Alexander Pope on Wives

“She who ne'er answers till a husband cools, Or, if she rules him, never shews she rules; Charms by accepting, by submitting sways, Yet has her humour most when she obeys.”

“But what so pure, which envious tongues will spare? Some wicked wits have libell'd all the fair. With matchless impudence they style a wife The dear-bought curse, and lawful plague of life; A bosom-serpent, a domestic evil, A night-invasion and a mid-day-devil. Let not the wife these sland'rous words regard, But curse the bones of ev'ry living bard.”