Seldome comes the better:OR,
An admonition to all sorts of people, as Husbands, Wives, Masters, and Ser-
vants, etc. to avoid mutability, and to fix their minds on what they possesse.
To the tune of the He-Devill.
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YOu men that are well wived,
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and yet doe raile on Fate,
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As though you were deprived
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thereby of happy state:Learne well to be contented
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with a good wife, if you get her,
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For often when the old wifes dead,
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seldome comes the better.
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I once had a wife,
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O would to God she had lived,
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For while the Lord lent me her life,
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indifferent well I thrived;
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Yet cause that she would chide at me,
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I wisht that death would fet her,
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But since I have got a worse then shee,
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for seldome comes the better.
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She would tell me for my good,
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that I must leave my vice,
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But I not rightly understood
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her counsell of high price;
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Full glad was I when she was dead,
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so much at nought I set her,
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But since I have got a worse in her stead,
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for seldome comes the better.
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I now have one thats not content
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with any thing I doe;
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The others tongue did me torment,
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this scolds and beates me too.
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I thought when I was rid of one,
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that Fortune was my debtor:But now I see when one wifes gone,
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that seldome comes the better.
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That wife would onely me reproove,
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for wasting of my store;
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But this, as well as I doth love
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the good Ale pot, and more,
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Shel sit at the Alehouse all the day,
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and if the house will let her,
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Sheel run on the score, and I must pay;
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thus seldome comes the better.
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The other was a huswife good,
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when she a penny spent,
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It went from her like drops of bloud,
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to th Alehouse she nere went,
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Unlesse it were to fetch home me,
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for which at nought I set her,
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But this wife is quite contrary,
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for seldome comes the better.
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And if I doe rebuke her as
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a Husband ought and will,
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Shel call me Rogue and Rascall base,
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her tongue will nere lye still;
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Nay much a doe I have to shun
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her blowes if much I fret her;
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The other quickly would have done: thus seldome comes the better.
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The Second part, To the same tune.
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WHen I consider well of this,
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it sore doth vexe my minde;
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O then I thinke what tis to misse
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a wife thats true and kinde.
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Theres many men like me that have
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good Wives, yet wish for neater,
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And faine would send the old to th grave,
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in hope they shall have better.
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But that doth seldome come to passe,
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though many hope it will:Therefore let him that has a good Lasse,
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desire to keepe her still:Nay, though she hath some small defect,
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to chide when he doth fret her,
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Yet let him not her love neglect,
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for seldome comes the better.
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Some thinke that were their old Wives dead,
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such are their fickle mindes
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They should get richer in their steads,
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but few or none that findes
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Their expectation answered.
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suppose the portions greater,
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Yet he may say as I have sed,
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that seldome comes the better.
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Thers many Lads, and Lasses young,
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that in good service light,
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And yet they thinke that they have wrong
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to serve their time out quite,
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They love to shift from place to place,
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to th little from the greater,
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Till at last they say in wofull case,
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faith, seldome comes the better.
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Change of pasture makes fat Calves,
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this is a proverbe usd,
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Which fore another like it salves,
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and helpes the first abusd,
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A roling stone nere gathers mosse: so hee that is a flitter
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From house to house, shall find with losse,
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that seldome comes the better.
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Likewise some men and women both,
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when they have Servants true,
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To keepe them over-long thare loth,
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but still they wish for new;
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And having put the old away,
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they take some farre unfitter,
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Which being tride, at last they say
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faith, seldome comes the better.
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And he that hath a perfect Friend,
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let him retaine his love,
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Lest losing th old, the new ith end
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a faigned frend doe proove:And so it happens many times,
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as some can tell that yet are
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Alive, and doe lament their crimes,
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with seldome comes the better.
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Therefore let all both Men and Wives.
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Servants and Masters all,
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Thinke on this Proverbe all their lives,
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the use ont is not small;
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If you are well, your selves so keepe,
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and strive not to be greater;
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Be sure to looke before you leape,
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for seldome comes the better.
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