Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ANOTHER. IN DEFENCE OF THEIR INCONSTANCY. A SONG, by BEN JONSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ANOTHER. IN DEFENCE OF THEIR INCONSTANCY. A SONG, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Hang up those dull, and envious fools
Last Line: To love one man, he'd leave her first.
Subject(s): Unfaithfulness; Infidelity; Adultery; Inconstancy


Hang up those dull, and envious fools
That talk abroad of woman's change,
We were not bred to sit on stools,
Our proper virtue is to range:
Take that away, you take our lives,
We are no women then, but wives.
Such as in valour would excel
Do change, though man, and often fight,
Which we in love must do as well,
If ever we will love aright.
The frequent varying of the deed,
Is that which doth perfection breed.
Nor is't inconstancy to change
For what is better, or to make
(By searching) what before was strange,
Familiar, for the use's sake;
The good, from bad, is not descried,
But as 'tis often vexed, and tried.
And this profession of a store
In love, doth not alone help forth
Our pleasure; but preserves us more
From being forsaken, than doth worth,
For were the worthiest woman cursed
To love one man, he'd leave her first.







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