106 THE FOREST AND THE FIELD. 



animals besides ibex and wild sheep, and he forth- 

 with commenced spouting after Shakspere. 



To wed or not to wed — that is the question, 



Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer 



The stings and arrows of outrageous love, 



Or to take arms against the powerful flame ; 



And by opposing quench it — to wed —to marry — 



To marry perchance a scold. Ah ! there's the rub, 



For in that married life what ills may come, 



When we have shuffled off our single state ; 



Must give us serious pause — there's the respect 



That makes us bachelors a numerous race, 



Else who could bear the dull unsocial life 



Spent by unmarried men — cheered by no smile, 



To sit like hermits at the lonely board in silence ? 



Who could bear the cruel gibes 



With which the bachelor is daily teased, 



When he himself might end such heart-felt griefs 



By wedding some fair maid 1 Oh ! who would live 



Yawning and staring sadly in the fire 



'Till celibacy becomes a weaiy life, 



But that the dread of something after wedlock — 



That undiscovered state from whose strong chains 



No captive can get free (puzzles the will), 



And makes us rather choose those ills we have 



Than fly to others which a wife may bring. 



Thus caution would make bachelors of us all, 



And thus our natural wish for matrimony 



Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, 



