Kitap 1
Yet fell a prey to his adult'rous wife.Clytemnestra, and the adulterer Aegistheus, murdered Agamemnon: upon whose death Seneca wrote the tragedy called Agamemnon.
Who knows not what revenge Medea sought,
When the slain offspring bore the father's fault!
Thus Phoenix did a woman's love bewail;Phoenix the son of Amyntor, enjoyed a woman whom his father loved. His father was so enraged at him, that he imprecated all the miseries he could think of to light upon his son: whose children dying, he withdrew to Peleus, father of Achilles, who committed to him the care of his son's education.
380
And thus Hippolytus by Phaedra fell.Hippolytus, the son of Theseus, was pulled to pieces by horses. Our author in his French observations says this fable is admirably well represented in the tragedy of Seneca.
These crimes revengeful matrons did commit!
Hotter their lust, and sharper is their wit.
Doubt not from them an easy victory;
Scarce of a thousand dames will one deny.
385
All women are content that men should woo;
She who complains, and she who will not do.
Rest then secure, whate'er thy luck may prove,
Not to be hated for declaring love:
And yet how canst thou miss, since womankind
390
Is frail and vain; and still to change inclin'd?
Old husbands, and stale gallants, they despise;
And more another's than their own they prize.
A larger crop adorns our neighbour's field,
More milk his kine from swelling udders yield.
395
First gain the maid; by her thou shalt be sure
