Why should a foolish marriage vow, <br /> Which long ago was made, <br /> Oblige us to each other now <br /> When passion is decay'd? <br /> We lov'd, and we lov'd, as long as we could, <br /> Till our love was lov'd out in us both: <br /> But our marriage is dead, when the pleasure is fled: <br /> 'Twas pleasure first made it an oath. <br /> <br /> If I have pleasures for a friend, <br /> And farther love in store, <br /> What wrong has he whose joys did end, <br /> And who could give no more? <br /> 'Tis a madness that he should be jealous of me, <br /> Or that I should bar him of another: <br /> For all we can gain is to give our selves pain, <br /> When neither can hinder the other.<br /><br />John Dryden<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/marriage-a-la-mode/
