EARLY MARRIAGES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1286, 22 October 1896, Page 16

EARLY MARRIAGES.

An interesting and amusing correspondence on the above subject has been proceeding recently in the London Daily Chronicle. The following amusing parody was contributed by a writer who signed himself " Hamlet " :

THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY CHRONICLE. To wed, or not to wed, that is the question : Whether 'tis better in the end, to suffer The certain pains of single blessedness, Or to join hands against its frequent troubles By early marriage, and then ? To wed—a rite—

No more ; and with a rite, to think we end - : ~ The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks All flesh i 6 heir to—'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To wed—a rite— A ring—perchance a chain ! Ay, there's the

rub ; For after wedding rings what rows may

come, When we have shuffled off our single state, Must give us pause : there's the respect That makes calamity of wedded life : For who would bear the scorns of daughter'd dames, The lodging slut, the pilfering landlady, The pangs of loveless life, true love's delay, The insolence of Benedicts, the spurns Which single Thrift from sanguine people

takes, Who for himself might peaceful quiet make By early marriage ?,- Who would burdens

bear, And groan, and pine under a lonely life, But that the dread of what comes after marriage, The undiscover'd country,"from whose state Bat the divorced return, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear the ills we have, Than fly to others that we know not of ? Anticipation makes us cowards all ; And thus the hue of bachelors and maidens Is sicklied o'er by the pale cast of thought ; And early marriages, each hour and moment, With this respect, are never put in action, And miss the Church's blessing. Soft you,

now ! •~ . The Daily Chronicle! Sir, in your columns, Be all my doubts recorded !