The Farmers Reformation:
OR, a Pattern for all Bad Husbands to Amend their Lives.
When all is spent, there's no content,
but Sorrow will attend:
Before too late, renew thy State,
and learn thy Life to mend.
Tune of, the Ladyes of London.
This may be printed, R.P.
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I Have been such a bad Husband of late,
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that trouble and sorrow's ensuing
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Having consumed a worthy Estate,
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which almost has proved my Ruine.
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Now I resolve to alter my Life,
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that Comforts I may be possessing,
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And will be loving and kind to my Wife;
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there can be no greater a blessing.
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How like a sorrowful Man do I look;
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I troubled am out of measure;
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When I consider'd the courses I took,
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while I was consuming my treasure:
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Every Day I wasted my store,
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and call'd a good Husband a Miser;
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But I resolve I will do so no more,
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but leave off, and learn to be wiser.
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When to the Market I went with my Corn,
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as soon as I sold it, to Gaming:
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I spent more free than a Gentleman born;
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yet thought I wan't worthy of blaming.
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Some I would lend, to others I'de give,
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and they'd be as commonly craving:
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But I will do so no more while I live,
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I'll learn to be Thrifty and saving.
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I from the Ale-house to the Tavern wou'd rome,
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with those that wou'd call me their honey:
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All the long night I would seldom come home,
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as long as I had any Money,
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While my poor Wife shed many a Tear,
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to see how I dayly did use her:
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But I will now be more kind to my Dear,
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and never no more will abuse her.
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By this my Gaming I soon made a hand
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of what my old Father did leave me,
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As being forced to Morgage my Land;
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this did of all Comfort bereave me:
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So that I then was near to despair,
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and gave myself to melancholly:
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But at length I resolv'd to take care,
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now, now, I have seen my own folly.
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While to that ruinous rate I did run,
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I seldom or never repented,
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Till I perceived that I was undone,
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and then I was griev[']d and lamented;
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Yet I resolv[']d this course I would take,
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for the future time that's ensuing,
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All my bay Company I would forsake;
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I found they had proved my Ruine.
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My Goods and Comforts doth daily increas[e]
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by Labour I this have obtained,
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And my kind Wife has the blessing of pea[ce]
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since Company I have refrained:
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Yet my old Cronys flout me each day,
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and count me no more than a Miser;
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Yet Ill not value whatever they say,
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I mean to grow older and wiser,
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E'ry bad Husband take warning by this,
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and count it not as a dead Letter:
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Though by your Folly you have done amiss,
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never too late to grow better:
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If thou hast got a loving kind wife,
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then, then, thou hast reason to prize her
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Ay and to Love her as dear as thy Life,
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and always grow older and wiser.
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