Welcome, thrice welcome, to thy native place!-- What, touch me not? what, shun a wife's embrace? Have I for this thy tedious absence borne, And waked, and wish'd whole nights for thy return? In five long years I took no second spouse; What Redriff wife so long hath kept her vows? Your eyes, your nose, inconstancy betray; Your nose you stop, your eyes you turn away. 'Tis said, that thou shouldst 'cleave unto thy wife;' Once thou didst cleave, and I could cleave for life. 10 Hear, and relent! hark how thy children moan! Be kind at least to these; they are thy own: Behold, and count them all; secure to find The honest number that you left behind. See how they pat thee with their pretty paws: Why start you? are they snakes? or have they claws? Thy Christian seed, our mutual flesh and bone: Be kind at least to these; they are thy own. Biddel,[88] like thee, might farthest India rove; He changed his country, but retain'd his love. 20 There's Captain Pannel,[89] absent half his life, Comes back, and is the kinder to his wife; Yet Pannel's wife is brown compared to me, And Mrs Biddel sure is fifty-three. Not touch me! never neighbour call'd me slut: Was Flimnap's dame more sweet in Lilliput? I've no red hair to breathe an odious fume; At least thy consort's cleaner than thy groom. Why then that dirty stable-boy thy care? What mean those visits to the sorrel mare? 30 Say, by what witchcraft, or what demon led, Preferr'st thou litter to the marriage-bed? Some say the devil himself is in that mare: If so, our Dean shall drive him forth by prayer. Some think you mad, some think you are possess'd, That Bedlam and clean straw will suit you best. Vain means, alas, this frenzy to appease! That straw, that straw, would heighten the disease. My bed (the scene of all our former joys, Witness two lovely girls, two lovely boys), 40 Alone I press: in dreams I call my dear, I stretch my hand; no Gulliver is there! I wake, I rise, and, shivering with the frost, Search all the house; my Gulliver is lost! Forth in the street I rush with frantic cries; The windows open, all the neighbours rise: 'Where sleeps my Gulliver? Oh tell me where!' The neighbours answer, 'With the sorrel mare!' At early morn I to the market haste 50 (Studious in everything to please thy taste); A curious fowl and 'sparagus I chose (For I remember'd you were fond of those); Three shillings cost the first, the last seven groats; Sullen you turn from both, and call for oats. Others bring goods and treasure to their houses, Something to deck their pretty babes and spouses: My only token was a cup-like horn, That's made of nothing but a lady's corn. 'Tis not for that I grieve; oh, 'tis to see The groom and sorrel mare preferr'd to me! 60