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About this quote

What does it mean?
Even a good wife is described as a burden to pleasure and life.
In plain terms
The best thing you can say about a good wife is she burdens life.
What can you take from it?
Marriage is framed as a hindrance to personal freedom.

Where it applies

  • marriage critiques
  • gender dynamics
  • lifestyle choices

Putting it to work

  • reflect on marital expectations
  • question traditional roles

Questions to consider

  • How do you value partnership?
  • Is home a burden or sanctuary?

Another view

It is deeply misogynistic and dismisses the value of partnership.

More from John, 2nd Earl of Rochester Wilmot

  1. But oh, how slowly minutes roll When absent from her eyes, That feed my love, which is my soul: It languishes and dies.

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  2. Great Negative, how vainly would the Wise Enquire, define, distinguish, teach, devise, Didst thou not stand to point their dull Philosophies? Is, or is not, th…

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  3. Thou treacherous, base deserter of my flame, False to my passion, fatal to my fame, Through what mistaken magic dost thou prove So true to lewdness, so untrue …

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