Satyr Upon Women
By Mr James Robson.
This song is imperfectly compiled from part of a “Satyr upon Women,” wrote in Preston prison, in 1715 by Mr James Robson, a freeholder in Thropton, near Rothbury, Northumberland, at that time a musician in the rebel army. He sung the Satyr aloud, at an iron barred window looking into a garden, where a lady and her maid were walking: after the song was finished, the former says, “That young man seems very severe upon our sex; but perhaps he is singing more from oppression than pleasure; go give him that half crown piece,” which the girl gave him through the grating, at a period when he was at the point of starving.
All men of high and low degree,
Come listen to my song;
The subject suits both you and me,
With attestations strong:
Therefore I hope you’ll not be nice,
Attention true to pay,
And hence adhere to my advice,
Lest you be led astray.
Should you to marry be inclin’d,
I charge you to beware;
And caution you to change your mind,
Thus to escape that snare;
Be not decoy’d by age nor youth,
Whose aims are artful all;
But take my word as standard truth,
You here may stand or fall.
If you should wed one with a dower,
Obedience you must pay;
Or if you marry one who’s poor,
In rags you must array:
If you a blooming beauty wed,
A cuckold you must be;
And if a brunet blight your bed,
You’ll blush when belles you see.
Should you select a learned lass,
Impertinence must pall;
Or cull one from a vulgar class,
She balderdash will bawl:
If you adopt a daft town’s dame,
Her behests will be bold:
Or coax one of inferior fame,
She’ll curse, carouse, and scold.
Shun lofty looks, and language loud,
No stripes such tongues can tame;
Fly wanton wenches mirthful mood,
Which counsel can’t reclaim:
A wife of stature tall will dare,
To drag a giant down;
And little women wicked are,
One crop’d strong Samson’s crown.
Reflect that Adam’s innocence,
Was to Eve’s blunder blind;
Whose crafty crime caus’d to commence,
A curse upon mankind;
So you cannot too cautious be,
Of wormwood mix’d with gall;
Then friends pray be advis’d by me,
To wed with none at all!