I do say
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Your Counsel is good and I will it obey,
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For I must confess I have been much to blame
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I cannot deny it I begin for to shame:
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But since I confess, I pray thee sweet Wife
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Content thy self now and i'le live a new life.
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Wife.
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Dear Husband, I lament your unkindness to me
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It were better indeed that you ruled woud be,
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And leave of this drinking and mind your own
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Or else you'l repent when all you have is gone.
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Dear husband my heart it was ready to break
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No Woman had never more cause for to speak:
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But consider my words and bear them in mind
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Hereafter be loving and not so unkind.
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Husband.
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I now am resolved to keep the right way
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Dear Wife I am sorry I have gone so astray
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But now for thy comfort all this I do tell
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It is [nev]er too late for to learn to do well;
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Tho' I have been foolish in spending my Coyn
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Then prethee dear Wife let us lovingly joyn;
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Then prethee dear heart come give me a kiss,
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Let strief and debate have a end now with this.
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