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.”