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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=431353" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Contract</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE husband's dire mishap, and silly maid,<br>In ev'ry age, have proved the fable's aid;<br>The fertile subject never will be dry:<br>'Tis inexhaustible, you may rely.<br>No man's exempt from evils such as these:--<br>Who thinks himself secure, but little sees.<br>One laughs at sly intrigues who, ere 'tis long,<br>May, in his turn, be sneered at by the throng:<br>With such vicissitudes, to be cast down,<br>Appears rank nonsense worthy Folly's crown.<br>He, whose adventures I'm about to write,<br>In his mischances,--found what gave delight.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A CERTAIN Citizen, with fortune large,<br>When settled with a handsome wife in charge,<br>Not long attended for the marriage fruit:<br>The lady soon put matters 'yond dispute;<br>Produced a girl at first, and then a boy,<br>To fill th' expecting parent's breast with joy.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE son, when grown of size, a tutor had,<br>No pedant rude, with Greek and Latin mad,<br>But young and smart, a master too of arts,<br>Particularly learned in what imparts,<br>The gentle flame, the pleasing poignant pang,<br>That Ovid formerly so sweetly sang.<br>Some knowledge of good company he'd got;<br>A charming voice and manner were his lot;<br>And if we may disclose the mystick truth,<br>'Twas Cupid who preceptor made the youth.<br>He with the brother solely took a place,<br>That better he the sister's charms might trace;<br>And under this disguise he fully gained<br>What he desired, so well his part he feigned:<br>An able master, or a lover true,<br>To teach or sigh, whichever was in view,<br>So thoroughly he could attention get,<br>Success alike in ev'ry thing he met.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">IN little time the boy could construe well<br>The odes of Horace:--Virgil's fable tell;<br>And she whose beauty caught the tutor's eyes,<br>A perfect mistress got of heaving sighs.<br>So oft she practised what the master taught,<br>Her stomach feeble grew, whate'er was sought;<br>And strange suspicions of the cause arose,<br>Which Time at length was driven to disclose.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">MOST terribly the father raged and swore;<br>Our learned master, frightened, left the door,<br>The lady wished to take the youth for life;<br>The spark desired to make the girl his wife;<br>Both had the Hymeneal knot in view,<br>And mutual soft affection fondly knew.<br>At present love is little more than name:<br>In matrimony, gold's the only aim.<br>The belle was rich, while he had nothing got;<br>For him 'twas great:--for her a narrow lot.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">O DIRE corruption, age of wretched ways!<br>What strange caprice such management displays!<br>Shall we permit this fatal pow'r to reign?<br>Base int'rest's impulse: hideous modern stain;<br>The curse of ev'ry tender soft delight,<br>That charms the soul and fascinates the sight.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">BUT truce to moral; let's our tale resume;<br>The daughter scared; the father in a fume;<br>What could be done the evil to repair,<br>And hide the sad misfortune of the fair?<br>What method seek?--They married her in haste;<br>But not to him who had the belle debased,<br>For reasons I've sufficiently detailed;<br>To gain her hand a certain wight prevailed,<br>Who store of riches relished far above<br>The charms of beauty, warmed with fondest love.<br>Save this the man might well enough be thought:<br>In family and wealth just what was sought;<br>But whether fool or not, I cannot trace,<br>Since he was unacquainted with the case;<br>And if he'd known it, was the bargain bad?<br>Full twenty thousand pounds he with her had<br>A sprightly youthful wife to ease his care,<br>And with him ev'ry luxury to share.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">HOW many tempted by the golden ore,<br>Have taken wives whose slips they know before;<br>And this good man the lady chaste believed,<br>So truly well she managed and deceived.<br>But when four months had passed, the fair-one showed.<br>How very much she to her lessons owed;<br>A little girl arrived: the husband stared<br>Cried he, what father of a child declared!<br>The time's too short: four months! I'm taken in!<br>A family should not so soon begin.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">AWAY he to the lady's father flew,<br>And of his shame a horrid picture drew;<br>Proposed to be divorced: much rage disclosed;<br>The parent smiled and said, pray be composed;<br>Speak not so loud: we may be overheard,<br>And privacy is much to be preferred.<br>A son-in-law, like you, I once appeared,<br>And similar misfortune justly feared;<br>Complaint I made, and mentioned a divorce;<br>Of heat and rage the ordinary course.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE father of my wife, who's now no more,<br>(Heav'n guard his soul, the loss I oft deplore,)<br>A prudent honest man as any round,<br>To calm my mind, a nice specifick found;<br>The pill was rather bitter, I admit;<br>But gilding made it for the stomach fit,<br>Which he knew how to manage very well:<br>No doctor in it him could e'er excel;<br>To satisfy my scruples he displayed<br>A CONTRACT (duly stamped and ably made),<br>Four thousand to secure, which he had got,<br>On similar occasion for a blot;<br>His lady's father gave it to efface<br>Domestick diff'rences and like disgrace:<br>With this my spouse's fortune he increased;<br>And instantly my dire complaining ceased.<br>From family to family the deed<br>Should pass, 'twill often prove a useful meed;<br>I kept it for the purpose:--do the same<br>Your daughter, married, may have equal blame.<br>On this the son-in-law the bond received,<br>And, with a bow, departed much relieved.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">MAY Heav'n preserve from trouble those who find,<br>At cheaper rate, to be consoled inclined.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=La+Fontaine">La Fontaine</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=431353" data-title="The Contract de La Fontaine" data-description="THE husband's dire mishap, and silly maid,
In ev'ry age, have proved the fable's aid;
The fertile subject never will be dry:
'Tis inexhaustible, you may rely.
No man's exempt from evils such as these:--
Who thinks himself secure, but little sees.
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