A farrago of several pieces being a supplement to his poems, characters, heroick pourtraits, letters, and other discourses formerly published by him / newly written by Richard Flecknoe.

OF AN Excellent Wife.

SHe is like an Excellent Watch, Rich and Fair, but above all, True; onely in this they differ, in that her Goodness depends on nothing but her self, (for those who are only good be∣cause they are lookt unto, it follows, if they were not lookt unto, they would be bad.) She is never in ill hu∣mour; and never in better, then in her Husbands company, with whom alone she is familiar, but civil and courteous unto all; she has all the handsomness of a Mrs. the Goodness of a Wife, and delightsomness of pleasant Com∣pany; united in her alone; and what∣soever she does is becoming her, not so much because 'tis so, as because she makes it so. She is sparing in super∣fluous things, that she may be more bountiful in those more necessary; and spends with such discretion in her House, as her expences are more pro∣fitable

then others savings are. Her Vertue and Beauty makes it alwayes a Temperate Zone with her, where her Husband lives as in a PARA∣DICE; Her HONOVR like a flaming Cherubin, conserving and rendring her inaccessible to all beside: Whence in this Critical Age, where they find out blemishes in the Moon, and spots even in the Sun it self, they could ne∣ver find out any spot or blemish in her, she onely having found out the way to stop Rumours Mouth, and silence Ca∣lumny, whilst they bark and bite at e∣very one besides. In fine, she has all the perfections of a Wife; and all that can make a Husband happy.

This, if her husband knows not, 'tis an unpardonable fault, and igno∣rance in him; if he does, 'twere no compliment, nor fondness in him, but a Just esteem of his own Happiness, to say as often as he sees her, O my dearest! you are all mine, and I am all yours; and when I cease for to be so, may I be the miserablest man alive, as now I am the most happy.